228 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
surprising. But the art I would first inculcate upon youthful minds would be 
easy matters of every-day application. I think briefly something like this might 
be shown. 
First : that youth is self-confident (for a very good reason, since without 
confidence little will be attempted,) but that in itself this does not imply special 
capacity. 
Second : that success breeds confidence, for what a man has done once he 
■believes he can do again. 
Third : that a certain discipline of the physical, mental, and spiritual facul- 
ties breeds a calm confidence that is eminently fitted to ensure success. 
For this discipline of the nerves I think music and playing upon some mus- 
ical instrument, bihiards, firing a pistol or rifle, riding or travelling greatly assists 
the body in attaining and retaining, and a student of any sedentary occupation 
should seek such contrasting influence. I do not advise military drill, for I do 
not like the sort of men that usually seem to be the result of military education, 
but that may be a personal prejudice or the result of special training in a narrow 
field. A martinet is only more objectionable in a military role as he is hedged 
about by greater power of authority. Thoughtful educators have advocated mil- 
itary tactics as very valuable. 
The result of failures might be shown to be not always discouraging. A man 
must learn to do his best work in the field best adapted to his powers. It is no 
hardship for a young man to fail as a lawyer if thereby he is induced to give his 
time and talents to a pursuit for which he is better adapted. Failure should be 
shown to rest upon character and not upon circumstance. 
The cause of failure, however, such as resulting from lack of nerve, either 
from physical disability, ill health, old age, etc., should be made evident, and also 
that sucess in one line naturally debars a man from success in another. Even 
the great Goethe was once heard to lament that " he lacked the cheek of the 
bagman of his day." But not every one aspires to the complete many-sidedness 
which was Goethe's affliction. Too frequently the novelist points out that the 
wise minister, or student, or teacher, is little better than an idiot "because he is 
not up " in all the little ways of the great world. But this is a mistake. A man 
after his first youth can afford to dress according to comfort more than to fashion 
and if, when a boy, he has looked at the world from the practical side and found 
nothing very alluring therein, if in middle life he finds it full as pleasant to be 
"off the stage," as on, he is thereby not to be classed as a "fossil" and a "country 
guy." There is a wide difference between " having known and out-grown " and 
" never having known." The latter always rests upon a weakening desire to 
experience it. It is this state of mind which sends so many good men staggering 
when by chance they get a little unwonted liberty late in life, and which ruins so 
many young men too tightly kept in restraint when boys. There is not much in 
civilized life that is tempting to the experienced, but who can convince the inex- 
perienced of this ? 
I know that the student of the humanities makes nearly the same plea that I 
