[Frontispiece: Phillips Brooks]

"The best-loved man in New England. "

"The ideal life, the life full of completion, haunts us all. We feelthe thing we ought to be beating beneath the thing we are. "

"_First, be a man. _"

ARCHITECTS OF FATE

OR, STEPS TO SUCCESS AND POWER

 A BOOK DESIGNED TO INSPIRE YOUTH TO CHARACTER BUILDING, SELF-CULTURE AND NOBLE ACHIEVEMENT

BY

ORISON SWETT MARDEN

AUTHOR OF "PUSHING TO THE FRONT OR, SUCCESS UNDER DIFFICULTIES"

_ILLUSTRATED WITH SIXTEEN FINE PORTRAITS OF EMINENT PERSONS_

 "All are architects of fate Working in these walls of time. "

 "Our to-days and yesterdays Are the blocks with which we build. "

 "Let thy great deed be thy prayer to thy God. "

TORONTO

WILLIAM BRIGGS

WESLEY BUILDINGS

MONTREAL: C. W. COATES

HALIFAX: S. F. HUESTIS

1897

Copyright, 1895, BY ORISON SWETT MARDEN. 

_All rights reserved. _

PREFACE. 

The demand for more than a dozen editions of "Pushing to the Front"during its first year and its universally favorable reception, both athome and abroad, have encouraged the author to publish this companionvolume of somewhat similar scope and purpose. The two books wereprepared simultaneously, and the story of the first, given in itspreface, applies equally well to this. 

Inspiration to character-building and worthy achievement is the keynoteof the present volume, its object, to arouse to honorable exertionyouth who are drifting without aim, to awaken dormant ambitions inthose who have grown discouraged in the struggle for success, toencourage and stimulate to higher resolve those who are setting out tomake their own way, with perhaps neither friendship nor capital otherthan a determination to get on in the world. 

Nothing is so fascinating to a youth with high purpose, life, andenergy throbbing in his young blood as stories of men and women whohave brought great things to pass. Though these themes are as old asthe human race, yet they are ever new, and more interesting to theyoung than any fiction. The cry of youth is for life! more life! Nodidactic or dogmatic teaching, however brilliant, will capture atwentieth-century boy, keyed up to the highest pitch by the pressure ofan intense civilization. The romance of achievement underdifficulties, of obscure beginnings and triumphant ends; the story ofhow great men started, their struggles, their long waitings, amid wantand woe, the obstacles overcome, the final triumphs; examples, whichexplode excuses, of men who have seized common situations and made themgreat, of those of average capacity who have succeeded by the use ofordinary means, by dint of indomitable will and inflexible purpose:these will most inspire the ambitious youth. The author teaches thatthere are bread and success for every youth under the American flag whohas the grit to seize his chance and work his way to his own loaf; thatthe barriers are not yet erected which declare to aspiring talent, "Thus far and no farther"; that the most forbidding circumstancescannot repress a longing for knowledge, a yearning for growth; thatpoverty, humble birth, loss of limbs or even eyesight, have not beenable to bar the progress of men with grit; that poverty has rocked thecradle of the giants who have wrung civilization from barbarism, andhave led the world up from savagery to the Gladstones, the Lincolns, and the Grants. 

The book shows that it is the man with one unwavering aim who cuts hisway through opposition and forges to the front; that in this electricage, where everything is pusher or pushed, he who would succeed musthold his ground and push hard; that what are stumbling-blocks anddefeats to the weak and vacillating, are but stepping-stones andvictories to the strong and determined. The author teaches that everygerm of goodness will at last struggle into bloom and fruitage, andthat true success follows every right step. He has tried to touch thehigher springs of the youth's aspiration; to lead him to high ideals;to teach him that there is something nobler in an occupation thanmerely living-getting or money-getting; that a man may make millionsand be a failure still; to caution youth not to allow the maxims of alow prudence, dinned daily into his ears in this money-getting age, torepress the longings for a higher life; that the hand can never safelyreach higher than does the heart. 

The author's aim has been largely through concrete illustrations whichhave pith, point, and purpose, to be more suggestive than dogmatic, ina style more practical than elegant, more helpful than ornate, morepertinent than novel. 

The author wishes to acknowledge valuable assistance from Mr. Arthur W. Brown, of W. Kingston, R. I. 

O. S. M. 

43 BOWDOIN ST. , BOSTON, MASS. 

December 2, 1896. 

CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER

I. WANTED--A MAN

God after a _man_. Wealth is nothing, fame is nothing. _Manhood iseverything_. 

II. DARE

Dare to live thy creed. Conquer your place in the world. All thingsserve a brave soul. 

III. THE WILL AND THE WAY

Find a way or make one. Everything is either pusher or pushed. Theworld always listens to a man with a will in him. 

IV. SUCCESS UNDER DIFFICULTIES

There is scarcely a great truth or doctrine but has had to fight itsway to recognition through detraction, calumny, and persecution. 

V. USES OR OBSTACLES

The Great Sculptor cares little for the human block as such; it is thestatue He is after; and He will blast, hammer, and chisel with poverty, hardships, anything to get out the man. 

VI. ONE UNWAVERING AIM

Find your purpose and fling your life out to it. Try to be somebodywith all your might. 

VII. SOWING AND REAPING

What is put into the first of life is put into the whole of life. _Start right_. 

VIII. SELF-HELP

Self-made or never made. The greatest men have risen from the ranks. 

IX. WORK AND WAIT

Don't risk a life's superstructure upon a day's foundation. 

X. CLEAR GRIT

The goddess of fame or of fortune has been won by many a poor boy whohad no friends, no backing, or anything but pure grit and invinciblepurpose to commend him. 

XI. THE GRANDEST THING IN THE WORLD

Manhood is above all riches and overtops all titles; character isgreater than any career. 

XII. WEALTH IN ECONOMY

"Hunger, rags, cold, hard work, contempt, suspicion, unjust reproach, are disagreeable; but debt is infinitely worse than all. "

XIII. RICH WITHOUT MONEY

To have nothing is not poverty. Whoever uplifts civilization is richthough he die penniless, and future generations will erect his monument. 

XIV. OPPORTUNITIES WHERE YOU ARE

"How speaks the present hour? _Act_. " Don't wait for greatopportunities. _Seize common occasions and make them great_. 

XV. THE MIGHT OF LITTLE THINGS

There is nothing small in a world where a mud-crack swells to anAmazon, and the stealing of a penny may end on the scaffold. 

XVI. SELF-MASTERY

Guard your weak point. Be lord over yourself. 

LIST OF PORTRAITS. 

CHAP. 

 I. Phillips Brooks . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ II. Oliver Hazard Perry III. Walter Scott IV. William Hickling Prescott V. John Bunyan VI. Richard Arkwright VII. Victor Hugo VIII. James A. Garfield (missing from book) IX. Thomas Alva Edison X. Andrew Jackson XI. John Greenleaf Whittier (missing from book) XII. Alexander Hamilton XIII. Ralph Waldo Emerson XIV. Thomas Jefferson XV. Louis Agassiz XVI. James Russell Lowell

ARCHITECTS OF FATE. 

CHAPTER I. 

WANTED--A MAN. 

 "Wanted; men: Not systems fit and wise, Not faiths with rigid eyes, Not wealth in mountain piles, Not power with gracious smiles, Not even the potent pen: Wanted; men. "

Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, andknow, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find aman. --JEREMIAH. 

All the world cries, Where is the man who will save us? We want a man!Don't look so far for this man. You have him at hand. This man, --itis you, it is I, it is each one of us! . . . How to constitute one'sself a man? Nothing harder, if one knows not how to will it; nothingeasier, if one wills it. --ALEXANDRE DUMAS. 

 "'Tis life, not death for which we pant! 'Tis life, whereof our nerves are scant: More life and fuller, that we want. "

I do not wish in attempting to paint a man to describe an air-fed, unimpassioned, impossible ghost. My eyes and ears are revolted by anyneglect of the physical facts, the limitations of man. --EMERSON. 

 But nature, with a matchless hand, sends forth her nobly born, And laughs the paltry attributes of wealth and rank to scorn; She moulds with care a spirit rare, half human, half divine, And cries exulting, "Who can make a gentleman like mine?" ELIZA COOK. 

"In a thousand cups of life, " says Emerson, "only one is the rightmixture. The fine adjustment of the existing elements, where thewell-mixed man is born with eyes not too dull, nor too good, with fireenough and earth enough, capable of receiving impressions from allthings, and not too susceptible, then no gift need be bestowed on him. He brings his fortune with him. "

Diogenes sought with a lantern at noontide in ancient Athens for aperfectly honest man, and sought in vain. In the market place he oncecried aloud, "Hear me, O men;" and, when a crowd collected around him, he said scornfully: "I called for men, not pygmies. "

The world has a standing advertisement over the door of everyprofession, every occupation, every calling; "Wanted--A Man. "

Wanted, a man who will not lose his individuality in a crowd, a man whohas the courage of his convictions, who is not afraid to say "No, "though all the world say "Yes. "

Wanted, a man who, though he is dominated by a mighty purpose, will notpermit one great faculty to dwarf, cripple, warp, or mutilate hismanhood; who will not allow the over-development of one facility tostunt or paralyze his other faculties. 

Wanted, a man who is larger than his calling, who considers it a lowestimate of his occupation to value it merely as a means of getting aliving. Wanted, a man who sees self-development, education andculture, discipline and drill, character and manhood, in his occupation. 

A thousand pulpits vacant in a single religious denomination, athousand preachers standing idle in the market place, while a thousandchurch committees scour the land for men to fill those same vacantpulpits, and scour in vain, is a sufficient indication, in onedirection at least, of the largeness of the opportunities of the age, and also of the crying need of good men. 

Wanted, a man who is well balanced, who is not cursed with some littledefect or weakness which cripples his usefulness and neutralizes hispowers. Wanted, a man of courage, who is not a coward in any part ofhis nature. 

Wanted, a man who is symmetrical, and not one-sided in his development, who has not sent all the energies of his being into one narrowspecialty, and allowed all the other branches of his life to wither anddie. Wanted, a man who is broad, who does not take half views ofthings. Wanted, a man who mixes common sense with his theories, whodoes not let a college education spoil him for practical, every-daylife; a man who prefers substance to show, who regards his good name asa priceless treasure. 

Wanted, a man "who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life and fire, butwhose passions are trained to heed a strong will, the servant of atender conscience; who has learned to love all beauty, whether ofnature or of art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others ashimself. "

God calls a man to be upright and pure and generous, but he also callshim to be intelligent and skillful and strong and brave. 

The world wants a man who is educated all over; whose nerves arebrought to their acutest sensibility, whose brain is cultured, keen, incisive, penetrating, broad, liberal, deep; whose hands are deft;whose eyes are alert, sensitive, microscopic, whose heart is tender, broad, magnanimous, true. 

The whole world is looking for such a man. Although there are millionsout of employment, yet it is almost impossible to find just the rightman in almost any department of life. Every profession and everyoccupation has a standing advertisement all over the world: "Wanted--AMan. "

Rousseau, in his celebrated essay on education, says: "According to theorder of nature, men being equal, their common vocation is theprofession of humanity; and whoever is well educated to discharge theduty of a man cannot be badly prepared to fill any of those officesthat have a relation to him. It matters little to me whether my pupilbe designed for the army, the pulpit, or the bar. Nature has destinedus to the offices of human life antecedent to our destinationconcerning society. To live is the profession I would teach him. WhenI have done with him, it is true he will be neither a soldier, alawyer, nor a divine. _Let him first be a man_; Fortune may remove himfrom one rank to another as she pleases, he will be always found in hisplace. "

A little, short doctor of divinity in a large Baptist convention stoodon a step and said he thanked God he was a Baptist. The audience couldnot hear and called "Louder. " "Get up higher, " some one said. "Ican't, " he replied. "To be a Baptist is as high as one can get. " Butthere is something higher than being a Baptist, and that is being a_man_. 

As Emerson says, Talleyrand's question is ever the main one; not, is herich? is he committed? is he well-meaning? has he this or that faculty?is he of the movement? is he of the establishment? but is he anybody?does he stand for something? He must be good of his kind. That is allthat Talleyrand, all that State Street, all that the common sense ofmankind asks. 

When Garfield was asked as a young boy, "what he meant to be, " heanswered: "First of all, I must make myself a man, if I do not succeedin that, I can succeed in nothing. "

Montaigne says our work is not to train a soul by itself alone, nor abody by itself alone, but to train a man. 

One great need of the world to-day is for men and women who are goodanimals. To endure the strain of our concentrated civilization, thecoming man and woman must have an excess of animal spirits. They musthave a robustness of health. Mere absence of disease is not health. It is the overflowing fountain, not the one half full, that gives lifeand beauty to the valley below. Only he is healthy who exults in mereanimal existence; whose very life is a luxury; who feels a boundingpulse throughout his body, who feels life in every limb, as dogs dowhen scouring over the field, or as boys do when gliding over fields ofice. 

Pope, the poet, was with Sir Godfrey Kneller, the artist, one day, whenthe latter's nephew, a Guinea slave-trader, came into the room. "Nephew, " said Sir Godfrey, "you have the honor of seeing the twogreatest men in the world. " "I don't know how great men you may be, "said the Guinea man, "but I don't like your looks. I have often boughta much better man than either of you, all muscles and bones, for tenguineas. "

Sydney Smith said, "I am convinced that digestion is the great secretof life, and that character, virtue and talents, and qualities arepowerfully affected by beef, mutton, pie crust, and rich soups. I haveoften thought I could feed or starve men into virtues or vices, andaffect them more powerfully with my instruments of torture thanTimotheus could do formerly with his lyre. "

What more glorious than a magnificent manhood, animated with thebounding spirits of overflowing health?

It is a sad sight to see thousands of students graduated every yearfrom our grand institutions, whose object is to make stalwart, independent, self-supporting men, turned out into the world saplingsinstead of stalwart oaks, "memory-glands" instead of brainy men, helpless instead of self-supporting, sickly instead of robust, weakinstead of strong, leaning instead of erect. "So many promisingyouths, and never a finished man!"

The character sympathizes with and unconsciously takes on the nature ofthe body. A peevish, snarling, ailing man cannot develop the vigor andstrength of character which is possible to a healthy, robust, jollyman. There is an inherent love in the human mind for wholeness, ademand that man shall come up to the highest standard; and there is aninherent protest or contempt for preventable deficiency. Nature toodemands that man be ever at the top of his condition. The giant'sstrength with the imbecile's brain will not be characteristic of thecoming man. 

Man has been a dwarf of himself, but a higher type of manhood stands atthe door of this age knocking for admission. 

As we stand upon the seashore while the tide is coming in, one wavereaches up the beach far higher than any previous one, then recedes, and for some time none that follows comes up to its mark, but after awhile the whole sea is there and beyond it, so now and then there comesa man head and shoulders above his fellow-men, showing that Nature hasnot lost her ideal, and after a while even the average man will overtopthe highest wave of manhood yet given to the world. 

Apelles hunted over Greece for many years, studying the fairest pointsof beautiful women, getting here an eye, there a forehead and there anose, here a grace and there a turn of beauty, for his famous portraitof a perfect woman which enchanted the world. So the coming man willbe a composite, many in one. He will absorb into himself not theweakness, not the follies, but the strength and the virtues of othertypes of men. He will be a man raised to the highest power. He willbe self-centred, equipoised, and ever master of himself. Hissensibility will not be deadened or blunted by violation of nature'slaws. His whole character will be impressible, and will respond to themost delicate touches of nature. 

What a piece of work--this coming man! "How noble in reason. Howinfinite in faculties. In form and motion how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god. Thebeauty of the world. The paragon of animals. "

The first requisite of all education and discipline should beman-timber. Tough timber must come from well grown, sturdy trees. Such wood can be turned into a mast, can be fashioned into a piano oran exquisite carving. But it must become timber first. Time andpatience develop the sapling into the tree. So through discipline, education, experience, the sapling child is developed into hardymental, moral, physical timber. 

What an aid to character building would be the determination of theyoung man in starting out in life to consider himself his own bank;that his notes will be accepted as good or bad, and will pass currenteverywhere or be worthless, according to his individual reputation forhonor and veracity; that if he lets a note go to protest, his bank ofcharacter will be suspected; if he lets two or three go to protest, public confidence will be seriously shaken; that if they continue to goto protest, his reputation will be lost and confidence in him ruined. 

If the youth should start out with the fixed determination that everystatement he makes shall be the exact truth; that every promise hemakes shall be redeemed to the letter; that every appointment shall bekept with the strictest faithfulness and with full regard for othermen's time, if he should hold his reputation as a priceless treasure, feel that the eyes of the world are upon him, that he must not deviatea hair's breadth from the truth and right; if he should take such astand at the outset, he would, like George Peabody, come to have almostunlimited credit and the confidence of all, and would have developedinto noble man-timber. 

What are palaces and equipages; what though a man could cover acontinent with his title-deeds, or an ocean with his commerce, comparedwith conscious rectitude, with a face that never turns pale at theaccuser's voice, with a bosom that never throbs with the fear ofexposure, with a heart that might be turned inside out and disclose nostain of dishonor? To have done no man a wrong; to have put yoursignature to no paper to which the purest angel in heaven might nothave been an attesting witness; to walk and live, unseduced, withinarm's length of what is not your own, with nothing between your desireand its gratification but the invisible law of rectitude;--_this is tobe a man_. 

 "He that of such a height hath built his mind, And reared the dwelling of his thought so strong As neither fear nor hope can shake the frame Of his resolved powers; nor all the wind Of vanity or malice pierce to wrong His settled peace, or to disturb the same; What a fair seat hath he; from whence he may The boundless wastes and wilds of man survey. " [_Lines found in one of the books of Beecher's Library. _]

A man is never so happy as when he is _totus in se_; as when hesuffices to himself, and can walk without crutches or a guide. SaidJean Paul Richter: "I have made as much out of myself as could be madeof the stuff, and no man should require more. "

Man is the only great thing in the universe. All the ages have beentrying to produce a perfect model. Only one complete man has yet beenevolved. The best of us are but prophecies of what is to come. 

 What constitutes a state? Not high-raised battlement or labored mound, Thick wall or moated gate; Not cities proud with spires and turrets crowned; Not bays and broad-armed ports, Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride; Not starred and spangled courts, Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. No: men, high-minded men, With powers as far above dull brutes endued In forest, brake, or den, As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude, -- Men who their duties know, But know their rights, and knowing, dare maintain, Prevent the long-aimed blow, And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain. WILLIAM JONES. 

 God give us men. A time like this demands Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands: Men whom the lust of office does not kill; Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy; Men who possess opinions and a will; Men who have honor--men who will not lie; Men who can stand before a demagogue And scorn his treacherous flatteries without winking; Tall men sun-crowned, who live above the fog In public duty, and in private thinking. ANON. 

 Open thy bosom, set thy wishes wide, And let in manhood--let in happiness; Admit the boundless theatre of thought From nothing up to God . . . Which makes a man! YOUNG. 

 "The wisest man could ask no more of fate Than to be simple, modest, manly, true. "

 In speech right gentle, yet so wise; princely of mien, Yet softly mannered; modest, deferent, And tender-hearted, though of fearless blood. EDWIN ARNOLD. 

CHAPTER II. 

DARE. 

The Spartans did not inquire how many the enemy are, but where theyare. --AGIS II. 

What's brave, what's noble, let's do it after the high Roman fashion, and make death proud to take us. --SHAKESPEARE. 

 Better, like Hector, in the field to die, Than, like a perfumed Paris, turn and fly. LONGFELLOW. 

Let me die facing the enemy. --BAYARD. 

Who conquers me, shall find a stubborn foe. --BYRON. 

Courage in danger is half the battle. --PLAUTUS. 

 No great deed is done By falterers who ask for certainty. GEORGE ELIOT. 

Fortune befriends the bold. --DRYDEN. 

 Tender handed stroke a nettle, And it stings you for your pains; Grasp it like a man of mettle, And it soft as silk remains. AARON HILL. 

We make way for the man who boldly pushes past us. --BOVÉE. 

 Man should dare all things that he knows is right, And fear to do nothing save what is wrong. PHEBE CARY. 

 Soft-heartedness, in times like these, Shows softness in the upper story. LOWELL. 

O friend, never strike sail to fear. Come into port grandly, or sailwith God the seas. --EMERSON. 

To stand with a smile upon your face against a stake from which youcannot get away--that, no doubt, is heroic. But the true glory isresignation to the inevitable. To stand unchained, with perfectliberty to go away, held only by the higher claims of duty, and let thefire creep up to the heart, --this is heroism. --F. W. ROBERTSON. 

"Steady, men! Every man must die where he stands!" said Colin Campbellto the Ninety-third Highlanders at Balaklava, as an overwhelming forceof Russian cavalry came sweeping down. "Ay, ay, Sir Colin! we'll dothat!" was the cordial response from men many of whom had to keep theirword by thus obeying. 

 * * * * * *

[Illustration: COMMODORE PERRY]

"We have met the enemy and they are ours. "

 "He either fears his fate too much Or his deserts too small, That dares not put it to the touch, To gain or lose it all. "

 * * * * * *

"Bring back the colors, " shouted a captain at the battle of the Alma, when an ensign maintained his ground in front, although the men wereretreating. "No, " cried the ensign, "bring up the men to the colors. ""To dare, and again to dare, and without end to dare, " was Danton'snoble defiance to the enemies of France. 

