cleanliness, chastity, reverence, honesty, sobriety. To think meanly of
one's self is to sink; sometimes to descend a precipice at the bottom of
which is infamy.

Every man can help himself to some extent. We are not mere straws thrown
upon the current to mark its course; but possessed of freedom of action,
endowed with power to stem the waves and rise above them, each marking
out a course for himself. We can each elevate ourselves in the scale of
moral being. We can cherish pure thoughts. We can perform good actions.
We can live soberly and frugally. We can provide against the evil day.
We can read good books, listen to wise teachers, and place ourselves
under the divinest influences on earth. We can live for the highest
purposes, and with the highest aims in view.

"Self-love and social are the same," says one of our poets. The man who
improves himself, improves the world. He adds one more true man to the
mass. And the mass being made up of individuals, it is clear that were
each to improve himself, the result would be the improvement of the
whole. Social advancement is the consequence of individual advancement.
The whole cannot be pure, unless the individuals composing it are pure.
Society at large is but the reflex of individual conditions. All this is
but the repetition of a truism, but truisms have often to be repeated to
make their full impression.

Then again, a man, when he has improved himself, is better able to
improve those who are brought into contact with him. He has more power.
His sphere of vision is enlarged. He sees more clearly the defects in
the condition of others that might be remedied. He can lend a more
active helping hand to raise them. He has done his duty by himself, and
can with more authority urge upon others the necessity of doing the like