I was reading the other day that the first great lesson for a _young
man_ to learn, the first fact to realize, is that he is of some
importance; that upon his wisdom, energy and faithfulness all else
depends, and that the world cannot get along without him. Now if this
is true of young men, I do not see why it is not equally true of young
women.
It is not after you have grown old that you will be of value to the
world; it is now, in your young days, while you are laying the
foundation of your character, that you are of great importance. We
cannot say that the foundation is of no importance until the building
is erected, for upon the right placing of the foundation depends the
firmness and stability of the superstructure. Dr. Conwell, in his
little book, "Manhood's Morning," estimates that there are twelve
million young men in the United States between fourteen and
twenty-eight years of age; that these twelve million young men
represent latent physical force enough to dig the iron ore from the
mines, manufacture it into wire, lay the foundation and construct
completely the great Brooklyn Bridge in three hours; that they
represent force enough, if rightly utilized, to dig the clay from the
earth, manufacture the bricks and construct the great Chinese Wall in
five days. If each one were to build himself a house twenty-five feet
wide, these houses would line both sides of eight streets reaching
across the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific. For each one to
be sick one day is equal to thirty thousand being sick an entire year.
Now, if there are twelve million young men in the United States, we
may estimate that there are an equal number of young women. Although
we cannot calculate accurately the amount of physical force
represented by these young women, there are some things we can tell.
We know that for each one of these young women to be sick one day
means thirty thousand sick one year. Just imagine the loss to the
country, and the gain to posterity if it can be prevented!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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