ADVICE TO A YOUNG MAN.

Waikato Times, Volume XX, Issue 1658, 20 February 1883, Page 3

ADVICE TO A YOUNG MAN.

__^_ — + Tjie Burlington llawlceyc says : " Don't 1 be mean, my boy; don't do mean things au.l say moan thing?: . . Cultivate i ; feeling of kindness) a spirit of chanty; broad * And pure , for men and ■ tilings believe the best of everybody, have iaitta in huinanitv, and sis you think better of other people you will be better yourself., You can. with wmio accuracy, measure a, man's character by, the esteem in .which be holds other men. When I hear a n,au,,opeat«ully declaring that all othei. men are knaves, 1, want a strong; endorsement on that man's paper boMe* I'll lend him money. When a man; assures me that all the temperance men in, nis town take their drinks on the sly, I wouldn't leave that man and my private demijohn-if I had one-togetlier in a room live minutes. Mien a man tells) me that he dosen't know one pveacher who isn't a hypocrite, I have all the evidence I want that that man is a liar.. Nine times in ten, and fieyuently of toner, yon will find that men endeavour to clisfigurc all other men with their own weaknesses, failings, and vices. ho do you, my boy, think well and chautably ot all people, for the world is full of good P6 And if you are mean, you cannot conceal it. People will know it. Our unfortunate human fondness for gossip always puts us in possession of all tlio woise qualities of each other. Uon t you and your intimate ft lends, my boy, discuss the weak and evil points in your neighbours' character ? Of course you do ; and when you arc the absent one, he assured, Tolemachus, that your inencls are in like manner dissecting you. Indeed they are. They know all about you, ami that which you have least known, they know the best. And at any 1 ate, my ton, you know it and that is enough. Sometimes 1 wonder what a mean man thinks about when he goes to bed ; when he turns out the light and lies down ; when the darkness closes in about him, and he is alone and compelled to be with himselt, And not a bright thought, not a geneious impulse, not a manly act, not a word ot blessin", not a grateful look, comes to bless him again. Not a penny dropped into the outstretched palm of poverty, nor the balm of a loving word dropped into an aching heart ; no sunbeam of encouragement cast upon a struggling lite ; the stiong light hand of fellowship reached out to help some fallen man to his feet— when none of these things come to him as the "God bless you" of the dcpaited day, how hcniu&t bate himself ! How he must tiy to roll away from himself and sloop on the other side of the bed. When the only victory isom- in which he has wronged a neighbour, no wonder lie always sneers when he tries to smile. How pure and fair and good all the rest of the woild 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 ninn, and what must be the, feelings of a man whose whole life is giveifup to mean acts ? When there is so much suffering and heartache and misery in the world anyhow, why should you and one pound of wickedness or sadness to the general burdens ? Don't be mean my boy. Suffer injustice a thousand times rather than commit it once.