Necessary Factors.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 3, 15 January 1903, Page 6

Necessary Factors.

In the achievement of such intellectual and industrial triumphs as these I have recorded, said his Lordship in conclusion, many factors were necessarily called into E iX" A jr hefci0 ' , lt ma -y be held that genius must always hold the first place. In this opinion I do not entirely concur. No doubt without intellectual ability of a decided character great progress shall not be made • but at the same time I hold that in the battle of life it ♦ Ot play tho all "important and the all-sufficient part that young men are sometimes apt to imagine J^arnestness of purpose, steadiness in action, determination in following to its legitimate outcome what we engage in, will exercise more influence over the iinal issue find prove the surer guarantee of success. We have numbers of young men— not a few in this hall, perhaps tonight—possessed of ample talent for great things in the future. But talent will not suffice. We must have the other qualities which act as her faithful and all-neces-sary handmaids. Y-oung men should be possessed of a legitimate and honorable ambition. They should remember that no matter what a kind and provident parent may have done for them, their future is in their own hands They must become tho shapers of their own destiny, and that destiny will be what they may wisely or unwisely resolve to make it. We live in' a thoroughly practical age, when the measures of our success will be tho measure of the earnestness with which we shall seek for it. There must not then be any dreaming of castlebuilding in the air, but steady, practical, and perseveremg work. There must be uprightness and honesty, truth and fidelity to duty, no matter how lowly that duty may be, and if these are present success must follow. You may not become a millionaire or a Minister of the Crown, but you will become what is no less honorable, a respected member of society and a useful worker for the public good. You will prove yourselves faithful dispensers of the- gifts with which God may have blessed you, and as a certain consequence the moulders of a life that must bring to you a happiness a contentment, and, 1 hope, a degree of' prosperity that will be sweetened by the consciousness that you have striven to do your duty in the spirit of the well-known .words, ' Act well your part ; there all the honor lies.'