Every man's first duty is, to improve, to educate, and elevate
himself--helping forward his brethren at the same time by all reasonable
methods. Each has within himself the capability of free will and free
action to a large extent; and the fact is proved by the multitude of men
who have successfully battled with and overcome the adverse
circumstances of life in which they have been placed; and who have risen
from the lowest depths of poverty and social debasement, as if to prove
what energetic man, resolute of purpose, can do for his own elevation,
progress, and advancement in the world. Is it not a fact that the
greatness of humanity, the glory of communities, the power of nations,
are the result of trials and difficulties encountered and overcome?
Let a man resolve and determine that he will advance, and the first step
of advancement is already made. The first step is half the battle. In
the very fact of advancing himself, he is in the most effectual possible
way advancing others. He is giving them the most eloquent of all
lessons--that of example; which teaches far more emphatically than words
can teach. He is doing, what others are by imitation incited to do.
Beginning with himself, he is in the most emphatic manner teaching the
duty of self-reform and of self-improvement; and if the majority of men
acted as he did, how much wiser, how much happier, how much more
prosperous as a whole, would society become.
Pages:
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142