"The Commons of France have resolved to deliberate, " said Mirabeau toDe Breze, who brought an order from the king for them to disperse, June23, 1789. "We have heard the intentions that have been attributed tothe king; and you, sir, who cannot be recognized as his organ in theNational Assembly, --you, who have neither place, voice, nor right tospeak, --you are not the person to bring to us a message of his. Go, say to those who sent you that we are here by the power of the people, and that we will not be driven hence, save by the power of the bayonet. "

When the assembled senate of Rome begged Regulus not to return toCarthage to fulfill an illegal promise, he calmly replied: "Have youresolved to dishonor me? Torture and death are awaiting me, but whatare these to the shame of an infamous act, or the wounds of a guiltymind? Slave as I am to Carthage, I still have the spirit of a Roman. I have sworn to return. It is my duty. Let the gods take care of therest. "

The courage which Cranmer had shown since the accession of Mary gaveway the moment his final doom was announced. The moral cowardice whichhad displayed itself in his miserable compliance with the lust anddespotism of Henry displayed itself again in six successiverecantations by which he hoped to purchase pardon. But pardon wasimpossible; and Cranmer's strangely mingled nature found a power in itsvery weakness when he was brought into the church of St. Mary at Oxfordon the 21st of March, to repeat his recantation on the way to thestake. "Now, " ended his address to the hushed congregation beforehim, --"now I come to the great thing that troubleth my conscience morethan any other thing that ever I said or did in my life, and that isthe setting abroad of writings contrary to the truth; which here I nowrenounce and refuse as things written by a hand contrary to the truthwhich I thought in my heart, and written for fear of death to save mylife, if it might be. And, forasmuch as my hand offended in writingcontrary to my heart, my hand therefore shall be the first punished;for if I come to the fire it shall be the first burned. " "This was thehand that wrote it, " he again exclaimed at the stake, "therefore itshall suffer first punishment;" and holding it steadily in the flame, "he never stirred nor cried till life was gone. "

"Oh, if I were only a man!" exclaimed Rebecca Bates, a girl offourteen, as she looked from the window of a lighthouse at Scituate, Mass. , during the War of 1812, and saw a British warship anchor in theharbor. "What could you do?" asked Sarah Winsor, a young visitor. "See what a lot of them the boats contain, and look at their guns!" andshe pointed to five large boats, filled with soldiers in scarletuniforms, who were coming to burn the vessels in the harbor and destroythe town. "I don't care, I'd fight, " said Rebecca. "I'd use father'sold shotgun--anything. Think of uncle's new boat and the sloop! Andhow hard it is to sit here and see it all, and not lift a finger tohelp. Father and uncle are in the village and will do all they can. How still it is in the town! There is not a man to be seen. " "Oh, they are hiding till the soldiers get nearer, " said Sarah, "then we'llhear the shots and the drum. " "The drum!" exclaimed Rebecca, "how canthey use it? It is here. Father brought it home last night to mend. See! the first boat has reached the sloop. Oh! they are going to burnher. Where is that drum? I've a great mind to go down and beat it. We could hide behind the sandhills and bushes. " As flames began torise from the sloop the ardor of the girls increased. They found thedrum and an old fife, and, slipping out of doors unnoticed by Mrs. Bates, soon stood behind a row of sandhills. "Rub-a-dub-dub, rub-a-dub-dub, " went the drum, and "squeak, squeak, squeak, " went thefife. The Americans in the town thought that help had come fromBoston, and rushed into boats to attack the redcoats. The Britishpaused in their work of destruction; and, when the fife began to play"Yankee Doodle, " they scrambled into their boats and rowed in haste tothe warship, which weighed anchor and sailed away as fast as the windwould carry her. 

A woman's piercing shriek suddenly startled a party of surveyors atdinner in a forest of northern Virginia on a calm, sunny day in 1750. The cries were repeated in quick succession, and the men sprang throughthe undergrowth to learn their cause. "Oh, sir, " exclaimed the womanas she caught sight of a youth of eighteen, but a man in stature andbearing; "you will surely do something for me! Make these friendsrelease me. My boy, --my poor boy is drowning, and they will not let mego!" "It would be madness; she will jump into the river, " said one ofthe men who was holding her; "and the rapids would dash her to piecesin a moment!" Throwing on his coat, the youth sprang to the edge ofthe bank, scanned for a moment the rocks and whirling currents, andthen, at sight of part of the boy's dress, plunged into the roaringrapids. "Thank God, he will save my child!" cried the mother, and allrushed to the brink of the precipice; "there he is! Oh, my boy, mydarling boy! How could I leave you?"

But all eyes were bent upon the youth struggling with strong heart andhope amid the dizzy sweep of the whirling currents far below. Now itseemed as if he would be dashed against a projecting rock, over whichthe water flew in foam, and anon a whirlpool would drag him in, fromwhose grasp escape would seem impossible. Twice the boy went out ofsight, but he had reappeared the second time, although frightfully nearthe most dangerous part of the river. The rush of waters here wastremendous, and no one had ever dared to approach it, even in a canoe, lest he should be dashed to pieces. The youth redoubled his exertions. Three times he was about to grasp the child, when some stronger eddywould toss it from him. One final effort he makes; the child is heldaloft by his strong right arm, but a cry of horror bursts from the lipsof every spectator as boy and man shoot over the falls and vanish inthe seething waters below. 

"There they are!" shouted the mother a moment later, in a delirium ofjoy. "See! they are safe! Great God, I thank Thee!" And sure enoughthey emerged unharmed from the boiling vortex, and in a few minutesreached a low place in the bank and were drawn up by their friends, theboy senseless, but still alive, and the youth almost exhausted. "Godwill give you a reward, " solemnly spoke the grateful woman. "He willdo great things for you in return for this day's work, and theblessings of thousands besides mine will attend you. "

The youth was George Washington. 

"Your Grace has not the organ of animal courage largely developed, "said a phrenologist, who was examining Wellington's head. "You areright, " replied the Iron Duke, "and but for my sense of duty I shouldhave retreated in my first fight. " That first fight, on an Indianfield, was one of the most terrible on record. 

In the reverses which followed Napoleon, he met the allies at Arcis. Alive shell having fallen in front of one of his young battalions, whichrecoiled and wavered in expectation of an explosion, Napoleon, toreassure them, spurred his charger toward the instrument ofdestruction, made him smell the burning match, waited unshaken for theexplosion, and was blown up. Rolling in the dust with his mutilatedsteed, and rising without a wound amid the plaudits of his soldiers, hecalmly called for another horse, and continued to brave the grape-shot, and to fly into the thickest of the battle. 

When General Jackson was a judge and was holding court in a smallsettlement, a border ruffian, a murderer and desperado, came into thecourt-room with brutal violence and interrupted the court. The judgeordered him to be arrested. The officer did not dare to approach him. "Call a posse, " said the judge, "and arrest him. " But they also shrankin fear from the ruffian. "Call me, then, " said Jackson; "this courtis adjourned for five minutes. " He left the bench, walked straight upto the man, and with his eagle eye actually cowed the ruffian, whodropped his weapons, afterwards saying, "There was something in his eyeI could not resist. "

One of the last official acts of the late President Carnot, of France, was the sending of a medal of the French Legion of Honor to a littleAmerican girl, who lives in Indiana. While a train on the Pan HandleRailroad, having on board several distinguished Frenchmen, was bound toChicago and the World's Fair, Jennie Carey, who was then ten years old, discovered that a trestle was on fire, and that if the train, which wasnearly due, entered it a dreadful wreck would take place. Thereuponshe ran out upon the track to a place where she could be seen from somelittle distance. Then she took off her red flannel skirt and, when thetrain came in view, waved it back and forth across the track. It wasseen, and the train stopped. On board of it were seven hundred people, many of whom must have suffered death but for Jennie's courage andpresence of mind. When they returned to France, the Frenchmen broughtthe occurrence to the notice of President Carnot, and the result wasthe sending of the medal of this famous French society, the purpose ofwhich is the honoring of bravery and merit, wherever they may be found. 

After the battle of Fort Donelson, the wounded were hauled down thehill in rough board wagons, and most of them died before they reachedSt. Louis. One blue-eyed boy of nineteen, with both arms and both legsshattered, had lain a long time and was neglected. He said, "Why, yousee they couldn't stop to bother with us because they had to take thefort. When they took it we all forgot our sufferings and shouted forjoy, even to the dying. "

Louis IX. Of France was captured by the Turks at the battle ofMansoora, during the Seventh Crusade, and his wife Marguerite, with ababe at the breast, was in Damietta, many miles away. The Infidelssurrounded the city, and pressed the garrison so hard that it wasdecided to capitulate. The queen summoned the knights, and told themthat she at least would die in armor upon the ramparts before the enemyshould become masters of Damietta. 

 "Before her words they thrilled like leaves When winds are in the wood; And a deepening murmur told of men Roused to a loftier mood. "

Grasping lance and shield, they vowed to defend their queen and thecross to the last. Damietta was saved. 

Pyrrhus marched to Sparta to reinstate the deposed Cleonymus, andquietly pitched his tents before Laconia, not anticipating resistance. In consternation, the Spartans in council decided to send their womento Crete for safety. But the women met and asked Queen Archidamia toremonstrate. She went to the council, sword in hand, and told the menthat their wives did not care to live after Sparta was destroyed. 

 "We are brave men's mothers, and brave men's wives; We are ready to do and dare; We are ready to man your walls with our lives, And string your bows with our hair. "

They hurried to the walls and worked all night, aiding the men indigging trenches. When Pyrrhus attacked the city next day, his repulsewas so emphatic that he withdrew from Laconia. 

Charles V. Of Spain passed through Thuringia in 1547, on his return toSwabia after the battle of Muehlburg. He wrote to Catherine, CountessDowager of Schwartzburg, promising that her subjects should not bemolested in their persons or property if they would supply the Spanishsoldiers with provisions at a reasonable price. On approachingEudolstadt, General Alva and Prince Henry of Brunswick, with his sons, invited themselves, by a messenger sent forward, to breakfast with theCountess, who had no choice but to ratify so delicate a request fromthe commander of an army. Just as the guests were seated at a generousrepast, the Countess was called from the hall and told that theSpaniards were using violence and driving away the cattle of thepeasants. 

Quietly arming all her retinue, she bolted and barred all the gates anddoors of the castle, and returned to the banquet to complain of thebreach of faith. General Alva told her that such was the custom ofwar, adding that such trifling disorders were not to be heeded. "Thatwe shall presently see, " said Catharine; "my poor subjects must havetheir own again, or, as God lives, prince's blood for oxen's blood!"The doors were opened, and armed men took the places of the waitersbehind the chairs of the guests. Henry changed color; then, as thebest way out of a bad scrape, laughed loudly, and ended by praising thesplendid acting of his hostess, and promising that Alva should orderthe cattle restored at once. Not until a courier returned, saying thatthe order had been obeyed, and all damages settled satisfactorily, didthe armed waiters leave. The Countess then thanked her guests for thehonor they had done her castle, and they retired with protestations oftheir distinguished consideration. 

It was the heroic devotion of an Indian girl that saved the life ofCaptain John Smith, when the powerful King Powhatan had decreed hisdeath. Ill could the struggling colony spare him at that time. 

When the consul shouted that the bridge was tottering, Lartius andHerminius sought safety in flight. But Horatius strode still nearerthe foe, the single champion of his country and liberty, and dared theninety thousand to come on. Dead stillness fell upon the Tuscans, soastonished were they at the audacity of the Roman. He first broke theawful silence, so deep that his clear, strong voice could be heard bythousands in both armies, between which rolled the Tiber, as hedenounced the baseness and perfidy of the invaders. Not until hiswords were drowned by the loud crash of fiercely disrupturing timbers, and the sullen splash of the dark river, did his enemies hurl theirshowers of arrows and javelins. Then, dexterously warding off themissiles with his shield, he plunged into the Tiber. Although stabbedin the hip by a Tuscan spear which lamed him for life, he swam insafety to Rome. 

"It is a bad omen, " said Eric the Red, when his horse slipped and fellon the way to his ship, moored on the coast of Greenland, in readinessfor a voyage of discovery. "Ill-fortune would be mine should I dareventure now upon the sea. " So he returned to his house, but his youngson Leif decided to go, and, with a crew of thirty-five men, sailedsouthward in search of the unknown shore upon which Captain Biarni hadbeen driven by a storm, while sailing in another Viking ship two orthree years before. The first land that they saw was probablyLabrador, a barren, rugged plain. Leif called this country Heluland, or the land of flat stones. Sailing onward many days, he came to alow, level coast thickly covered with woods, on account of which hecalled the country Markland, probably the modern Nova Scotia. Sailingonward, they came to an island which they named Vinland on account ofthe abundance of delicious wild grapes in the woods. This was in theyear 1000. Here where the city of Newport, R. I. , stands, they spentmany months, and then returned to Greenland with their vessel loadedwith grapes and strange kinds of wood. The voyage was successful, andno doubt Eric was sorry he had been frightened by the bad omen. 

May 10, 1796, Napoleon carried the bridge at Lodi, in the face of theAustrian batteries. Fourteen cannon--some accounts say thirty--weretrained upon the French end of the structure. Behind them were sixthousand troops. Napoleon massed four thousand grenadiers at the headof the bridge, with a battalion of three hundred carbineers in front. At the tap of the drum the foremost assailants wheeled from the coverof the street wall under a terrible hail of grape and canister, andattempted to pass the gateway to the bridge. The front ranks went downlike stalks of grain before a reaper; the column staggered and reeledbackward, and the valiant grenadiers were appalled by the task beforethem. Without a word or a look of reproach, Napoleon placed himself attheir head, and his aids and generals rushed to his side. Forwardagain, this time over heaps of dead that choked the passage, and aquick run, counted by seconds only, carried the column across twohundred yards of clear space, scarcely a shot from the Austrians takingeffect beyond the point where the platoons wheeled for the first leap. So sudden and so miraculous was it all that the Austrian artilleristsabandoned their guns instantly, and their supports fled in a panicinstead of rushing to the front and meeting the French onslaught. ThisNapoleon had counted on in making the bold attack. The contrastbetween Napoleon's slight figure and the massive grenadiers suggestedthe nickname "Little Corporal. "

The great secret of the success of Joan of Arc was the boldness of herattacks. 

When Stephen of Colonna fell into the hands of base assailants, andthey asked him in derision, "Where is now your fortress?" "Here, " washis bold reply, placing his hand upon his heart. 

It was after the Mexican War when General McClellan was employed as atopographical engineer in surveying the Pacific coast. From hisheadquarters at Vancouver he had gone south to the Columbia River withtwo companions, a soldier and a servant. One evening he received wordthat the chiefs of the Columbia River tribes desired to confer withhim. From the messenger's manner he suspected that the Indians meantmischief. He warned his companions that they must be ready to leavecamp at a moment's notice. Mounting his horse, he rode boldly into theIndian village. About thirty chiefs were holding council. McClellanwas led into the circle, and placed at the right hand of Saltese. Hewas familiar with the Chinook jargon, and could understand every wordspoken in the council. Saltese made known the grievance of the tribes. Two Indians had been captured by a party of white pioneers and hangedfor theft. Retaliation for this outrage seemed indispensable. Thechiefs pondered long, but had little to say. McClellan had been onfriendly terms with them, and was not responsible for the forestexecutions. Still, he was a white man, and the chiefs had vowedvengeance against the race. The council was prolonged for hours beforesentence was passed, and then Saltese, in the name of the head men ofthe tribes, decreed that McClellan should immediately be put to deathin retaliation for the hanging of the two Indian thieves. 

McClellan had said nothing. He had known that argument and pleas forjustice or mercy would be of no avail. He had sat motionless, apparently indifferent to his fate. By his listlessness he had thrownhis captors off their guard. When the sentence was passed he actedlike a flash. Flinging his left arm around the neck of Saltese, hewhipped out his revolver and held it close to the chief's temple. "Revoke that sentence, or I shall kill you this instant!" he cried, with his fingers clicking the trigger. "I revoke it!" exclaimedSaltese, fairly livid from fear. "I must have your word that I canleave this council in safety. " "You have the word of Saltese, " was thequick response. McClellan knew how sacred was the pledge which he hadreceived. The revolver was lowered. Saltese was released from theembrace of the strong arm. McClellan strode out of the tent with hisrevolver in his hand. Not a hand was raised against him. He mountedhis horse and rode to his camp, where his two followers were ready tospring into the saddle and to escape from the villages. He owed hislife to his quickness of perception, and to his accurate knowledge ofIndian character. 

In 1866, Rufus Choate spoke to an audience of nearly five thousand inLowell in favor of the candidacy of James Buchanan for the presidency. The floor of the great hall began to sink, settling more and more as heproceeded with his address, until a sound of cracking timber belowwould have precipitated a stampede with fatal results but for thecoolness of B. F. Butler, who presided. Telling the people to remainquiet, he said that he would see if there were any cause for alarm. Hefound the supports of the floor in so bad a condition that theslightest applause would be likely to bury the audience in the ruins ofthe building. Returning rather leisurely to the platform, he whisperedto Choate as he passed, "We shall all be in ---- in five minutes, " thenhe told the crowd that there was no immediate danger if they wouldslowly disperse, although he thought it prudent to adjourn to a placewhere there would be no risk whatever. The post of danger, he added, was on the platform, which was most weakly supported, therefore he andthose with him would be the last to leave. No doubt many lives weresaved by his coolness. 

Many distinguished foreign and American statesmen were present at afashionable dinner party where wine was freely poured, but SchuylerColfax, then vice-president of the United States, declined to drinkfrom a proffered cup. "Colfax dares not drink, " sneered a Senator whohad already taken too much. "You are right, " said the Vice-President, "I dare not. "

When Grant was in Houston several years ago, he was given a rousingreception. Naturally hospitable, and naturally inclined to like a manof Grant's make-up, the Houstonites determined to go beyond any otherSouthern city in the way of a banquet and other manifestations of theirgood-will and hospitality. They made great preparations for thedinner, the committee taking great pains to have the finest wines thatcould be procured for the table that night. When the time came toserve the wine, the head-waiter went first to Grant. Without a wordthe general quietly turned down all the glasses at his plate. Thismovement was a great surprise to the Texans, but they were equal to theoccasion. Without a single word being spoken, every man along the lineof the long tables turned his glasses down, and there was not a drop ofwine taken that night. 

A deep sewer at Noyon, France, had been opened for repairs, andcarelessly left at night without covering or lights to warn people ofdanger. Late at night four men stumbled in, and lay some time beforetheir situation was known in the town. No one dared go to the aid ofthe men, then unconscious from breathing noxious gases, exceptCatherine Vassen, a servant girl of eighteen. She insisted on beinglowered at once. Fastening a rope around two of the men, she aided inraising them and restoring them to consciousness. Descending again, she had just tied a rope around a third man, when she felt her breathfailing. Tying another rope to her long, curly hair, she swooned, butwas drawn up with the man, to be quickly revived by fresh air andstimulants. The fourth man was dead when his body was pulled up, onaccount of the delay from the fainting of Catherine. 

Two French officers at Waterloo were advancing to charge a greatlysuperior force. One, observing that the other showed signs of fear, said, "Sir, I believe you are frightened. " "Yes, I am, " was the reply, "and if you were half as much frightened, you would run away. "

"That's a brave man, " said Wellington, when he saw a soldier turn paleas he marched against a battery; "he knows his danger, and faces it. "

"There are many cardinals and bishops at Worms, " said a friend toLuther, "and they will burn your body to ashes as they did that of JohnHuss. " Luther replied: "Although they should make a fire that shouldreach from Worms to Wittenberg, and that should flame up to heaven, inthe Lord's name I would pass through it and appear before them. " Hesaid to another: "I would enter Worms though there were as many devilsthere as there are tiles upon the roofs of the houses. " Another said:"Duke George will surely arrest you. " He replied: "It is my duty togo, and I will go, though it rain Duke Georges for nine days together. "

"Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise, God help me, " exclaimed Luther atthe Diet of Worms, facing his foes. 

A Western paper recently invited the surviving Union and Confederateofficers to give an account of the bravest act observed by each duringthe Civil War. Colonel Thomas W. Higginson said that at a dinner atBeaufort, S. C. , where wine flowed freely and ribald jests werebandied, Dr. Miner, a slight, boyish fellow who did not drink, was toldthat he could not go until he had drunk a toast, told a story, or sunga song. He replied: "I cannot sing, but I will give a toast, althoughI must drink it in water. It is 'Our Mothers. '" The men were soaffected and ashamed that some took him by the hand and thanked him fordisplaying courage greater than that required to walk up to the mouthof a cannon. 

It took great courage for the commercial Quaker, John Bright, toespouse a cause which called down upon his head the derision and scornand hatred of the Parliament. For years he rested under a cloud ofobloquy, but Bright was made of stern stuff. It was only his strengthof character and masterly eloquence, which saved him from politicalannihilation. To a man who boasted that his ancestors came over withthe Conquerors, he replied, "I never heard that they did anythingelse. " A Tory lordling said, when Bright was ill, that Providence hadinflicted upon Bright, for the measure of his talents, disease of thebrain. When Bright went back into the Commons he replied: "This may beso, but it will be some consolation to the friends and family of thenoble lord to know that that disease is one which even Providencecannot inflict upon him. "

"When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the World, and takes him boldly by the beard, " says Holmes, "he is often surprisedto find it come off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scareaway timid adventurers. "

It takes courage for a young man to stand firmly erect while others arebowing and fawning for praise and power. It takes courage to wearthreadbare clothes while your comrades dress in broadcloth. It takescourage to remain in honest poverty when others grow rich by fraud. Ittakes courage to say "No" squarely when those around you say "Yes. " Ittakes courage to do your duty in silence and obscurity while othersprosper and grow famous although neglecting sacred obligations. Ittakes courage to unmask your true self, to show your blemishes to acondemning world, and to pass for what you really are. 

It takes courage and pluck to be outvoted, beaten, laughed at, scoffed, ridiculed, derided, misunderstood, misjudged, to stand alone with allthe world against you, but

 "They are slaves who dare not be In the right with two or three. "

"There is never wanting a dog to bark at you. "

"An honest man is not the worse because a dog barks at him. "

 "Let any man show the world that he feels Afraid of its bark, and 'twill fly at his heels. Let him fearlessly face it, 't will leave him alone, And 't will fawn at his feet if he fling it a bone. "

We live ridiculously for fear of being thought ridiculous. 

 "'Tis he is the coward who proves false to his vows, To his manhood, his honor, for a laugh or a sneer: 'Tis he is the hero who stands firm, though alone, For the truth and the right without flinching or fear. "

The youth who starts out by being afraid to speak what he thinks willusually end by being afraid to think what he wishes. 

How we shrink from an act of our own. We live as others live. Customor fashion dictates, or your doctor or minister, and they in turn darenot depart from their schools. Dress, living, servants, carriages, everything must conform, or be ostracized. Who dares conduct hishousehold or business affairs in his own way, and snap his fingers atDame Grundy?

Many a man has marched up to the cannon's mouth in battle who dared notface public opinion or oppose Mrs. Grundy. 

It takes courage for a public man not to bend the knee to popularprejudice. It takes courage to refuse to follow custom when it isinjurious to his health and morals. To espouse an unpopular cause inCongress requires more courage than to lead a charge in battle. Howmuch easier for a politician to prevaricate and dodge an issue than tostand squarely on his feet like a man. 

As a rule, eccentricity is a badge of power, but how many women wouldnot rather strangle their individuality than be tabooed by Mrs. Grundy?Yet fear is really the only thing to fear. 

"Whoever you may be, " said Sainte-Beuve, "great genius, distinguishedtalent, artist honorable or amiable, the qualities for which youdeserve to be praised will all be turned against you. Were you aVirgil, the pious and sensible singer _par excellence_, there arepeople who will call you an effeminate poet. Were you a Horace, thereare people who will reproach you with the very purity and delicacy ofyour taste. If you were a Shakespeare, some one will call you adrunken savage. If you were a Goethe, more than one Pharisee willproclaim you the most selfish of egotists. "

As the strongest man has a weakness somewhere, so the greatest hero isa coward somewhere. Peter was courageous enough to draw his sword todefend his master, but he could not stand the ridicule and the fingerof scorn of the maidens in the high priest's hall, and he actuallydenied even the acquaintance of the master he had declared he would diefor. 

