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Golden Steps to Respectability, Usefulness and Happiness

Creator: Austin, John Mather
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too much. Let them place themselves on the high rock of principle, and their feet will not slide in the trying hour. "Oh! water for me! bright water for me, And wine for the tremulous debauchee! It cooleth the brow, it cooleth the brain, It maketh the faint one strong again! It comes o'er the sense like a breeze from the sea, All freshness, like infant purity. Oh! water, bright water, for me, for me! Give wine, give wine, to the debauchee." "The young man walks in the midst of temptations to appetite, the improper indulgence of which is in danger of proving his ruin. Health, longevity, and virtue depend on his resisting these temptations. The providence of God is no more responsible, because a man of improper indulgence becomes subject to disease, than for picking his pockets. For a young man to injure his health, is to waste his patrimony and destroy his capacity for virtuous deeds. "If young men imagine that the gratification of appetite is the great source of enjoyment, they will find this in the highest degree with industry and _temperance_. The epicure, who seeks it in a dinner which costs five dollars, will find less enjoyment of appetite than the laborer who dines on a shilling. If the devotee
Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan

THE SECRETS OF THE PRINCESSE DE CADIGNAN BY HONORE DE BALZAC Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley DEDICATION To Theophile Gautier
to appetite desires its high gratification, he must not send for buffalo tongues and champagne, but climb a mountain or swing an axe. Let a young man pursue temperance, sobriety, and industry, and he may retain his vigor till three score years and ten, with his cup of enjoyment full, and depart painlessly; as the candle burns out in its socket, he will expire."[2] [Footnote 2: Horace Mann.] Next to Temperance in importance, I would rank the habit of INDUSTRY. We were evidently made for active occupation. Every joint, sinew, and muscle plainly shows this. A young person who is an idler, a drone, is a pest in society. He is ready to engage in mischief, and to fall into vice, with but little resistance. It is an old saying, that "an idle brain is the devil's workshop." Those who are not actively employed in something useful, will be very likely to fall into evil practices. Industry is one of the best safeguards against the inroads of vice. The young, whatever may be their condition, or however abundantly they may believe their future wants already provided for, should actively engage in some honorable occupation or profession--in something that will benefit mankind. They should be fired with the high and noble ambition of making the world better for their living in it. Who can wish to pass a _blank_ existence? Yet this is the life of every idler, poor or rich. Be stirring in anything which is useful--anything which will make others happy. Then you will not have lived in vain. Behold how a