litude is a wise teacher. Going apart the youth grows great. Emerson
speaks of sailing the sea with God alone. The founders of astronomy
dwelt on a plain of sand, where the horizon held not one vine-clad
hill nor alluring vista. Wearying of the yellow sea, their thoughts
journeyed along the heavenly highway and threaded the milky way, until
the man became immortal. Moses became the greatest of jurists, because
during the forty years when his mind was creative and at its best, he
dwelt amid the solitude of the sand hills around Sinai, and was free
for intellectual and moral life. History tells of a thousand men who
have maintained virtue in adversity only to go down in hours of
prosperity. That is, man is stimulated by the crisis; conflict
provokes heroism, persecution lends strength. But, denied the exigency
of a great trial, men who seemed grand fall all to pieces. Triumphant
in adversity, men are vanquished by drudgery. An English author has
expressed the belief that many men "achieve reputations when all eyes
are focused upon them, who fall into petty worthlessness amid
obscurity and monotony. Life's crowning victory belongs to those who
have won no brilliant battle, suffered no crushing wrong; who have
figured in no great drama, whose sphere was obscure, but who have
loved great principles midst small duties, nourished sublime hopes
amid vulgar cares, and illustrated eternal principles in trifles."

Responsibility is a teacher of righteousness. God educates men by
casting them upon their own resources. Man learns to swim by being
tossed into life's maelstrom and left to make his way ashore. No youth
can learn to sail his life-craft in a lake sequestered and sheltered
from all storms, where other vessels never come. Skill comes through
sailing one's craft amidst rocks and bars and opposing fleets, amidst
storms and whirls and counter currents. English literature has a
proverb about the incapacity of rich men's sons. The rich man himself
became mighty because he began in poverty, had no hand to help him
forward, and many hands to hold him back. After long wrestling with
opposing force he compacted within himself the strength and
foresight, the frugality and wisdom of a score of ordinary men. The
school of hard knocks made him a man of might. But his son, cradled in
a soft nest, sheltered from every harsh wind, loving ease more than
industry, is in danger of coming up without insight into the secrets
of his profession