"I will take the responsibility, " said Andrew Jackson, on a memorableoccasion, and his words have become proverbial. Not even Congressdared to oppose the edicts of John Quincy Adams. 

If a man would accomplish anything in this world, he must not be afraidof assuming responsibilities. Of course it takes courage to run therisk of failure, to be subjected to criticism for an unpopular cause, to expose one's self to the shafts of everybody's ridicule, but the manwho is not true to himself, who cannot carry out the sealed ordersplaced in his hands at his birth, regardless of the world's yes or no, of its approval or disapproval, the man who has not the courage totrace the pattern of his own destiny, which no other soul knows but hisown, can never rise to the true dignity of manhood. All the worldloves courage; youth craves it; they want to hear about it, they wantto read about it. The fascination of the "blood and thunder" novelsand of the cheap story papers for youth are based upon this idea ofcourage. If the boys cannot get the real article, they will take acounterfeit. 

Don't be like Uriah Heep, begging everybody's pardon for taking theliberty of being in the world. There is nothing attractive intimidity, nothing lovable in fear. Both are deformities and arerepulsive. Manly courage is dignified and graceful. The worst mannersin the world are those of persons conscious "of being beneath theirposition, and trying to conceal it or make up for it by style. "

Bruno, condemned to be burned alive in Rome, said to his judge: "Youare more afraid to pronounce my sentence than I am to receive it. "Anne Askew, racked until her bones were dislocated, never flinched, butlooked her tormentor calmly in the face and refused to abjure her faith. 

"We are afraid of truth, afraid of fortune, afraid of death, and afraidof each other. " "Half a man's wisdom goes with his courage, " saidEmerson. Physicians used to teach that courage depends on thecirculation of the blood in the arteries, and that during passion, anger, trials of strength, wrestling or fighting, a large amount ofblood is collected in the arteries, and does not pass to the veins. Astrong pulse is a fortune in itself. 

"Rage, " said Shaftesbury, "can make a coward forget himself and fight. "

"I should have thought fear would have kept you from going so far, "said a relative who found the little boy Nelson wandering a longdistance from home. "Fear?" said the future admiral, "I don't knowhim. "

"Doubt indulged becomes doubt realized. " To determine to do anythingis half the battle. "To think a thing is impossible is to make it so. "_Courage is victory, timidity is defeat_. 

That simple shepherd-lad, David, fresh from his flocks, marchingunattended and unarmed, save with his shepherd's staff and sling, toconfront the colossal Goliath with his massive armor, is the sublimestaudacity the world has ever seen. 

"Dent, I wish you would get down, and see what is the matter with thatleg there, " said Grant, when he and Colonel Dent were riding throughthe thickest of a fire that had become so concentrated and murderousthat his troops had all been driven back. "I guess looking after yourhorse's legs can wait, " said Dent; "it is simply murder for us to sithere. " "All right, " said Grant, "if you don't want to see to it, Iwill. " He dismounted, untwisted a piece of telegraph wire which hadbegun to cut the horse's leg, examined it deliberately, and climbedinto his saddle. "Dent, " said he, "when you've got a horse that youthink a great deal of, you should never take any chances with him. Ifthat wire had been left there for a little time longer he would havegone dead lame, and would perhaps have been ruined for life. "

Wellington said that at Waterloo the hottest of the battle raged rounda farmhouse, with an orchard surrounded by a thick hedge, which was soimportant a point in the British position that orders were given tohold it at any hazard or sacrifice. At last the powder and ball ranshort and the hedges took fire, surrounding the orchard with a wall offlame. A messenger had been sent for ammunition, and soon two loadedwagons came galloping toward the farmhouse. "The driver of the firstwagon, with the reckless daring of an English boy, spurred hisstruggling and terrified horses through the burning heap; but theflames rose fiercely round, and caught the powder, which exploded in aninstant, sending wagon, horses, and rider in fragments into the air. For an instant the driver of the second wagon paused, appalled by hiscomrade's fate; the next, observing that the flames, beaten back forthe moment by the explosion, afforded him one desperate chance, senthis horses at the smouldering breach and, amid the deafening cheers ofthe garrison, landed his terrible cargo safely within. Behind him theflames closed up, and raged more fiercely than ever. "

At the battle of Friedland a cannon-ball came over the heads of theFrench soldiers, and a young soldier instinctively dodged. Napoleonlooked at him and smilingly said: "My friend, if that ball weredestined for you, though you were to burrow a hundred feet under groundit would be sure to find you there. "

When the mine in front of Petersburg was finished, the fuse waslighted, and the Union troops were drawn up ready to charge the enemy'sworks as soon as the explosion should make a breach. But seconds, minutes, and tens of minutes passed, without a sound from the mine, andthe suspense became painful. Lieutenant Doughty and Sergeant Keesvolunteered to examine the fuse. Through the long subterraneangalleries they hurried in silence, not knowing but they were advancingto a horrible death. They found the defect, fired the train anew, andsoon a terrible upheaval of earth gave the signal to march to victory. 

At the battle of Copenhagen, as Nelson walked the deck slippery withblood and covered with the dead, he said: "This is warm work, and thisday may be the last to any of us in a moment. But, mark me, I wouldnot be elsewhere for thousands. " At the battle of Trafalgar, whenNelson was shot and was being carried below, he covered his face, thatthose fighting might not know their chief had fallen. 

In a skirmish at Salamanca, while the enemy's guns were pouring shotinto his regiment, Sir William Napier's men became disobedient. He atonce ordered a halt, and flogged four of the ringleaders under fire. The men yielded at once, and then marched three miles under a heavycannonade as coolly as if it were a review. 

Execute your resolutions immediately. Thoughts are but dreams tilltheir effects be tried. Does competition trouble you? work away; whatis your competitor but a man? _Conquer your place in the world_, forall things serve a brave soul. Combat difficulty manfully; sustainmisfortune bravely; endure poverty nobly; encounter disappointmentcourageously. The influence of the brave man is a magnetism whichcreates an epidemic of noble zeal in all about him. Every day sends tothe grave obscure men, who have only remained in obscurity becausetheir timidity has prevented them from making a first effort; and who, if they could have been induced to begin, would, in all probability, have gone great lengths in the career of usefulness and fame. "Nogreat deed is done, " says George Eliot, "by falterers who ask forcertainty. " The brave, cheerful man will survive his blighted hopesand disappointments, take them for just what they are, lessons andperhaps blessings in disguise, and will march boldly and cheerfullyforward in the battle of life. Or, if necessary, he will bear his illswith a patience and calm endurance deeper than ever plummet sounded. He is the true hero. 

 Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust, Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 't is prosperous to be just; Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside, Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified. LOWELL. 

 Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win, By fearing to attempt. SHAKESPEARE. 

After the great inward struggle was over, and he had determined toremain loyal to his principles, Thomas More walked cheerfully to theblock. His wife called him a fool for staying in a dark, damp, filthyprison when he might have his liberty by merely renouncing hisdoctrines, as some of the bishops had done. But he preferred death todishonor. His daughter allowed the power of love to drive away fear. She remained true to her father when all others, even her mother, hadforsaken him. After his head had been cut off and exhibited on a poleon London Bridge, the poor girl begged it of the authorities, andrequested that it be buried in the coffin with her. Her request wasgranted, for her death occurred soon. 

When Sir Walter Raleigh came to the scaffold he was very faint, andbegan his speech to the crowd by saying that during the last two dayshe had been visited by two ague fits. "If, therefore, you perceive anyweakness in me, I beseech you ascribe it to my sickness rather than tomyself. " He took the axe and kissed the blade, and said to thesheriff: "'T is a sharp medicine, but a sound cure for all diseases. "

Don't waste time dreaming of obstacles you may never encounter, or incrossing bridges you have not reached. Don't fool with a nettle!Grasp with firmness if you would rob it of its sting. To half will andto hang forever in the balance is to lose your grip on life. 

Abraham Lincoln's boyhood was one long struggle with poverty, withlittle education, and no influential friends. When at last he hadbegun the practice of law, it required no little daring to cast hisfortune with the weaker side in politics, and thus imperil what smallreputation he had gained. Only the most sublime moral courage couldhave sustained him as President to hold his ground against hostilecriticism and a long train of disaster; to issue the EmancipationProclamation; to support Grant and Stanton against the clamor of thepoliticians and the press; and through it all to do the right as Godgave him to see the right. 

Lincoln never shrank from espousing an unpopular cause when he believedit to be right. At the time when it almost cost a young lawyer hisbread and butter to defend the fugitive slave, and when other lawyershad refused, Lincoln would always plead the cause of the unfortunatewhenever an opportunity presented. "Go to Lincoln, " people would say, when these hounded fugitives were seeking protection; "he's not afraidof any cause, if it's right. "

As Salmon P. Chase left the court room after making an impassioned pleafor the runaway slave girl Matilda, a man looked at him in surprise andsaid: "There goes a fine young fellow who has just ruined himself. "But in thus ruining himself Chase had taken the first important step ina career in which he became Governor of Ohio, United States Senatorfrom Ohio, Secretary of the United States Treasury, and Chief Justiceof the United States Supreme Court. 

At the trial of William Penn for having spoken at a Quaker meeting, therecorder, not satisfied with the first verdict, said to the jury: "Wewill have a verdict by the help of God, or you shall starve for it. ""You are Englishmen, " said Penn; "mind your privileges, give not awayyour right. " At last the jury, after two days and two nights withoutfood, returned a verdict of "Not guilty. " The recorder fined themforty marks apiece for their independence. 

What cared Christ for the jeers of the crowd? The palsied hand moved, the blind saw, the leper was made whole, the dead spake, despite theridicule and scoffs of the spectators. 

What cared Wendell Phillips for rotten eggs, derisive scorn, andhisses? In him "at last the scornful world had met its match. " WereBeecher and Gough to be silenced by the rude English mobs that came toextinguish them? No! they held their ground and compelled unwillingthousands to hear and to heed. Did Anna Dickinson leave the platformwhen the pistol bullets of the Molly Maguires flew about her head? Shesilenced those pistols by her courage and her arguments. 

"What the world wants is a Knox, who dares to preach on with a musketleveled at his head, a Garrison, who is not afraid of a jail, or a mob, or a scaffold erected in front of his door. 

 "Storms may howl around thee, Foes may hunt and hound thee: Shall they overpower thee? Never, never, never. "

When General Butler was sent with nine thousand men to quell the NewYork riots, he arrived in advance of his troops, and found the streetsthronged with an angry mob, which had already hanged more than one manto lamp-posts. Without waiting for his men, Butler went to the placewhere the crowd was most dense, overturned an ash barrel, stood uponit, and began: "Delegates from Five Points, fiends from hell, you havemurdered your superiors, " and the blood-stained crowd quailed beforethe courageous words of a single man in a city which Mayor FernandoWood could not restrain with the aid of police and militia. 

"Our enemies are before us, " exclaimed the Spartans at Thermopylae. "And we are before them, " was the cool reply of Leonidas. "Deliveryour arms, " came the message from Xerxes. "Come and take them, " wasthe answer Leonidas sent back. A Persian soldier said: "You will notbe able to see the sun for flying javelins and arrows. " "Then we willfight in the shade, " replied a Lacedemonian. What wonder that ahandful of such men checked the march of the greatest host that evertrod the earth. 

"It is impossible, " said a staff officer, when Napoleon gave directionsfor a daring plan. "Impossible!" thundered the great commander, "_impossible_ is the adjective of fools!" Napoleon went to the edge ofhis possibility. 

Grant never knew when he was beaten. When told that he was surroundedby the enemy at Belmont, he quietly replied: "Well, then we must cutour way out. "

The courageous man is an example to the intrepid. His influence ismagnetic. He creates an epidemic of nobleness. Men follow him, evento the death. 

The spirit of courage will transform the whole temper of your life. "The wise and active conquer difficulties by daring to attempt them. Sloth and folly shiver and sicken at the sight of trial and hazard, andmake the impossibility they fear. "

"The hero, " says Emerson, "is the man who is immovably centred. "

Emin Pasha, the explorer of Africa, was left behind by his exploringparty under circumstances that were thought certainly fatal, and hisdeath was reported with great assurance. Early the next winter, as histroop was on its toilsome but exciting way through Central Africa, itcame upon a most wretched sight. A party of natives had been kidnappedby the slave-hunters, and dragged in chains thus far toward the land ofbondage. But small-pox had set in, and the miserable company had beenabandoned to their fate. Emin sent his men ahead, and stayed behind inthis camp of death to act as physician and nurse. How many lives hesaved is not known, though it is known that he nearly lost his own. The age of chivalry is not gone by. This is as knightly a deed as poetever chronicled. 

A mouse that dwelt near the abode of a great magician was kept in suchconstant distress by its fear of a cat, that the magician, taking pityon it, turned it into a cat itself. Immediately it began to sufferfrom its fear of a dog, so the magician turned it into a dog. Then itbegan to suffer from fear of a tiger. The magician therefore turned itinto a tiger. Then it began to suffer from fear of hunters, and themagician said in disgust: "Be a mouse again. As you have only theheart of a mouse, it is impossible to help you by giving you the bodyof a nobler animal. "

Men who have dared have moved the world, often before reaching theprime of life. It is astonishing what daring to begin and perseverancehave enabled even youths to achieve. Alexander, who ascended thethrone at twenty, had conquered the known world before dying atthirty-three. Julius Caesar captured eight hundred cities, conqueredthree hundred nations, and defeated three million men, became a greatorator and one of the greatest statesmen known, and still was a youngman. Washington was appointed adjutant-general at nineteen, was sentat twenty-one as an ambassador to treat with the French, and won hisfirst battle as a colonel at twenty-two. Lafayette was made general ofthe whole French army at twenty. Charlemagne was master of France andGermany at thirty. Condé was only twenty-two when he conquered atRocroi. Galileo was but eighteen when he saw the principle of thependulum in the swinging lamp in the cathedral at Pisa. Peel was inParliament at twenty-one. Gladstone was in Parliament before he wastwenty-two, and at twenty-four he was Lord of the Treasury. ElizabethBarrett Browning was proficient in Greek and Latin at twelve; DeQuincey at eleven. Robert Browning wrote at eleven poetry of no meanorder. Cowley, who sleeps in Westminster Abbey, published a volume ofpoems at fifteen. N. P. Willis won lasting fame as a poet beforeleaving college. Macaulay was a celebrated author before he wastwenty-three. Luther was but twenty-nine when he nailed his famousthesis to the door of the bishop and defied the pope. Nelson was alieutenant in the British Navy before he was twenty. He was butforty-seven when he received his death wound at Trafalgar. Charles theTwelfth was only nineteen when he gained the battle of Narva; atthirty-six, Cortez was the conqueror of Mexico; at thirty-two, Clivehad established the British power in India. Hannibal, the greatest ofmilitary commanders, was only thirty when, at Cannae, he dealt analmost annihilating blow at the republic of Rome; and Napoleon was onlytwenty-seven when, on the plains of Italy, he outgeneraled anddefeated, one after another, the veteran marshals of Austria. 

Equal courage and resolution are often shown by men who have passed theallotted limit of life. Victor Hugo and Wellington were both in theirprime after they had reached the age of threescore years and ten. George Bancroft wrote some of his best historical work when he waseighty-five. Gladstone ruled England with a strong hand ateighty-four, and was a marvel of literary and scholarly ability. 

"Not every vessel that sails from Tarshish will bring back the gold ofOphir. But shall it therefore rot in the harbor? No! Give its sailsto the wind!"

Shakespeare says: "He is not worthy of the honeycomb that shuns thehive because the bees have stings. "

 "The brave man is not he who feels no fear, For that were stupid and irrational; But he whose noble soul its fear subdues And bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from. "

The inscription on the gates of Busyrane: "Be bold. " On the secondgate: "Be bold, be bold, and ever more be bold;" the third gate: "Benot too bold. "

Many a bright youth has accomplished nothing of worth simply because hedid not dare to commence. 

Begin! Begin!! Begin!!!

Whatever people may think of you, do that which you believe to beright. Be alike indifferent to censure or praise. --PYTHAGORAS. 

Fear makes man a slave to others. This is the tyrant's chain. Anxietyis a form of cowardice embittering life. --CHANNING. 

Courage is generosity of the highest order, for the brave are prodigalof the most precious things. Our blood is nearer and dearer to us thanour money, and our life than our estate. Women are more taken withcourage than with generosity. --COLTON. 

 Who chooses me must give and hazard all he hath. _Merchant of Venice_, Inscription on Leaden Casket. 

 I dare to do all that may become a man: Who dares do more is none. SHAKESPEAKE. 

For man's great actions are performed in minor struggles. There areobstinate and unknown braves who defend themselves inch by inch in theshadows against the fatal invasion of want and turpitude. There arenoble and mysterious triumphs which no eye sees, no renown rewards, andno flourish of trumpets salutes. Life, misfortune, isolation, abandonment, and poverty are battlefields which have theirheroes. --VICTOR HUGO. 

 Who waits until the wind shall silent keep, Who never finds the ready hour to sow, Who watcheth clouds, will have no time to reap. HELEN HUNT JACKSON. 

Quit yourselves like men. --1 SAMUEL iv. 9. 

CHAPTER III. 

THE WILL AND THE WAY. 

"The 'way' will be found by a resolute will. "

"I will find a way or make one. "

Nothing is impossible to the man who can will. --MIRABEAU. 

A politician weakly and amiably in the right is no match for apolitician tenaciously and pugnaciously in the wrong. --E. P. WHIPPLE. 

 The iron will of one stout heart shall make a thousand quail; A feeble dwarf, dauntlessly resolved, will turn the tide of battle, And rally to a nobler strife the giants that had fled. TUPPER. 

"Man alone can perform the impossible. They can who think they can. Character is a perfectly educated will. "

The education of the will is the object of our existence. For theresolute and determined there is time and opportunity. --EMERSON. 

Invincible determination, and a right nature, are the levers that movethe world. --PRESIDENT PORTER. 

In the lexicon of youth which fate reserves for a bright manhood thereis no such word as fail. --BULWER. 

Perpetual pushing and assurance put a difficulty out of countenance andmake a seeming difficulty give way. --JEREMY COLLIER. 

When a firm and decisive spirit is recognized, it is curious to see howthe space clears around a man and leaves him room and freedom. --JOHNFOSTER. 

 The star of the unconquered will, He rises in my breast, Serene, and resolute and still, And calm and self-possessed. LONGFELLOW. 

"As well can the Prince of Orange pluck the stars from the sky, asbring the ocean to the wall of Leyden for your relief, " was thederisive shout of the Spanish soldiers when told that the Dutch fleetwould raise that terrible four months' siege of 1574. But from theparched lips of William, tossing on his bed of fever at Rotterdam, hadissued the command: "_Break down the dikes: give Holland back toocean:_" and the people had replied: "Better a drowned land than a lostland. " They began to demolish dike after dike of the strong lines, ranged one within another for fifteen miles to their city of theinterior. It was an enormous task; the garrison was starving; and thebesiegers laughed in scorn at the slow progress of the puny insects whosought to rule the waves of the sea. But ever, as of old, heaven aidsthose who help themselves. On the first and second of October aviolent equinoctial gale rolled the ocean inland, and swept the fleeton the rising waters almost to the camp of the Spaniards. The nextmorning the garrison sallied out to attack their enemies, but thebesiegers had fled in terror under cover of the darkness. The next daythe wind changed, and a counter tempest brushed the water, with thefleet upon it, from the surface of Holland. The outer dikes werereplaced at once, leaving the North Sea within its old bounds. Whenthe flowers bloomed the following spring, a joyous procession marchedthrough the streets to found the University of Leyden, in commemorationof the wonderful deliverance of the city. 

 * * * * * *

[Illustration: WALTER SCOTT]

"The Wizard of the North. "

 "So nigh is grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man, When Duty whispers low, 'Thou must, ' The youth replies, 'I can. '"

 * * * * * *

At a dinner party given in 1837, at the residence of Chancellor Kent, in New York city, some of the most distinguished men in the countrywere invited, and among them was a young and rather melancholy andreticent Frenchman. Professor Morse was one of the guests, and duringthe evening he drew the attention of Mr. Gallatin, then a prominentstatesman, to the stranger, observing that his forehead indicated greatintellect. "Yes, " replied Mr. Gallatin, touching his own forehead withhis finger, "there is a great deal in that head of his: but he has astrange fancy. Can you believe it? He has the idea that he will oneday be the Emperor of France. Can you conceive anything more absurd?"

It did seem absurd, for this reserved Frenchman was then a pooradventurer, an exile from his country, without fortune or powerfulconnections, and yet, fourteen years later, his idea became afact, --his dream of becoming Napoleon III. Was realized. True, beforehe accomplished his purpose there were long dreary years ofimprisonment, exile, disaster, and patient labor and hope, but hegained his ambition at last. He was not scrupulous as to the meansemployed to accomplish his ends, yet he is a remarkable example of whatpluck and energy can do. 

When it was proposed to unite England and America by steam, Dr. Lardnerdelivered a lecture before the Royal Society "proving" that steamerscould never cross the Atlantic, because they could not carry coalenough to produce steam during the whole voyage. The passage of thesteamship Sirius, which crossed in nineteen days, was fatal toLardner's theory. When it was proposed to build a vessel of iron, manypersons said: "Iron sinks--only wood can float:" but experiments provedthat the miracle of the prophet in making iron "swim" could berepeated, and now not only ships of war, but merchant vessels, arebuilt of iron or steel. A will found a way to make iron float. 

Mr. Ingram, publisher of the "London Illustrated News, " who lost hislife on Lake Michigan, walked ten miles to deliver a single paperrather than disappoint a customer, when he began life as a newsdealerat Nottingham, England. Does any one wonder that such a youthsucceeded? Once he rose at two o'clock in the morning and walked toLondon to get some papers because there was no post to bring them. Hedetermined that his customers should not be disappointed. This is thekind of will that finds a way. 

There is scarcely anything in all biography grander than the saying ofyoung Henry Fawcett, Gladstone's last Postmaster-General, to hisgrief-stricken father, who had put out both his eyes by bird-shotduring a game hunt: "Never mind, father, blindness shall not interferewith my success in life. " One of the most pathetic sights in Londonstreets, long afterward, was Henry Fawcett, M. P. , led everywhere by afaithful daughter, who acted as amanuensis as well as guide to herplucky father. Think of a young man, scarcely on the threshold ofactive life, suddenly losing the sight of both eyes and yet, by merepluck and almost incomprehensible tenacity of purpose, lifting himselfinto eminence, in any direction, to say nothing of becoming one of theforemost men in a country noted for its great men. Most youth wouldhave succumbed to such a misfortune, and would never have been heardfrom again. But fortunately for the world, there are yet left manyFawcetts, many Prescotts, Parkmans, Cavanaghs. 

