INTRODUCTORY: VII. USEFULNESS. Every boy, after leaving school, expects to follow some occupation, and usually begins by being employed by some one already experienced in business. No business man would continue this employment unless the boy were some help to him; therefore, if the boy wishes to succeed and rise, it becomes very necessary for him to make his services of value. Obtain the answer that the object in work is to te useful. DEFINITION: Usefulness is making our work an assistance and benefit to others. INTERPRETATION: 1. Every one in the world is bound to the world of men and women, outwardly by Obedience, and inwardly by Love and Sympathy; and growing out of this is another obligation fully as important, which is Usefulness. 2. The first demand of usefulness is to do one's work in the world, whatever it is, in the best manner possible; otherwise the great work of society and of the world cannot go on. Every one has his part; each is as necessary as a cogwheel in machinery. 3. Usefulness contributes to happiness, by giving inspiration, and, therefore, attractiveness to necessary duties, which otherwise would be repugnant and difficult; and recreation finds its highes: benefit in its contrast with the task of usefulness. Conscious usefulness is the only means of reaching true happiness. "The deed is outdone by the doing." We should be sure that our sympathy helps others to self-help, otherwise we harm those we would help; and be sure that we give ourselves, otherwise we become stingy and sentimentalists. "People do not need alms, they need a friend." No one is useless in the world, who lightens the burden of it for any one else. 4. Usefulness requires of us to make the most of ourselves, which necessitates education. The best preparation for a useful career is the acquisition of knowledge. General knowledge is necessary, but special studies give the only means of real performance. To succeed, either do the thing in which you are interested, or cultivate an interest in the thing at which you work. Feed your mind; he who feeds only his body keeps on shoveling coal. 5. Cultivate a taste for reading. Read aloud, which is the best possible means of acquiring fluent speech, and is an accomplishment which offers great opportunities for usefulness, as well as entertainment. Read the best books, for well-directed reading goes a long way toward a liberal education. The place where we are to get knowledge, after th professors have done their best for us, is in the books themselves. Carlyle says that the true university of these days is a collection of books. "Books are embalmed minds." 6. The great interrogation point of this country is, "What can you do?" Knowledge must be converted into faculty. A college course is not an education; it is only the beginning of an education. The college is primarily a discipline, a mental gymnasium; but other things being equal, a college man, as a business man, will outmatch one who has not received that mental training. President Charles F. Thwing says a college education stands for investment of power. The ability to think clearly, largely, truly, and the power to will promptly, firmly, and with large intelligence, represent an enormous return from a college education. 7. Men talk about fortune and friends and other aids to success, but it is the man himself who succeeds, and he succeeds through his own usefulness to the world. "Launch a star and it will find the orbit of a star, but it must be a star, and not a puff ball." It will make an orbit of its own, which will determine its relation to all other stars and the field of its own eternal movement. The size of yourself and the thoroughness and genuineness of yourself and you equipment will determine your orbit. Macaulay said: "The world generally gives its admiration not to the man who does what nobody else ever attempted to do, but to the man who does best what multitudes do well." A young man who had worked up to the position of confidential clerk, became jealous of a new clerk, to whom his employer had just given a raise in salary, exceeding his own. He went to his employer and said: "Are you not satisfied with my work and my faithfulness?" "Oh, yes," was the reply. "Why, then, do you give this new man more salary than to me?" Instead of replying to the question, the merchant, who was a grain dealer, said: "Do you see that load of grain going by? Run out, and see to whom it is going." The confidential man returned, and said it was going to Wilson's place. "Run out and find out what they got for the grain." He returned and said eighty-five cents per bushel. "Run and find out if Wilson wants any more." He returned and said: "Yes, he wants another carload." At this moment the new clerk came in, and the grain merchant repeated to him his first instruction: "Run out and see where that load of grain is going." In a few minutes the new clerk returned and said: "The grain is going to Wilson's; they are paying eighty-five cents per bushel, and want another carload.' The merchant, turning to the confidential man, said: "You have your answer. It took you three trips to find out what this man learned in one." The new clerk had wit enough to know that the merchant did not care about where the grain was going, but if there was a probability of supplying some of the demand, and upon what terms. 