es, however, have
seemed to make a larger demand for this element than others, and this
age of ours is one which yields to none of its predecessors in its call
for manliness of character--for men of the right stamp. The perils of
the times are imminent, and the demand for a high grade of intelligence
and great strength of moral principle never was stronger. New
developments of human genius and activity, are constantly arising, and
new dangers to the dearest interests of society are calling for
vigilance. This is neither a stagnant nor a tame and quiet age. It is
an age of activity, of enterprise, of speculation, of adventure, of
philosophizing and of both real and pseudo reforms. The age eminently
demands vigorous and mature manhood. Therefore, study, think,
investigate, learn. Remember, however, that it is not knowledge stored
up as intellectual fat which is of value, but that which is turned into
intellectual muscle. Out of dull and selfish seclusion go forth.
Regulate with care your basal endowments. Prove thy strength, and
render it sure. Deliver thy conceptions from narrowness, thy charity
from scrimpness, thy purposes from smallness. Deny thyself and take up
thy cross. Do and dare, love and suffer. So shalt thou build a
character that will abide all the tests which future years or ages may
bring.

Bear constantly in mind that you are endlessly improvable. "It is for
God and for Omnipotency to do mighty things in a moment; but
degreeingly to grow to greatness is the course that He hath left for
man." To the conscious human self there belong possibilities of such
moment that no one can well study them without being either thrillingly
impressed or made to experience unusual emotions. The conclusion is,
therefore, unavoidable, that every soul can become great. By processes
of culture to which it is able to subject itself, it can perpetually
increase in wisdom, in strength, and in nobleness.

The soul's chief capabilities may, for the sake of elucidation, be
represented as so many different rooms within itself, each of which can
be made to have a spaciousness equaled by no material amplitude ever
yet ascertained, and each of which, so long as it is kept in the
process of growth, is and will be susceptible of fresh furnishing.
These apartments of the minor man are too wonderful to admit being
depicted either by a writer's pen or by a painter's brush. Their most
distinguishing characteristics can, at