The courageous daughter who was eyes to her father was herself amarvelous example of pluck and determination. For the first time inthe history of Oxford College, which reaches back centuries, shesucceeded in winning the post which had only been gained before bygreat men, such as Gladstone, --the post of senior wrangler. Thisachievement had had no parallel in history up to that date, andattracted the attention of the whole civilized world. Not only had nowoman ever held this position before, but with few exceptions it hadonly been held by men who in after life became highly distinguished. Who can deny that where there is a will, as a rule, there's a way?

When Grant was a boy he could not find "can't" in the dictionary. Itis the men who have no "can't" in their dictionaries that make thingsmove. 

"Circumstances, " says Milton, "have rarely favored famous men. Theyhave fought their way to triumph through all sorts of opposingobstacles. "

The true way to conquer circumstances is to be a greater circumstanceyourself. 

Yet, while desiring to impress in the most forcible manner possible thefact that will-power is necessary to success, and that, other thingsbeing equal, the greater the will-power, the grander and more completethe success, we cannot indorse the preposterous theory that there isnothing in circumstances or environments, or that any man, simplybecause he has an indomitable will, may become a Bonaparte, a Pitt, aWebster, a Beecher, a Lincoln. We must temper determination withdiscretion, and support it with knowledge and common sense, or it willonly lead us to run our heads against posts. We must not expect toovercome a stubborn fact by a stubborn will. We merely have the rightto assume that we can do anything within the limit of our utmostfaculty, strength, and endurance. Obstacles permanently insurmountablebar our progress in some directions, but in any direction we mayreasonably hope and attempt to go, we shall find that the obstacles, asa rule, are either not insurmountable or else not permanent. Thestrong-willed, intelligent, persistent man will find or make a waywhere, in the nature of things, a way can be found or made. 

Every schoolboy knows that circumstances do give clients to lawyers andpatients to physicians; place ordinary clergymen in extraordinarypulpits; place sons of the rich at the head of immense corporations andlarge houses, when they have very ordinary ability and scarcely anyexperience, while poor young men with extraordinary abilities, goodeducation, good character, and large experience, often have to fighttheir way for years to obtain even very ordinary situations. Every oneknows that there are thousands of young men, both in the city and inthe country, of superior ability, who seem to be compelled bycircumstances to remain in very ordinary positions for small pay, whenothers about them are raised by money or family influence intodesirable places. In other words, we all know that the best men do notalways get the best places: circumstances do have a great deal to dowith our position, our salaries, and our station in life. 

Many young men who are nature's noblemen, who are natural leaders, areworking under superintendents, foremen, and managers infinitely theirinferiors, but whom circumstances have placed above them and will keepthere, unless some emergency makes merit indispensable. No, the raceis not always to the swift. 

Every one knows that there is not always a way where there is a will, that labor does not always conquer all things; that there are thingsimpossible even to him that wills, however strongly; that one cannotalways make anything of himself he chooses; that there are limitationsin our very natures which no amount of will-power or industry canovercome; that no amount of sun-staring can ever make an eagle out of acrow. 

The simple truth is that a will strong enough to keep a man continuallystriving for things not wholly beyond his powers will carry him in timevery far toward his chosen goal. 

The greatest thing a man can do in this world is to make the mostpossible out of the stuff that has been given to him. This is success, and there is no other. 

While it is true that our circumstances or environments do affect us, in most things they do not prevent our growth. The corn that is nowripe, whence comes it, and what is it? Is it not large or small, stunted wild maize or well-developed ears, according to the conditionsunder which it has grown? Yet its environments cannot make wheat ofit. Nor can our circumstances alter our nature. It is part of ournature, and wholly within our power, greatly to change and to takeadvantage of our circumstances, so that, unlike the corn, we can risemuch superior to our natural surroundings simply because we can thusvary and improve the surroundings. In other words, man can usuallybuild the very road on which he is to run his race. 

It is not a question of what some one else can do or become, whichevery youth should ask himself, but what can I do? How can I developmyself into the grandest possible manhood?

So far, then, from the power of circumstances being a hindrance to menin trying to build for themselves an imperial highway to fortune, thesecircumstances constitute the very quarry out of which they are to getpaving-stones for the road. 

While it is true that the will-power cannot perform miracles, yet thatit is almost omnipotent, that it can perform wonders, all history goesto prove. As Shakespeare says:--

 "Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings. "

"There is nobody, " says a Roman Cardinal, "whom Fortune does not visitonce in his life: but when she finds he is not ready to receive her, she goes in at the door, and out through the window. " Opportunity iscoy. The careless, the slow, the unobservant, the lazy fail to see it, or clutch at it when it has gone. The sharp fellows detect itinstantly, and catch it when on the wing. 

Show me a man who is, according to popular prejudice, a victim of badluck, and I will show you one who has some unfortunate crooked twist oftemperament that invites disaster. He is ill-tempered, or conceited, or trifling; lacks character, enthusiasm, or some other requisite forsuccess. 

Disraeli says that man is not the creature of circumstances, but thatcircumstances are the creatures of men. 

What has chance ever done in the world? Has it built any cities? Hasit invented any telephones, any telegraphs? Has it built anysteamships, established any universities, any asylums, any hospitals?Was there any chance in Caesar's crossing the Rubicon? What had chanceto do with Napoleon's career, with Wellington's, or Grant's, or VonMoltke's? Every battle was won before it was begun. What had luck todo with Thermopylae, Trafalgar, Gettysburg? Our successes we ascribeto ourselves; our failures to destiny. 

Man is not a helpless atom in this vast creation, with a fixedposition, and naught to do but obey his own polarity. 

Believe in the power of will, which annihilates the sickly, sentimentaldoctrine of fatalism, --you must but can't, you ought but it isimpossible. 

Give me the man

 "Who breaks his birth's invidious bar, And grasps the skirts of happy chance, And breasts the blows of circumstance, And grapples with his evil star. "

It is only the ignorant and superficial who believe in fate. "Thefirst step into thought lifts this mountain of necessity. " "Fate isunpenetrated causes. " "They may well fear fate who have any infirmityof habit or aim: but he who rests on what he is has a destiny beyonddestiny, and can make mouths at fortune. "

The indomitable will, the inflexible purpose, will find a way or makeone. There is always room for a man of force. 

"He who has a firm will, " says Goethe, "moulds the world to himself. ""People do not lack strength, " says Victor Hugo, "they lack will. "

"He who resolves upon any great end, by that very resolution has scaledthe great barriers to it, and he who seizes the grand idea ofself-cultivation, and solemnly resolves upon it, will find that idea, that resolution, burning like fire within him, and ever putting himupon his own improvement. He will find it removing difficulties, searching out, or making means; giving courage for despondency, andstrength for weakness. "

Nearly all great men, those who have towered high above their fellows, have been remarkable above all things else for their energy of will. Of Julius Caesar it was said by a contemporary that it was his activityand giant determination, rather than his military skill, that won hisvictories. The youth who starts out in life determined to make themost of his eyes and let nothing escape him which he can possibly usefor his own advancement; who keeps his ears open for every sound thatcan help him on his way, who keeps his hands open that he may clutchevery opportunity, who is ever on the alert for everything which canhelp him to get on in the world, who seizes every experience in lifeand grinds it up into paint for his great life's picture, who keeps hisheart open that he may catch every noble impulse, and everything whichmay inspire him, --that youth will be sure to make his life successful;there are no "ifs" or "ands" about it. If he has his health, nothingcan keep him from final success. 

No tyranny of circumstances can permanently imprison a determined will. 

The world always stands aside for the determined man. Will makes away, even through seeming impossibilities. "It is the half a necknearer that shows the blood and wins the race; the one march more thatwins the campaign: the five minutes more of unyielding courage thatwins the fight. " Again and again had the irrepressible Carter Harrisonbeen consigned to oblivion by the educated and moral element ofChicago. Nothing could keep him down. He was invincible. A son ofChicago, he had partaken of that nineteenth century miracle, thatphoenix-like nature of the city which, though she was burned, causedher to rise from her ashes and become a greater and a grander Chicago, a wonder of the world. Carter Harrison would not down. He entered theDemocratic Convention and, with an audacity rarely equaled, in spite oftheir protest, boldly declared himself their candidate. Everynewspaper in Chicago, save the "Times, " his own paper, bitterly opposedhis election: but notwithstanding all opposition, he was elected bytwenty thousand majority. The aristocrats hated him, the moral elementfeared him, but the poor people believed in him: he pandered to them, flattered them, till they elected him. While we would not by any meanshold Carter Harrison up to youth as a model, yet there is a greatlesson in his will-power and wonderful tenacity of purpose. 

"The general of a large army may be defeated, " said Confucius, "but youcannot defeat the determined mind of a peasant. "

The poor, deaf pauper, Kitto, who made shoes in the almshouse, and whobecame the greatest of Biblical scholars, wrote in his journal, on thethreshold of manhood: "I am not myself a believer in impossibilities: Ithink that all the fine stories about natural ability, etc. , are mererigmarole, and that every man may, according to his opportunities andindustry, render himself almost anything he wishes to become. "

Years ago, a young mechanic took a bath in the river Clyde. Whileswimming from shore to shore he discerned a beautiful bank, uncultivated, and he then and there resolved to be the owner of it, andto adorn it, and to build upon it the finest mansion in all theborough, and name it in honor of the maiden to whom he was espoused. "Last summer, " says a well-known American, "I had the pleasure ofdining in that princely mansion, and receiving this fact from the lipsof the great shipbuilder of the Clyde. " That one purpose was made theruling passion of his life, and all the energies of his soul were putin requisition for its accomplishment. 

Lincoln is probably the most remarkable example on the pages ofhistory, showing the possibilities of our country. From the poverty inwhich he was born, through the rowdyism of a frontier town, therudeness of frontier society, the discouragement of early bankruptcy, and the fluctuations of popular politics, he rose to the championshipof union and freedom. 

Lincoln's will made his way. When his friends nominated him as acandidate for the legislature, his enemies made fun of him. Whenmaking his campaign speeches he wore a mixed jean coat so short that hecould not sit down on it, flax and tow-linen trousers, straw hat, andpot-metal boots. He had nothing in the world but character and friends. 

When his friends suggested law to him, he laughed at the idea of hisbeing a lawyer. He said he hadn't brains enough. He read law barefootunder the trees, his neighbors said, and he sometimes slept on thecounter in the store where he worked. He had to borrow money to buy asuit of clothes to make a respectable appearance in the legislature, and walked to take his seat at Vandalia, --one hundred miles. While hewas in the legislature, John F. Stuart, an eminent lawyer ofSpringfield, told him how Clay had even inferior chances to his, hadgot all of the education he had in a log schoolhouse without windows ordoors; and finally induced Lincoln to study law. 

See Thurlow Weed, defying poverty and wading through the snow twomiles, with rags for shoes, to borrow a book to read before thesap-bush fire. See Locke, living on bread and water in a Dutch garret. See Heyne, sleeping many a night on a barn floor with only a book forhis pillow. See Samuel Drew, tightening his apron strings "in lieu ofa dinner. " See young Lord Eldon, before daylight copying Coke onLittleton over and over again. History is full of such examples. Hewho will pay the price for victory needs never fear final defeat. Whywere the Roman legionaries victorious?

 "For Romans, in Rome's quarrels, Spared neither land nor gold, Nor son, nor wife, nor limb nor life, In the brave days of old. "

Fowell Buxton, writing to one of his sons, says: "I am sure that ayoung man may be very much what he pleases. "

Dr. Mathews has well said that "there is hardly a word in the wholehuman vocabulary which is more cruelly abused than the word 'luck. ' Toall the faults and failures of men, their positive sins and their lessculpable shortcomings, it is made to stand a godfather and sponsor. Gotalk with the bankrupt man of business, who has swamped his fortune bywild speculation, extravagance of living, or lack of energy, and youwill find that he vindicates his wonderful self-love by confounding thesteps which he took indiscreetly with those to which he was forced by'circumstances, ' and complacently regarding himself as the victim ofill-luck. Go visit the incarcerated criminal, who has imbued his handsin the blood of his fellow-man, or who is guilty of less heinouscrimes, and you will find that, joining the temptations which were easyto avoid with those which were comparatively irresistible, he hashurriedly patched up a treaty with conscience, and stifles itscompunctious visitings by persuading himself that, from first to last, he was the victim of circumstances. Go talk with the mediocre intalents and attainments, the weak-spirited man who, from lack of energyand application, has made but little headway in the world, beingoutstripped in the race of life by those whom he had despised as hisinferiors, and you will find that he, too, acknowledges the all-potentpower of luck, and soothes his humbled pride by deeming himself thevictim of ill-fortune. In short, from the most venial offense to themost flagrant, there is hardly any wrong act or neglect to which thistoo fatally convenient word is not applied as a palliation. "

Paris was in the hands of a mob, the authorities were panic-stricken, for they did not dare to trust their underlings. In came a man whosaid, "I know a young officer who has the courage and ability to quellthis mob. " "Send for him; send for him; send for him, " said they. Napoleon was sent for, came, subjugated the mob, subjugated theauthorities, ruled France, then conquered Europe. 

What a lesson is Napoleon's life for the sickly, wishy-washy, dwarfed, sentimental "dudes, " hanging about our cities, country, anduniversities, complaining of their hard lot, dreaming of success, andwondering why they are left in the rear in the great race of life. 

Success in life is dependent largely upon the willpower, and whateverweakens or impairs it diminishes success. The will can be educated. That which most easily becomes a habit in us is the will. Learn, then, to will decisively and strongly; thus fix your floating life, and leaveit no longer to be carried hither and thither, like a withered leaf, byevery wind that blows. "It is not talent that men lack, it is the willto labor; it is the purpose, not the power to produce. "

It was this insatiable thirst for knowledge which held to his task, through poverty and discouragement, John Leyden, a Scotch shepherd'sson. Barefoot and alone, he walked six or eight miles daily to learnto read, which was all the schooling he had. His desire for aneducation defied the extremest poverty, and no obstacle could turn himfrom his purpose. He was rich when he discovered a little bookstore, and his thirsty soul would drink in the precious treasures from itspriceless volumes for hours, perfectly oblivious of the scanty meal ofbread and water which awaited him at his lowly lodging. Nothing coulddiscourage him from trying to improve himself by study. It seemed tohim that an opportunity to get at books and lectures was all that anyman could need. Before he was nineteen, this poor shepherd boy with nochance had astonished the professors of Edinburgh by his knowledge ofGreek and Latin. 

Hearing that a surgeon's assistant in the Civil Service was wanted, although he knew nothing whatever of medicine, he determined to applyfor it. There were only six months before the place was to be filled, but nothing could daunt him, and in six months' time he actually tookhis degree with honor. Walter Scott, who thought this one of the mostremarkable illustrations of perseverance, helped to fit him out, and hesailed for India. 

Webster was very poor even after he entered Dartmouth College. Afriend sent him a recipe for greasing his boots. Webster wrote andthanked him, and added: "But my boots need other doctoring, for theynot only admit water, but even peas and gravel-stones. " Yet he becameone of the greatest men in the world. Sydney Smith said: "Webster wasa living lie, because no man on earth could be as great as he looked. "Carlyle said of him: "One would incline at sight to back him againstthe world. "

What seemed to be luck followed Stephen Girard all his life. No matterwhat he did, it always seemed to others to turn to his account. Hiscoming to Philadelphia seemed a lucky accident. A sloop was seen onemorning off the mouth of Delaware Bay floating the flag of France and asignal of distress. Young Girard was captain of this sloop, and was onhis way to a Canadian port with freight from New Orleans. An Americanskipper, seeing his distress, went to his aid, but told him theAmerican war had broken out, and that the British cruisers were allalong the American coast, and would seize his vessel. He told him hisonly chance was to make a push for Philadelphia. Girard did not knowthe way, and had no money. The skipper loaned him five dollars to getthe service of a pilot who demanded his money in advance. 

His sloop passed into the Delaware just in time to avoid capture by aBritish war vessel. He sold the sloop and cargo in Philadelphia, andbegan business on the capital. Being a foreigner, unable to speakEnglish, short, stout, and with a repulsive face, blind in one eye, itwas hard for him to get a start. But he was not the man to give up. He had begun as a cabin boy at thirteen, and for nine years sailedbetween Bordeaux and the French West Indies. He improved every leisureminute at sea, mastering the art of navigation. 

At the age of eight he first discovered that he was blind in one eye. His father, evidently thinking that he would never amount to anything, would not help him to an education beyond that of mere reading andwriting, but sent his younger brothers to college. The discovery ofhis blindness, the neglect of his father, and the chagrin of hisbrothers' advancement, soured his whole life. 

When he began business for himself in Philadelphia, there seemed to benothing he would not do for money. He bought and sold anything, fromgroceries to old junk. He bottled wine and cider, from which he made agood profit. Everything he touched prospered. In 1780, he resumed theNew Orleans and St. Domingo trade, in which he had been engaged at thebreaking out of the Revolution. Here great success again attended him. He had two vessels lying in one of the St. Domingo ports when the greatinsurrection on that island broke out. A number of the rich plantersfled to his vessels with their valuables, which they left for safekeeping while they went back to their estates to secure more. Theyprobably fell victims to the cruel negroes, for they never returned, and Girard was the lucky possessor of $50, 000 which the goods broughtin Philadephia. 

Everybody, especially his jealous brother merchants, attributed hisgreat success to his luck. While undoubtedly he was fortunate inhappening to be at the right place at the right time, yet he wasprecision, method, accuracy, energy itself. He left nothing to chance. His plans and schemes were worked out with mathematical care. Hisletters, written to his captains in foreign ports, laying out theirroutes and giving detailed instruction from which they were neverallowed to deviate under any circumstances, are models of foresight andsystematic planning. He never left anything of importance to others. He was rigidly accurate in his instructions, and would not allow theslightest departure from them. He used to say that while his captainsmight save him money by deviating from instructions once, yet theywould cause loss in ninety-nine other cases. Once, when a captainreturned and had saved him several thousand dollars by buying his cargoof cheese in another port than that in which he had been instructed tobuy, Girard was so enraged, although he was several thousand dollarsricher, that he discharged the captain on the spot, notwithstanding thelatter had been faithful in his service for many years, and thought hewas saving his employer a great deal of money by deviating from hisinstructions. 

Girard lived in a dingy little house, poorer than that occupied by manyof his employees. He married a servant girl of great beauty, but sheproved totally unfitted for him, and died at last in the insane asylum. 

Girard never lost a ship, and many times what brought financial ruin tomany others, as the War of 1812, only increased his wealth. Whatseemed luck with him was only good judgment and promptness in seizingopportunities, and the greatest care and zeal in improving them totheir utmost possibilities. 

Luck is not God's price for success: that is altogether too cheap, nordoes he dicker with men. 

The mathematician tells you that if you throw the dice, there arethirty chances to one against your turning up a particular number, anda hundred to one against your repeating the same throw three times insuccession: and so on in an augmenting ratio. What is luck? Is it, ashas been suggested, a blind man's buff among the laws? a ruse among theelements? a trick of Dame Nature? Has any scholar defined luck? anyphilosopher explained its nature? any chemist shown its composition?Is luck that strange, nondescript fairy, that does all things among menthat they cannot account for? If so, why does not luck make a foolspeak words of wisdom; an ignoramus utter lectures on philosophy?

Many a young man who has read the story of John Wanamaker's romanticcareer has gained very little inspiration or help from it toward hisown elevation and advancement, for he looks upon it as the result ofgood luck, chance, or fate. "What a lucky fellow, " he says to himselfas he reads; "what a bonanza he fell into. " But a careful analysis ofWanamaker's life only enforces the same lesson taught by the analysisof most great lives, namely, that a good mother, a good constitution, the habit of hard work, indomitable energy, a determination which knowsno defeat, a decision which never wavers, a concentration which neverscatters its forces, courage which never falters, a self-mastery whichcan say No, and stick to it, an "ignominious love of detail, " strictintegrity and downright honesty, a cheerful disposition, unboundedenthusiasm in one's calling, and a high aim and noble purpose insure avery large measure of success. 

Youth should be taught that there is something in circumstances; thatthere is such a thing as a poor pedestrian happening to find noobstruction in his way, and reaching the goal when a better walkerfinds the drawbridge up, the street blockaded, and so fails to win therace; that wealth often does place unworthy sons in high positions, that family influence does gain a lawyer clients, a physician patients, an ordinary scholar a good professorship; but that, on the other hand, position, clients, patients, professorships, manager's andsuperintendent's positions do not necessarily constitute success. Heshould be taught that in the long run, as a rule, _the best man doeswin the best place_, and that persistent merit does succeed. 

There is about as much chance of idleness and incapacity winning realsuccess, or a high position in life, as there would be in producing aParadise Lost by shaking up promiscuously the separate words ofWebster's Dictionary, and letting them fall at random on the floor. Fortune smiles upon those who roll up their sleeves and put theirshoulders to the wheel; upon men who are not afraid of dreary, dry, irksome drudgery, men of nerve and grit who do not turn aside for dirtand detail. 

The youth should be taught that "he alone is great, who, by a lifeheroic, conquers fate;" that "diligence is the mother of good luck;"that, nine times out of ten, what we call luck or fate is but a merebugbear of the indolent, the languid, the purposeless, the careless, the indifferent; that the man who fails, as a rule, does not see orseize his opportunity. Opportunity is coy, is swift, is gone, beforethe slow, the unobservant, the indolent, or the careless can seizeher:--

 "In idle wishes fools supinely stay: Be there a will and wisdom finds a way. "

It has been well said that the very reputation of being strong willed, plucky, and indefatigable is of priceless value. It often cows enemiesand dispels at the start opposition to one's undertakings which wouldotherwise be formidable. 

"If Eric's in robust health, and has slept well, and is at the top ofhis condition, and thirty years old at his departure from Greenland, "says Emerson, "he will steer west and his ships will reachNewfoundland. But take Eric out and put in a stronger and bolder man, and the ships will sail six hundred, one thousand, fifteen hundredmiles further, and reach Labrador and New England. There is no chancein results. " Obstacles tower before the living man like mountainchains, stopping his path and hindering his progress. He surmountsthem by his energy. He makes a new path over them. He climbs uponthem to mountain heights. They cannot stop him. They do not muchdelay him. He transmutes difficulties into power, and makes temporaryfailures into stepping-stones to ultimate success. 

How many might have been giants who are only dwarfs. How many a onehas died "with all his music in him. "

It is astonishing what men who have come to their senses late in lifehave accomplished by a sudden resolution. 

