levation at which they aim, will be their
progress and success. It is an old proverb that he who aims at the sun,
will not reach it, to be sure, but his arrow will fly higher than if he
aims at an object on a level with himself. Exactly so is it, in the
formation of character, except in one point. To reach the sun with a
arrow is an impossibility, but a youth may aim high without attempting
impossibilities.

Let me repeat the assurance that, as a general rule, _you may be
whatever you will resolve to be_. Determine that you will be useful in
the world, and you _shall_ be. Young men seem to me utterly unconscious
of what they are capable of being and doing. Their efforts are often
few and feeble, because they are not awake to a full conviction that
any thing great or distinguished is in their power.

But whence came en Alexander, a Caesar, a Charles XII, or a Napoleon? Or
whence the better order of spirits,--a Paul, an Alfred, a Luther, a
Howard, a Penn, a Washington? Were not these men once like yourselves?
What but self exertion, aided by the blessing of Heaven, rendered these
men so conspicuous for usefulness? Rely upon it,--what these men once
_were_, you _may be_. Or at the least, you may make a nearer approach
to them, than you are ready to believe. Resolution is almost omnipotent.
Those little words, _try_, and _begin_, are sometimes great in their
results. 'I can't,' never accomplished any thing;--'I will try,' has
achieved wonders.

This position might be proved and illustrated by innumerable facts; but
one must suffice.

A young man who had wasted his patrimony by profligacy, whilst standing,
one day, on the brow of a precipice from which he had determined to
throw himself, formed the sudden resolution to regain what he had lost.
The purpose thus formed was kept; and though he began by shoveling a
load of coals into a cellar, for which he only received twelve and a
half cents, yet he proceeded from one step to another till he more than
recovered his lost possessions, and died worth sixty thousand pounds
sterling.

You will derive much advantage from a careful perusal of the lives of
eminent individuals, especially of those who were _good_ as well as
great. You will derive comparatively little benefit from reading the
lives of those scourges of their race who have drenched the earth in
blood, except so far as it tends to show you what an immense blessing
they _might_ have been to the world, had they devote