PREFATORY NOTE It will be observed that the talks in this little book do not form a strictly continuous series. There is, however, a certain unity in the book in that the various subjects are treated consistently from a single point of view. This point of view is most clearly disclosed in Chapter V, The Grand Adventure. Much of the moral counsel offered to the young has taken the form of warning against danger. It has failed, therefore, to make any strong appeal to the mind and heart of youth, for healthy youth is not timid. What is of more vital consequence is that this mean-spirited counsel is not true to sound morals nor to the facts of life. If it were heeded and faithfully followed it could produce at its best only prudent, cautious, calculating men and women; at its worst, moral weaklings, unequal to the stern responsibilities and the fierce temptations of life. It has seemed better to me to take the opposite course and state the principles of right conduct in terms of strength and courage. Some of the views set forth on the following pages, when expressed in public discourse, have won such approval from experienced educators that I have been encouraged to expand them in this book, which is offered with the hope that it may prove useful to teachers and helpful to the young people of our schools. The Suggestions for Reading at the end of each chapter are made from books easily accessible. There has been no effort to make them exhaustive. The poetical selections especially, and to some extent the prose selections, have been made with a view to certain passages which are likely to stick in the memory. But the real books to be read are the books of life, the histories, the biographies, the great works of fiction, and the great poems, books which are suggestive and not formally didactic. C. H. W. |