1906] LECTURE. 39 



dition of which I have spoken, remember that there is no situa- 

 tion in life so bad that it cannot be mended. 



Boys like to work and want to work, and there is nothing 

 more pathetic than to have a boy who wants to work and has 

 nothing to work with. There is less pleasure in work than 

 there should be. We are looking more and more to-day for 

 excitement than for duty. Remove the cause and this condi- 

 tion becomes changed. There are more occasions for pleasure 

 and for amusement for our boys who thus fritter away much of 

 their time and in this way acquire the reputation of being lazy. 

 If boys are lazy, did it ever occur to you that we have a great 

 opportunity to help our boys in their duties. If you say that 

 your boys are lazy then you must say that your boys are bad, 

 for as all roads lead to Rome so the road of idleness leads to 

 crime. Work is exercise we do not like ; exercise is work we 

 do like. So see to it that your boy has the habit of work and 

 learns to like it and naturally becomes accustomed to it. If 

 your boy is kept busy much of the workmg day you may safely 

 leave the results to themselves. Send him to bed tired. Let 

 him be ready for the work of the morning after the night of 

 rest. Our country to-day depends on our boys. In a few 

 years at the very most the sun of our lives will have set and 

 the boys who are now on the streets and in the schools will 

 have taken our places, so do not be careless and indifferent to 

 the boys. 



Stephen A. Douglass said, "I care not whether slavery in 

 the territories be voted up or down. It makes no difference 

 to me." Mr. Lincoln replied, ''I am sorry that our friend 

 Douglass is so constituted that he does not feel the lash when 

 it is laid on another man 's back. ' ' 



See that our boys are not left so that their habits lead to 

 the condition that results in idleness. 



Boys are inclined to think of self and try to make every- 

 thing bend to their own ideas. They have an idea that they 

 must give all attention to themselves. This is a great mistake. 

 Boys should remember that there is no such thing as finding 

 true happiness by searching for it directly ; it must come, if it 



