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I.--THE YOUNG MAN AND THE WORLD 1

II.--THE OLD HOME 54

III.--THE COLLEGE? 83
1. The Young Man who Goes.
2. The Young Man who Cannot Go.

IV.--THE NEW HOME 152

V.--THE YOUNG LAWYER AND HIS BEGINNINGS 186

VI.--PUBLIC SPEAKING 217

VII.--THE YOUNG MAN AND THE PULPIT 246

VIII.--GREAT THINGS YET TO BE DONE 278

IX.--NEGATIVE FUNDAMENTALS 310

X.--THE YOUNG MAN AND THE NATION 334

XI.--THE WORLD AND THE YOUNG MAN 366

XII.--THE YOUNG MAN'S SECOND WIND; OR, FACING
THE WORLD AT FIFTY 387

THE YOUNG MAN AND THE WORLD

I

THE YOUNG MAN AND THE WORLD

Be honest with the world and the world will be honest with you. This
is the fundamental truth of all real prosperity and happiness. For the
purposes of every man's daily affairs, all other maxims are to this
central verity as the branches of a tree to its rooted trunk.

The world will be honest with you whether you are honest with it or
not. You cannot trick it--remember that. If you try it, the world will
punish you when it discovers your fraud. But be honest with the world
from nobler motives than prudence.

Prudence will not make you _be_ honest--it will only make you _act_
honest. And you must be honest.

I do not mean that lowest form of honesty which bids you keep your
hands clean of another's goods or money; I do not mean that you shall
not be a "grafter," to use the foul and sinister word which certain
base practices have recently compelled us to coin. Of course you will
be honest in a money sense.

But that is only the beginning; you must go farther in your dealings
with the world. You must be intellectually honest. Do not pretend to
be what you are not--no affectations, no simulations, no falsehoods
either of speech or thought, of conduct or attitude. Let truth abide
in the very heart of you.

"I take no stock in that man; he poses his face, he attitudinizes his
features. The man who tries to impress me by his countenance is
constitutionally false," said the editor of a powerful publication, in
commenting on a certain personage then somewhat in the public eye.

You see how important honesty is even i