at the outset say, "I do not care whether people
like me or not, I have no particular wish to be lovely or beloved," what
could I answer? Nothing. I could only express my sorrow that the better
and higher nature of such an one was so undeveloped, and that the
greatest source of true happiness was so unknown and unappreciated. I
could only hope that the conscience and the moral nature of such an one
might be aroused and quickened by some good and faithful admonition or
word of instruction. And right here I wish to call the special attention
of my young friends to this fact: Youth is a period given up largely to
the work of obtaining an education; but education is of a two-fold
nature. We have an intellectual nature and we have a spiritual or moral
nature. The intellectual powers and faculties it is possible to educate
almost in spite of even the distaste or aversion of the pupil to
receiving that education. We can, in a measure, force a knowledge of the
sciences upon even reluctant pupils. We can prove to them that three
angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles, or that an acid and
an alkali will combine to form a salt; but we can never force an
antagonistic nature to receive a spiritual truth. Your parents or
teacher may instruct you that it is wrong to be untruthful or unkind or
deceitful, but your own inner natures alone can receive such truths and
assimilate them. No human being can compel another human being to be
good. Here is where one of the chief anxieties and chief sorrows of
parents and teachers arises. There is no anxiety so deep as the anxiety
of the good that those they love may be good also; no sorrow so poignant
as the sorrow of the heart over the willful wrong-doing of those near
and dear. If at the close of your prescribed school course you should
return to your homes, skilled in all the sciences, possessed of
extensive knowledge of literature, fine musicians, fine artists, and yet
selfish, ungentle, proud or haughty in demeanor, wanting in
thoughtfulness for the rights and feelings of others, careless of being
unkind, the time spent in your education would largely have been spent
in vain.

Among the first characteristics of a person who is lovely and beloved,
we must place a kind and gentle manner toward all, kind words and kind
deeds, and a restraint of hasty speech or action. In order to possess
these qualities, it is not necessary ever to be obtrusive with our
attentions. Sometimes people