Notes

704 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Richard W. Young, of the supreme court of Manila, Philippine Islands. It will point out anew the great and striking parallelism between the times, lives and missions of Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith, the Prophet, with a view of convincing some of the more timid of the besieged young people, in the gloriously fortified city of "Mormonism," that our defenses are sound and impregnable. NOTES. "His joy is not that he has got the crown. But that the power to win the crown is his." There are two rules which, if followed rigidly, will help any boy to succeed: the first, "Do unto others as you would that they should do unto you;" the second, Be a gentleman. "When I found that I was black," said Alexander Dumas, the great French novelist, and dramatist, who was a quadroon, "I resolved to live as if I were white, and so force men to look below my skin." The remark should serve to spur on to accomplishment such young men as seem to have no chance. No man deserves to be crowned with honor whose life is a failure, and he who lives only to eat and drink and accumulate money is surely not successful. The world is no better for his living in it. He never wiped a tear from a sad face, never kindled a fire upon a frozen hearth. There is no flesh in his heart; he worships no God but gold." — Success under Difficulties. To him who wishes maxims for success, no writings offer richer examples than the proverbs of Solomon. If these are properly studied, and incorporated into the life of a man, he can scarcely fail to be virtuous, industrious and godly, and to marry a woman of like qualities. With such a foundation, there will be a happy home and successful lives. It is often quite as necessary to use a little tact and common sense, as to pray — at least, the two go well together: A story is related of a Cape Cod minister who, according to an old custom, was called upon in

NOTES. 705 April to make a prayer over a piece of land, just as is done in Russia. "No," said the minister, when shown the land, "this does not need a prayer; it needs manure." The fear of obstacles keeps many a young man from rising in the world. Surmounting difficulties is exercise that makes men and heroes. A writer in Success relates this anecdote: "A barefooted Scottish boy applied for work at a manufactory; he was told he must 'get shoes to wear.' In two months he earned the shoes, and applied again; but 'he was ragged.' In six months he came well clad; but you 'must read and write.' For fifteen months longer he studied at evening school. That boy became foreman of the establishment." Difficulties are encountered in every vocation, and on the road to every position. Obstacles are not only inevitable, but are an essential part of the training for success: "My little girl, to me it seems, You buy your berries dear, For down your hand the red blood streams, And down your cheek there rolls a tear." "0, yes," said she, "but then you know, There must be briers where blackberries grow." Any young man who thinks that faith is a requirement of religion only, is sadly mistaken. The foundation of science is faith, also. "Faith lies at the basis of every science," says Frank Sargent Hoffman, a member of many learned societies and the author of The Sphere of Science. "So far from faith commencing where science ends, 'there could no more be science without faith than there could be extension without space." He who says of any generalization in any sphere of thought that he will not accept it as true until he is absolutely certain of it literally does not know enough to eat when he is hungry, or to drink when he is thirsty. The conduct of an ordinary idiot would put him to the blush. As John Locke so tersely puts it, 'He that will not stir until he infallibly knows that the business he goes about will succeed, will have little else to do but to sit still and perish.' "