Part 16 (2/2)
Indeed, men are becoming well convinced that their presumed supremacy in many of the world's spheres of work is being successfully challenged at every point. So general is this experience becoming that the present status of things might well be set forth somewhat after the following style:
MAN, POOR MAN!
The question used to be, 't is true, ”What tasks are there for girls to do?”
But now we've reached an epoch when We ask: ”What is there left for men?”
They'll keep enlarging ”woman's sphere”
Till man, poor, shrinking man, we fear, Must grow quite useless, after while, And go completely out of style.
This piece of frivolity can well be pardoned on account of its absurdity. The great work of the world is so broad, so deep, so high, that it calls for the best endeavors of all girls and boys, women and men. That the door of opportunity is henceforth to be open to all is an a.s.surance that the work is to be more grandly and beautifully done than ever before. What women may do in the years to come is wonderfully set forth by what women have done in the past. All history is filled with the splendid achievements of the women of the world. A girl of to-day will find no reading more helpful and inspiring than the lives of such n.o.ble women as Martha Was.h.i.+ngton, Queen Victoria, Sally Bush--Abraham Lincoln's good step-mother--Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Miss Louisa Alcott, Laura Bridgman, Charlotte Cushman, Maria Mitch.e.l.l, Lady Franklin, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, and Florence Nightingale.
If the girls of to-day are to have larger rewards in the world's work, they must fit themselves for the larger responsibilities. Every prudent girl will, of course, talk over the prospect of her future years with her parents, her brothers and sisters, her teachers, or with mature and responsible friends. So very, very much depends on laying the right foundations. But there are many qualities that must const.i.tute parts of every enduring foundation.
Attention, application, accuracy, method, punctuality, good behavior, modesty, gentility, enlightenment, all of these and more are essential to success and for the highest achievement of the true purpose of living.
It has been well said that it is the repet.i.tion of little acts which const.i.tutes not only the sum of human character, but which determines the character of nations; and where men or nations have broken down, it will almost invariably be found that neglect of little things was the rock on which they were wrecked.
Every human being has duties to be performed, and, therefore, has need of cultivating the capacity for doing them--whether the sphere of action be the management of a household, the conduct of a trade or a profession, or the government of a nation.
The one fixed truth in the matter of character-building is the fact that steady attention to the little matters of detail lies at the very foundation of human progress.
The splendid trees that lift their branches heavenward depend for their sustenance on the tiny thread-like roots that come into very close relations with the soil and can thus take in the nourishment needed for the making of growth. This, the larger roots have not the capacity for doing. So in the growth of the human intellect and human character, it is the little actions, day by day, that really do the permanent building. With patient purpose to do successfully the many little tasks that confront us we can later on achieve the larger success awaiting us.
The world's history is full of the triumphs of those who have had to struggle from beginning to end for recognition. Carey, the great missionary, began life as a shoemaker; the chemist Vanquelin was the son of a peasant; the poet Burns was a farmer boy and a day laborer; Ben Jonson was a bricklayer; Livingstone, the traveler and explorer, was a weaver; Abraham Lincoln was a ”rail-splitter” and a farmer boy.
At the plow, on the bench, at the loom, these men dreamed of the future greatness, and step by step, day by day, they persevered until they won the full measure of success.
The great and good women of the world have won their distinction in the same manner. They cultivated the sterling qualities that made for success. They acquired the manners that attracted toward them help and strength of others interested in good causes and those struggling to advance them.
And the girl who is reading these lines, can, if she will, make her life a happy success. She may be praised by the world or it may be by the small circle of friends with whom she comes in contact. Her name may never be written in history but it may be fondly spoken by parents, sisters, brothers, schoolmates, friends. In a thousand gracious ways she can make the hours, days and years good and golden for her own precious self and for all who know her. She must be thoughtful and intelligently alert to the opportunities lying all about her ready to be fas.h.i.+oned into s.h.i.+ning deeds. She must know that she is a precious craft on the sea of life and that she must not be permitted to drift from the harbor of youth and of home without a life pilot. And this pilot should be her own conscience, hedged about with the learning, the good breeding, the fine character that she herself, under proper guidance, must cultivate through the impressionable years of childhood and maidenhood. If she so wills it, beauty and grace and true worth are all hers. And let her greet and go forth in the freshness of each golden day, as indeed, she must greet life, itself, with a glad, hopeful, helpful
MORNING PRAYER
Oh, may I be strong and brave, to-day, And may I be kind and true, And greet all men in a gracious way, With frank good cheer in the things I say, And love in the deeds I do.
May the simple heart of a child be mine, And the grace of a rose in bloom; Let me fill the day with a hope divine And turn my face to the sky's glad s.h.i.+ne, With never a cloud of gloom.
With the golden levers of love and light I would lift the world, and when, Through a path with kindly deeds made bright, I come to the calm of the starlit night, Let me rest in peace. Amen.
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