If I were to offer advice to any young man anxious to
make himself useful in public life, I would sum up the results of
my experience in three short rules--rules so simple that any man
may understand them, and so easy that any man may act upon them.
My first rule would be--leave it to others to judge of what
duties you are capable, and for what position you are fitted; but
never refuse to give your services in whatever capacity it may be
the opinion of others who are competent to judge that you may
benefit your neighbours or your country. My second rule is--when
you agree to undertake public duties, concentrate every energy and
faculty in your possession with the determination to discharge
those duties to the best of your ability. Lastly, I would counsel
you that, in deciding on the line which you will take in public
affairs, you should be guided in your decision by that which,
after mature deliberation, you believe to be right, and not by
that which, in the passing hour, may happen to be fashionable
or popular."
(10) The following illustration of one of his minute acts of kindness
is given in his biography:- "He was one day taking a long country
walk near Freshford, when he met a little girl, about five years
old, sobbing over a broken bowl; she had dropped and broken it in
bringing it back from the field to which she had taken her
father's dinner in it, and she said she would be beaten on her
return home for having broken it; when, with a sudden gleam of
hope, she innocently looked up into his face, and said, 'But yee
can mend it, can't ee?'
"My father explained that he could not mend the bowl, but the
trouble he could, by the gift of a sixpence to buy another.
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