IMPORTANCE OF BEING ABLE TO
DESPISE RIDICULE.

I know of no principle which it is of more importance to fix in the mind than that of the most determined resistance to the encroachments of ridicule. Give up to the world, and to the ridicule with which the world enforces its dominion, every trifling question of manner and appearance? It is to toss courage and firmness to the winds to combat with the mass upon such subjects as these. But learn from the earliest days to insure your principles against the perils of ridicule; you can no more exercise your reason, if you live in the constant dread of laughter, than you can enjoy your life if you are in the constant terror of death. If you think it right to differ from the times, and to make a stand for any valuable point of morals, do it, however rustic, however antiquated, however pedantic it may appear; do it, not for insolence, but seriously and grandly, as a man who wore a soul of his own in his bosom, and did not wait till it was breathed into him by the breath of fashion. Let men call you mean, if you know you are just; hypocritical, if you are honestly religious; pusillanimous, if you feel you are firm; resistance soon converts unprincipled wit into sincere respect; and no aftertime can tear from you those feelings which every man carries with him who has made a noble and successful exertion in a virtuous cause.--Bible Banner.

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