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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 68

Our Boys

Our Boys.

It cannot be too often repeated that the boys of to-day are the men of tomorrow. It was the custom of an ancient nation at certain festivals to have a procession in which old men led the way, feebly shouting—

Once in battle bold we shone.

The middle-aged men came next, answering vigorously—

Try us, our vigour is not gone.

And the boys, who brought up the rear, sang—not in a spirit of brag, I trust, but with some sense of personal responsibility—

To us belongs the palm alone,

Something similar to this is taking place to-day. Three ages are swarming across the islands. We don't see the divisions nor hear their thoughts; but the old men are everywhere retiring, men in the prime of life are taking their place, and the younger men and boys are pressing on to mingle in the fray. Have you read Emerson's fine paper on "The Young American?" If you have you will be sure to have been struck with this bright, inspiring nought:—"I call upon you, young men, to obey your heart, and be the nobility of this land" (ii., page 305); "Every great and memorable community has consisted of formidable individuals who, like the Roman or the Spartan, lent his own spirit to the State and made it great. Yet only by the supernatural is a man made strong; nothing is so weak as an egotist" (p. 305. That is just it. We would have the Young New Zealander become a page 42 bright, manly, noble fellow. Strength and agility of body, keenness and fullness of mind, pureness and greatness of spirit, are all necessary to help you to take your place amongst the noblest of our future citizens. James Russell Lowell says—

Be noble! and the nobleness that lies
In other men, sleeping, but never dead,
Will rise in majesty to meet thine own.
Then wilt thou see it gleam in many eyes.
Then will pure light around thy path be shed,
And thou wilt nevermore be sad or lone!

No one can have read Marzio's "Crucifix" without pausing at this passage:-"As we grow older, life becomes the expression of a mood, according to the way we have lived. He who seeks peace will find that with advancing age the peaceful moment, that once came so seldom, returns more readily, and that at last the moments unite to make hours, and the hours to build up days and years. He who stoops to petty strife will find that the oft-recurring quarrel has power to perpetuate the discontented weakness out of which it springs, and that it can make all life a hell. He who rejoices in action will learn that activity becomes a habit, and at last excludes the possibility of rest, and the desire for it, and his lot is the best, for the momentary gladness in a great deed well done is worth a millennium of sinless, nerveless tranquility" (p. 89).

This page is intended for boys such as fill the upper standards in our public schools, or for boys who have just left school and have begun the battle of life, and I cannot believe that what has been written is above them. If I know boys, they like reading something with "grit" in it. They prefer the man who is trying to help them to look up, to him who comes down to their exact level. They will therefore perceive that the aim and drift of the above is to kindle their best feelings and to assist them in realising the enormous power of habit.

I had intended saying much about games, outdoor and indoor, about habits of observation, of reading, and of thinking, but my allotted space is more than filled, and I must postpone the pleasure until next month. Meantime our editor would be very glad indeed to get letters from "Our Boys" suggesting subjects to write about, telling him of new games, seeking his advice, asking for help in any difficulty, and generally treating him—as he wishes to be treated—as a kind friend and helper to the boys of New Zealand.