THERE is nothing more beautiful in the young than simplicity of character. It is honest, frank, and attractive. How different is affectation. The simple-minded are always natural; they are at the same time original. The affected are never natural. As for originality, if they ever had it, they have crushed it out, and buried it from sight utterly. Be yourself. To attempt to be anybody else is worse than folly. It is impossible to attain it. It is contemptible to try it. But suppose you could succeed in imitating the greatest man that ever figured in history, would that make you any better? By no means. You would always suffer in comparison with the imitated one, and be thought of only as a shadow of a substance, the echo of a real sound, the counterfeit of a pure coin. A genuine cent is worth more than a counterfeit dollar; and the smallest man who is real, is worth more than the biggest fraud in existence. Let the fabric of your character, though ever so humble, be at least real. The world has frauds, and shams, and humbugs enough—do not add to their number.—Selected.