THEIR YESTERDAYS

THE THIRTEEN TRULY GREAT THINGS OF LIFE

DREAMS

OCCUPATION

KNOWLEDGE

IGNORANCE

RELIGION

TRADITION

TEMPTATION

LIFE

DEATH

FAILURE

SUCCESS

LOVE

MEMORIES





THEIR YESTERDAYS




DREAMS

The man, for the first time, stood face to face with Life and, for the
first time, knew that he was a man.

For a long time he had known that some day he would be a man. But he
had always thought of his manhood as a matter of years. He had said to
himself: "when I am twenty-one, I will be a man." He did not know,
then, that twenty-one years--that indeed three times twenty-one
years--cannot make a man. He did not know, then, that men are made of
other things than years.

I cannot tell you the man's name, nor the names of his parents, nor
his exact age, nor just where he lived, nor any of those things. For
my story, such things are of no importance whatever. But this is of
the greatest importance: as the man, for the first time, stood face to
face with Life and, for the first time, realized his manhood, his
manhood life began in Dreams.