ADVICE TO A YOUNG MAN.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3628, 27 February 1883, Page 4

ADVICE TO A YOUNG MAN.

The Burlington Ha.wkcye says: "Don't be mean, my boy: don't do mean things and say mean things. Cultivate a feeling of kindness, a spirit of charity broad and pure for men and tilings. Believe the best of everybody, have faith in humanity, and as you think better of other people you will be" better yourself. You can, with some accuracy, measure a man's character by the esteem in which lie holds other men. AVhen I liear a man repeatedly declaring that all other men are knaves, I ivant a strong endorsement on that man's paper before I'll lend him money. AVhen a man assures me that all the temperance men in his town take their drinks on the sly, I wouldn't leave that man and my private demijohn—-if I had one —together in a room five minutes. AVhcn a man tells me that he doesn't know one preacher who isn't a hypocrite, I have all the evidence I Avant that that man is a liar. Nine times in ten, and frequently oftcner, you Avill find that men endeavour to disfigure all other men with their own weaknesses, failings, aud vices. So do you, my boy, think well and charitably of all people, for the world is full of good people. And if you are mean, you cannot conceal it. People will know if. Our unfortunate human fondness for gossip always puts us in possession of all the worse qualities of each other. Don't you and your intimate friends, my boy, discuss the weak and evil points in your neighbour's character 1- Of course you do ; and when you are the absent one, be assured, Tolemaohus, that your friends are iv like manner dissecting you. Indeed they are. They know all about you, and that ivhich you have least known, they know the best.

And at any rate, my son, you know it and that is enough. Sometimes I wonder Ai'liat a mean man thinks about when he goes to bed ; Avhen he turns out the light and lies down ; when the darkness closes in about him, and he is alone, and compelled to be with himself. And not a bright thought, not a generous impulse, not a manly act, not a word of blessing, not a grateful look, comes to bless him again. Not a penny dropped into the outstretched palm of poverty, nor tho balm of a loving word dropped in an aching heart; no sunbeam of encouragement cast upon a struggling life ; the strong right hand of fellowship reached out to help some fallen man to his feet—when none of these things come to him as flic "God bless you" of the departed day, how he must try to roll away from himself ! and sleep on the other side of the bed. AVhcn the only victory is one in ivhich lie wronged a neighbour, no wonder he always sneers when he tries to smite. How pure and fair and good all the rest of the world must look to him, and how cheerless and dusty and dreary must his own path appear ! Why, even one lone isolated act of meanness is enough to scatter cracker-crumbs in the bed of the ordinary man, and what must be the feelings of a man whose whole life is given up to mean acts ': When there is so much suffering and heartache and misery in the world anyhow, why should you add one pound of AA'ickedness or sadness to the general burdens'r Don't be mean my boy. Suffer injustice a thousand times rather than commit it once.