Bradford Academy - Chimes Yearbook (Haverhill, MA)

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W W.. 'we W, ,WB Q, A vo,,. K? 1 . N -su! lg 'mf t A 35-Q, ..,h hw W . ,. Mfg H.-X 61 lg ww: 'tm Sr: l f v .M-Q.,-H -ry, N, TW? ,.-mr in .wt 91.5 . WWF ,gl .-qil aofi ,ir ...rff , ,4 if ,ini E1-ad Ord s.:-42121,aL5 ration. No great thing was ever done by accident. No great song was ever flung off by the genius of a man who had no preparation for it. It is idle to tell us that Burns and Shakespeare were not educated because they did not go to college. It is idle to tell us that Abraham Lincoln was not educated because he was not university bred. If Iliad time this morningl could trace Abraham Lincoln's education, step by step, from the beginning to the moment when he stood on the field of Gettysburg, the ex-president of Harvard University, one of the most cultivated men we have ever had in this country, standing beside him: the man of culture and academic training giving the long address, which was graceful and charming and fitting, but which none of us remember: and the man who had come by native training up to that point speaking a few memorable words to the soul of the nation. For that purpose, to do what was done that day, Abraham Lincoln was much better educated than Edward Everett, as l could show you if I had the time. Sometimes a man rises in a public assemblage, obscure, and after making a brilliant speech sits down famous: and men say it was an accident, it was an inspiration. XVell, my friends, inspirations come only to those who are ready for them. One of the most original of American artists was asked by a friend of mine if he waited on inspiration. Never, he said: I am always at work, and then if inspiration comes I don't have to lose a minute's time in utilizing it. No man ever has anything in him on his feet, which was not in him when he sat in his chair before he rose. fLaughter.l And nothing ever comes to a man or to a woman which has not been coming to them in all the years of their lives. VVhen those sudden inspirations come, it is because there has been going on inside the man for years the prepara- tion for that day and that work. Nlany of us think that we can loaf in our early life, if you will pardon a colloquialism, and that by and by when the opportunity comes we shall be able to improve it. There is a great fallacy about that. You do not know your opportunity, as a rule, when it comes. You discover it only after you have missed it or used it. The difference between men liesivery largely in their ability to recognize an opportunity-not by discerning what it means, but by using it. There is only one man in the world who makes the most of himself: and he is the man who is not looking out for opportunities, but who is doing his very best in the most competent way, moment by moment, E631

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his position by some superiority of skill. The only man who cannot be moved by Huctuations is the man who has rendered himself absolutely essen- tial. Nlen are not discharged and taken on by employers, as is constantly said, men employ and discharge themselves. XVhen the tides of prosperity are running at the Hood, any man can set his little bark alloat and keep it moving, but when the titles go out and the storms come, as they tlti from time to time, then the man must understand seamanship, and must have knowledge and skill as pilot and as sailor. XVhen there are opportunities everywhere, men of good character, of good intentions and of moderate skill, find their places in the world: but when the titles go till! and the shore is lined, as it sometimes is, with commercial and financial wreckage, league on league, the only man who holds his position is the man who cannot be spared, and ifl were speaking to an audience of young men this morning, I should say to them, Do not dare to go into Illia modern lite oi ours unless you are willing to put into your occupation such an amount of work in training as shall render you absolutely inyaluahlt-. linder ayerage con- ditions any man can succeed who is willing to work hard enough to secure success. The trouble is, we are not willing to pay the price of success. The price of success is heroic toil, heroic self-denial. Sllt't't'ss is eyerywliere based on education 3 not necessarily the education oi a school, litit tht- trgiinirig of the man, in the school and out of it, to do one specitic thing with indi- vidual power. The tragedy of to-day is not the tragedy of the had man and bad womang it is the tragedy of the half-trained man and the halt-trained Woman. It is the tragedy of the young man who comes to ytill and tells you that he WIIIHS work, and is willing to do anything. and you tind that there is not one thing that he can do. lt is the tragedy oi the delicately reared girl who comes to you and tells you that she is willing to tlti anything that is honorable, and when you question her you lintl that neither hand not brain has been trained for a specilic thing. 'liti master your tools and to get the skill of the hand and the skill of the brain together,-these are the essential things. This is the condition which is making education in our country and in our modern world, not a matter of luxury, hut a matter of necessity, a mat- ter of salvation, in all the walks of life. lielieye me, nothing was eyer yet done IH the world worth doing, without education: that is to say. without prepa- lti2l

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