A Jolly by Josh | Page 5

your intelligence and experience supply the proof that
a definite object of employment with something in view of interest and
benefit to the human race is, if not an essence of happiness, perhaps the
easiest way to obtain the elements of happiness; namely, an object for
yourself, a sense of usefulness, and the respect of your associates.
In addition to this, you must not be unpleasant to the senses. You must
be morally and physically clean. You must have good manners, which
is mostly being courteous and sympathetic and doing sundry social
things according to the social code which happens to be then in vogue.
You must learn, though it bores you as much as your Latin composition
did, the proper way to dress at various functions and to answer people's
invitations and generally do the correct thing.
It won't take long to learn these things; and you need not remember
them, as, if you once have in mind that there is a correct way of doing
things, you can always find out the particular one at issue by asking.
It seems to me that I can best illustrate my point by comparing you to a
tool, of which there are two ends,--the handle and the working or
cutting end.
It is your business for your first thirty years of existence to make as
good a tool of yourself as you can, and your business for the rest of
your life to do as much work as possible; that is, let the tool be used
after it is made. Thus, then, let us divide your experiences and
acquirements into the handle and the edge of your tool. The
handle,--your manners, education on general topics, such as history,
literature, art, etc., your habits of cleanliness, promptness, etc., and
your physical ability, health, etc.
Your edge is your special fitness for work; that is, your education,
experiences, aptness, power of concentration, and accomplishment.

Now I am going to ask you to keep this division clearly in mind, as I
think you will find in it many of the elements of the touchstone for
which we are looking.
I know the thought will have occurred to you that you do not know
what you will take up, and are in no position to tell what things will go
to make up the right sort of an edge; yet you will observe that you are,
of course, in the same position as other pieces of unshaped wood and
steel, and for your first ten years nothing is done except to shape you
up gradually, teaching you to speak and read, and generally getting
house broken. During your teens you are going to college, learning how
to meet with and talk to men, to be a gentleman and develop your
muscles. Incidentally, you pick up a little knowledge of what the world
has been doing.
Most of this you will forget; but, if you are wise, you will have drawn a
few conclusions and made some observations, one of which is that it
was mighty good of those old chaps who have been workers in the past
to have cleared such good roads for us in every direction, so that a
fellow could almost begin where they left off, when his handle is
polished and he starts cutting.
An important thing at this period is to get the handle evenly
balanced,--turned correct on centres, as they say; that is, not to get too
far out of the normal in any particular, such as dress, promptness,
profanity, or length of hair.
So much for the rounding of the handle; and now about the tool. At
first, by watching, handling, and careful work, you must begin to show
the quality and amount of metal you possess. Find out, as it were, by
tentative trials whether it is capable of good edge or not. In other words,
you want to find your bent and your abilities. To this end, if you are
naturally good at mathematics and have a scientific and inquiring turn
of mind, as you have, it is well to give it vent. Do not fear, for instance,
to spend your time and earnings on electrical apparatus or studies and
experiments in physical science. If you have a fondness and desire for
teaching or philosophy or accounting or trade, try to find out the
essential requisites of the particular one which interests you, and follow

up and acquire all the attainments which may be found useful. If you
wish to enter politics or the lecture field, learn to speak and collect and
classify your ideas when you are speaking and before people.
Let me summarize briefly the points that I have just covered.
You are now working for a definite object. You have money enough to
do more