9. For children, the preparation for usefulness in the world is to be ready to help in household duties; to lift the burden from the tired mother; to give attention to what is needed to be done in the daily round of life, and volunteer to help, before being asked. Be alive to every need, and quick to help! Get into the habit of doing things for others. Make it a rule with yourself to have "nimble fingers, heart and hand that work together, feet that run on willing errands." Marshall Field's instructions to his employes is an admirable summary of usefulness. "Do the right thing at the right time and in the right way; do some things better than they have ever been done before; work from reason rather than from rule; know both sides of a question; be enthusiastic; work for the love of work; 'do it now'; anticipate requirements; master circumstances; eliminate errors in short, strive toward all those ideals which, if they really were carried out, would make this world a place where competition would be useless." 10. Many a girl in the country dreams of earning her living in the city; but home-making is woman's highest and holiest mission, and education is her work. The great need to-day is that girls be taught the duties that "make a home," rather than the arts that merely secure a home. George Herbert says, "A good mother is worth a hundred schoolmasters." The advancement and safety of the state depend upon the perfect woman; and "earth's noblest product is the woman perfected in the wife and mother." The husband's character and work, the children's love and life, are dependent upon her. What she is, they will be. This is woman's special work and unrivalled privilege. II. The material welfare of the nation depends upon the capacity of usefulness of its individuals, and to the genius of their mechanical and industrial skill i owes its strength and position among the nations of the world. Every invention is a contribution to the state. ELUCIDATION AND TRAINING: 1. All must work. Work must be done diligently, and not in a perfunctory manner. Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well. Explain how life is made up of small tasks, which well done make a career of usefulness and honor. Tasks are not easy to everybody, and hence the necessity for looking after ourselves sharply. So many are the temptations to neglect work, that it becomes necessary to make a hard and fast rule for guidance. Illustrate by school tasks; for example, "home lessons" at night before play. Class to repeat rule, "Work first, and pleasure afterwards." 2. Explain how indulence has been called the "rust. of the soul," as it takes off the elge from our perception of work, and dulls our nobler faculties, lulling us into the belief that all is going on well. Compare it to that deep and dangerous slumber, ending in death, that overcomes the traveller in the frozen regions. Illustrate how a scholar's neglect of study makes a teacher's work hard and thankless; and a teacher may lose his reputation through it; while a teacher's neglect of his work may give scholars wrong ideas, and make them the butt of ridicule-may allow the formation of bad habits. Show that it is easier to pass faults unnoticed, and yet that it may be the teacher's duty to punish. 3. Application of Usefulness. Helping at home, not waiting to be told to do this or that; earning a living. Explain that every one has a consciousness of what his duty is: it is something separate from opinion and above it, a feeling of what is right to be done; it is generally different from what we would like or choose, and we have to make ourselves, as it were, do it, although we have an inner knowledge that we must do it to be happy. 4. Discuss different pursuits-their responsibilities and social value; talents and opportunities; the dignity of labor. Take pride in being thorough in your work, and endeavor to excel in even the smallest details. Anything that is gained without labor has very little value. It needs the effort of earning to give it a substantial value. That is why gambling is so pernicious. It encourages one to take something for nothing, and leads unconsciously to stealing. There is a meanness about the desire to get something without rendering a service. Betting is almost as bad as gambling for it has the same influence. 5. Practice. Let each child go home with the determination to do something to-day-to help mother. EXAMPLES: Orlando B. Potter, Frances Hopkinson Smith, APPLICATION: Few people realize the value of original ideas. New thoughts are the rare blossoms of the centuries. Fulton, Morse, Whitney, and Ericsson each had them. Fulton, at the age of only seventeen was a portrait painter, and devoted his small savings to the comfort of his widowed mother. He had great inventive faculty, and spent every spare moment in the study of mechanics and useful inventions. When in England, he met Watt, the inventor of the steam engine, which urned his mind toward the propulsion of boats by steam. He realized its immense value to the world and devoted all his energies toward its realization. His application of the idea became the germ of the modern marine engine. In early life, Morse