And the Genius of Wisdom and Love reigneth there. 
     Advance then, proud vessel,—­thy burden is light,—­
     Swift speed thee, and guide his young steps in the right;
     For in life’s ‘fitful changes’ are many dark streams,
     And paths unillumed by the sun’s golden beams.”

Cherish self-respect.  Have a deep regard for your own estimation of your own merits.  Look with scorn and contempt upon low and vicious practices.  Cultivate pride of character.  I care not how proud the youthful are of all their valuable attainments, their correct habits, their excellings in that which is manly, useful, and good.  The more pride of this description, the better.  Though it should reach even to egotism and vanity, it is much better than no pride in these things.  This pride in doing right is one of the preserving ingredients, the very salt of man’s moral character, which prevents from plunging into vice.

Live for something besides self.  Build with your own hands, the monument that shall perpetuate your memory, when the dust has claimed your body.  Do good.  Live for others, if you would be embalmed in their recollections.

“Thousands of men breathe, move, and live—­pass off the stage of life, and are heard of no more.  Why!  They did not a particle of good in the world; and none were blessed by them; none could point to them as the instruments of their redemption; not a line they wrote, not a word they spoke could be recalled, and so they perished; their light went out in darkness, and they were not remembered more than the insects of yesterday.  Will you thus live and die, O man immortal?  Live for something.  Do good, and leave behind you a monument of virtue that the storm of time can never Destroy.  Write your name by kindness, love, and mercy, on the hearts of the thousands you come in contact with year by year, and you will never be forgotten.  No, your name—­your deeds—­will be as legible on the hearts you leave behind, as the stars on the brow of evening.  Good deeds will shine as brightly on the earth as the stars of heaven."[1]

    “Up! it is a glorious era! 
      Never yet has dawned its peer;
     Up, and work! and then a nobler
      In the future shall appear. 
     ‘Onward!’ is the present’s motto,
      To a larger, higher life;
     ‘Onward!’ though the march be weary,
      Though unceasing be the strife.

     “Pitch not here thy tent, for higher
      Doth the bright ideal shine,
     And the journey is not ended
      Till thou reach that height divine. 
     Upward! and above earth’s vapors,
      Glimpses shall to thee be given,
     And the fresh and odorous breezes,
      Of the very hills, of heaven.”

[Footnote 1:  Dr. Chalmers.]

Among the fixed principles which you should establish for your government, by no means overlook Honesty and Integrity.  The poet never uttered a truer word than that