THE TRAGEDY AND TRIUMPH OF YOUTH. BY J. E. HICKMAN, A. M., PRESIDENT OF THE MURDOCK ACADEMY. II. CHARACTER THE PRODUCT OF FREE-WILL STRUGGLE. Learning without character is the greatest menace to our republic, for in such cases it is often used as an engine of destruction. This truth has been brought most forcibly to the public notice during the last two or three years, through the trial and conviction of a number of our national officials. A sheep that could eat sagebrush and grow sagebrush on its back would be a strange freak even for Barnum's show. Now what shall we say of a student who absorbs mere intellectual truth, and then grinds out mere intellectual truth without transforming it into living character, stamped with the genius of his own soul. Such a student would be a human machine,-not a creator, for he who transmutes learning into character is surely a genius. It is the right, nay more, it is the duty, of every young man or woman in this sense to be a genius. No one Character is the methodical development of the will. It is one's intrinsic value. Young men, develop your will more thoroughly than you do your reasoning powers. For in the will rests the making or the breaking of a great life. Every person should have freedom to exercise his own will even from childhood. else should will for him. The government of the home, the school, or the state should not presume to think or will for any sane being. It may point out, direct, suggest, but not curtail or crush the will either of the child or of the adult, unless, and mind this, he uses his freedom to injure self or to trample upon the rights of others. As great characters are wrought out through strong willing, it is evident that slavery in any form is destructive to human development. The strict discipline of the army life, in the ranks, is detrimental to character-building. There the private soldier is not supposed to think and will for himself in that broad free sense; and, as a result, he grows morally weaker. When turned loose after long service he is apt to be full of indecision. He thereafter may work well under direction, but is unfitted to lead. While I was at Fort Duchesne, a soldier told me that he was called before the regimental officer for disobeying a command which he felt was degrading. "Why did you not obey orders?" asked the captain. "I did not think," said the soldier, "that it was my duty to do what you asked." "Think!"' thundered the officer, "you have no business to think, you are to obey!" He sentenced the soldier to several weeks in the guardhouse. Such iron discipline may be necessary to maintain the government of the regimer.t, but it is stultification of the will,—a cruel robbery of man's most sacred right. Curtail man's freedom to think and to act, as conscience and reason direct (except when! ə interferes with the rights of others) and he looses the sense of right and wrong, thus degenerating into a state of irresponsibility. One needs only to follow the history of disbanded soldiers to appreciate this truth. So, any order of government that is acquired through the suppressing or the crushing of the will, is deceptive and indicative of harm. Be Suppress the will, and you make thought feeble. Man reveling in the freedom of the last hundred years has flooded the earth with truth which before had never entered the human mind. fore that time slavery of the body and the will, to a certain extent, beggared thought, and the great truths of today lay shrouded in the deep unknown. Character, attained through the regal power of the will, is a mighty moving force in the world of right. Such a character makes one oak and rock in the face of sin, but vine and flower at the altar of truth. "Character is power,"the safeguard of a nation, an anchor to the soul. "Character," says Smiles, "is one of the greatest moving powers in the world. man at his best, it is the soul's estate. He who has not a pure, noble character tends toward spiritual pauperism." In its noblest embodiments, it exemplifies In character are found the only saving principles of one's religion. Indeed, as another writer has said, "Character is another term for pure religion." Too many are satisfied with mere reputation. Too many care more for the plaudits of men than for the betterment of self. Too many are ever eager to get their names between the putrid lips of public opinion. Too many prefer the gild to the gold. tation is the cheap counterfeit for genuine worth. Repu My friend, reputation may be acquired in a week or a month, and many there are who prate in its deceptive garb. Indeed, many are forever assiduously covering up the real self and palming off the counterfeit. Public sentiment sets the price upon your reputation, and may boom it or depress it like stocks upon the market; but you alone make your character, and no one else can augment or diminish it. For it is you—the pearl fashioned by your anguish and sweated struggle. The cruel world may bury your character under the rubbish of common slander, but they cannot mar its beauty. If you care more for reputation than you do for true manhood, then you will shift your basis of action and sentiment to gain the plaudits of men. Such a course is destructive of the greater life. Character-building is a directive force-not a directed force. It is the interpreting and the acting out of the greatest laws of life. So the whims of the world should not clip the wings of your lofty purposes. Character, like tragedy, must have its opposing forces in order to unfold. Of a necessity you will have to crosscut opposing forces;-that produces power. It is the coils of the dynamo cutting through the magnetic lines of force that produce the power which turns the wheels of industry and lights our cities. If you will conquer self, if you will flood the world with new light, you, too, must cut the lines of force that bar your way. I deeply appreciate the strenuous life of Theodore Roosevelt. His motto, in moments of stress and strain is: "This is right, and the only thing to do," and then he proceeds to act without fear or favor. Such principles have carried him from the station of a police commissioner to the presidency of the United States. Such prin ciples will lead one from the paths of obscurity to the high-way of worth. Live for something, have a purpose, And that purpose keep in view. Beaver City, Utah. "THE LITTLE CAP AND SHAWL." (For the Improvement Era.) When the toil of day is over, and the last task put away, Just a tiny little body, and a gleeful baby shout, As it toddles on to meet me, with the little hands thrust out; How the little tonguelet prattles! and how the big eyes shine! The whole world seems the brighter for this little cap and shawl. And when the lamps are lighted, and the supper put away, I wonder what a home without a baby can be like. And later comes the "romp-romp," as we tumble on the floor And when at length the "sandman" has closed the sleepy eyes, Salt Lake City, Utah. LON J. HADDOCK CAN YOU RIGHTLY ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS? BY ELDER EUGENE L. ROBERTS. [This crisp letter comes to Bishop O. H. Berg, of Provo, who has kindly consented to its publication in the ERA. The author, at the time, it was written, had spent two years on a mission and is now in Switzerland. Those who are interested in European conditions, as well as in the reforming power of the gospel, as preached and practiced by the Latter-day Saints, will find in it food for reflection. haps, also, some of our young men will reply to the questions propounded. ERA will be glad to print the right answers, as far as we have space.-EDITORS.] Per- My first field was Stuttgart, Germany, where my wife and I dodged police and did work for about six months. The opposition we met there was good for us. The next field was Luzern, Switzerland, the most beautifully situated city in the world. It looks out over the famous emerald green Lake of Luzern, and is almost at the feet of some of the most magnificent Alps. Nearly every snow-capped peak balances a large hotel or two upon its nose. The scenery is enchanting, and thousands of tourists spend most of the summer there, strolling upon the promenades, lounging in the gardens, listening to Italian, Hungarian, and German orchestra music, or yachting upon the lake. Every afternoon and evening, the quay, bordering the lake, is an international stream of indolent human beings. Nearly every nation is represented and every class or station in life, from the simple Swiss peasant in costume, to European lords and prin The mixture is most interesting, as it flows back and forth in front of the palatial hotels. This was my second field of missionary activity or inactivity, and I need not describe the difficulties we encountered. Our work makes but little headway in Luzern. The third field is Zurich, the largest city in Switzerland, and |