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From the countless minor adaptations to circumstances required in change of place, of scene, or in society, a positive pleasure is often derived. The person who constantly presents to his own view but one phase of his character will soon tire of the prospect. In adapting himself, however, to various people, the changing moods of the same people, and to different situations and circumstances, he becomes aware of a certain variety in his nature which gives an interest and zest to life.

Many a one who supposed himself suited to his ordinary surroundings and nothing else has been agreeably surprised to find that, under altered conditions, new capacities have developed and powers been manifested of which he had not dreamed before. Much of the pleasure of travel and the summer vacation. is due not merely to new sights and sounds, but, largely and especially, to learning to adapt ourselves to these changed conditions. He who is fond of camp life finds a keen enjoyment in his plain and primitive quarters, not only because they are so different from those at home, but also because he feels a peculiar delight in the discovery that he can live and be happy, though the floors are not carpeted nor the streets paved. His food also has an added relish when, in adapting himself to his summer environment, he has discovered a hitherto unsuspected ability to prepare it himself.

In the greater vicissitudes of life, in the often sudden changes from poverty to wealth, from obscurity to renown, from health to sickness or the reverse, an ability to adjust one's self to the new conditions saves many an annoyance, lightens many a bitter disappointment, and makes conquest possible, when without it defeat would have been inevitable. Many a man fallen "on evil days" has, by adapting himself to the change, succeeded in rising again, while had he shunned companionship and, keeping aloof from others, merely sighed for past glories, he would have grown still poorer. On the other hand, he who bears suddenly acquired wealth or popularity without undue elation is justly counted worthy of his good fortune.

Modern science proclaims the doctrine of the survival of the fittest. It tells us that those forms of life which are best adapted to their environment are most likely to endure. It is no less true that in society, in business, in life, the man who has learned most perfectly to adapt himself to his surroundings, and to conform to the circumstances in which he is placed, will succeed, while he who has neglected to learn this lesson will continually struggle and continually fail.

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Individual Responsibility.

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REV. W. C. WHITFORD, D.D., President Milton College, Wisconsin.

WILL be somebody," exclaimed a country lad to himself, as he, seventeen years of age and walking towards a village in Central New York, first caught sight of the buildings of a flourishing academy in the place. He had come from a school district then in the backwoods, and from a home scantily supplied with even the necessaries of life; and was determined to become, if possible, a student in that institution and to complete in it a course of its hardest studies. He was clad in rustic garments woven and made by his mother, was blessed with a robust body and a large brain, and had formed habits of patient industry and serious thinking.

The teachers were at once pleased with his rugged, honest face and earnest spirit, and saw that he possessed natural abilities of no inferior sort, but undeveloped. Admission to the lower classes was granted him; chances to pay his expenses by working at odd jobs fell in his way; and at the end of four years, a diploma was handed him as the best scholar among a dozen graduates of the school at the time.

Afterwards he finished elsewhere a college course with great credit to himself; some years later he returned to the old academy as its efficient principal; and was finally elevated to the presidency of a leading theological seminary in the West. Hundreds of youths enjoyed his ripe instruction in each of these positions, and were incited and guided by him to engage in most active and useful labors. Thus he filled out a distinguished career, relying upon his own powers, and giving full scope to a worthy ambition to rise in the world by cultivating

to the utmost these powers and by improving assiduously the superior advantages he found.

It is true that a large majority of the youth of our country, as was the case with this lad, cannot by wealthy parents, family influences, or persons in power, be lifted into the desirable places in business, society, or the government. At the best, only moderate help can be rendered them, such as must be gauged by the limited means accessible in rearing them, and by the other humble conditions attending their early days. Surely, to them there is no royal road to success in the higher walks of life, only a common, well-beaten path along the valleys and over the hills of persistent and wearisome effort. They gain the coveted rewards, climb to the pinnacles of usefulness and renown, only by depending entirely or very largely on their own individual strength and purpose. They must show the resolution of a miner, who is represented in an old device as standing alone before a high ledge of rocks, with a raised pickaxe in his hands, and saying, "As I do not find a tunnel here, I will dig one to the bed of ore myself."

Alas! very many of our youth will not attempt a vigorous struggle to honor best their own existence and to aid in a large way their fellow men. With the most favorable incentives to exertion constantly before them, they are content to remain in the lowly, inconspicuous places wherein they were born and reared. They drift in the current of the everyday events that occur around them. The most prospered of them spend their lives like that dependent idler who is fitly described by an English novelist as having "his plate of chicken and his saucer of cream, and frisked, and barked, and wheezed, and grew fat, and so ended." They leave nothing behind them to be added to the world's storehouse of good. But now and then some one belonging to this class of youth, disgusted with his aimless conduct and his frivolous amusements, or weary of the humdrum and drudgery of his lowly toil, breaks away from his environment, and starts out seriously and bravely to better his state and standing among his fellows.

As a notable and yet not a single instance, a thriftless, grownup boy in a New England town, sitting with several associates by the roadside, observed a stranger riding by in a fine carriage drawn by spirited horses and receiving the hurrahs of a crowd of people; and the boy turning to these companions, and springing from the ground, with his face ablaze with a new animation, said to them, "I'll do that thing myself sometime." Over a score of years afterwards, he was welcomed and cheered by the citizens of the same place, as he, a leading member of Congress, rode through its principal street on a visit to the humble home of his childhood.

The sympathy and the helping hand of really thoughtful and well-to-do persons are seldom withheld from the boy or the girl that earnestly strives to overcome the hindrances of poverty, and sometimes the unreasonable opposition of relatives and others without ambition, and to become qualified to work in the more remunerative or serviceable positions. In many cases such encouragement acts as a most effective motive in these youth, and often forms the only solid basis on which they can reach forth and attain the object desired. It certainly increases in all of them the responsibility to make the most of themselves, their time, and their opportunities. The pressure of this obligation should remain and grow stronger in them; it will bring about most beneficial results. "May the Lord bless you and help you to be a noble man," said a great-hearted deacon of a church to a homeless, neglected, and keen-eyed urchin, as he placed his warm hand on the flaxen head. This prayer, this benediction, was signally answered. A sudden inspiration changed the course of the thoughts and feelings of the sad and sensitive boy; a most active and brilliant career was subsequently opened to him; and at his death thousands blessed his memory.

Some one has said that the best education is gained by struggling for a living. But add to this a determined purpose to acquire wealth, to sway political power, to become an adept in some trade or profession, or to assuage the sorrows of men, and

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