Arkwright was fifty years of age when he began to learn English grammarand improve his writing and spelling. Benjamin Franklin was past fiftybefore he began the study of science and philosophy. Milton, in hisblindness, was past the age of fifty when he sat down to complete hisworld-known epic, and Scott at fifty-five took up his pen to redeem anenormous liability. "Yet I am learning, " said Michael Angelo, whenthreescore years and ten were past, and he had long attained thehighest triumphs of his art. 

Even brains are second in importance to will. The vacillating man isalways pushed aside in the race of life. It is only the weak andvacillating who halt before adverse circumstances and obstacles. A manwith an iron will, with a determination that nothing shall check hiscareer, if he has perseverance and grit, is sure to succeed. We maynot find time for what we would like, but what we long for and strivefor with all our strength, we usually approximate if we do not fullyreach. Hunger breaks through stone walls; stern necessity will find away or make one. 

Success is also a great physical as well as mental tonic, and tends tostrengthen the will-power. Dr. Johnson says: "Resolutions and successreciprocally produce each other. " Strong-willed men, as a rule, aresuccessful men, and great success is almost impossible without it. 

A man who can resolve vigorously upon a course of action, and turnsneither to the right nor the left, though a paradise tempt him, whokeeps his eyes upon the goal, whatever distracts him, is sure ofsuccess. We could almost classify successes and failures by theirvarious degrees of will-power. Men like Sir James Mackintosh, Coleridge, La Harpe, and many others who have dazzled the world withtheir brilliancy, but who never accomplished a tithe of what theyattempted, who were always raising our expectations that they wereabout to perform wonderful deeds, but who accomplished nothing worthyof their abilities, have been deficient in will-power. One talent witha will behind it will accomplish more than ten without it. The greatlinguist of Bologna mastered a hundred languages by taking them singly, as the lion fought the bulls. 

I wish it were possible to show the youth of America the great partthat the will might play in their success in life and in theirhappiness also. The achievements of will-power are simply beyondcomputation. Scarcely anything in reason seems impossible to the manwho can will strong enough and long enough. 

How often we see this illustrated in the case of a young woman whosuddenly becomes conscious that she is plain and unattractive; who, byprodigious exercise of her will and untiring industry, resolves toredeem herself from obscurity and commonness; and who not only makes upfor her deficiencies, but elevates herself into a prominence andimportance which mere personal attractions could never have given her. Charlotte Cushman, without a charm of form or face, climbed to the verytop of her profession. How many young men, stung by consciousness ofphysical deformity or mental deficiencies, have, by a strong persistentexercise of will-power, raised themselves from mediocrity and placedthemselves high above those who scorned them. 

History is full of examples of men and women who have redeemedthemselves from disgrace, poverty, and misfortune, by the firmresolution of an iron will. The consciousness of being looked upon asinferior, as incapable of accomplishing what others accomplish; thesensitiveness at being considered a dunce in school, has stung many ayouth into a determination which has elevated him far above those wholaughed at him, as in the case of Newton, of Adam Clark, of Sheridan, Wellington, Goldsmith, Dr. Chalmers, Curran, Disraeli, and hundreds ofothers. "Whatever you wish, that you are; for such is the force of thehuman will, joined to the Divine, that whatever we wish to beseriously, and with a true intention, that we become. " While this isnot strictly true, yet there is a deal of truth in it. 

It is men like Mirabeau, who "trample upon impossibilities;" likeNapoleon, who do not wait for opportunities, but make them; like Grant, who has only "unconditional surrender" for the enemy, who change thevery front of the world. "We have but what we make, and every good islocked by nature in a granite hand, sheer labor must unclench. "

What cares Henry L. Bulwer for the suffocating cough, even though hecan scarcely speak above a whisper? In the House of Commons he makeshis immortal speech on the Irish Church just the same. 

"I can't, it is impossible, " said a foiled lieutenant, to Alexander. "Be gone, " shouted the conquering Macedonian, "there is nothingimpossible to him who will try. "

Were I called upon to express in a word the secret of so many failuresamong those who started out in life with high hopes, I should sayunhesitatingly, they lacked will-power. They could not half will. What is a man without a will? He is like an engine without steam, amere sport of chance, to be tossed about hither and thither, always atthe mercy of those who have wills. I should call the strength of willthe test of a young man's possibilities. Can he will strong enough, and hold whatever he undertakes with an iron grip? It is the iron gripthat takes the strong hold on life. What chance is there in thiscrowding, pushing, selfish, greedy world, where everything is pusher orpushed, for a young man with no will, no grip on life? "The truestwisdom, " said Napoleon, "is a resolute determination. " An iron willwithout principle might produce a Napoleon; but with character it wouldmake a Wellington or a Grant, untarnished by ambition or avarice. 

 "The undivided will 'T is that compels the elements and wrings A human music from the indifferent air. "

CHAPTER IV. 

SUCCESS UNDER DIFFICULTIES. 

Victories that are easy are cheap. Those only are worth having whichcome as the result of hard fighting. --BEECHER. 

Man owes his growth chiefly to that active striving of the will, thatencounter with difficulty, which we call effort; and it is astonishingto find how often results that seemed impracticable are thus madepossible. --EPES SARGENT. 

I know no such unquestionable badge and ensign of a sovereign mind asthat tenacity of purpose which, through all change of companions, orparties, or fortunes, changes never, bates no jot of heart or hope, butwearies out opposition and arrives at its port. --EMERSON. 

 Yes, to this thought I hold with firm persistence; The last result of wisdom stamps it true; He only earns his freedom and existence Who daily conquers them anew. GOETHE. 

Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortunes; but great minds riseabove them. --WASHINGTON IRVING. 

"I have here three teams that I want to get over to Staten Island, "said a boy of twelve one day in 1806 to the innkeeper at South Amboy, N. J. "If you will put us across, I'll leave with you one of my horsesin pawn, and if I don't send you back six dollars within forty-eighthours you may keep the horse. "

The innkeeper asked the reason for this novel proposition, and learnedthat the lad's father had contracted to get the cargo of a vesselstranded near Sandy Hook, and take it to New York in lighters. The boyhad been sent with three wagons, six horses, and three men, to carrythe cargo across a sand-spit to the lighters. The work accomplished, he had started with only six dollars to travel a long distance homeover the Jersey sands, and reached South Amboy penniless. "I'll doit, " said the innkeeper, as he looked into the bright honest eyes ofthe boy. The horse was soon redeemed. 

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[Illustration: WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT]

How can you keep a determined man from success: Place stumbling-blocksin his way, and he uses them for stepping-stones. Imprison him, and heproduces the "Pilgrim's Progress. " Deprive him of eyesight, and hewrites the "Conquest of Mexico. "

 * * * * * *

"My son, " said this same boy's mother, on the first of May, 1810, whenhe asked her to lend him one hundred dollars to buy a boat, havingimbibed a strong liking for the sea; "on the twenty-seventh of thismonth you will be sixteen years old. If, by that time, you will plow, harrow, and plant with corn the eight-acre lot, I will advance you themoney. " The field was rough and stony, but the work was done in time, and well done. From this small beginning Cornelius Vanderbilt laid thefoundation of a colossal fortune. He would often work all night; and, as he was never absent from his post by day, he soon had the bestbusiness in New York harbor. 

In 1813, when it was expected that New York would be attacked byBritish ships, all the boatmen except Cornelius put in bids to conveyprovisions to the military posts around New York, naming extremely lowrates, as the contractor would be exempted from military duty. "Whydon't you send in a bid?" asked his father. "Of what use?" repliedyoung Vanderbilt; "they are offering to do the work at half price. Itcan't be done at such rates. " "Well, " said his father, "it can do noharm to try for it. " So, to please his father, but with no hope ofsuccess, Cornelius made an offer fair to both sides, but did not go tohear the award. When his companions had all returned with long faces, he went to the commissary's office and asked if the contract had beengiven. "Oh, yes, " was the reply; "that business is settled. CorneliusVanderbilt is the man. What?" he asked, seeing that the youth wasapparently thunderstruck, "is it you?" "My name is CorneliusVanderbilt, " said the boatman. "Well, " said the commissary, "don't youknow why we have given the contract to you?" "No. " "Why, it isbecause we want this business _done_, and we know you'll do it. "Character gives confidence. 

In 1818 he owned two or three of the finest coasting schooners in NewYork harbor, and had a capital of nine thousand dollars. Seeing thatsteam-vessels would soon win supremacy over those carrying sails only, he gave up his fine business to become the captain of a steamboat atone thousand dollars a year. For twelve years he ran between New Yorkcity and New Brunswick, N. J. In 1829 he began business as a steamboatowner, in the face of opposition so bitter that he lost his lastdollar. But the tide turned, and he prospered so rapidly that he atlength owned over one hundred steamboats. He early identified himselfwith the growing railroad interests of the country, and became therichest man of his day in America. 

Barnum began the race of business life barefoot, for at the age offifteen he was obliged to buy on credit the shoes he wore at hisfather's funeral. He was a remarkable example of success underdifficulties. There was no keeping him down; no opposition dauntedhim, no obstacles were too great for him to overcome. Think of a manbeing ruined at fifty years of age; yes, worse than ruined, for he washeavily in debt besides. Yet on the very day of his downfall he beginsto rise again, wringing victory from defeat by his indomitablepersistence. 

"Eloquence must have been born with you, " said a friend to J. P. Curran. "Indeed, my dear sir, it was not, " replied the orator, "it wasborn some three and twenty years and some months after me. " Speakingof his first attempt at a debating club, he said: "I stood up, trembling through every fibre, but remembering that in this I was butimitating Tully, I took courage and had actually proceeded almost asfar as 'Mr. Chairman, ' when, to my astonishment and terror, I perceivedthat every eye was turned on me. There were only six or seven present, and the room could not have contained as many more; yet was it, to mypanic-stricken imagination, as if I were the central object in nature, and assembled millions were gazing upon me in breathless expectation. I became dismayed and dumb. My friends cried, 'Hear him!' but therewas nothing to hear. " He was nicknamed "Orator Mum, " and well did hedeserve the title until he ventured to stare in astonishment at aspeaker who was "culminating chronology by the most preposterousanachronisms. " "I doubt not, " said the annoyed speaker, "that 'OratorMum' possesses wonderful talents for eloquence, but I would recommendhim to show it in future by some more popular method than his silence. "Stung by the taunt, Curran rose and gave the man a "piece of his mind, "speaking quite fluently in his anger. Encouraged by this success, hetook great pains to become a good speaker. He corrected his habit ofstuttering by reading favorite passages aloud every day slowly anddistinctly, and spoke at every opportunity. 

Bunyan wrote his "Pilgrim's Progress" on the untwisted papers used tocork the bottles of milk brought for his meals. Gifford wrote hisfirst copy of a mathematical work, when a cobbler's apprentice, onsmall scraps of leather; and Rittenhouse, the astronomer, firstcalculated eclipses on his plow handle. 

A poor Irish lad, so pitted by smallpox that boys made sport of him, earned his living by writing little ballads for street musicians. Eight cents a day was often all he could earn. He traveled throughFrance and Italy, begging his way by singing and playing the flute atthe cottages of the peasantry. At twenty-eight he was penniless inLondon, and lived in the beggars' quarters in Axe Lane. In hispoverty, he set up as a doctor in the suburbs of London. He wore asecond-hand coat of rusty velvet, with a patch on the left breast whichhe adroitly covered with his three-cornered hat during his visits; andwe have an amusing anecdote of his contest of courtesy with a patientwho persisted in endeavoring to relieve him of his hat, which only madehim press it more devoutly to his heart. He often had to pawn hisclothes to keep from starving. He sold his "Life of Voltaire" fortwenty dollars. After great hardship he managed to publish his "PoliteLearning in Europe, " and this brought him to public notice. Next came"The Traveller, " and the wretched man in a Fleet Street garret foundhimself famous. His landlady once arrested him for rent, but Dr. Johnson came to his relief, took from his desk the manuscript of the"Vicar of Wakefield, " and sold it for three hundred dollars. He spenttwo years revising "The Deserted Village" after it was first written. Generous to a fault, vain and improvident, imposed on by others, he wascontinually in debt; although for his "History of the Earth andAnimated Nature" he received four thousand dollars, and some of hisworks, as, for instance, "She Stoops to Conquer, " had a large sale. But in spite of fortune's frown and his own weakness, he won successand fame. The world, which so often comes too late with its assistanceand laurels, gave to the weak, gentle, loving author of "The Vicar ofWakefield" a monument in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. 

The poor, scrofulous, and almost blind boy, Samuel Johnson, was takenby his mother to receive the touch of Queen Anne, which was supposed toheal the "King's Evil. " He entered Oxford as a servant, copyinglectures from a student's notebooks, while the boys made sport of thebare feet showing through great holes in his shoes. Some one left apair of new shoes at his door, but he was too proud to be helped, andthrew them out of the window. He was so poor that he was obliged toleave college, and at twenty-six married a widow of forty-eight. Hestarted a private school with his wife's money; but, getting only threepupils, was obliged to close it. He went to London, where he lived onnine cents a day. In his distress he wrote a poem in which appeared incapital letters the line, "Slow rises worth by poverty depressed, "which attracted wide attention. He suffered greatly in London forthirteen years, being arrested once for a debt of thirteen dollars. Atforty he published "The Vanity of Human Wishes, " in which were theselines:--

 "Then mark what ills the scholar's life assail; Toil, envy, want, the patron and the jail. "

When asked how he felt about his failures, he replied:

"Like a monument, "--that is, steadfast, immovable. He was anindefatigable worker. In the evenings of a single week he wrote"Rasselas, " a beautiful little story of the search for happiness, toget money to pay the funeral expenses of his mother. With sixassistants he worked seven years on his Dictionary, which made hisfortune. His name was then in everybody's mouth, and when he no longerneeded help, assistance, as usual, came from every quarter. The greatuniversities hastened to bestow their degrees, and King George invitedhim to the palace. 

Lord Mansfield raised himself by indefatigable industry from oatmealporridge and poverty to affluence and the Lord Chief Justice's Bench. 

Of five thousand articles sent every year to "Lippincott's Magazine, "only two hundred were accepted. How much do you think Homer got forhis Iliad? or Dante for his Paradise? Only bitter bread and salt, andgoing up and down other people's stairs. In science, the man whodiscovered the telescope, and first saw heaven, was paid with adungeon: the man who invented the microscope, and first saw earth, diedfrom starvation, driven from his home. It is very clear indeed thatGod means all good work and talk to be done for nothing. Shakespeare's"Hamlet" was sold for about twenty-five dollars; but his autograph hassold for five thousand dollars. 

During the ten years in which he made his greatest discoveries, IsaacNewton could hardly pay two shillings a week to the Royal Society ofwhich he was a member. Some of his friends wanted to get him excusedfrom this payment, but he would not allow them to act. 

There are no more interesting pages in biography than those whichrecord how Emerson, as a child, was unable to read the second volume ofa certain book, because his widowed mother could not afford the amount(five cents) necessary to obtain it from the circulating library. 

Linnaeus was so poor when getting his education, that he had to mendhis shoes with folded paper, and often had to beg his meals of hisfriends. 

Who in the days of the First Empire cared to recall the fact thatNapoleon, Emperor and King, was once forced to borrow a louis fromTalma, when he lived in a garret on the Quai Conti?

David Livingstone at ten years of age was put into a cotton factorynear Glasgow. Out of his first week's wages he bought a Latin Grammar, and studied in the night schools for years. He would sit up and studytill midnight unless his mother drove him to bed, notwithstanding hehad to be at the factory at six in the morning. He mastered Virgil andHorace in this way, and read extensively, besides studying botany. Soeager and thirsty for knowledge was he, that he would place his bookbefore him on the spinning-jenny, and amid the deafening roar ofmachinery would pore over its pages. 

George Eliot said of the years of close work upon her "Romola, " "Ibegan it a young woman, I finished it an old woman. " One of Emerson'sbiographers says, referring to his method of rewriting, revising, correcting, and eliminating: "His apples were sorted over and overagain, until only the very rarest, the most perfect, were left. It didnot matter that those thrown away were very good and helped to makeclear the possibilities of the orchard, they were unmercifully castaside. " Carlyle's books were literally wrung out of him. The pains hetook to satisfy himself of a relatively insignificant fact wereincredible. Before writing his essay on Diderot, he read twenty-fivevolumes at the rate of one per day. He tells Edward Fitzgerald thatfor the twentieth time he is going over the confused records of thebattle of Naseby, that he may be quite sure of the topography. 

"All the performances of human art, at which we look with praise andwonder, " says Johnson, "are instances of the resistless force ofperseverance: it is by this that the quarry becomes a pyramid, and thatdistant countries are united with canals. If a man was to compare theeffect of a single stroke of the pickaxe, or of one impression of thespade, with the general design and last result, he would be overwhelmedby the sense of their disproportion; yet those petty operations, incessantly continued, in time surmount the greatest difficulties, andmountains are leveled, and oceans bounded, by the slender force ofhuman beings. "

The Rev. Eliphalet Nott, a pulpit orator, was especially noted for asermon on the death of Alexander Hamilton, the great statesman, who wasshot in a duel by Aaron Burr. Although Nott had managed in some way toget his degree at Brown University, he was at one time so poor after heentered the ministry that he could not buy an overcoat. His wifesheared their only cosset sheep in January, wrapped it in burlapblankets to keep it from freezing, carded and spun and wove the wool, and made it into an overcoat for him. 

Great men never wait for opportunities; they make them. Nor do theywait for facilities or favoring circumstances; they seize upon whateveris at hand, work out their problem, and master the situation. A youngman determined and willing will find a way or make one. A Franklindoes not require elaborate apparatus; he can bring electricity from theclouds with a common kite. A Watt can make a model of the condensingsteam-engine out of an old syringe used to inject the arteries of deadbodies previous to dissection. A Dr. Black can discover latent heatwith a pan of water and two thermometers. A Newton can unfold thecomposition of light and the origin of colors with a prism, a lens, anda piece of pasteboard. A Humphry Davy can experiment with kitchen potsand pans, and a Faraday can experiment on electricity by means of oldbottles, in his spare minutes while a book-binder. When science was inits cradle the Marquis of Worcester, an English nobleman, imprisoned inthe Tower of London, was certainly not in a very good position to doanything for the world, but would not waste his time. The cover of avessel of hot water blown on before his eyes led to a series ofobservations, which he published later in a book called "Century ofInventions. " These observations were a sort of text-book on the powerof steam, which resulted in Newcomen's steam-engine, which Wattafterward perfected. A Ferguson maps out the heavenly bodies, lying onhis back, by means of threads with beads stretched between himself andthe stars. 

Not in his day of bodily strength and political power, but blind, decrepit, and defeated with his party, Milton composed "Paradise Lost. "

Great men have found no royal road to their triumph. It is always theold route, by way of industry and perseverance. 

The farmer boy, Elihu B. Washburn, taught school at ten dollars permonth, and early learned the lesson that it takes one hundred cents tomake a dollar. In after years he fought "steals" in Congress, until hewas called the "Watchdog of the Treasury. " From his long membership hebecame known as the "Father of the House. " He administered the oath toSchuyler Colfax as Speaker three times. He recommended Grant ascolonel of a regiment of volunteers. The latter, when President, appointed him Secretary of State, and, later, Minister to France. During the reign of the Commune, the representatives of nearly allother foreign nations fled in dismay, but Washburn remained at hispost. Shells exploded close to his office, and fell all around it, buthe did not leave even when Paris was in flames. For a time he wasreally the minister of all foreign countries, in Paris; and representedPrussia for almost a year. The Emperor William conferred upon him theOrder of the Red Eagle, and gave him a jeweled star of great value. 

How could the poor boy, Elihu Burritt, working nearly all the daylightin a blacksmith's shop, get an education? He had but one book in hislibrary, and carried that in his hat. But this boy with no chancebecame one of America's wonders. 

When teaching school, Garfield was very poor. He tore his only bluejean trousers, but concealed the rents by pins until night, when heretired early that his boarding mistress might mend his clothes. "Whenyou get to be a United States Senator, " said she, "no one will ask whatkind of clothes you wore when teaching school. "

Although Michael Angelo made himself immortal in three differentoccupations, his fame might well rest upon his dome of St. Peter as anarchitect, upon his "Moses" as a sculptor, and upon his "Last Judgment"as a painter; yet we find by his correspondence now in the BritishMuseum, that when he was at work on his colossal bronze statue of PopeJulius II. , he was so poor that he could not have his younger brothercome to visit him at Bologna, because he had but one bed in which heand three of his assistants slept together. 

"I was always at the bottom of my purse, " said Zola, in describing thestruggles of his early years of authorship. "Very often I had not asou left, and not knowing, either, where to get one. I rose generallyat four in the morning, and began to study after a breakfast consistingof one raw egg. But no matter, those were good times. After taking awalk along the quays, I entered my garret, and joyfully partaking of adinner of three apples, I sat down to work. I wrote, and I was happy. In winter I would allow myself no fire; wood was too expensive--only onfête days was I able to afford it. But I had several pipes of tobaccoand a candle for three sous. A three-sous candle, only think of it!It meant a whole night of literature to me. "

James Brooks, once the editor and proprietor of the "New York DailyExpress, " and later an eminent congressman, began life as a clerk in astore in Maine, and when twenty-one received for his pay a hogshead ofNew England rum. He was so eager to go to college that he started forWaterville with his trunk on his back, and when he was graduated he wasso poor and plucky that he carried his trunk on his back to the stationwhen he went home. 

When Elias Howe, harassed by want and woe, was in London completing hisfirst sewing-machine, he had frequently to borrow money to live on. Hebought beans and cooked them himself. He also borrowed money to sendhis wife back to America. He sold his first machine for five pounds, although it was worth fifty, and then he pawned his letters patent topay his expenses home. 

The boy Arkwright begins barbering in a cellar, but dies worth amillion and a half. The world treated his novelties just as it treatseverybody's novelties--made infinite objection, mustered all theimpediments, but he snapped his fingers at their objections, and livedto become honored and wealthy. 

There is scarcely a great truth or doctrine but has had to fight itsway to public recognition in the face of detraction, calumny, andpersecution. "Everywhere, " says Heine, "that a great soul givesutterance to its thoughts, there also is a Golgotha. "

Nearly every great discovery or invention that has blessed mankind hashad to fight its way to recognition, even against the opposition of themost progressive men. 

Even Sir Charles Napier fiercely opposed the introduction of steampower into the Royal Navy. In the House of Commons, he exclaimed, "Mr. Speaker, when we enter Her Majesty's naval service and face the chancesof war, we go prepared to be hacked in pieces, to be riddled bybullets, or to be blown to bits by shot and shell; but Mr. Speaker, wedo not go prepared to be boiled alive. " He said this with tremendousemphasis. 

