end.

It is your business for your first thirty years of existence to make as
good a tool of yourself as you can, and your business for the rest of your
life to do as much work as possible; that is, let the tool be used after
it is made. Thus, then, let us divide your experiences and acquirements
into the handle and the edge of your tool. The handle,--your manners,
education on general topics, such as history, literature, art, etc., your
habits of cleanliness, promptness, etc., and your physical ability,
health, etc.

Your edge is your special fitness for work; that is, your education,
experiences, aptness, power of concentration, and accomplishment.

Now I am going to ask you to keep this division clearly in mind, as I
think you will find in it many of the elements of the touchstone for which
we are looking.

I know the thought will have occurred to you that you do not know what you
will take up, and are in no position to tell what things will go to make
up the right sort of an edge; yet you will observe that you are, of
course, in the same position as other pieces of unshaped wood and steel,
and for your first ten years nothing is done except to shape you up
gradually, teaching you to speak and read, and generally getting house
broken. During your teens you are going to college, learning how to meet
with and talk to men, to be a gentleman and develop your muscles.
Incidentally, you pick up a little knowledge of what the world has been
doing.

Most of this you will forget; but, if you are wise, you will have drawn a