Your Conscience Is Your Compass

1920

UNCOMMON SENSE
By John Blake

Your Conscience Is Your Compass

There are few men who do not know instinctively right from wrong. In their course through life their consciences are their compasses.

And those compasses are always in a convenient place, ready to be consulted. The thief knows he is a thief, although he may try to justify his thievery. The idler knows he is an idler, and is secretly ashamed of it, although he may find a hundred excuses for being idle. The man who succeeds is the man who uses the compass that nature has placed within him to direct his course and to warn him when he is going wrong.

He cultivates the habit of steering by compass. And he allows nothing to distract his attention.

Two lines that were greatly admired by Doctor Johnson are worth engraving on your mind. They are:

"Though pleased to see the dolphins play I mind my compass and my way."

Learn those two lines and their lesson, and you will be saved many idle and useless wanderings from your course as you navigate the difficult waters of life.

The love of pleasure is strong in man, and should of course be indulged to some extent. But to indulge it to the exclusion of the important business of making the port you are bound for is mere stupidity.

Be thankful for the "silent voice" that will give you your real position if you ask for it Be glad that the most useful information you can obtain is always at hand when you want it — the information as to where you ought to be bound.

Ships set forth through fog and storm, sure that while the compass holds true their course will be right, and they will reach the destination they desire to reach.

You too, by choosing your destination, can reach it, perhaps after delay due to storms or tides, but surely, if though you may occasionally watch the dolphins, your chief attention is upon your compass and your way.

—The Evening State Journal and Lincoln Daily News, Lincoln, Nebraska, February 25, 1920, page 6.

DON'TS - Some Good Advice for Life

1911

DON'TS.

Don't strain at a gnat and swallow a gold brick.

Don't live among the relics of the past in this bright age when all improves so fast. This is a day of advanced thought, a day when wonders great are wrought. So let us with the might and main of heart, of hand, of busy brain, a greater victory still attain and win eternity's acclaim.

Don't be a pickle. A sweet smile doesn't cost you a red cent. Then smile — yes, smile — to all and spread content.

Don't let your temper get the best of you, for then you surely show the worst of you. That temper is to steel your will, your heart, your brain, your hand, that you may reach success, sublime and grand. So make it help you in your valiant fight until you're crowned a victor on yon golden height.

Don't ship dressed or live fowls by freight. If they don't spoil or die they may get there too late.

Don't be in a hurry to dun a customer. Deal on a cash basis if possible. When some people say, "Just charge that to me," you never a cent of their spondulicks see.

Don't make roost slats round and narrow. Corns.

Don't have nests too small. Broken eggs.

--Bedford Gazette, Bedford, Pennsylvania, July 7, 1911, page 3.