4
THE BATTALION.
it, is dangerous. Every branch of the College work is so or.
ganized that the application with which you start will be the
groove in which you»pursue your course. Our experience
is that the first few recitations decide a man’s standing in the
Institution, or, to use a familiar illustration, he who makes
“walking extras” a part of his first months work will “walk
extras” throughout the year. Some of you have come with
the idea uppermost—it is the well-meant advice at times of
parents—that it is your prime object here to finish the course
in four, three, or two years. It is an insufficient proposal.
Rather say; let me do today’s work well; let me leave no
prescribed duty unfinished, let me adopt the old artist’s
motto: “Nulla dies sine lin< j a,” not a day without its pro
gress. You are not beginning a two, three, or tour years’
task, but a life-time career; you are taking on you a series
of obligations which will never be relaxed; you are entering
a phase of life which runs into eternity. I repeat, then be
gin at once, and take advantage of all opportunities at hand.
Of course, you will enter immediately upon what are termed
requirements, but he is only half a man who does only what
he is required to do. The servant who never volunteers an
effort beyond what is demanded of him, the wage-earner who
is careful lest his employer should receive one stroke of the
pick or shovel or an expenditure of muscle beyond what he
is paid for, is a hireling and no more. Do those things which
are not demanded of you in black and white hut which may
be good for you morally and which may react for good upon
those about you. ^You are not required by the laws of the
College to say your prayers and read your Bibles, but
many an anxious father and mother would feel grieved should
they know that you neglect these means for the training of
the better nature, these safe-guards against temptation and
carelessness of life. Bring out those Bibles then from your
trunks, read and assimilate a few verses every day; let noth
ing intervene to hinder you; let no laughter or ridicule upon
the part of those who had not your advantages of training,