What SHALL we strive for? MONEY?
Get a thousand millions. Your day will come, and in due course
the graveyard rat will gnaw as calmly at your bump of
acquisitiveness as at the mean coat of the pauper.
Then, shall we strive for POWER?
The names of the first great kings of the world are forgotten,
and the names of all those whose power we envy will drift to
forgetfulness soon. What does the most powerful man in the world
amount to standing at the brink of Niagara, with his solar plexus
trembling? What is his power compared with the force of the wind
or the energy of one small wave sweeping along the shore?
The power which man can build up within himself, for himself, is
nothing. Only the dull reasoning of gratified egotism can make
it seem worth while. ----
Then what IS worth while? Let us look at some of the men who
have come and gone, and whose lives inspire us. Take a few at
random:
Columbus, Michael Angelo, Wilberforce, Shakespeare, Galileo,
Fulton, Watt, Hargreaves--these will do.
Let us ask ourselves this question: "Was there any ONE THING
that distinguished ALL their lives, that united all these men,
active in fields so different?"
Yes. Every man among them, and every man whose life history is
worth the telling, did something for THE GOOD OF OTHER MEN.
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