Springtime of Life

The Springtime of Life. BY J. E. HICKMAN, A. M., PRINCIPAL OF THE MURDOCK ACADEMY.

Earth has her springtime, so has man. At the passing of winter the innumerable seeds begin to grow, telling the varied stories of their possibilities. Without knowing the life history of the plant, no one could conjecture what sort of a plant was bound up in the germ. Often the smallest seed brings forth a giant tree, while a large one may produce only a pumpkin. The best environments bring out the greatest possibilities. In early life the latent forces lie shrowded in the untutored child. Who can prophesy its future? As the seed's potential power can only be told when it develops flower and fruit, so the child's possibilities are not fully known till it attains manhood. Whatever mitigates against the best unfolding goes to stultify or falsify the true character of man or plant.Not long since I stood in the desert and around me were scanty, scrubby, uninviting

plants, gray with the fuzz of necessity. I felt I was surrounded

with the desolation of possibilities. Life without hope — exist- ence with a distorted nature. I could not see the true character in that dwarfed life. It lacked the one element for complete existence— water. A few days later I stood by a window filled with house plants. One was dying because of water. For want of it one was dwarfed; due to a too copious supply, the other died in full leaf. How like humanity! I have seen distorted and worthless lives for want of culture and opportunity. I have seen others retrograding through luxury and ease. With intelligent care the thorniest shrub will supplant leaves for spines and twigs for thorns. Even the cactus, under the wiz- zard-like training of Luther Burbank forgets its thorns. Instead,

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fleshy, edible leaves and most delicious fruit are produced. The peach tree was once a shrub bearing a bitter-rind and poisonous nut. Today it stands as one of the twelve most delicious fruits known, of which there are over three thousand varieties. This is the work of culture. On the other hand, the choicest tree may, under adverse conditions, cease entirely to bear, or will produce hard and citron-like fruit. Plants under such conditions may be said to have reverted to their state of savagery. Running broadly parallel with this is human existence. Each child becomes the algebraic sum of his external forces and internal impulses. Should they be good and strong, the child puts forth his greatest self. With opportunity he lives that broad and ever- changing life to which every rational being is heir. With culture the wildest Indian child will forget its wigwam and shed its girdle for civilian garb. It will turn from its idle life to that of the student; and the wild warwhoop will be transmuted into the fervid speech of the orator. The raggedest waif of the slums could, under the divine care of a home, stand transfigured upon God's mountain. While the noblest child, through neglect and unhal- lowed influences, may become a Jean val Jean; or the purest Lucile may plunge into unspeakable sin and die in the hut of the wretched. There is no other time in life when neglect or misdirecting of energy has so dire effect as in youth. That is the period when one gets his bearings for life's work. Then is when the boy begins to be distinctly manly, and the girl distinctly womanly. For at that time new life awakens in them— new thoughts arise; new de- sires stimulate to action; act they must, be it good or be it ill. This is the springtime of life. It may be called the conundrum period; for parents often fail to understand their children, and they do not always understand themselves. During that stage, new and often incongruous fan- cies fill the mind. The world to them is full of scintillating splen- dor, and they are wild to follow it; false or true, one is as inviting as the other. Then they approach the rapids of life — rapids that have engulfed the alluring hopes of youth. This is the most dan- gerous period, and at once the most valuable. For then is when the new thoughts of life rise upon youth's horizon like a star of

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the first magnitude. Such thoughts absorb all others. The childish hopes and fears of yesterday give place for the realiza- tion of the new creations. During this period the boy or girl may become reticent, morose or crabbed, but more often he is gay and heedless of duty. His thoughts take wings and the new impulses awaken strange judgments of the future and of life's meaning. He jumps at conclusions, for he is guided by impulse rather than by reason. The wiser judgments of older heads are to him anti- quated. It is then he, in his own estimation, knows more than

father. No amount of pelting his ideas with unsavory epithets will effectually dislodge them. Out of such incongruities rub- — bish —if he is rightly directed, come the nobler thoughts of man-