"Will any one explain how there can be a light without a wick?" asked amember of Parliament, when William Murdock, toward the close of theeighteenth century, said that coal gas would give a good light, andcould be conveyed into buildings in pipes. "Do you intend taking thedome of St. Paul's for a gasometer?" was the sneering question of eventhe great scientist, Humphry Davy. Walter Scott ridiculed the idea oflighting London by "smoke, " but he soon used it at Abbotsford, and Davyachieved one of his greatest triumphs by experimenting with gas untilhe had invented his safety lamp. 

Titian used to crush the flowers to get their color, and painted thewhite walls of his father's cottage in Tyrol with all sorts ofpictures, at which the mountaineers gazed in wonder. 

"That boy will beat me one day, " said an old painter as he watched alittle fellow named Michael Angelo making drawings of pot and brushes, easel and stool, and other articles in the studio. The barefoot boydid persevere until he had overcome every difficulty and become amaster of his art. 

William H. Prescott was a remarkable example of what a boy with "nochance" can do. While at college, he lost one eye by a hard piece ofbread thrown during a "biscuit battle, " then so common after meals;and, from sympathy, the other eye became almost useless. But the boyhad pluck and determination, and would not lead a useless life. He sethis heart upon being a historian, and turned all his energies in thatdirection. By the aid of others' eyes, he spent ten years studyingbefore he even decided upon a particular theme for his first book. Then he spent ten years more, poring over old archives and manuscripts, before he published his "Ferdinand and Isabella. " What a lesson in hislife for young men! What a rebuke to those who have thrown away theiropportunities and wasted their lives!

"Galileo with an opera-glass, " said Emerson, "discovered a moresplendid series of celestial phenomena than any one since with thegreat telescopes. Columbus found the new world in an undecked boat. "

Surroundings which men call unfavorable cannot prevent the unfolding ofyour powers. From the plain fields and lowlands of Avon came theShakespearean genius which has charmed the world. From among therock-ribbed hills of New Hampshire sprang the greatest of Americanorators and statesmen, Daniel Webster. From the crowded ranks of toil, and homes to which luxury is a stranger, have often come the leadersand benefactors of our race. Indeed, when Christ came upon earth, Hisearly abode was a place so poor and so much despised that men thoughtHe could not be the Christ, asking, in utter astonishment, "Can anygood thing come out of Nazareth?"

"I once knew a little colored boy, " said Frederick Douglass, "whosemother and father died when he was but six years old. He was a slave, and had no one to care for him. He slept on a dirt floor in a hovel, and in cold weather would crawl into a meal-bag head foremost, andleave his feet in the ashes to keep them warm. Often he would roast anear of corn and eat it to satisfy his hunger, and many times has hecrawled under the barn or stable and secured eggs, which he would roastin the fire and eat. That boy did not wear pantaloons, as you do, buta tow-linen shirt. Schools were unknown to him, and he learned tospell from an old Webster's spelling-book, and to read and write fromposters on cellar and barn doors, while boys and men would help him. He would then preach and speak, and soon became well known. He becamepresidential elector, United States marshal, United States recorder, United States diplomat, and accumulated some wealth. He worebroadcloth, and didn't have to divide crumbs with the dogs under thetable. That boy was Frederick Douglass. What was possible for me ispossible for you. Don't think because you are colored you can'taccomplish anything. Strive earnestly to add to your knowledge. Solong as you remain in ignorance, so long will you fail to command therespect of your fellow-men. "

Where shall we find an illustration more impressive than in AbrahamLincoln, whose life, career, and death might be chanted by a Greekchorus as at once the prelude and the epilogue of the most imperialtheme of modern times? Born as lowly as the Son of God, in a hovel; ofwhat real parentage we know not, reared in penury, squalor, with nogleam of light, nor fair surrounding; a young manhood vexed by weirddreams and visions; with scarcely a natural grace; singularly awkward, ungainly even among the uncouth about him: it was reserved for thisremarkable character, late in life, to be snatched from obscurity, raised to supreme command at a supreme moment, and intrusted with thedestiny of a nation. The great leaders of his party were made to standaside; the most experienced and accomplished men of the day, men likeSeward, and Chase, and Sumner, statesmen famous and trained, were sentto the rear, while this strange figure was brought by unseen hands tothe front, and given the reins of power. 

The story is told of a man in London deprived of both legs and arms, who managed to write with his mouth and perform other things soremarkable as to enable him to earn a fair living. He would laycertain sheets of paper together, pinning them at the corner to makethem hold. Then he would take a pen and write some verses; after whichhe would proceed to embellish the lines by many skillful flourishes. Dropping the pen from his mouth, he would next take up a needle andthread, also with his mouth, thread the needle, and make severalstitches. He also painted with a brush, and was in many other ways awonderful man. Instead of being a burden to his family he was the mostimportant contributor to their welfare. 

Arthur Cavanagh, M. P. , was born without arms or legs, yet it is saidthat he was a good shot, a skillful fisherman and sailor, and one ofthe best cross country riders in Ireland. He was a goodconversationalist, and an able member of Parliament. He ate with hisfork attached to his stump of an arm, and wrote holding his pen in histeeth. In riding he held the bridle in his mouth, his body beingstrapped to the saddle. He once lost his means of support in India, but went to work with his accustomed energy, and obtained employment asa carrier of dispatches. 

People thought it strange that Gladstone should appoint blind HenryFawcett Postmaster-General of Great Britain; but never before did anyone fill the office so well. 

John B. Herreshoff, of Bristol, R. I. , although blind since he wasfifteen years old, is the founder and head of one of the most notedshipbuilding establishments in the world. He has superintended theconstruction of some of the swiftest torpedo boats and steam andsailing yachts afloat. He frequently takes his turn at the wheel insailing his vessels on trial trips. He is aided greatly by his youngerbrother Nathaniel, but can plan vessels and conduct business withouthim. After examining a vessel's hull or a good model of it, he willgive detailed instructions for building another just like it, and willmake a more accurate duplicate than can most boat-builders whose sightis perfect. 

The Rev. William H. Milburn, who lost his sight when a child, studiedfor the ministry, and was ordained before he attained his majority. Inten years he traveled about 200, 000 miles in missionary work. He haswritten half a dozen books, among them a very careful history of theMississippi Valley. He has long been chaplain of the lower house ofCongress. 

Blind Fanny Crosby, of New York, was a teacher of the blind for manyyears. She has written nearly three thousand hymns, among which are"Pass Me not, O Gentle Saviour, " "Rescue the Perishing, " "Saviour morethan Life to Me, " and "Jesus keep Me near the Cross. "

Nor are these by any means the only examples of blind people now doingtheir full share of the world's work. In the United States alone thereare engaged in musical occupation one hundred and fifty blind pianotuners, one hundred and fifty blind teachers of music in schools forthe blind, five hundred blind private teachers, one hundred blindchurch organists, fifteen or more blind composers and publishers ofmusic, and several blind dealers in musical instruments. 

_There is no open door to the temple of success_. Every one who entersmakes his own door, which closes behind him to all others, not evenpermitting his own children to pass. 

Nearly forty years ago, on a rainy, dreary day in November, a youngwidow in Philadelphia sat wondering how she could feed and clothe threelittle ones left dependent by the death of her husband, a navalofficer. Happening to think of a box of which her husband had spoken, she opened it, and found therein an envelope containing directions fora code of colored light signals to be used at night on the ocean. Thesystem was not complete, but she perfected it, went to Washington, andinduced the Secretary of the Navy to give it a trial. An admiral soonwrote that the signals were good for nothing, although the idea wasvaluable. For months and years she worked, succeeding at last inproducing brilliant lights of different colors. She was paid $20, 000for the right to manufacture them in our navy. Nearly all the blockaderunners captured in the Civil War were taken by the aid of the Costonsignals, which are also considered invaluable in the Life SavingService. Mrs. Coston introduced them into several European navies, andbecame wealthy. 

A modern writer says that it is one of the mysteries of our life thatgenius, that noblest gift of God to man, is nourished by poverty. Itsgreatest works have been achieved by the sorrowing ones of the world intears and despair. Not in the brilliant salon, not in the tapestriedlibrary, not in ease and competence, is genius usually born andnurtured; but often in adversity and destitution, amidst the harassingcares of a straitened household, in bare and fireless garrets, with thenoise of squalid children, in the turbulence of domestic contentions, and in the deep gloom of uncheered despair. This is its most frequentbirthplace, and amid scenes like these unpropitious, repulsive, wretched surroundings, have men labored, studied, and trainedthemselves, until they have at last emanated from the gloom of thatobscurity the shining lights of their times; have become the companionsof kings, the guides and teachers of their kind, and exercised aninfluence upon the thought of the world amounting to a species ofintellectual legislation. 

Chauncey Jerome's education was limited to three months in the districtschool each year until he was ten, when his father took him into hisblacksmith shop at Plymouth, Conn. , to make nails. Money was a scarcearticle with young Chauncey. He once chopped a load of wood for onecent, and often chopped by moonlight for neighbors at less than a dimea load. His father died when he was eleven, and his mother was forcedto send Chauncey out, with tears in his eyes and a little bundle ofclothes in his hand, to earn a living on a farm. His new employer kepthim at work early and late chopping down trees all day, his shoessometimes full of snow, for he had no boots until he was nearlytwenty-one. At fourteen he was apprenticed for seven years to acarpenter, who gave him only board and clothes. Several times duringhis apprenticeship he carried his tools thirty miles on his back to hiswork at different places. After he had learned his trade he frequentlywalked thirty miles to a job with his kit upon his back. One day heheard people talking of Eli Terry, of Plymouth, who had undertaken tomake two hundred clocks in one lot. "He'll never live long enough tofinish them, " said one. "If he should, " said another, "he could notpossibly sell so many. The very idea is ridiculous. " Chaunceypondered long over this rumor, for it had long been his dream to becomea great clock-maker. He tried his hand at the first opportunity, andsoon learned to make a wooden clock. When he got an order to maketwelve at twelve dollars apiece he thought his fortune was made. Onenight he happened to think that a cheap clock could be made of brass aswell as of wood, and would not shrink, swell, or warp appreciably inany climate. He acted on the idea, and became the first greatmanufacturer of brass clocks. He made millions at the rate of sixhundred a day, exporting them to all parts of the globe. 

"The History of the English People" was written while J. R. Green wasstruggling against a mortal illness. He had collected a vast store ofmaterials, and had begun to write, when his disease made a sudden andstartling progress, and his physicians said they could do nothing toarrest it. In the extremity of ruin and defeat he applied himself withgreater fidelity to his work. The time that might still be left to himfor work must henceforth be wrested, day by day, from the grasp ofdeath. The writing occupied five months, while from hour to hour andday to day his life was prolonged, his doctors said, by the sheer forceof his own will and his inflexible determination to finish the "Makingof England. " He lay, too weak to lift a book, or to hold a pen, dictating every word, sometimes through hours of intense suffering. Yet so conscientious was he that, driven by death as he was, thegreater part of the book was rewritten five times. When it was done hebegan the "Conquest of England, " wrote it, reviewed it, and then, dissatisfied with it, rejected it all and began again. As death laidits cold fingers on his heart, he said: "I still have some work to dothat I know is good. I will try to win but one week more to write itdown. " It was not until he was actually dying that he said, "I canwork no more. "

"What does he know, " said a sage, "who has not suffered?" Schillerproduced his greatest tragedies in the midst of physical sufferingalmost amounting to torture. Handel was never greater than when, warned by palsy of the approach of death, and struggling with distressand suffering, he sat down to compose the great works which have madehis name immortal in music. Mozart composed his great operas, and lastof all his "Requiem, " when oppressed by debt and struggling with afatal disease. Beethoven produced his greatest works amidst gloomysorrow, when oppressed by almost total deafness. 

Perhaps no one ever battled harder to overcome obstacles which wouldhave disheartened most men than Demosthenes. He had such a weak voice, and such an impediment in his speech, and was so short of breath, thathe could scarcely get through a single sentence without stopping torest. All his first attempts were nearly drowned by the hisses, jeers, and scoffs of his audiences. His first effort that met with successwas against his guardian, who had defrauded him, and whom he compelledto refund a part of his fortune. He was so discouraged by his defeatsthat he determined to give up forever all attempts at oratory. One ofhis auditors, however, believed the young man had something in him, andencouraged him to persevere. He accordingly appeared again in public, but was hissed down as before. As he withdrew, hanging his head ingreat confusion, a noted actor, Satyrus, encouraged him still furtherto try to overcome his impediment. He stammered so much that he couldnot pronounce some of the letters at all, and his breath would give outbefore he could get through a sentence. Finally, he determined to bean orator cost what it might. He went to the seashore and practicedamid the roar of the breakers with small pebbles in his mouth, in orderto overcome his stammering, and at the same time accustom himself tothe hisses and tumults of his audience. He overcame his short breathby practicing speaking while running up steep and difficult places onthe shore. His awkward gestures were also corrected by long anddetermined drill before a mirror. 

Disheartened by the expense of removing the troublesome seeds, Southernplanters were seriously considering the abandonment of cotton culture. To clean a pound of cotton required the labor of a slave for a day. Eli Whitney, a young man from New England, teaching school in Georgia, saw the state of affairs, and determined to invent a machine to do thework. He worked in secret for many months in a cellar, and at lastmade a machine which cleaned the cotton perfectly and rapidly. Just assuccess crowned his long labor thieves broke into the cellar and stolehis model. He recovered the model, but the principle was stolen, andother machines were made without his consent. In vain he tried toprotect his right in the courts, for Southern juries would almostinvariably decide against him. He had started the South in a greatindustry, and added millions to her wealth, yet the courts united withthe men who had infringed his patents to rob him of the reward of hisingenuity and industry. At last he abandoned the whole thing indisgust, and turned his attention to making improvements in firearms, and with such success that he accumulated a fortune. 

Robert Collyer, who brought his bride in the steerage when he came toAmerica at the age of twenty-seven, worked at the anvil nine years inPennsylvania, and then became a preacher, soon winning national renown. 

A shrewd observer says of John Chinaman: "No sooner does he put hisfoot among strangers than he begins to work. No office is too menialor too laborious for him. He has come to make money, and he will makeit. His frugality requires but little: he barely lives, but he saveswhat he gets; commences trade in the smallest possible way, and iscontinually adding to his store. The native scorns such drudgery, andremains poor; the Chinaman toils patiently on, and grows rich. A fewyears pass by, and he has warehouses; becomes a contractor for produce;buys foreign goods by the cargo; and employs his newly importedcountrymen, who have come to seek their fortune as he did. He is notparticularly scrupulous in matters of opinion. He never meddles withpolitics, for they are dangerous and not profitable; but he will adoptany creed, and carefully follow any observances, if, by so doing, hecan confirm or improve his position. He thrives with the Spaniard, andworks while the latter sleeps. He is too quick for the Dutchman, andcan smoke and bargain at the same time. He has harder work with theEnglishman, but still he is too much for him, and succeeds. Climatehas no effect on him: it cannot stop his hands, unless it kills him;and if it does, he dies in harness, battling for money till his lastbreath. Whoever he may be, and in whatever position, whether in hisown or a foreign country, he is diligent, temperate, and uncomplaining. He keeps the word he pledges, pays his debts, and is capable of nobleand generous actions. It has been customary to speak lightly of him, and to judge a whole people by a few vagabonds in a provincial seaport, whose morals and manners have not been improved by foreign society. "

Columbus was dismissed as a fool from court after court, but he pushedhis suit against an incredulous and ridiculing world. Rebuffed bykings, scorned by queens, he did not swerve a hair's breadth from theovermastering purpose which dominated his soul. The words "New World"were graven upon his heart; and reputation, ease, pleasure, position, life itself if need be, must be sacrificed. Threats, ridicule, ostracism, storms, leaky vessels, mutiny of sailors, could not shakehis mighty purpose. 

You cannot keep a determined man from success. Place stumbling-blocksin his way and he takes them for stepping-stones, and on them willclimb to greatness. Take away his money, and he makes spurs of hispoverty to urge him on. Cripple him, and he writes the WaverleyNovels. Lock him up in a dungeon, and he composes the immortal"Pilgrim's Progress. " Put him in a cradle in a log cabin in thewilderness of America, and in a few years you will find him in theCapitol at the head of the greatest nation on the globe. 

Would it were possible to convince the struggling youth of to-day thatall that is great and noble and true in the history of the world is theresult of infinite pains-taking, perpetual plodding, of commonevery-day industry!

When Lavoisier the chemist asked that his execution might be postponedfor a few days in order to ascertain the results of the experiments hewas conducting in prison, the communists refused to grant the request, saying: "The Republic has no need of philosophers. " Dr. Priestley'shouse was burned and his chemical library destroyed by a mob shouting:"No philosophers, " and he was forced to flee from his country. Brunowas burned in Rome for revealing the heavens, and Versalius[Transcriber's note: Vesalius?] was condemned for dissecting the humanbody; but their names shall live as long as time shall last. Kossuthwas two years in prison at Buda, but he kept on working, undaunted. John Hunter said: "The few things I have been enabled to do have beenaccomplished under the greatest difficulties, and have encountered thegreatest opposition. "

Roger Bacon, one of the profoundest thinkers the world has produced, was terribly persecuted for his studies in natural philosophy, yet hepersevered and won success. He was accused of dealing in magic, hisbooks were burned in public, and he was kept in prison for ten years. Even our own revered Washington was mobbed in the streets because hewould not pander to the clamor of the people and reject the treatywhich Mr. Jay had arranged with Great Britain. But he remained firm, and the people adopted his opinion. The Duke of Wellington was mobbedin the streets of London and his windows were broken while his wife laydead in the house; but the "Iron Duke" never faltered in his course, orswerved a hair's breadth from his purpose. 

William Phips, when a young man, heard some sailors on the street, inBoston, talking about a Spanish ship, wrecked off the Bahama Islands, which was supposed to have money on board. Young Phips determined tofind it. He set out at once, and, after many hardships, discovered thelost treasure. He then heard of another ship, wrecked off Port De LaPlata many years before. He set sail for England and importunedCharles II. For aid. To his delight the king fitted up the ship RoseAlgier for him. He searched and searched for a long time in vain. Hehad to return to England to repair his vessel. James II. Was then onthe throne, and he had to wait for four years before he could raisemoney to return. His crew mutinied and threatened to throw himoverboard, but he turned the ship's guns on them. One day an Indiandiver went down for a curious sea plant and saw several cannon lying onthe bottom. They proved to belong to the wreck for which he waslooking, sunk fifty years before. He had nothing but dim traditions toguide him, but he returned to England with $1, 500, 000. The King madehim High Sheriff of New England, and he was afterward made Governor ofMassachusetts Bay Colony. 

Ben Jonson, when following his trade of a mason, worked on Lincoln'sInn in London with trowel in hand and a book in his pocket. JosephHunter was a carpenter in youth, Robert Burns a plowman, Keats adruggist, Thomas Carlyle and Hugh Miller masons. Dante and Descarteswere soldiers. Andrew Johnson was a tailor. Cardinal Wolsey, Defoe, and Kirke White were butchers' sons. Faraday was the son of ablacksmith, and his teacher, Humphry Davy, was an apprentice to anapothecary. Kepler was a waiter boy in a German hotel, Bunyan atinker, Copernicus the son of a Polish baker. The boy Herschel playedthe oboe for his meals. Marshal Ney, the "bravest of the brave, " rosefrom the ranks. His great industry gained for him the name of "TheIndefatigable. " Soult served fourteen years before he was made asergeant. When made Foreign Minister of France he knew very little ofgeography, even. Richard Cobden was a boy in a London warehouse. Hisfirst speech in Parliament was a complete failure; but he was notafraid of defeat, and soon became one of the greatest orators of hisday. Seven shoemakers sat in Congress during the first century of ourgovernment: Roger Sherman, Henry Wilson, Gideon Lee, William Graham, John Halley, H. P. Baldwin, and Daniel Sheffey. 

A constant struggle, a ceaseless battle to bring success frominhospitable surroundings, is the price of all great achievements. 

The man who has not fought his way up to his own loaf, and does notbear the scar of desperate conflict, does not know the highest meaningof success. 

The money acquired by those who have thus struggled upward to successis not their only, or indeed their chief reward. When, after years oftoil, of opposition, of ridicule, of repeated failure, Cyrus W. Fieldplaced his hand upon the telegraph instrument ticking a message underthe sea, think you that the electric thrill passed no further than thetips of his fingers? When Thomas A. Edison demonstrated in Menlo Parkthat the electric light had at last been developed into a commercialsuccess, do you suppose those bright rays failed to illuminate theinmost recesses of his soul? Edward Everett said: "There are occasionsin life in which a great mind lives years of enjoyment in a singlemoment. I can fancy the emotion of Galileo when, first raising thenewly constructed telescope to the heavens, he saw fulfilled the grandprophecy of Copernicus, and beheld the planet Venus crescent like themoon. It was such another moment as that when the immortal printers ofMentz and Strasburg received the first copy of the Bible into theirhands, the work of their divine art; like that when Columbus, throughthe gray dawn of the 12th of October, 1492, beheld the shores of SanSalvador; like that when the law of gravitation first revealed itselfto the intellect of Newton; like that when Franklin saw, by thestiffening fibres of the hemp cord of his kite, that he held thelightning in his grasp, like that when Leverrier received back fromBerlin the tidings that the predicted planet was found. "

"Observe yon tree in your neighbor's garden, " says Zanoni to Viola inBulwer's novel. "Look how it grows up, crooked and distorted. Somewind scattered the germ, from which it sprung, in the clefts of therock. Choked up and walled round by crags and buildings, by nature andman, its life has been one struggle for the light. You see how it haswrithed and twisted, --how, meeting the barrier in one spot, it haslabored and worked, stem and branch, towards the clear skies at last. What has preserved it through each disfavor of birth andcircumstances--why are its leaves as green and fair as those of thevine behind you, which, with all its arms, can embrace the opensunshine? My child, because of the very instinct that impelled thestruggle, --because the labor for the light won to the light at length. So with a gallant heart, through every adverse accident of sorrow, andof fate, to turn to the sun, to strive for the heaven; this it is thatgives knowledge to the strong and happiness to the weak. "

 "Each petty hand Can steer a ship becalmed; but he that will Govern her and carry her to her ends, must know His tides, his currents; how to shift his sails; What she will bear in foul, what in fair weathers; What her springs are, her leaks, and how to stop them; What strands, what shelves, what rocks to threaten her; The forces and the natures of all winds, Gusts, storms, and tempests; when her keel plows hell, And deck knocks heaven; then to manage her Becomes the name and office of a pilot. "

CHAPTER V. 

USES OF OBSTACLES. 

Nature, when she adds difficulties, adds brains. --EMERSON. 

Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendousdifficulties. --SPURGEON. 

 The good are better made by ill, As odors crushed are sweeter still. ROGERS. 

 Aromatic plants bestow No spicy fragrance while they grow; But crushed or trodden to the ground, Diffuse their balmy sweets around. GOLDSMITH. 

As night to stars, woe lustre gives to man. --YOUNG. 

There is no possible success without some opposition as a fulcrum:force is always aggressive and crowds something. --HOLMES. 

The more difficulties one has to encounter, within and without, themore significant and the higher in inspiration his life willbe. --HORACE BUSHMILL. 

Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which in prosperouscircumstances would have lain dormant. --HORACE. 

For gold is tried in the fire and acceptable men in the furnace ofadversity. --SIRACH. 

 Though losses and crosses be lessons right severe, There's wit there ye'll get there, ye'll find no other where. BURNS. 

Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and strengthensit. --HAZLITT. 

"Adversity is the prosperity of the great. "

No man ever worked his way in a dead calm. --JOHN NEAL. 

"Kites rise against, not with, the wind. "

"Many and many a time since, " said Harriet Martineau, referring to herfather's failure in business, "have we said that, but for that loss ofmoney, we might have lived on in the ordinary provincial method ofladies with small means, sewing and economizing and growing narrowerevery year; whereas, by being thrown, while it was yet time, on our ownresources, we have worked hard and usefully, won friends, reputation, and independence, seen the world abundantly, abroad and at home; inshort, have truly lived instead of vegetating. "

 * * * * * *

[Illustration: JOHN BUNYAN]

 "Sculptor of souls, I lift to Thee Encumbered heart and hands; Spare not the chisel, set me free, However dear the bands. 

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"I do believe God wanted a grand poem of that man, " said GeorgeMacdonald of Milton, "and so blinded him that he might be able to writeit. "

Two of the three greatest epic poets of the world were blind, --Homerand Milton; while the third, Dante, was in his later years nearly, ifnot altogether, blind. It almost seems as though some great charactershad been physically crippled in certain respects so that they would notdissipate their energy, but concentrate it all in one direction. 

"I have been beaten, but not cast down, " said Thiers, after making acomplete failure of his first speech in the Chamber of Deputies. "I ammaking my first essay in arms. In the tribune, as under fire, a defeatis as useful as a victory. "

A distinguished investigator in science said that when he encounteredan apparently insuperable obstacle, he usually found himself upon thebrink of some discovery. 

"Returned with thanks" has made many an author. Failure often leads aman to success by arousing his latent energy, by firing a dormantpurpose, by awakening powers which were sleeping. Men of mettle turndisappointments into helps as the oyster turns into pearl the sandwhich annoys it. 

"Let the adverse breath of criticism be to you only what the blast ofthe storm wind is to the eagle, --a force against him that lifts himhigher. "

A kite would not fly unless it had a string tying it down. It is justso in life. The man who is tied down by half a dozen bloomingresponsibilities and their mother will make a higher and strongerflight than the bachelor who, having nothing to keep him steady, isalways floundering in the mud. If you want to ascend in the world tieyourself to somebody. 

"It was the severe preparation for the subsequent harvest, " saidPemberton Leigh, the eminent English lawyer, speaking of his earlypoverty and hard work. "I learned to consider indefatigable labor asthe indispensable condition of success, pecuniary independence asessential alike to virtue and happiness, and no sacrifice too great toavoid the misery of debt. "

When Napoleon's companions made sport of him on account of his humbleorigin and poverty he devoted himself entirely to books, and soonrising above them in scholarship, commanded their respect. Soon he wasregarded as the brightest ornament of the class. 

"To make his way at the bar, " said an eminent jurist, "a young man mustlive like a hermit and work like a horse. There is nothing that does ayoung lawyer so much good as to be half starved. "

Thousands of men of great native ability have been lost to the worldbecause they have not had to wrestle with obstacles, and to struggleunder difficulties sufficient to stimulate into activity their dormantpowers. No effort is too dear which helps us along the line of ourproper career. 

Poverty and obscurity of origin may impede our progress, but it is onlylike the obstruction of ice or debris in the river temporarily forcingthe water into eddies, where it accumulates strength and a mightyreserve which ultimately sweeps the obstruction impetuously to the sea. Poverty and obscurity are not insurmountable obstacles, but they oftenact as a stimulus to the naturally indolent, and develop a firmer fibreof mind, a stronger muscle and stamina of body. If the germ of theseed has to struggle to push its way up through the stones and hardsod, to fight its way up to sunlight and air, and then to wrestle withstorm and tempest, with snow and frost, the fibre of its timber will beall the tougher and stronger. 

"Do you wish to live without a trial?" asks a modern teacher. "Thenyou wish to die but half a man. Without trial you cannot guess at yourown strength. Men do not learn to swim on a table. They must go intodeep water and buffet the waves. Hardship is the native soil ofmanhood and self-reliance. Trials are rough teachers, but ruggedschoolmasters make rugged pupils. A man who goes through lifeprosperous, and comes to his grave without a wrinkle, is not half aman. Difficulties are God's errands. And when we are sent upon themwe should esteem it a proof of God's confidence. We should reach afterthe highest good. "

"If you wish to rise, " said Talleyrand, "make enemies. "

There is good philosophy in the injunction to love our enemies, forthey are often our best friends in disguise. They tell us the truthwhen friends flatter. Their biting sarcasm and scathing rebuke areoften mirrors which reveal us to ourselves. These unkind stings andthrusts are spurs which urge us on to grander success and noblerendeavor. Friends cover our faults and rarely rebuke; enemies drag outto the light all our weaknesses without mercy. We dread these thrustsand exposures as we do the surgeon's knife, but are the better forthem. They reach depths before untouched, and we are led to resolve toredeem ourselves from scorn and inferiority. 

We are the victors of our opponents. They have developed in us thevery power by which we overcome them. Without their opposition wecould never have braced and anchored and fortified ourselves, as theoak is braced and anchored for its thousand battles with the tempests. Our trials, our sorrows, and our griefs develop us in a similar way. 

The man who has triumphed over difficulties bears the signs of victoryin his face. An air of triumph is seen in every movement. 

John Calvin, who made a theology for the seventeenth and eighteenthcenturies, was tortured with disease for many years, and so was RobertHall. The great men who have lifted the world to a higher level werenot developed in easy circumstances, but were rocked in the cradle ofdifficulties and pillowed on hardships. 

"The gods look on no grander sight than an honest man struggling withadversity. "

"Then I must learn to sing better, " said Anaximander, when told thatthe very boys laughed at his singing. Strong characters, like thepalm-tree, seem to thrive best when most abused. Men who have stood upbravely under great misfortune for years are often unable to bearprosperity. Their good fortune takes the spring out of their energy, as the torrid zone enervates races accustomed to a vigorous climate. Some people never come to themselves until baffled, rebuffed, thwarted, defeated, crushed, in the opinion of those around them. Trials unlocktheir virtues; defeat is the threshold of their victory. 

It is defeat that turns bone to flint; it is defeat that turns gristleto muscle; it is defeat that makes men invincible; it is defeat thathas made those heroic natures that are now in the ascendency, and thathas given the sweet law of liberty instead of the bitter law ofoppression. 

Difficulties call out great qualities, and make greatness possible. How many centuries of peace would have developed a Grant? Few knewLincoln until the great weight of the war showed his character. Acentury of peace would never have produced a Bismarck. PerhapsPhillips and Garrison would never have been known to history had it notbeen for slavery. 

"Will he not make a great painter?" was asked in regard to an artistfresh from his Italian tour. "No, never, " replied Northcote. "Whynot?" "Because he has an income of six thousand pounds a year. " Inthe sunshine of wealth a man is, as a rule, warped too much to becomean artist of high merit. A drenching shower of adversity wouldstraighten his fibres out again. He should have some great thwartingdifficulty to struggle against. 

The best tools receive their temper from fire, their edge fromgrinding; the noblest characters are developed in a similar way. Theharder the diamond, the more brilliant the lustre, and the greater thefriction necessary to bring it out. Only its own dust is hard enoughto make this most precious stone reveal its full beauty. 

The spark in the flint would sleep forever but for friction; the firein man would never blaze but for antagonism. The friction whichretards a train upon the track, robbing the engine of a fourth of itspower, is the very secret of locomotion. Oil the track, remove thefriction, and the train will not move an inch. The moment man isrelieved of opposition or friction, and the track of his life is oiledwith inherited wealth or other aids, that moment he often ceases tostruggle and therefore ceases to grow. 

"It is this scantiness of means, this continual deficiency, thisconstant hitch, this perpetual struggle to keep the head above waterand the wolf from the door, that keeps society from falling to pieces. Let every man have a few more dollars than he wants, and anarchy wouldfollow. "

Suddenly, with much jarring and jolting, an electric car came to astandstill just in front of a heavy truck that was headed in anopposite direction. The huge truck wheels were sliding uselessly roundon the car tracks that were wet and slippery from rain. All the urgingof the teamster and the straining of the horses in vain, --until themotorman quietly tossed a shovelful of sand on the track under theheavy wheels, then the truck lumbered on its way. "Friction is a verygood thing, " remarked a passenger. 

The philosopher Kant observes that a dove, inasmuch as the onlyobstacle it has to overcome is the resistance of the air, might supposethat if only the air were out of the way it could fly with greaterrapidity and ease. Yet if the air were withdrawn, and the bird shouldtry to fly in a vacuum, it would fall instantly to the ground unable tofly at all. The very element that offers the opposition to flying isat the same time the condition of any flight whatever. 

Rough seas and storms make sailors. Emergencies make giant men. Butfor our Civil War the names of its grand heroes would not be writtenamong the greatest of our time. 

The effort or struggle to climb to a higher place in life has strengthand dignity in it, and cannot fail to leave us stronger for thestruggle, even though we miss the prize. 

From an aimless, idle, and useless brain, emergencies often call outpowers and virtues before unknown and suspected. How often we see ayoung man develop astounding ability and energy after the death of aparent, or the loss of a fortune, or after some other calamity hasknocked the props and crutches from under him. The prison has rousedthe slumbering fire in many a noble mind. "Robinson Crusoe" waswritten in prison. The "Pilgrim's Progress" appeared in Bedford Jail. The "Life and Times" of Baxter, Eliot's "Monarchia of Man, " and Penn's"No Cross, No Crown, " were written by prisoners. Sir Walter Raleighwrote "The History of the World" during his imprisonment of thirteenyears. Luther translated the Bible while confined in the Castle ofWartburg. For twenty years Dante worked in exile, and even undersentence of death. His works were burned in public after his death;but genius will not burn. 

Take two acorns from the same tree, as nearly alike as possible; plantone on a hill by itself, and the other in the dense forest, and watchthem grow. The oak standing alone is exposed to every storm. Itsroots reach out in every direction, clutching the rocks and piercingdeep into the earth. Every rootlet lends itself to steady the growinggiant, as if in anticipation of fierce conflict with the elements. Sometimes its upward growth seems checked for years, but all the whileit has been expending its energy in pushing a root across a large rockto gain a firmer anchorage. Then it shoots proudly aloft again, prepared to defy the hurricane. The gales which sport so rudely withits wide branches find more than their match, and only serve stillfurther to toughen every minutest fibre from pith to bark. 

The acorn planted in the deep forest shoots up a weak, slender sapling. Shielded by its neighbors, it feels no need of spreading its roots farand wide for support. 

Take two boys, as nearly alike as possible. Place one in the countryaway from the hothouse culture and refinements of the city, with onlythe district school, the Sunday-school, and a few books. Remove wealthand props of every kind; and, if he has the right kind of material inhim, he will thrive. Every obstacle overcome lends him strength forthe next conflict. If he falls, he rises with more determination thanbefore. Like a rubber ball, the harder the obstacle he meets thehigher he rebounds. Obstacles and opposition are but apparatus of thegymnasium in which the fibres of his manhood are developed. He compelsrespect and recognition from those who have ridiculed his poverty. Putthe other boy in a Vanderbilt family. Give him French and Germannurses; gratify every wish. Place him under the tutelage of greatmasters and send him to Harvard. Give him thousands a year forspending money, and let him travel extensively. 

The two meet. The city lad is ashamed of his country brother. Theplain, threadbare clothes, hard hands, tawny face, and awkward mannerof the country boy make sorry contrast with the genteel appearance ofthe other. The poor boy bemoans his hard lot, regrets that he has "nochance in life, " and envies the city youth. He thinks that it is acruel Providence that places such a wide gulf between them. They meetagain as men, but how changed! It is as easy to distinguish thesturdy, self-made man from the one who has been propped up all his lifeby wealth, position, and family influence, as it is for the shipbuilderto tell the difference between the plank from the rugged mountain oakand one from the sapling of the forest. If you think there is nodifference, place each plank in the bottom of a ship, and test them ina hurricane at sea. 

When God wants to educate a man, he does not send him to school to theGraces, but to the Necessities. Through the pit and the dungeon Josephcame to a throne. We are not conscious of the mighty cravings of ourhalf divine humanity; we are not aware of the god within us until somechasm yawns which must be filled, or till the rending asunder of ouraffections forces us to become conscious of a need. Paul in his Romancell; John Huss led to the stake at Constance; Tyndale dying in hisprison at Amsterdam; Milton, amid the incipient earthquake throes ofrevolution, teaching two little boys in Aldgate Street; DavidLivingstone, worn to a shadow, dying in a negro hut in Central Africa, alone, --what failures they might all to themselves have seemed to be, yet what mighty purposes was God working out by their apparenthumiliations!

Two highwaymen chancing once to pass a gibbet, one of them exclaimed:"What a fine profession ours would be if there were no gibbets!" "Tut, you blockhead, " replied the other, "gibbets are the making of us; for, if there were no gibbets, every one would be a highwayman. " Just sowith every art, trade, or pursuit; it is the difficulties that scareand keep out unworthy competitors. 

"Success grows out of struggles to overcome difficulties, " says Smiles. "If there were no difficulties, there would be no success. In thisnecessity for exertion we find the chief source of humanadvancement, --the advancement of individuals as of nations. It has ledto most of the mechanical inventions and improvements of the age. "

"Stick your claws into me, " said Mendelssohn to his critics whenentering the Birmingham orchestra. "Don't tell me what you like butwhat you don't like. "

John Hunter said that the art of surgery would never advance untilprofessional men had the courage to publish their failures as well astheir successes. 

"Young men need to be taught not to expect a perfectly smooth and easyway to the objects of their endeavor or ambition, " says Dr. Peabody. "Seldom does one reach a position with which he has reason to besatisfied without encountering difficulties and what might seemdiscouragements. But if they are properly met, they are not what theyseem, and may prove to be helps, not hindrances. There is no morehelpful and profiting exercise than surmounting obstacles. "

It is said that but for the disappointments of Dante, Florence wouldhave had another prosperous Lord Mayor; and the ten dumb centuriescontinued voiceless, and the ten other listening centuries (for therewill be ten of them, and more) would have had no "Divina Commedia" tohear!

It was in the Madrid jail that Cervantes wrote "Don Quixote. " He wasso poor that he could not even get paper during the last of hiswriting, and had to write on scraps of leather. A rich Spaniard wasasked to help him, but the rich man replied: "Heaven forbid that hisnecessities should be relieved, it is his poverty that makes the worldrich. "

"A constant struggle, a ceaseless battle to bring success frominhospitable surroundings, is the price of all great achievements. "

"She sings well, " said a great musician of a promising but passionlesscantatrice, "but she wants something, and in that something, everything. If I were single, I would court her, I would marry her; Iwould maltreat her; I would break her heart, and in six months shewould be the greatest singer in Europe. "

"He has the stuff in him to make a good musician, " said Beethoven ofRossini, "if he had only been well flogged when a boy; but he isspoiled by the ease with which he composes. "

We do our best while fighting desperately to attain what the heartcovets. Martin Luther did his greatest work, and built up his bestcharacter, while engaged in sharp controversy with the Pope. Later inlife his wife asks, "Doctor, how is it that whilst subject to Papacy weprayed so often and with such fervor, whilst now we pray with theutmost coldness and very seldom?"

When Lord Eldon was poor, Lord Thurlow withheld a promisedcommissionership of bankruptcy, saying that it was a favor not to giveit then. "What he meant was, " said Eldon, "that he had learned I wasby nature very indolent, and it was only want that could make me veryindustrious. "

Waters says that the struggle to obtain knowledge and to advance one'sself in the world strengthens the mind, disciplines the faculties, matures the judgment, promotes self-reliance, and gives oneindependence of thought and force of character. 

"The gods in bounty work up storms about us, " says Addison, "that givemankind occasion to exert their hidden strength, and throw out intopractice virtues that shun the day, and lie concealed in the smoothseasons and the calms of life. "

The hothouse plant may tempt a pampered appetite or shed a languidodor, but the working world gets its food from fields of grain andorchards waving in the sun and free air, from cattle that wrestle onthe plains, from fishes that struggle with currents of river or ocean;its choicest perfumes from flowers that bloom unheeded, and inwind-tossed forests finds its timber for temples and for ships. 

"I do not see, " says Emerson, "how any man can afford, for the sake ofhis nerves and his nap, to spare any action in which he can partake. It is pearls and rubies to his discourse. Drudgery, calamity, exasperation, want, are instructors in eloquence and wisdom. The truescholar grudges every opportunity of action passed by as a loss ofpower. "

Kossuth called himself "a tempest-tossed soul, whose eyes have beensharpened by affliction. "

Benjamin Franklin ran away, and George Law was turned out of doors. Thrown upon their own resources, they early acquired the energy andskill to overcome difficulties. 

As soon as young eagles can fly the old birds tumble them out and tearthe down and feathers from their nest. The rude and rough experienceof the eaglet fits him to become the bold king of birds, fierce andexpert in pursuing his prey. 

Boys who are bound out, crowded out, kicked out, usually "turn out, "while those who do not have these disadvantages frequently fail to"come out. "

"It was not the victories but the defeats of my life which havestrengthened me, " said the aged Sidenham Poyntz. 

Almost from the dawn of history, oppression has been the lot of theHebrews, yet they have given the world its noblest songs, its wisestproverbs, its sweetest music. With them persecution seems to bringprosperity. They thrive where others would starve. They hold thepurse-strings of many nations. To them hardship has been "like springmornings, frosty but kindly, the cold of which will kill the vermin, but will let the plant live. "

In one of the battles of the Crimea a cannon-ball struck inside thefort, crashing through a beautiful garden. But from the ugly chasmthere burst forth a spring of water which ever afterward flowed aliving fountain. From the ugly gashes which misfortunes and sorrowsmake in our hearts, perennial fountains of rich experience and new joysoften spring. 

Don't lament and grieve over lost wealth. The Creator may seesomething grand and mighty which even He cannot bring out as long asyour wealth stands in the way. You must throw away the crutches ofriches and stand upon your own feet, and develop the long unusedmuscles of manhood. God may see a rough diamond in you which only thehard hits of poverty can polish. 

God knows where the richest melodies of our lives are, and what drilland what discipline are necessary to bring them out. The frost, thesnows, the tempests, the lightnings, are the rough teachers that bringthe tiny acorn to the sturdy oak. Fierce winters are as necessary toit as long summers. It is its half-century's struggle with theelements for existence, wrestling with the storm, fighting for its lifefrom the moment that it leaves the acorn until it goes into the ship, that gives it value. Without this struggle it would have beencharacter-less, stamina-less, nerve-less, and its grain would havenever been susceptible of high polish. The most beautiful as well asthe strongest woods are found not in tropical climates, but in thesevere climates, where they have to fight the frosts and the winter'scold. 

Many a man has never found himself until he has lost his all. Adversity stripped him only to discover him. Obstacles, hardships arethe chisel and mallet which shape the strong life into beauty. Therough ledge on the hillside complains of the drill, of the blastingpowder which disturbs its peace of centuries: it is not pleasant to berent with powder, to be hammered and squared by the quarryman. Butlook again: behold the magnificent statue, the monument, chiseled intograce and beauty, telling its grand story of valor in the public squarefor centuries. 

The statue would have slept in the marble forever but for the blasting, the chiseling, and the polishing. The angel of our higher and noblerselves would remain forever unknown in the rough quarries of our livesbut for the blastings of affliction, the chiseling of obstacles, andthe sand-papering of a thousand annoyances. 

Who has not observed the patience, the calm endurance, the sweetloveliness chiseled out of some rough life by the reversal of fortuneor by some terrible affliction. 

How many business men have made their greatest strides toward manhood, have developed their greatest virtues, when the reverses of fortunehave swept away everything they had in the world; when disease hadrobbed them of all they held dear in life. Often we cannot see theangel in the quarry of our lives, the statue of manhood, until theblasts of misfortune have rent the ledge, and difficulties andobstacles have squared and chiseled the granite blocks into grace andbeauty. 

Many a man has been ruined into salvation. The lightning which smotehis dearest hopes opened up a new rift in his dark life, and gave himglimpses of himself which, until then, he had never seen. 

The grave buried his dearest hopes, but uncovered possibilities in hisnature of patience, endurance, and hope which he never dreamed hepossessed before. 

"Adversity is a severe instructor, " says Edmund Burke, "set over us byone who knows us better than we do ourselves, as he loves us bettertoo. He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens ourskill. Our antagonist is our helper. This conflict with difficultymakes us acquainted with our object, and compels us to consider it inall its relations. It will not suffer us to be superficial. "

Men who have the right kind of material in them will assert theirpersonality, and rise in spite of a thousand adverse circumstances. You cannot keep them down. Every obstacle seems only to add to theirability to get on. 

"Under different circumstances, " says Castelar, "Savonarola wouldundoubtedly have been a good husband, a tender father, a man unknown tohistory, utterly powerless to print upon the sands of time and upon thehuman soul the deep trace which he has left, but misfortune came tovisit him, to crush his heart, and to impart that marked melancholywhich characterizes a soul in grief, and the grief that circled hisbrows with a crown of thorns was also that which wreathed them with thesplendor of immortality. His hopes were centred in the woman he loved, his life was set upon the possession of her, and when her familyfinally rejected him, partly on account of his profession, and partlyon account of his person, he believed that it was death that had comeupon him, when in truth it was immortality. "

The greatest men will ever be those who have risen from the ranks. Itis said that there are ten thousand chances to one that genius, talent, and virtue shall issue from a farmhouse rather than from a palace. 

The youth Opie earned his bread by sawing wood, but he reached aprofessorship in the Royal Academy. When but ten years old he showedthe material he was made of by a beautiful drawing on a shingle. Antonio Canova was the son of a day laborer. Thorwaldsen's parentswere poor, but, like hundreds of others, they did with their might whattheir hands found to do, and ennobled their work. They rose by beinggreater than their calling, as Arkwright rose above mere barbering, Bunyan above tinkering, Wilson above shoemaking, Lincoln aboverail-splitting, and Grant above tanning. By being first-class barbers, tinkers, shoemakers, rail-splitters, tanners, they acquired the powerwhich enabled them to become great inventors, authors, statesmen, generals. 

