It is, in fact, the
summary of all advices, and you have heard it a thousand times, I dare
say; but I must, nevertheless, let you hear it the thousand and first
time, for it is most intensely true, whether you will believe it at
present or not--namely, that above all things the interest of your own
life depends upon being diligent now, while it is called to-day,
in this place where you have come to get education. Diligent! That
includes all virtues in it that a student can have; I mean to include
in it all qualities that lead into the acquirement of real instruction
and improvement in such a place. If you will believe me, you who
are young, yours is the golden season of life. As you have heard it
called, so it verily is, the seed-time of life, in which, if you do
not sow, or if you sow tares instead of wheat, you cannot expect to
reap well afterwards, and you will arrive at indeed little; while in
the course of years, when you come to look back, and if you have
not done what you have heard from your advisers--and among many
counsellers there is wisdom--you will bitterly repent when it is too
late.
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