hood. He needs time to adjust himself to the new life of ado- lescence. The fancies of childhood are tucked away with dolls or cast aside with willow horses, tops and marbles. The loves of yester- day are the dislikes of today. He is often whimsical and fickle, and we grow impatient at his erratic conduct. Remember he is passing through the period of incompleteness. What if he does climb up the lamp posts of Paris and drink the oil from the lamps, pull the long beards of the venerable senators of Rome, destroy the priceless paintings of Greece, or break the statuary, he will attain a wiser view and place a truer estimate upon things of worth. The youth is to be respected for all this; his nature is not to be crushed, but directed and approved. The government of child- hood must be supplanted for greater liberties.The failure to recognize this brings all sorts of trouble in the family government. His government, like his clothes, must continually be enlarged, but government and guidance must not be withdrawn. Obedience to parents is a mark of superior and refined intel- lect. It is equally true that a person inferior in intellect and pur- pose is of the disobedient order. Though the great mind demands great freedom, at the same time it is generously obedient to superiors. In the springtime of life, youths should weave into their lives all that is holy. Obedience to parents is the surest guide for fulfiling life's mission. Washington, at the last moment, relin-

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quished his youthful passion for the sea through the pleadings of his mother. Had he turned a roving seaman, as he desired, he most likely never would have been the savior of his country. Gar- field at sixteen w as bent on going to sea, but relinquished his

dream when he saw his mother in tears. This obedience made it possible for him to become president of the United States. Christ at twelve, though thrilled with the inspiration of his divine mission, left the temple to obey his parents till they felt to liberate him for his Messianic destiny. This act alone marked a mighty epoch in his history. Willing obedience is a mark of pure intelligence. Wilful dis- obedience, as a rule, is indicative of brutishness and ignorance. — The young man should be taught self made to feel that all thoughts and deeds are prophetic of what he is to be. Subtle and fleeting, indeed, are his thoughts, but like the unseen magnetic lines of force that hold the earth rigid in her declination, he cannot extri- cate himself from his thoughts. He changes his character and impulses by changing his thoughts, and such a feat is a slow process. Thoughts and deeds wrought out in youth's merry hours, some of which are tinged with wicked folly, are forces ever checking and swaying manhood's powers. In the soft virgin soil of the mind there may be sown the sweet-scented flowers or be planted the roots of the poisonous upas tree.

"No change in childhood's early day, No storm that raged, no thought that ran, But leaves a track upon the clay Which slowly harden into man."

It is not enough merely to live, any more than it is merely to plant. The nurture after the planting brings the harvest. In life it is the struggle for truth that gives value to existence. If you just eat, sleep and recreate, the animal does as much. It is the intellect that separates man from the brute; then, develop in- tellect. The overcoming of weaknesses and the directing of his forces make man the master of the earth. Every pure, original thought widens the gap between him and the brute, and narrows the gulf between him and his Creator.

510 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

Youth is not the preparation for life, it is the shaping of life. There is no other period of mortal existence where neglect, stulti- fication or misdirecting of energies has so dire an effect. Youth is the period of the greatest criminal awakening. It is also the period of the greatest religious awakening. Over fifty per cent of all criminals were so at seventeen. More than fifty per cent of those converted to Christianity had their religious awakening between fifteen and eighteen years of age. It is as equally true in any other mental awakening. Genius or demon manifests his trait in youth. Cast your eye over history; where was there ever a prophet who was not trained in youth? Or artist who was not fired with his divine art during his adolescence?

Too often the young man is prodigal of his energies, waste- ful of time. "He who wilfully wastes an hour," says Darwin, "has not learned the value of life." Why not take a lesson from nature? When the earth was young, and she throbbed with energy, God stored up the useless forests in the form of coal and petroleum; he classified the limestone, granite, marble, and iron, that man-to-be might use them for the redemption and beautify- ing of the earth. Had this work been neglected, man today would be a nomad on a hapless world. With this as a suggestion, young man, utilize well your endowments, direct your energies, plan for the future, cultivate well your mind and body; be frugal and economical of your time and power; plan and execute. Re- member that great minds plan, weak ones wish. Make active every good emotion, and whatever your desire in your maturer manhood, make it active in the morning of your young life. Idle dreaming de-energizes, it trusts to luck. "Luck is a fool, pluck is the hero." Do not procrastinate, for procrastination has thwarted the aims of life, overthrown empires and turned worlds from their appointed spheres. I would not take from youth wholesome pleasure or quiet rest. Earnest toil merits it, but see that pleasure does not leave a tinge of regret. Let pleasure have its place. Its time is when the

voice of duty does not call. Aimless youth and thriftless man- hood insure a fruitless old age. Youth stands for ambition, pos- sibility and hope. It is the springtime of life, strewn with the flowers of beauty and of incense— blossoms that proclaim a fruit-