was an artist, but was always fond of physical science, and, hearing some one speak of the desirability of having news transmitted long distances, as electricity had recently been, he said: "Why can't it be?" and from that moment devoted himself to its accomplishment, and after incredible difficulties and disappointments, finally succeeded in interesting the government in his system of electrical telegraphy, which finally was adopted over the entire world. It is considered by many that for the greatest usefulness to mankind, Morse's name deserves the highest place. Whitney began life as a maker of nails; but he had mechanical talent, and when his attention was turned to the need of some means of mechanically cleaning the raw cotton, he shut himself up for a winter, and produced the cotton gin, which cleaned one thousand pounds in the time it formerly took to clean five. Ericsson was born in the midst of mines and iron work. Before he was eleven years old he designed a model for a sawmill. At the age of fourteen he laid out a section of canal work that employed 600 men. His greatest invention was the screw propeller, which revolutionized navigation. At a critical point in the civil war he conceived and built the Monitor, which revolutionized naval warfare. Franklin is one of the greatest benefactors to the race. His life abounded in usefulness, from his lowly beginning to his positions of honor. This simple statement sums up Franklin's greatness, "He thought more, said more, worked more, and did more that was of enduring value, than any man yet born of woman under the skies of free America." O. B. Potter helped largely in the perfecting of the first sewing machine. It was he who suggested to the government the plan of an issue of greenbacks, and gives him the name of the "Father of the National Currency." Samuel Slater was apprenticed for six years to a cotton spinner. The exportation of cotton machinery from England being prohibited, he brought over all his plans and designs in his head, from which came the great cotton mills of this country, and gave him the name of "Father of the Cotton Industry." Dolbear at sixteen began work in a pistol factory, but he studied while others played, and soon became a professor of mechanics. He is the first inventor of wireless telegraphy, but was refused a United States patent in 1886 because it was pronounced impossible. Dr. Morton was the discoverer of anesthesia, and is was through him that pain in surgery is averted and annulled. Hopkinson Smith is a man of wonderful versatility. He excels as an engineer, as an artist, as a writer; but such achievements are only accomplished by prodigious industry, which must always accompany the highest usefulness. When very young, W. C. Bond was apprenticed to his father, who was a clock maker. Before he was fifteen years old he had constructed a chronometer from a description of an instrument he read in a book. While continuing his clock work he became interested in astronomy, and pursued his Thomas a Edison studies, using rude instruments of his own devising, until eventually he became professor of astronomy in Harvard. Francis, at the age of eleven, produced a life-saving boat of his own designing, for which he had no model, as nothing of the kind existed. His improved life-boat was in a few years placed on all of the government vessels, and nearly all merchant vessels. Lee de Forest devised an improvement upon Marconi's wireless system, which has been placed on nearly all the government ships of war. LITERATURE: FOR YOUNG CHILDREN Read to the children the fable, "Reynard and the Fox"; Anderson's fairy story, "The Fox and the Cat"; "Two Ways," "The Point of View," Sailorman," in "The Golden Windows," by Laura E. Richards. FOR OLDER CHILDREN "The Read "In His Name," by Edward Everett Hale; "Work," by Louisa M. Alcott; "Men of Thought, Be Up and Doing," by Charles McKay; "Psalms of Life," by Longfellow; "Your Mission," by S. M. Grannis, in "Heart Throbs." This was Lincoln's favorite song, and was encored by him eighteen times when sung at a Sunday School convention in 1864. "American Inventions and Inventors," by Mowry; Psalm CXLVII.; Matt. V. 13-16. INSPIRATION: 1. Be not simply good; be good for something.THOREAU. 2. Do little things now; so shall big things come to thee by and by, asking to be done.-PERSIAN PROVERB. 3. Everywhere in life the true question is, not what we have gained, but what we do.-CARLYLE. 4. The most useful of the arts is the art of being useful.-JAMES M. LUDLOW. 5. If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mouse-trap than his neighbors, though he builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.-EMERSON. 6. Think of yourse it as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve, achieve!-ANDREW CARNEGIE. 7. The most valuable result of education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you ought to do when it ought to be done, whether you have to do it or not. -HUXLEY. 8. And none but the Master shall praise us, And no one shall work for money, But all for the joy of working. And each, in his separate star, Shall paint the thing as he sees it, For the God of things as they are. -RUDYARD KIPLING. 9. No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of another.