GOLDEN STEPS TO RESPECTABILITY, USEFULNESS, AND HAPPINESS ‘

Being a Series of Lectures to Youth of Both Sexes, on Character,Principles, Associates, Amusements, Religion, and Marriage by JOHN MATHER AUSTIN, 1851

It all starts with the IPAQ 111.  One of the reasons I bought it was to use as an electronic reader.  Sort of like carrying a paperback around that you can pick up and read while you are waiting for things.  For its size, my IPAQ does a pretty good job.  I’m impressed with the clarity of the screen and how much text can actually fit on it.  Even small font is crisply readable.  The 3 1/2 inch screen is always going to be too small, but that is the sacrifice for portability.  I’m sold on the concept of electronic reading as an addition, not to replace real books.  For one thing, it’s great to read in bed at night because it provides its own lighting.  I can carry around a very lightweight mini-library, so I always have something to read when standing in line.  It makes sense for books that I don’t want enough to buy, but I would be happy to glance through a free or very inexpensive electronic copy.   For books I truly love, though, I want a real book to read. 

As a test of the IPAQ, I downloaded Jane Austen’s Persuasion from Project Gutenberg.  Persuasion is a book I have read many times and love.  It also makes a wonderful audio experience to listen to.  I wanted to see if the flow of Austen’s sentences would work on a tiny PDA screen.  On a whim, I also downloaded the next book in the list:  Golden Steps to Respectability by John Mather Austin.  Austin was a Universalist Minister living in New York state in the 1800’s.    The Golden Steps is a series of sermons giving advice to young people.  I’m amazed how well Austin’s writing persisted over time.  The style and the content are, for the most part, still perfectly applicable today.  It just so happens that just around the time that I was reading Golden Steps, I was also reading and disagreeing with a post by Penelope Trunk (the Brazen Careerist).  Penelope says that the rules are different for GenY, the generation currently in their twenties and entering – or not entering – the workforce.  She says that GenYers should take the time to find themselves and not be required to buckle down to unsatisfying work like their parents’ generation did.  I think that the rules are not really changing, and GenY is going to arrive at middle age without the financial, career, and emotional reserves that they should be building at the start of their career.  I think it is the nature of being in your twenties that you think you have a better way to do things, and it is the nature of your forties to wish you had worked harder when you had the chance to in your twenties.   At the time Golden Steps was published, John Mather Austin was 46 years old, just like me, which is probably why I like his writing.

Here are some excerpts from the book:

LECTURE I.  The Value of a Good Reputation

In looking to the future, there is one important inquiry which the young should put to their own hearts:–What do I most desire to become in mature life? What position am I anxious to occupy in society? What is the estimation in which I wish to be held by those within the circle of my acquaintance?

LECTURE II.  The Principles and Purposes of Life

A career well begun–a life commenced properly, with wise forecast, with prudent rules of action, and under the influence of sound and pure, moral and religious principles–is an advance, half-way at least, to ultimate success and prosperity.

 But what do young people think about?

The Present!–the Present!–its amusements, its gayeties, its fashions, absorbs nearly all their thoughts. They have little relish to look towards the future, except to anticipate the continuance of the novelty and joyousness of the spring-time of life.

As someone who appreciates a glass of beer in the evening, this paragraph caught my eye:

Could the young man as he is tempted to quaff the fashionable glass of intoxicating beverage, see plainly the ignominious life, the poverty and wretchedness, and the horrid death by delirium tremens, to which it so often leads, he would set it down untasted…

LECTURE III.  Selection of Associates

Being highly imitative in our nature, it is impossible to be on social and familiar terms with others, for any great length of time, without copying somewhat of their dispositions, ways, and habits.

LECTURE IV.  Habits and Amusements

Lots of great quotes from this lecture:

Our ways, from earliest infancy, are more the result of the force of habit, than we are generally aware.

Thus the young are continually, yet unconsciously, spinning the threads of habit. Day by day the strands increase, and are twisted tighter together; until at length they become strong and unyielding cords, binding their possessor to customs and practices which fix his character and prospects for life.

Who can wish to pass a _blank_ existence? Yet this is the life of every idler, poor or rich. Be stirring in anything which is useful–anything which will make others happy. Then you will not have lived in vain.

Let a man have a genius for spending, and whether his income is a dollar a day or a dollar a minute, it is equally certain to prove inadequate.

That the youthful should be allowed a reasonable degree of recreation, is universally admitted. The laws of health demand relaxation from the labors and cares of life. The body, the mind, constantly strained to the highest exertion, without repose, and something to cheer, refreshen, and re-invigorate it, will speedily fall into disease and death.  One of the first things requisite to be understood is, that in order to enjoy any amusement, a previous _preparation_ is necessary. That preparation is to be obtained by _useful occupation_. It is only by contrast that we can enjoy anything.–Without weariness, we can know nothing of rest. Without first enduring hunger and thirst, we cannot experience the satisfaction of partaking of food and drink. In like manner, it is only by faithful and industrious application tobusiness of some kind–it is only by occupying the mind in useful employment–that we can draw any satisfaction from recreation.  Without this preparation, all amusement loses its charm.

Views on card playing have changed in the last century, but I still love this quote: 

It is a senseless occupation. Nothing can be more unmeaning and fruitless, among all the employments to which a rational mind can devote its attention.

I wonder what he would have said about watching TV!

Austin expresses qualified approval of dancing, including:

The very lambs in the green and sunny meadow, and the cattle on a thousand hills, in many a fantastic game, exult and rejoice in the blessings a kind Providence bestows upon them.

LECTURE V.  The Religious Sentiments

There are few subjects so generally uninteresting to the youthful as Religion.

I include the following paragraphs because I think they show an attitude of rational tolerance in religion that we seem to have moved away from in the present day and age:

What line of conduct should the young adopt towards those who differ from them on religious doctrines? In the first place, let it never be forgotten that others have the same civil, moral, and religious right to differ in sentiment from you, that you have from them. This right is recognized by our republican government, and is sanctioned by the gospel.  Admitting then, as you must, the privilege of others to differ from you in religious sentiment, you should not allow that difference to be a matter of offence. It should be no disparagement in your view, nor lessen them in your estimation. However great you may consider the errors of your neighbors, if you are satisfied they are _sincere_, you should respect them for their sincerity! Hypocrisy, in every form, should be denounced.

Also, his respect for nature is not something I hear our religious leaders say much about these days:

In all researches for an enlightened religious faith, there are but two sources of information, on which reliance can be placed with entire confidence, viz. _the Works of Nature_, and the _Revealed Word of God_. Both are equally the productions of the Infinite Mind, and can be studied with the highest profit.

LECTURE VI.  On Marriage

Austin had lots to say about marriage which I wasn’t too interested in.  Mostly I am profoundly thankful that women’s economic well-being no longer depends _exclusively_ on marriage.