sense, farther, which
drives from the bosom all little, dark, crooked, sordid, debasing
considerations of self, and substitutes in their place a bolder,
loftier and nobler spirit, one that will dispose you to consider
yourselves as born not so much for yourselves as for your country and
your fellow-creatures, and which will lead you to act on every occasion
sincerely, justly, generously and magnanimously. There is a morality
on a larger scale, perfectly consistent with a just attention to your
own affairs, which it would be folly to neglect; a generous expansion,
a proud elevation and conscious greatness of character, which is the
best preparation for a decided course in every situation into which you
can be thrown; and it is to this high and noble tone of character that
I would have you to aspire. I would not have you to resemble those
weak and meagre streamlets, which lose their direction at every petty
impediment that presents itself, and stop and turn back, and creep
around, and search out every channel through which they may wind their
feeble and sickly course. Nor yet would I have you resemble the
headlong torrent that carries havoc in its mad career; but I would have
you like the ocean, that noblest emblem of majestic decision, which in
the calmest hour still heaves its resistless might of waters to the
shore, filling the heavens day and night with the echoes of its sublime
declaration of independence, and tossing and sporting on its bed with
an imperial consciousness of strength that laughs at opposition. It is
this depth and weight and power and purity of character that I would
have you resemble; and I would have you, like the waters of the ocean,
to become the purer by your own action. Men are sometimes ruined
because they aim not at virtue, but only at the reputation which it
brings. Odd-Fellowship teaches its members to be brave, honest and
diligent. If we have these attributes, victory must surely crown our
efforts. How often in the history of our country have men of humble
birth come forth in time of danger, and, nobly risking all, even to
death, or disgrace worse than death itself, stood between their country
and defeat, and built for themselves a glorious name. Nor, alas! is
the opposite case to this unknown. Some of America's proudest sons
have, by their own acts, sunk themselves into the inner-most depths of
infamy and vice.

"Virtue alone is true nobility.
Oh, give me inborn worth! dare