Self Help

had a box the fireman was filling full of sand. It appears that locomotives cannot always get a grip On their slender iron pavement, 'cause the wheels are apt to slip; And when they reach a slippery spot, their tactics they command, 33 And to get a grip upon the rail, they sprinkle it with sand. It's about the way with travel along life's slippery track - If your load is rather heavy, you're always slipping back; So, if a common locomotive you completely understand, You'll provide yourself in starting with a good supply of sand. If your track is steep and hilly and you have a heavy grade, If those who've gone before you have the rails quite slippery made, If you ever reach the summit of the upper tableland, You'll find you'll have to do it with a liberal use of sand. If you strike some frigid weather and discover to your cost, That you're liable to slip upon a heavy coat of frost, Then some prompt decided action will be called into demand, And you'll slip way to the bottom if you haven't any sand. 34 You can get to any station that is on life's schedule seen, If there's fire beneath the boiler of ambition's strong machine, And you'll reach a place called Flushtown at a rate of speed that's grand, If for all the slippery places you've a good supply of sand. It can do you no harm if you memorize the poems quoted in this lesson and make the philosophy upon which they are based a part of your own. 35 Tis the human touch in this world that counts, The touch of your hand and mine, Which means far more to the fainting heart, Than shelter and bread and wine; For shelter is gone when the night is oer, And bread lasts only a day, But the touch of the hand and the sound of the voice, Sing on in the soul always. Spencer M. Tree As I near the end of this lesson on Failure, there comes to mind a bit of philosophy taken from the works of the great Shakespeare, which I wish to challenge because I believe it to be unsound. It is stated in the following quotation: There is a tide in the affairs of men Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows, and in miseries. 36 On such a full sea are we now afloat; And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures. Fear and admission of failure are the ties, which cause us to be bound in shallows, and in miseries. We can break these ties and throw them off. Nay, we can turn them to advantage and make them serve as a tow-line with which to pull ourselves ashore if we observe and profit by the lessons they teach. Who ne'er has suffered, he has lived but half, Who never failed, he never strove or sought, Who never wept is stranger to a laugh, And he who never doubted never thought. As I near the end of this, my favorite lesson of this course, I clos