"Like virgin parchment," says Montaigne, "youth is
capable of any inscription." Let us have only those inscriptions which
will do us honor in the long years that the parchment will unroll before
us. "Unless a tree has borne its blossoms in the spring," writes Bishop
Hare, "you will vainly look for fruit on it in autumn." All through the
great history of Thiers, wherein he recites the scenes of the French
revolution, the Consulate, the Empire, and the rock of St. Helena, there
runs one consistent observation that youth is noble and magnanimous.
The thousands of characters who "strut their brief hour" upon the stage
in the terrible drama which this historian depicts are young and
generous, lofty and incorruptible. Then they ripen into manhood, glory
waits upon their comings and their goings, and they are soon between two
masters, their interests and their consciences. A circumstance threatens
their early resolutions, an event overturns their consciences, and a
selfish, jealous, ambitious mind thenceforth guides the fortunes of a
life.


HOW FORTUNATE FOR THE RACE OF MAN

that when the mind is least prejudiced with set beliefs and when the
heart is kindliest, it lies in the power of those who have the young
near them to bear them frequent counsel, and to strengthen the natural
nobility of their natures!

A great deal can be accomplished in the early years of life. Many men
have made all their fame in the morning, and enjoyed it through the rest
of their lives. Alexander, Pompey, Hannibal, Scipio, Napoleon, Charles
XII., Alexander Hamilton, Shelley, Keats, Bryant--hundreds of examples
readily come to the recollection, showing how thoroughly the mind can