Victorian Culture/To Young Men

THAT never’ll do, young man! No use to stand on the sidewalk and whine about hard luck, and say that every thing goes against you – no such thing. It does not think of you. You are like all the rest of us – a mere speck upon the earth’s surface. Were you this moment to go down in the living tide, but a bubble would linger for a moment upon the surface, and even that would vanish unnoticed. The heart is full of hope and ambition, but is not missed when it ceases to beat. One such as you would not leave a ripple.

You are a coward – coward in the battle. There’s no fight in you; you have surrendered without a struggle, and now whine because beaten! You are not yet worthy of a triumph, for you have not yet earned it. Garret, hut, and dripping cellar, are ten thousand heroes who would put you to shame. – They must toil or starve. The strife is a desperate one with them, for they wrestle with want, while ragged and despairing ones watch at the lone hearth the contest. Strong men look death in the eye when their sinews are strung by the wail of hungry childhood.

Shame on you. In the full vigor of health and manhood, no mouth but your own to fill, and no back but your own to cover, and yet crouching under the first scorchings of adverse fortune. You know nothing of the storm, for you have seen but the summer. One cloud has frightened you, and you think you are hardly dealt by. You will be lucky if you find no darker shadows across your path.

Stand up, young sir, pull your hands from your pocket, throw off your coat and take fortune by the throat. You may be thrown again and again, but hang on. Put away the nonsense that the world is all against you. ‘Taint so. Your destiny is in your own strong arm. Wield it like a man! With un unbending will, and honor and truth for a guide, the day is your own.

No capital, eh? You have capital. God has given you perfect health. That is an immense capital to start on. You have youth and strength – all invaluable. Add a will to do, put your sinews in motion and win. A man in full health and strength should never whine or despair, because fortune does not pour a stream of gold eagles into his pockets. If you have no money, work and get it. Industry, economy, and integrity, will do wonders. From such beginnings, fortunes have been reared. – They can be again. Will you try it? Or, will you wait for the stream to try by so that you can walk dry shod into the El Dorado of wealth? Or, will you meet the waves defiantly, and be the architect of your own fortune?

Try – it is glorious to conquer in strife.

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