BATTLE OF LIFE

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 143, 13 December 1940, Page 9

BATTLE OF LIFE

AIDS TO SUCCESS MR. H. F. Q'LEARY'S ADVICE GOSPEL OF HARD WORK First among aids to success in life suggested by Mr. H. F. O'Leary, K.C., to the boys of Wellington College at their annual breaking-up ceremony last night was that they should do nothing, through carelessness, neglect, or bad living, to impair their health. He told them that one of the eminent lawyers of England, Lord Halsbury, who lived to the age of 96, on being asked the essentials for success at the Bar, said there were three. The first was health, the second v was health, and the third was health, and if one knew a little law, well, it would not do any harm.

.The second suggestion Mr. O'Leary made to the boys was that they should continue to take .part in sport after they left school, being careful not to make a fetish of sport, however, or to subordinate other considerations to it. Also of great importance were their deportment, address, appearance, manners, and speech. HARD WORK^ESSENTIAL. Next Mr. 'p'Leary emphasised the importance of hard work. Unless they worked, he said, they would not get very far. An alert, agile brain was not enough. It was a commonplace that men with the qualities of ability, agility of brain, and alertness of intellect were the hardest workers. Loud applause greeted his statement that the best example he could give them of industry was that of that great man who was leading us, and who would lead us, to victory—Mr. Winston Churchill. That brilliant, militant man was one of the hardest of workers. No doubt today in the midst of his many duties, onerous as they were, Mr. Churchill .was exhibiting the same industry. And with what result? He was delivering speeches today that would echo down the corridors of time, that would live on for ever. (Applause.) The speaker advised boys to read well. Much was written today that was pleasant but valueless. He did not suggest that they should keep to a particular class of literature; thej danger was in concentrating on one class of little or no value. His advice was that they should keep up reading good literature, both ancient and modern. j PUBLIC LIFE.. Mr. O'Leary touched on the question of more secondary school boys taking part in public life after leaving college, and said he agreed with the opinion that those who had come from the secondary schools did riot take as prominent a part in public life as they might. It.had been said that Providence had bestowed modesty on some tieople and on others a disposition for public life, and.also, that a politician had V.cr time to devote to his-family or ..friends, ..because he .had to devote all 6? it to/his opponents. Whether it was. iiiodestry or the desire to remain in the-family circle or with one's friends that kept the secondary schoolboy from entering public life he did not know, but he suggested that they could with advantage more freely participate in public.life. Dealing finally with rules of conduct, Mr. O'Leary stressed the importance of living honestly. '.'Live honestly," he said. "Go straight. Better ruin than a deviation from that, but if you are honest you will not be ruined. And not only be honest in material things, but be honest in mind, intellectually. Be honest in the use of time, be honest in every effort you make. Next, wittingly injure no one. Be tolerant and sympathetic with others in adversity. Remember that perhaps what is the other man's trouble today may well be yours tomorrow. Thirdly, be brave amongst disappointments. You will have them in plenty, but let them spur you on to greater effort and to greater work." '