West Jersey Pioneer

Miscellaneous.
From the Orange Journal.
SUCCESS.
In all the undertakings that engage the attention of mankind, the result aimed at and hoped for is success. Without a reasonable expectation of this, no one would be found laboring and toiling unceasingly, amid trials and obstacles that almost forbid the hope of the eagerly sought reward. It is well that there is a motive influence of such mighty power, constantly actuating the human mind. Without it, we should all, sooner or later, yield to despondency, and cease from every effort to attain wealth, standing, influence, and every desirable good.
There are various ways that are thought to promise success, and they are all thronged by a busy multitude. There is a straight road—somewhat hard to follow—especially in these fast times—because so few walk in it. It is the path of patient, upright effort, and he who chooses it must expect small but sure gains—will be called fogyish—out of date—behind the times, and what not. The man who travels in this path and seeks to be successful, is somewhat cautious in respect to the number of irons he keeps in the fire. He knows very well that it will not "pay" to have half of them burn, and he accordingly limits the number to what he can easily manage. Such a man will not find at the close of his days on earth that his life has been a failure. He will have been saved from the many temptations that destroy multitudes, because he had not the means to purchase them. As the night of death approaches, he will be far more likely than the man possessed of broad lands, to feel that this has been the only true kind of success—that he has acquired a title to an inheritance that can never fail him.
We live in a fast age—everything is done upon the high pressure system. If a man is doing a fair business that yields him a good support, and a little to be laid up against a rainy day, he soon becomes anxious to see a larger stream flowing into his coffers. Where there had hitherto been but a hundred dollars, he wishes to see a thousand. To do this he "enlarges" his business, increases a number of his "irons," makes a fortune in a short time, lives extravagantly, and in a few years more—fails—becomes totally bankrupt—hates the world, distrusts everybody—is not in sympathy with any human being—lives unhappily—a prey to the unhallowed passions of the human heart, and when the grave closes over him is no longer remembered—except as one who sought for wealth, honor and applause, by every possible means, yet died disappointed. To such men life has been little less than a complete failure. The world has not been benefitted by anything they have done—while their example and seeming success for a short season led others to imitate them and gain a similar end.
Many a young man sets out in life with the fairest prospects, and his friends are sanguine in the expectation that he must—he will succeed. If he chooses the right path he will succeed. It must be followed patiently, perseveringly. The interest of his employers must become his own, must be sought with the strictest integrity, and with singleness of purpose. He must acquire, must possess a reputation for trustworthiness. The keen eyes of experience will watch him, and will observe his falterings and short-comings. If he resolutely presses forward—meets and discharges every duty promptly and correctly, the efforts of to-day, will give him renewed strength for the labors of to-morrow—till by and by he will see all the "hummocks" and "floating ice" passed, and his bark sailing with full canvass and a favoring breeze upon the open water of success.
No man can do everything successfully. Each must endeavor, by constant and careful effort, to stand at the head of his calling. If employed in the mechanic arts he must aim to make as good an article—if not a little better than anybody else, at a fair price, and then he may rely upon it that patronage will flow in upon him. He had far better employ his time in rendering the work of his hands worthy of patronage, than to be begging the people to patronize him.
It is far more honorable to make a good shoe, or raise a noble field of corn, than to fill an office indifferently, or even make poor speeches in Congress. Men sometimes mistake an inflated head for a true Websterian brain, and easy to mount where he composedly walked. They simply render themselves ridiculous, and the noise they make reveals the true condition of the contents of the skull.
Let each one seek to leave his name embalmed in a few hearts at least, by daily deeds of kindness, by words of encouragement and sympathy—offered when some spirit was almost ready to sink in despair beneath the heavy and accumulating trials of life. He who can look back upon a life spent in honest endeavors to discharge his whole duty toward God and toward his fellow men, has not made a failure, whatever may be the circumstances by which he is surrounded, and the last great day will show him entitled to a nobility denied to the great ones of earth, who have drenched many a field of victory in human blood.