And he gave some good advice to young fellows wanting to make a
success of their lives in the following words:
"If I were to try to compress into one sentence the whole of the
experience I have had, and offer it to a young man as a certain means
of bringing success in whatever position he holds, it would be
this:'_Duty first, pleasure second_,'"
"I am certain from what I have seen that what so many call 'bad luck'
comes in nine cases out of ten from putting that maxim the other way
round and satisfying your pleasure first and attending to work and
duty afterwards."
One poor man, a farm labourer, made himself rich by writing poetry.
His name was Stephen Duck, the thresher poet. But unfortunately
numbers of other working men, seeing his good fortune, also thought it
would be an easier way of making money to write poetry rather than by
doing hard work, and Horace Walpole, when writing of Duck, said.,
"that he succeeded as a poet, but he also succeeded in ruining at
least twenty good workmen."
There are very few young men who have not at one time or another in
their lives thought themselves splendid poets.
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