d how true we find this quaint
old saying to be. Every youth should feel that his future happiness in
life must necessarily depend upon himself; the exercise of his own
energies, rather than the patronage of others. A man is in a great
degree the arbiter of his own fortune. We are born with powers and
faculties capable of almost anything, but it is the exercise of these
powers and faculties that gives us ability and skill in anything. The
greatest curse that can befall a young man is to lean, while his
character is forming, upon others for support.

James A. Garfield, himself one of the greatest examples of the
possibilities in our glorious Republic, once said:--

"The man who dares not follow his own independent judgment, but runs
perpetually to others for advice, becomes at last a moral weakling, and
an intellectual dwarf. Such a man has not self within him, but goes as a
supplicant to others, and entreats, one after another, to lend them
theirs. He is, in fact, a mere element of a human being, and is carried
about the world an insignificant cipher, unless he by chance fastens
himself to some other floating elements, with which he may form a
species of corporation resembling a man." The best capital with which a
young man can start in life, nine times out of ten, is robust health,
good morals, fair ability and an iron will, strengthened by a
disposition to work at some honest vocation.

We have seen in the preceding pages that a vast majority of our great
men started life with these qualifications and none other. The greatest
heroes in battle, the greatest orators, ancient or modern, were sons of
obscure parents. The greatest fortunes ever accumulated on earth were
the fruit of great exertion. From Croesus down to Astor the story is the
same. The oak that stands alone to contend with the tempest's blast only
takes deeper root and stands the firmer for ensuing conflicts; while the
forest tree, when the woodman's axe has spoiled its surroundings, sways
and bends and trembles, and perchance is uprooted: so is it with man.
Those who are trained to self-reliance are ready to go out and contend
in the sternest battles of life; while those who have always leaned for
support upon those around them are never prepared to breast the storms
of life that arise.

How many young men falter and faint for what they imagine is necessary
capital for a start. A few thousands or even hundreds, in his purse, he
fancies to be about the