schools. Writing and ciphering may make an adroit business-people, but they 

 will not make us the intelligent people that we ought to be. A good town 

 school-house for adults — not alone libraries in cities — but in country places, a 

 great town school-house for adults — for books, for reading, for lectures, for 

 social gatherings, — I may not live to see it, but I believe that many will see it, 

 in the time to come. 



Pardon me, friends and neighbors, if I speak to you one word more. It 

 shall be a short one. What I have been saying suggests it. Ancient sajjes 

 asked, what is the chief good ? The answer, then, now, and forever, is — the 

 chief good is a good state of mind ; not what we possess, but what we are ; not 

 what is outside of us, but what is in us. Good thoughts, good feelings — let 

 who will, take all other good in exchange ; he will be a loser. Let who will, 

 *ell or sacrifice them for gain — though he gain the whole world— he will be a 

 loser. Good thoughts, I repeat ; they come to all who will welcome them ; 

 they cost nothing ; they are free as air and sunshine ; they light up the world 

 when it is darkest ; they are a resource when all other resources fail ; they 

 sweeten the bitterest lot ; they cheer every toil ; they soothe every sorrow ; if 

 instead of millions without them, I would leave the best inheritance I could to 

 my children, it would be this — good thoughts. 



