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the comnunity, and to himself also, in the 1011-. g run. The man who


simply does nothing in the world, but who lives upon what is provided


, "


for him by others, does not in this view perform his duty, and so far


as the commlnity is concerned he may as well not have existed. The


man who does do something, but not his best, is a failure in so far


as he falls short of his highest development. I think .. these


~ statements ' te.~ t~, whether judp.; ed from the .;; r;;: eNB or the


materialistic standpoint.


Now making a personal application, which is what you seemed


to call for, I have given all my children who are of age a good


education, as that word is commonly used, and a sufficient amount of


this world's goods to enable each of them to live comfortahly on


" ~ ~ l , '


his or her income. If any of youAdecide to merely live on this


income, without further effort, it is ' evident that the ab'ove rules


would he violated, and that he would not be doing his duty, either


to himself or to the community. A v~ ry lar~ e share of the well- to- do


men' in Europe, and I am sorry to say, an increasing share of those in


America, - are in this manner leading absolutely useless lives, even


if by indulging viciollspropensities they are not doing worse than this.


Second; if any of you in selecting and following an occupation,


should not do your best work, ~~ the highest position that you are


capable of filling, the above statement would be true, to a lesser


extent. I believe it the duty of a man, not only to be useful to the


community, hut to develop the highest usefulness of which he is capable.