-CHARLES DICKENS. 10. What makes life dreary, is want of motive.GEORGE ELIOT. 11. O power to do! O baffled will! And good but wished, with God is done. 12. The world desires to know what a man can do, not what he knows.-BooKER T. WASHINGTON. 13. Let us be such as help the life of the futureZOROASTER. 14. Life is a quarry out of which we are to mold and chisel and complete a character.-GOETHE. 15. Whoever can make... two blades of grass grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before would deserve better of mankind and do more essential service to his country than the whole race of politicians put together.-DEAN SWIFT. 16. When a man dies they who survive him ask what property he has left behind. The angel who bends over the dying man asks what good deeds he has sent before him.-FROM THE KORAN. 17. Whatever thy hand findeth to do do it with thy might.-ECCLESIASTES. 18. It is better to say, "This one thing I do," than to say "These forty things I dabble in."-WASHINGTON GLADDEN. 19. A man's action is only the picture book of his creed.-EMERSON. 20. Every duty we omit obscures some truth we should have known.-RUSKIN. 21. They should be first among all, who contribute most to the good of all.-MAZZINI. 22. Nath Barditch Do all the good you can, By all the means you can. In all the ways you can, At all the time you can, As long as ever you can. -JOHN WESLEY. 23. The reward of doing one duty is the power to do another.-BEN AZAI. 24. The distinction and end of a soundly constituted man is his labor. Use is unified in all his faculties. Use is the end for which he exists.-JAMES A. GARFIELD. 25. I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving. -O. W. HOLMES. 27. 26. Heaven will never a "aign him for what he thinks, but for what he does -GOLDSMITH. If time be heavy on your hands, Are there no beggars at your gates, Nor any poor about your lands? Oh! teach the orphan boy to read, Or teach the orphan girl to sew.-TENNYSON. 28. Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.-HORACE MANN. 29. Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning. -CARDINAL NEWMAN. 30. Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is henceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under the feet of man.-SERMON ON THE MOUNT. INTRODUCTION: VIII. INDUSTRY. Relate, with embellishments and explanations:"There was a great painter named Hogarth, who painted a series of pictures. The first of the series shows two lads starting in life as apprentices under the same master. They are about the same age, are equally clever, and have the same prospect of getting on. Yet in the other pictures, one apprentice, whose name is Tom Idle, is shown to neglect his work for bad company of every kind, gradually sinking from idleness into every crime. The other apprentice, Frank Goodchild, is depicted as always industrious and attentive to his business, and becoming prosperous and rich. Another picture shows that Tom has sunk into poverty and misery; another picture shows that Frank has become a great merchant. One of the last pictures shows Tom in the hands of the constables, brought before Alderman Goodchild, who is now high sheriff, and who is pained and distressed in recognizing his old fellow-apprentice in the prisoner at the bar." DEFINITION: Industry is the habit of working steadily and regularly at all working times. INTERPRETATION: 1. Industry is not only a duty, but it is an essential aid in accomplishing other duties. It is helpful to right living, and, by keeping the faculties employed, permits no time for wrong living and temptation. 2. Idleness is the great breeder of carelessness, impurity of thought, and crime. Regular occupation is necessary to life, and it is one of the greatest blessings of our lives. Industry is helpful to selfcommand, because body and mind are disciplined by it into orderliness, and life is made regular by it, as a body of trained troops is more easily controlled than an undisciplined mob. 3. It is one of the best helps for contentment, for it affords a regular vent for the activity of life, which would otherwise tend to wear out life itself. Idleness soon becomes a burden to one's life. Laziness is the worst sort of vice, because it sacrifices the higher self to the lower self. It is the open gateway to poverty in its most hideous and degrading forms. Where industry is wanting, poverty and wretchedness are sure to come. 4. Industry is essential to the highest influence; and it is very necessary that the young should be provided with interests in study and philanthropic activity, to give opportunity of increasing their influence. With unceasing industry read books, for "they pay the largest dividends for the outlay of time, and remain a permanent possession." 5. "Life's master word is, Work. With this magic word in one's heart all things are possible. It is the touchstone of progress and the key to success." Generally speaking, the life of all truly great men has been a life of intense and incessant labor. 