You cannot dally with brilliant indirectness; you must make every man and woman understand that you are goldenly sincere, forcefully earnest, earnestly honest, high of intention, sound of purpose, direct of method.  Out of all these you will finally wring everything which the college is designed to give:  skilled intellect, mind equipped with systematized knowledge, simple, earnest, upright character.

And to crown it all, you will discover in this hard discipline of your faculties and of your soul a happiness whose steady felicity is unknown to the lounger of the club or the frequenter of the ballroom.  For remember this—­you who in your heart cherish a secret envy of those other young men whom you believe, by reason of family, wealth, or any favorable circumstance, are getting more of the joy of living than you get—­remember this, that this world knows only one higher degree of happiness than that which comes from discipline, only one pleasure nobler than the pleasure of achieving.

Let me close with two illustrations within my own personal observation.  In one of the most charming inland cities of the United States, or of the world, for that matter, I met some fifteen years ago a young man of German parentage.  His father was poor.  The son simply had to help support the family by his daily work.  He never got nearer college than in his dreams.

He knew something of printing, and was employed by a vigorous new house at an humble salary.  By processes such as I have analyzed above, he made himself the best man in technical work in the firm’s employ.  The next step was to demonstrate his ability as a manager and financier as well as a skilled workman.  There was a nut to crack, was it not?  But see, now, how simply he broke the shell of that problem.

With some other sound young men of like quality, he established a building and loan association, one of those banks of the people which flourished in those days.  He had no capital behind him.  His acquaintance was small.  Never mind, he made acquaintances among people of his own class.  So did his fellow directors.  Those common people from which this young man sprang furnished from their earnings the necessary money.

The little institution was conducted with all our American dash, with all his German caution.  Of course it prospered.  How could it help prospering?  While other building and loan associations undertook alluring but hazardous experiments, this little concern rejected them with all the calm and haughty disfavor of the most conservative old bank.

After a while people began to take notice of this small institution.  Its depositors were satisfied, its customers pleased.  One day the attorney of this association, also a young man, called his fellow directors together, and resigned, upon the ground that he thought the movement of gold abroad and other financial phenomena indicated a panic within the next two or three years.