INFLUENCE OF EXAMPLE. 267 



used to gain the same ; men who have let the love of gain 

 possess their minds and their hearts to the exclusion of everything 

 else, till every good feeling is dwarfed or suffoeated completely, 

 who will not be changed or even restrained by any good influence, 

 and upon whom it is idle and useless to expend either our time or 

 our talents. The better way is to leave them to die quietly in 

 their crust of selfish worldliness, and let the very small hole they 

 will leave in the world be filled up and smoothed over by the on- 

 ward and upward march of the generation which shall succeed them. 



But such men are rare. Those who succeed according to the 

 standard we have set up, are looked upon by the better portion of 

 the people as examples worthy to be followed ; and their example 

 is followed, and it acts in a two-fold capacity, for when we see a 

 person in any calling or profession achieving such success, as 

 would satisfy our ambition, we very naturally follow the course 

 marked out, and d(5 our best to come to their standard ; and when 

 a really good man or woman sees their example followed by friends 

 and associates, they are very sure to watch, with increasing care, 

 that their influence may be such as will tell for good upon those 

 over whom it is exerted. Our opportunities for getting and doing 

 good, for improving ourselves or our fellow men, will soon be 

 past. If perchance we start on the right road and begin to make 

 some commendable improvement and progress, it only seems to 

 open the way for still greater progress, and by the time we bring 

 our thoughts into some tangible shape, and hope to make them a 

 reality, our terra of active service has exi^ired, we receive our dis- 

 charge, and leave to other hands the task of prosecuting the work 

 which we have only commenced. Then of what vital importance 

 it becomes to those who are to succeed us that what progress we 

 make be in the right direction, that those who are to take up the 

 cares and burdens which we lay down may be able to make far 

 greater improvement than we have done, that whatever mistakes 

 we have made may serve as warnings to keep them from failure, 

 and that whatever of success has crowned our efforts may serve as 

 beacon lights to guide them onward. 



Ladies and gentlemen, if we have done, or may do, anything to 

 make our good old State of Maine greener or fairer, her society 

 better and more refined, her morality purer, her opportunities for 

 improvement in social and industrial life more numerous and more 

 equally distributed, her fields and vineyards more productive, her 

 dwellings more beautiful and tasteful, her labor more pleasant and 



