Our quotation today is taken from "The Columbian Orator", edited by Caleb Bingham. I was first introduced to "The Columbian Orator" via the writings of Frederick Douglass. The quotation is: "Why, in the present day, a man's preparing himself for usefulness, is like carrying coals to Newcastle. Our country is full of useful men; ten, at least, to where one is wanted, and all of them ten times as ready to serve the public as the public is to be served."

The poem today is "If" by Rudyard Kipling.