ADVICE TO A FAVOURITE STUDENT ON LEAVING COLLEGE

by: John Stuart Blackie (1809-1895)

ear Youth, grey books no blossoms bear;

Thou hast enough of learning;

For life's green fields thy march prepare,

And take my friendly warning.

I would not have thee longer stay,

To read of other's striving;

Wield thine own arm!--the only way

To know life is by living.




The brain's a small part of a man;

Though thought has wide dominions,

Thou canst not lift the smallest stone

By Speculation's pinions.

Who learns an art by lifeless rule,

Through mists will still be blinking;

The subtlest thinker is a fool,

Who spins mere webs of thinking.




The times are feverish; mark me well!

Have faith and patience by thee;

Unless thou curl into thy shell,

Thou'lt find enough to try thee.

But that's a weak device. I know

Thou'lt face it free and fearless;

But O! beware the greater foe,

A spirit proud and prayerless!




I love a bold and venturous boy,

Who, full of fresh emotion,

Launches with large and liberal joy

On life's wide-rolling ocean.

But there are rocks; and blind to steer

Were thoughtless folly's merit:

Curb thou thy force with holy fear,

And keep a watchful spirit.




Where eager crowds contend for pelf,

The seller and the buyer,

Each one free range seeks for himself,

And cares for nothing higher.

Make honey in an ordained hive,

Nor join the lawless scramble

Of men, with whom in life to thrive

Is with good luck to gamble.




We live in days when all would climb

With hot, high-strung employment;

Some rage in prose, wome writhe in rhyme,

All hate a calm enjoyment.

Freedom's the watchword of the hour;

But O! tis melancholy

When every bubbling brain has power

To drown calm thought with folly!




The age is full of talkers. Thou

Be silent for a season,

Till slowly-ripening facts shall grow

Into a stable reason.

Pert witlings fling crude fancies round,

As wanton whim conceits them,

Pleased when from fools the echoed sound

Of their own folly greets them.




Nurse thou, where eager babble spreads,

A quiet brooding nature,

Nor strive, by lopping taller heads,

To raise thy lesser stature.

Eschew the cavilling critic's art,

The lust of loud reproving;

The brain by knowledge grows, the heart

Is larger made by loving.




All things we cannot know. At sea

As when a good ship saileth,

Our steps within the planks are free,

Beyond all cunning faileth.

So man as by a living bond

Of circling powers is bounded;

Within the line is ours, beyond

The sharpest wit's confounded.




What thing thou knowest, nicely know

With curious fine dissection;

The smallest mite can something show

That chains thy rapt inspection.

Allwhere with holy caution move,

In God thy life is moving;

All things with reverent patience prove,

'Tis Gods will thou art proving.




What thing thou doest, bravely do;

When Heaven's clear call hath found thee,

Follow!--with fervid wheels pursue,

Though thousands bray around thee!

Yet keep thy zeal in rein; depise

No gentle preparation;

Flash not God's truth on blinking eyes,

With reckless inspiration!




Farewell, my brave, my bright-eyed boy!

And from the halls of learning,

Thy face, my long familiar joy,

Take, with this friendly warning.

And when with weighty truth thou'rt fraught

From life, the earnest preacher,

Think sometimes with a kindly thought

On me, thy faithful teacher.

• Purchase books by John Stuart Blackie