REPUTATION. 201
	Blessed is the man who inherits a good reputation from a line of honest ancestors. Cowper says:
"My boast is, not that I deduce my birth'
From loins enthroned, the rulers of the earth ;
But higher far my proud pretensions rise-
The child of parents passed into the skies."

	Such a reputation he may only potentially have, not personally deserve. But it will 'be a healthful spur to his aspirations and to his pride. It is wealth to him. The world is ready to put him on the same level with his ancestors, accord him the same kindness, show him the same confidence. When he flings it away by dissipation, impurity, unsteadiness, or unreliability, he is dishonoring his ancestors, wounding their friends, and throwing away a capital that
can never wholly be regained. To rob a man of a good reputation is worse than murder. When he flings it away himself, it is worse than suicide. Without business reputation, the man is foredoomed to failure unless he can win it. Without the respect and confidence of people the young man is a most miserable wretch. The late Senator a. K. Davis of Minnesota, in an article recently printed, has this to say about reputation :

"CHARACTER IS THE BEST FORTUNE." An excellent character is a fortune. To be generally respected and beloved is better than to own the wealth of the world. Few men are indifferent to the esteem in which their fellow mortals hold them, and no other man recognizes this as much as the man who holds a public trust. Thomas Carlyle shrewdly remarked, 'Even the man who occupies the highest social position is, in some degree, dependent on the lowest. ' You do not need that I should urge you to pursue wealth. I leave men alone for that. All are bent on making money. From the lucky stockbroker or merchant who, by means of a few successive leaps, finds himself in affiuence--, from the renowned consulting physician who rakes' in his golden fees until he finds himself independent, to the humblest clerk or artisan -- nearly everyone is making it his aim to be as rich as he