6. To get on in life a boy must not be content with simply doing the task set for him-he must do more than his task. He should be at his work earlier than is required, and stay later. That is one way to attract attention- which is the turning point, the beginning of success. The writer, when simply an errand boy in a book store, only six weeks on his job, saw a customer impatient at not being waited upon. He stepped up to him as though he were a salesman, learned his wants, and though not knowing the location or price of a single book, by dint of quickness of inquiry and search he found them, and sold a bill amounting to $20. His employer happened to be looking on, and promoted him on the spot. That was the turning point in his career. In six months he became the head of the entire book department. A boy in the beginning of his career should do two days' work for one day's pay. This will then attract attention, which will quadruple his pay, and if continued will probably make him a partner. "There is always room at the top," is quoted to all. Yes, but we must all climb, for as some one has wittily said, "The elevator is not running." 7. But industry should be directed toward a definite object and purpose. A boy riding a rocking horse may put forth more energy than one riding a wheel, but he does not get anywhere. Concentration of thought allied to action is what counts. 8. Cresimus produced so much larger crops from his fields than his neighbors that he was accused of witchcraft. In answer to the charge, he brought into court his servants with their implements of labor, and said: "My witchcrafts, O Romans, are these. I do not say to my servants, 'Go thou and do this,' but 'Come, let us do it." 9. It is not necessary for a man to be actively bad in order to make a failure in life; simple inaction will accomplish it. Nature has everywhere written her protest against idleness; everything which ceases to struggle, which remains inactive, rapidly deteriorates. It is the struggle toward an ideal, the constant effort to get higher and further, which develops manhood and character. 10. All cannot be geniuses; but we must not be shirks, on the ground that we are not geniuses; but all can work. Most men owe more to their industry than to their natural talent. For years Henry Clay would declaim in a barn to the cattle for audience. "When God wants to make an oak He takes a hundred years; when He wants to make a squash He takes six months." II. In proportion to the industry of the people does the State thrive. Life and action are the food which support its efficiency and helpfulness. ELUCIDATION AND TRAINING: 1. Steadiness of Application. Impress on the children that industry demands constant application, and not work by fits and starts. Let the class instance the different kinds of labor, as that of carpenters, smiths, lawyers, teachers, etc., and mention how each may be industrious in his own way. Then show how recreation is necessary in "play-time," and how the health is preserved by it for future labors, and that it is not industry to overtax strength by perverting the use of recreation time. A person may be industrious at other work besides manual labor-at mental work, and even in his recreation. Insist on work in working time, and play in playing time. At the same time point out that "spare" time and "leisure" time may be judiciously spent, and that it is only "killing time" by useless pursuits that really wastes it. 2. Mistaken notions of Industry. Illustrate by a noisy class pretending to be studying hard; teach that industry is patient and never in a hurry. Censure the practice of workmen doing hard work at irregular and uncertain periods, with intervals of idleness. Show that "over-time" does not imply industry. True industry is well illustrated by the training athletes are subjected to in preparation for their struggles: nothing spasmodic-work is regular, hard, and steady. Expose the folly of overstraining the constitution to accomplish what is almost physically impossible. Deplore slighting work, sacrificing quality for the sake of quantity, and show the ill effects of bad workmanship, by the prejudice it creates in the consumer, who will probably decline further dealings; bad work often leading to loss of trade. 3. Teach that Industry demands punctuality and regularity. Franklin says: "Laziness travels slowly that poverty soon overtakes it." SQ 4. Blessings of Industry. It overcomes difficulties; it improves and fits one for higher employment. Obtain from the class common examples in school work and in trades. Show how self-reliance is thus built up. Illustrate by Palissy's search for a lost art of enamelling. It is the steady support of youth, and a provision for the future. Illustrate by the "busy bees" making provision. Inveigh against that fastidiousness in the choice of occupation, which is growing among the well-to-do working class, and assure them that "He who by the plough would thrive, Himself must either hold or drive." It requires no abilities to acquire it, and is available in every station of life. This is an important point to "Indusimpress on "dull" or "backward" children. try is the golden key that unlocks the gates of fortune." Use this metaphor well; show that every one may have the key by using it, and not to use it is to lose it. Elihu Burritt, while earning his living as a blacksmith, mastered eighteen ancient and modern languages, and twenty-two European dialects. Teach that no man can rise to eminence without industry and |