---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Montgomery
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 2
number: 8
published: 1899-06
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Montgomery, "Aspirations of Youth: A Poem," *Improvement Era* 2, no. 8 (June 1899): 613.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera28unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera28unse
start_page: 613
end_page: 613
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1899-06)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera28unse
  publication_year: 1899
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1899, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Aspirations of Youth: A Poem

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GOSPEL STUDIES.                              613

sively to eternal damnation.    Both conditions are potential in every
human life.   A small arc of Heaven and a small arc of Hell are
both plainly visible in earth-conditions to whoever will open his
eyes.   In either case the circle grows larger for each of us according to the way we live; for let us be assured of this fact: we
make our own Heaven or Hell.           There   is   no mystery about the
matter; the principles operating in daily conduct are shaping our
lives for eternity.

                      ASPIRATIONS OF YOUTH.

                      Higher, higher will we climb
                        Up the mount of glory,
                      That our names may live through time
                        In our country's story;
                      Happy, when our welfare calls,
                      He who conquers, he who falls.
                      Deeper, deeper let us toil
                        In the mines of knowledge;
                      Nature's wealth, and learning's spoil,
                        Win from school or college;
                      Delve we there for richer gems
                      Than the stars of diadems.
                      Onward, onward may we press
                        Through the path of duty;
                      Virtue is true happiness.
                        Excellence true beauty,
                      Minds are of celestial birth,
                      Make we then a heaven on earth.
                      Closer, closer let us knit
                        Hearts and hands together,
                      Where our fireside comforts sit.
                        In the wildest weather:
                      Oh! they wander wide who roam
                      For the joys of life from home.
                                                         Montgomery.