hate, scorn, baseness, insanity, honor,
truth, wisdom, virtue and urbanity. He's a queer combination all right.
And those mixed elements of his nature, in their effects on other people,
we call personal influence. Many a man is not altogether what he has made
himself, but what others have made him. But a man's personal influence is
within his own control. It is at the gateway of his nature from which his
influence goes forth that he needs to post his sentinels.

Mind stands related to mind, somewhat in the relation of cause and effect.

Emerson said, "You send your boy to school to be educated, but the
education that he gets is largely from the other boys." It is a kind of
education that he will remember longer and have a greater influence upon
his character and career in life than the instructions he gets from the
teacher.

The great scholar, Elihu Burritt, has said, "No human being can come into
this world without increasing or diminishing the sum total of human
happiness." No one can detach himself from the connection. There is no
spot in the universe to which he can retreat from his relations to others.

This makes living and acting among our fellows a serious business. It
makes life a stage, ourselves the actors--some of us being remarkably bad
actors--and imposes upon us the obligation to act well our part. Therein
all honor lies. And in order to do this it behooves us to stock up with
the qualities of mind and character, the influence of which will be
helpful to those who follow the trail behind us.

Another plain duty my experience has pointed out is that each of us owes
an honest, manly effort toward the material world's progress. Honest
labor is the key that unlocks the door of happiness. One of the silliest
notions that a young man can get into his head is the idea that the world
owes him a living. It does not owe you the fraction of a red cent, young
man. What have you done for the world that put it under obligation to
you? When did the world become indebted to you? Who cared for you in the
years of helpless infancy? Who built the schoolhouse where you got the
rudiments of your education? The world was made and equipped for men to
develop it. Almighty God furnished the world well. He provided abundant
coal beds, oceans of oil, boundless forests, seas of salt. He has ribbed
the mountain with gems fit to deck the brows of science, eloquence and
art. He has furnished earth to produce fo