But I need another illustration.I found it in Massachusetts,and I am sorry I did because that is the state I came from.This young man in Massachusetts furnishes just another phase of my thought.He went to Yale College and studied mines and mining,and became such an adept as a mining engineer that he was employedby the authorities of the university to train students who were behind their classes.During his senior year he earned$15 a week for doing that work.When he graduated they raised his pay from$15 to$45 a week,and offered him a professorship,and as soon as they did he went right home to his mother.
If they had raised that boy's pay from$15 to$15.60 he would have stayed and been proud of the place,but when they put it up to$45 at one leap,he said,"Mother,I won't work for$45 a week.The idea of a man with a brain like mine working for$45 a week!Let's go out in California and stake out gold-mines and silver-mines,and be immensely rich."Said his mother,"Now,Charlie,it is just as well to be happy as it is to be rich."
"Yes,"said Charlie,"but it is just as well to be rich and happy,too."And they were both right about it.As he was an only son and she a widow,of course he had his way.They always do.
They sold out in Massachusetts,and instead of going to California they went to Wisconsin,where he went into the employ of the Superior Copper Mining Company at$15 a week again,but with the proviso in his contract that he should have an interest in any mines he should discover for the company.I don't believe he ever discovered a mine,and if I am looking in the face of any stockholder of that copper company you wish hehad discovered something or other.I have friends who are not here because they could not afford a ticket,who did have stock in that company at the time this young man was employed there.This young man went out there,and I have not heard a word from him.I don't know what became of him,and I don't know whether he found any mines or not,but I don't believe he ever did.
But I do know the other end of the line.He had scarcely gotten out of the old homestead before the succeeding owner went out to dig potatoes.The potatoes were already growing in the ground when he bought the farm,and as the old farmer was bringing in a basket of potatoes it hugged very tight between the ends of the stone fence.You know in Massachusetts our farms are nearly all stone wall.There you are obliged to be very economical of front gateways in order to have some place to put the stone.When that basket hugged so tight he set it down on the ground,and then dragged on one side,and pulled on the other side,and as he was dragging that basket through this farmer noticed in the upper and outer corner of that stone wall,right next the gate,a block of native silver eight inches square.That professor of mines,mining,and mineralogy who knew so much about the subject that he would not work for$45 a week,when he sold that homestead in Massachusetts sat right on that silver to make the bargain.He was born on thathomestead,was brought up there,and had gone back and forth rubbing the stone with his sleeve until it reflected his countenance,and seemed to say,"Here is a hundred thousand dollars right down here just for the taking."But he would not take it.It was in a home in Newburyport,Massachusetts,and there was no silver there,all away off-—well,I don't know where,and he did not,but somewhere else,and he was a professor of mineralogy.
My friends,that mistake is very universally made,and why should we even smile at him.I often wonder what has become of him.I do not know at all,but I will tell you what I"guess"as a Yankee.I guess that he sits out there by his fireside tonight with his friends gathered around him,and he is saying to them something like this："Do you know that man Conwell who lives in Philadelphia?""Oh yes,I have heard of him.""Do you know that man Jones that lives in Philadelphia?""Yes,I have heard of him,too."Then he begins to laugh,and shakes his sides and says to his friends,"Well,they have done just the same thing I did,precisely"——and that spoils the whole joke,for you and I have done the same thing he did,and while we sit here and laugh at him he has a better right to sit out there and laugh at us.I know I have made the same mistakes,but,of course,that does not make any difference,because we don't expect the same man to preach and practise,too.
As I come here tonight and look around this audience I am seeing again what through these fifty years I have continually seen-—men that are ****** precisely that same mistake.I often wish I could see the younger people,and would that the Academy had been filled tonight with our high-school scholars and our grammar-school scholars,that I could have them to talk to.While I would have preferred such an audience as that,because they are most susceptible,as they have not grown up into their prejudices as we have,they have not gotten into any custom that they cannot break,they have not met with any failures as we have;and while I could perhaps do such an audience as that more good than I can do grown-up people,yet I will do the best I can with the material I have.I say to you that you have"acres of diamonds"in Philadelphia right where you now live."Oh,"but you will say,"you cannot know much about your city if you think there are anyacres of diamonds'here."