Adversity exasperates fools, dejects cowards, draws out the facultiesof the wise and industrious, puts the modest to the necessity of tryingtheir skill, awes the opulent, and makes the idle industrious. Neitherdo uninterrupted success and prosperity qualify men for usefulness andhappiness. The storms of adversity, like those of the ocean, rouse thefaculties, and excite the invention, prudence, skill, and fortitude ofthe voyager. The martyrs of ancient times, in bracing their minds tooutward calamities, acquired a loftiness of purpose and a moral heroismworth a lifetime of softness and security. A man upon whom continuoussunshine falls is like the earth in August: he becomes parched and dryand hard and close-grained. Men have drawn from adversity the elementsof greatness. If you have the blues, go and see the poorest andsickest families within your knowledge. The darker the setting, thebrighter the diamond. Don't run about and tell acquaintances that youhave been unfortunate; people do not like to have unfortunate men foracquaintances. 

Beethoven was almost totally deaf and burdened with sorrow when heproduced his greatest works. Schiller wrote his best books in greatbodily suffering. He was not free from pain for fifteen years. Miltonwrote his leading productions when blind, poor, and sick. "Who bestcan suffer, " said he, "best can do. " Bunyan said that, if it werelawful, he could even pray for greater trouble, for the greatercomfort's sake. 

"Do you know what God puts us on our backs for?" asked Dr. Payson, smiling, as he lay sick in bed. "No, " replied the visitor. "In orderthat we may look upward. " "I am not come to condole but to rejoicewith you, " said the friend, "for it seems to me that this is no timefor mourning. " "Well, I am glad to hear that, " said Dr. Payson, "it isnot often I am addressed in such a way. The fact is I never had lessneed of condolence, and yet everybody persists in offering it; whereas, when I was prosperous and well, and a successful preacher, and reallyneeded condolence, they flattered and congratulated me. "

A German knight undertook to make an immense Aeolian harp by stretchingwires from tower to tower of his castle. When he finished the harp itwas silent; but when the breezes began to blow he heard faint strainslike the murmuring of distant music. At last a tempest arose and sweptwith fury over his castle, and then rich and grand music came from thewires. Ordinary experiences do not seem to touch some lives--to bringout any poetry, any higher manhood. 

Not until the breath of the plague had blasted a hundred thousandlives, and the great fire had licked up cheap, shabby, wicked London, did she arise, phoenix-like, from her ashes and ruin, a grand andmighty city. 

True salamanders live best in the furnace of persecution. 

"Every man who makes a fortune has been more than once a bankrupt, ifthe truth were known, " said Albion Tourgée. "Grant's failure as asubaltern made him commander-in-chief, and for myself, my failure toaccomplish what I set out to do led me to what I never had aspired to. "

The appeal for volunteers in the great battle of life, in exterminatingignorance and error, and planting high on an everlasting foundation thebanner of intelligence and right, is directed to _you_. Burst thetrammels that impede your progress, and cling to hope. Place high thystandard, and with a firm tread and fearless eye press steadily onward. 

Not ease, but effort, not facility, but difficulty, makes men. Toilsome culture is the price of great success, and the slow growth ofa great character is one of its special necessities. Many of our bestpoets

 "Are cradled into poetry by wrong, And learn in suffering what they teach in song. "

Byron was stung into a determination to go to the top by a scathingcriticism of his first book, "Hours of Idleness, " published when he wasbut nineteen years of age. Macaulay said, "There is scarce an instancein history of so sudden a rise to so dizzy an eminence as Byronreached. " In a few years he stood by the side of such men as Scott, Southey, and Campbell, and died at thirty-seven, that age so fatal togenius. Many an orator like "stuttering Jack Curran, " or "Orator Mum, "as he was once called, has been spurred into eloquence by ridicule andabuse. 

This is the crutch age. "Helps" and "aids" are advertised everywhere. We have institutes, colleges, universities, teachers, books, libraries, newspapers, magazines. Our thinking is done for us. Our problems areall worked out in "explanations" and "keys. " Our boys are too oftentutored through college with very little study. "Short roads" and"abridged methods" are characteristic of the century. Ingeniousmethods are used everywhere to get the drudgery out of the collegecourse. Newspapers give us our politics, and preachers our religion. Self-help and self-reliance are getting old fashioned. Nature, as ifconscious of delayed blessings, has rushed to man's relief with herwondrous forces, and undertakes to do the world's drudgery andemancipate him from Eden's curse. 

But do not misinterpret her edict. She emancipates from the lower onlyto call to the higher. She does not bid the world go and play whileshe does the work. She emancipates the muscles only to employ thebrain and heart. 

The most beautiful as well as the strongest characters are notdeveloped in warm climates, where man finds his bread ready made ontrees, and where exertion is a great effort, but rather in a tryingclimate and on a stubborn soil. It is no chance that returns to theHindoo ryot a penny and to the American laborer a dollar for his dailytoil; that makes Mexico with its mineral wealth poor, and New Englandwith its granite and ice rich. It is rugged necessity, it is thestruggle to obtain, it is poverty the priceless spur, that develops thestamina of manhood, and calls the race out of barbarism. Labor foundthe world a wilderness and has made it a garden. 

As the sculptor thinks only of the angel imprisoned in the marbleblock, so Nature cares only for the man or woman shut up in the humanbeing. The sculptor cares nothing for the block as such; Nature haslittle regard for the mere lump of breathing clay. The sculptor willchip off all unnecessary material to set free the angel. Nature willchip and pound us remorselessly to bring out our possibilities. Shewill strip us of wealth, humble our pride, humiliate our ambition, letus down from the ladder of fame, will discipline us in a thousand ways, if she can develop a little character. Everything must give way tothat. Wealth is nothing, position is nothing, fame is nothing, _manhood is everything_. 

Not ease, not pleasure, not happiness, but a _man_, Nature is after. In every great painting of the masters there is one idea or figurewhich stands out boldly beyond everything else. Every other idea orfigure on the canvas is subordinate to it, but pointing to the centralidea, finds its true expression there. So in the vast universe of God, every object of creation is but a guideboard with an index-fingerpointing to the central figure of the created universe--Man. Naturewrites this thought upon every leaf, she thunders it in every creation. It is exhaled from every flower; it twinkles in every star. 

Oh, what price will Nature not pay for a man! Ages and aeons werenothing for her to spend in preparing for his coming, or to make hisexistence possible. She has rifled the centuries for his development, and placed the universe at his disposal. The world is but hiskindergarten, and every created thing but an object-lesson from theunseen universe. Nature resorts to a thousand expedients to develop aperfect type of her grandest creation. To do this she must induce himto fight his way up to his own loaf. She never allows him once to losesight of the fact that it is the struggle to attain that develops theman. The moment we put our hand upon that which looks so attractive ata distance, and which we struggled so hard to reach, Nature robs it ofits charm by holding up before us another prize still more attractive. 

"Life, " says a philosopher, "refuses to be so adjusted as to eliminatefrom it all strife and conflict and pain. There are a thousand tasksthat, in larger interests than ours, must be done, whether we want themor no. The world refuses to walk upon tiptoe, so that we may be ableto sleep. It gets up very early and stays up very late, and all thewhile there is the conflict of myriads of hammers and saws and axeswith the stubborn material that in no other way can be made to serveits use and do its work for man. And then, too, these hammers and axesare not wielded without strain or pang, but swung by the millions oftoilers who labor with their cries and groans and tears. Nay, ourtemple-building, whether it be for God or man, exacts its bitter toll, and fills life with cries and blows. The thousand rivalries of ourdaily business, the fiercer animosities when we are beaten, the evenfiercer exultation when we have beaten, the crashing blows of disaster, the piercing scream of defeat, --these things we have not yet gotten ridof, nor in this life ever will. Why should we wish to get rid of them?We are here, my brother, to be hewed and hammered and planed in God'squarry and on God's anvil for a nobler life to come. " Only the musclethat is used is developed. 

The constantly cheerful man, who survives his blighted hopes anddisappointments, who takes them just for what they are, lessons, andperhaps blessings in disguise, is the true hero. 

 There is a strength Deep bedded in our hearts of which we reck But little, till the shafts of heaven have pierced Its fragile dwelling. Must not earth be rent Before her gems are found? MRS. HEMANS. 

 "If what shone afar so grand Turns to ashes in the hand, On again, the virtue lies In the struggle, not the prize. "

 "The hero is not fed on sweets, Daily his own heart he eats; Chambers of the great are jails, And head-winds right for royal sails. "

 "So many great Illustrious spirits have conversed with woe, Have in her school been taught, as are enough To consecrate distress, and make ambition Even wish the frown beyond the smile of fortune. "

 Then welcome each rebuff, That turns earth's smoothness rough, Each sting, that bids not sit nor stand but go. BROWNING. 

CHAPTER VI. 

ONE UNWAVERING AIM. 

 Life is an arrow--therefore you must know What mark to aim at, how to use the bow-- Then draw it to the head and let it go. HENRY VAN DYKE. 

The important thing in life is to have a great aim, and to possess theaptitude and perseverance to attain it. --GOETHE. 

Concentration alone conquers. --C. BUXTON. 

"He who follows two hares is sure to catch neither. "

"A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. "

Let every one ascertain his special business and calling, and thenstick to it if he would be successful. --FRANKLIN. 

"Digression is as dangerous as stagnation in the career of a young manin business. "

Every man who observes vigilantly and resolves steadfastly growsunconsciously into genius. --BULWER. 

Genius is intensity. --BALZAC. 

"Why do you lead such a solitary life?" asked a friend of MichaelAngelo. "Art is a jealous mistress, " replied the artist; "she requiresthe whole man. " During his labors at the Sistine Chapel, according toDisraeli, he refused to meet any one, even at his own house. 

"That day we sailed westward, which was our course, " were the simplebut grand words which Columbus wrote in his journal day after day. Hope might rise and fall, terror and dismay might seize upon the crewat the mysterious variations of the compass, but Columbus, unappalled, pushed due west and nightly added to his record the above words. 

"Cut an inch deeper, " said a member of the Old Guard to the surgeonprobing his wound, "and you will find the Emperor, "--meaning his heart. By the marvelous power of concentrated purpose Napoleon had left hisname on the very stones of the capital, had burned it indelibly intothe heart of every Frenchman, and had left it written in living lettersall over Europe. France to-day has not shaken off the spell of thatname. In the fair city on the Seine the mystic "N" confronts youeverywhere. 

Oh, the power of a great purpose to work miracles! It has changed theface of the world. Napoleon knew that there were plenty of great menin France, but they did not know the might of the unwavering aim bywhich he was changing the destinies of Europe. He saw that what wascalled the "balance of power" was only an idle dream; that, unless somemaster-mind could be found which was a match for events, the millionswould rule in anarchy. His iron will grasped the situation; and likeWilliam Pitt, he did not loiter around balancing the probabilities offailure or success, or dally with his purpose. There was no turning tothe right nor to the left; no dreaming away time, nor buildingair-castles; but one look and purpose, forward, upward and onward, straight to his goal. He always hit the bull's-eye. His great successin war was due largely to his definiteness of aim. He was like a greatburning-glass, concentrating the rays of the sun upon a single spot; heburned a hole wherever he went. The secret of his power lay in hisability to concentrate his forces upon a single point. After findingthe weak place in the enemy's ranks, he would mass his men and hurlthem like an avalanche upon the critical point, crowding volley uponvolley, charge upon charge, till he made a breach. What a lesson ofthe power of concentration there is in this man's life! He was able tofocus all his faculties upon the smallest detail, as well as upon anempire. But, alas! Napoleon was himself defeated by violation of hisown tactics, --the constantly repeated crushing force of heavybattalions upon one point. 

To succeed to-day a man must concentrate all the faculties of his mindupon one unwavering aim, and have a tenacity of purpose which meansdeath or victory. Every other inclination which tempts him from hisaim must be suppressed. 

New Jersey has many ports, but they are so shallow and narrow that theshipping of the entire state amounts to but little. On the other hand, New York has but one ocean port, and yet it is so broad, deep, andgrand, that it leads America in its enormous shipping trade. She sendsher vessels into every port of the world, while the ships of herneighbor are restricted to local voyages. 

A man may starve on a dozen half-learned trades or occupations; he maygrow rich and famous upon one trade thoroughly mastered, even though itbe the humblest. 

Even Gladstone, with his ponderous yet active brain, says he cannot dotwo things at once; he throws his entire strength upon whatever hedoes. The intensest energy characterizes everything he undertakes, even his recreation. If such concentration of energy is necessary forthe success of a Gladstone, what can we common mortals hope toaccomplish by "scatteration?"

All great men have been noted for their power of concentration whichmakes them oblivious of everything outside their aim. Victor Hugowrote his "Notre Dame" during the revolution of 1830, while the bulletswere whistling across his garden. He shut himself up in one room, locking his clothes up, lest they should tempt him to go out into thestreet, and spent most of that winter wrapped in a big gray comforter, pouring his very life into his work. 

Genius is intensity. Abraham Lincoln possessed such power ofconcentration that he could repeat quite correctly a sermon to which hehad listened in his boyhood. Dr. O. W. Holmes, when an Andoverstudent, riveted his eyes on the book he was studying as though he werereading a will that made him heir to a million. 

A New York sportsman, in answer to an advertisement, sent twenty-fivecents for a sure receipt to prevent a shotgun from scattering, andreceived the following; "Dear Sir: To keep a gun from scattering put inbut a single shot. "

It is the men who do one thing in this world who come to the front. Who is the favorite actor? It is a Jefferson, who devotes a lifetimeto a "Rip Van Winkle, " a Booth, an Irving, a Kean, who plays onecharacter until he can play it better than any other man living, andnot the shallow players who impersonate all parts. It is the man whonever steps outside of his specialty or dissipates his individuality. It is an Edison, a Morse, a Bell, a Howe, a Stephenson, a Watt. It isAdam Smith, spending ten years on the "Wealth of Nations. " It isGibbon, giving twenty years to his "Decline and Fall of the RomanEmpire. " It is a Hume, writing thirteen hours a day on his "History ofEngland. " It is a Webster, spending thirty-six years on hisdictionary. It is a Bancroft, working twenty-six years on his "Historyof the United States. " It is a Field, crossing the ocean fifty timesto lay a cable, while the world ridicules. It is a Newton, writing his"Chronology of Ancient Nations" sixteen times. It is a Grant, whoproposes to "fight it out on this line if it takes all summer. " Theseare the men who have written their names prominently in the history ofthe world. 

A one-talent man who decides upon a definite object accomplishes morethan the ten-talent man who scatters his energies and never knowsexactly what he will do. The weakest living creature, by concentratinghis powers upon one thing, can accomplish something; the strongest, bydispersing his over many, may fail to accomplish anything. Drop afterdrop, continually falling, wears a passage through the hardest rock. The hasty tempest, as Carlyle points out, rushes over it with hideousuproar and leaves no trace behind. 

A great purpose is cumulative; and, like a great magnet, it attractsall that is kindred along the stream of life. 

A Yankee can splice a rope in many different ways; an English sailoronly knows one way, but that is the best one. It is the one-sided man, the sharp-edged man, the man of single and intense purpose, the man ofone idea, who turns neither to the right nor to the left, though aparadise tempt him, who cuts his way through obstacles and forges tothe front. The time has gone forever when a Bacon can span universalknowledge; or when, absorbing all the knowledge of the times, a Dantecan sustain arguments against fourteen disputants in the University ofParis, and conquer in them all. The day when a man can successfullydrive a dozen callings abreast is a thing of the past. Concentrationis the keynote of the century. 

Scientists estimate that there is energy enough in less than fiftyacres of sunshine to run all the machinery in the world, if it could beconcentrated. But the sun might blaze out upon the earth foreverwithout setting anything on fire; although these rays focused by aburning-glass would melt solid granite, or even change a diamond intovapor. There are plenty of men who have ability enough; the rays oftheir faculties, taken separately, are all right, but they arepowerless to collect them, to bring them all to bear upon a singlespot. Versatile men, universal geniuses, are usually weak, becausethey have no power to concentrate their talents upon one point, andthis makes all the difference between success and failure. 

Chiseled upon the tomb of a disappointed, heart-broken king, Joseph II. Of Austria, in the Royal Cemetery at Vienna, a traveler tells us, isthis epitaph: "Here lies a monarch who, with the best of intentions, never carried out a single plan. "

Sir James Mackintosh was a man of remarkable ability. He excited inevery one who knew him the greatest expectations. Many watched hiscareer with much interest, expecting that he would dazzle the world. But there was no purpose in his life. He had intermittent attacks ofenthusiasm for doing great things, but his zeal all evaporated beforehe could decide what to do. This fatal defect in his character kepthim balancing between conflicting motives; and his whole life wasalmost thrown away. He lacked power to choose one object and perseverewith a single aim, sacrificing every interfering inclination. Hevacillated for weeks trying to determine whether to use "usefulness" or"utility" in a composition. 

One talent utilized in a single direction will do infinitely more thanten talents scattered. A thimbleful of powder behind a ball in a riflewill do more execution than a carload of powder unconfined. Therifle-barrel is the purpose that gives direct aim to the powder, whichotherwise, no matter how good it might be, would be powerless. Thepoorest scholar in school or college often, in practical life, faroutstrips the class leader or senior wrangler, simply because whatlittle ability he has he employs for a definite object, while theother, depending upon his general ability and brilliant prospects, never concentrates his powers. 

"A sublime self-confidence, " says E. P. Whipple, "springing not fromself-conceit, but from an intense identification of the man with hisobject, lifts him altogether above the fear of danger and death, andcommunicates an almost superhuman audacity to his will. "

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[Illustration: RICHARD ARKWRIGHT]

What a sublime spectacle is that of a man going straight to his goal, cutting his way through difficulties, and surmounting obstacles whichdishearten others, as though they were stepping-stones. 

 * * * * * *

It is fashionable to ridicule the man of one idea, but the men who havechanged the front of the world have been men of a single aim. No mancan make his mark on this age of specialties who is not a man of oneidea, one supreme aim, one master passion. The man who would makehimself felt on this bustling planet, who would make a breach in thecompact conservatism of our civilization, must play all his guns on onepoint. A wavering aim, a faltering purpose, has no place in thenineteenth century. "Mental shiftlessness" is the cause of many afailure. The world is full of unsuccessful men who spend their livesletting empty buckets down into empty wells. 

"Mr. A. Often laughs at me, " said a young American chemist, "because Ihave but one idea. He talks about everything, aims to excel in manythings; but I have learned that, if I ever wish to make a breach, Imust play my guns continually upon one point. " This great chemist, when an obscure schoolmaster, used to study by the light of a pine knotin a log cabin. Not many years later he was performing experiments inelectro-magnetism before English earls, and subsequently he was at thehead of one of the largest scientific institutes of this country. Thisman was the late Professor Henry, of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington. 

Douglas Jerrold once knew a man who was familiar with twenty-fourlanguages but could not express a thought in one of them. 

We should guard against a talent which we cannot hope to practice inperfection, says Goethe. Improve it as we may, we shall always, in theend, when the merit of the matter has become apparent to us, painfullylament the loss of time and strength devoted to such botching. An oldproverb says: "The master of one trade will support a wife and sevenchildren, and the master of seven will not support himself. "

_It is the single aim that wins_. Men with monopolizing ambitionsrarely live in history. They do not focus their powers long enough toburn their names indelibly into the roll of honor. Edward Everett, even with his magnificent powers, disappointed the expectations of hisfriends. He spread himself over the whole field of knowledge andelegant culture; but the mention of the name of Everett does not callup any one great achievement as does that of names like Garrison andPhillips. Voltaire called the Frenchman La Harpe an oven which wasalways heating, but which never cooked anything. Hartley Coleridge wassplendidly endowed with talent, like Sir James Mackintosh, but therewas one fatal lack in his character--he had no definite purpose, andhis life was a failure. Unstable as water, he could not excel. Southey, his uncle, says:

"Coleridge has two left hands. " He was so morbidly shy from livingalone in his dreamland that he could not open a letter withouttrembling. He would often rally from his purposeless life, and resolveto redeem himself from the oblivion he saw staring him in the face;but, like Mackintosh, he remained a man of promise merely to the end ofhis life. 

The world always makes way for the man with a purpose in him, likeBismarck or Grant. Look at Rufus Choate, concentrating all hisattention first on one juryman, then on another, going back over thewhole line again and again, until he has burned his arguments intotheir souls; until he has hypnotized them with his purpose; until theysee with his eyes, think his thoughts, feel his sensations. He neverstopped until he had projected his mind into theirs, and permeatedtheir lives with his individuality. There was no escape from hisconcentration of purpose, his persuasive rhetoric, his convincinglogic. "Carry the jury at all hazards, " he used to say to younglawyers; "move heaven and earth to carry the jury, and then fight itout with the judge on the law questions as best you can. "

The man who succeeds has a programme. He fixes his course and adheresto it. He lays his plans and executes them. He goes straight to hisgoal. He is not pushed this way and that every time a difficulty isthrown in his path; if he can't get over it he goes through it. Constant and steady use of the faculties under a central purpose givesstrength and power, while the use of faculties without an aim or endonly weakens them. The mind must be focused on a definite end, or, like machinery without a balance-wheel, it will rack itself to pieces. 

This age of concentration calls, not for educated men merely, not fortalented men, not for geniuses, not for jacks-of-all-trades, but formen who are trained to do one thing as well as it can be done. Napoleon could go through the drill of his soldiers better than any oneof his men. 

_Stick to your aim_. The constant changing of one's occupation isfatal to all success. After a young man has spent five or six years ina dry goods store, he concludes that he would rather sell groceries, thereby throwing away five years of valuable experience which will beof very little use to him in the grocery business; and so he spends alarge part of his life drifting around from one kind of employment toanother, learning part of each, but all of none, forgetting thatexperience is worth more to him than money, and that the years devotedto learning his trade or occupation are the most valuable. Half-learned trades, no matter if a man has twenty, will never give hima good living, much less a competency, while wealth is absolutely outof the question. 

How many young men fail to reach the point of efficiency in one line ofwork before they get discouraged and venture into something else. Howeasy to see the thorns in one's own profession or vocation, and onlythe roses in that of another. A young man in business, for instance, seeing a physician riding about town in his carriage, visiting hispatients, imagines that a doctor must have an easy, ideal life, andwonders that he himself should have embarked in an occupation so fullof disagreeable drudgery and hardships. He does not know of the yearsof dry, tedious study which the physician has consumed, the months andperhaps years of waiting for patients, the dry detail of anatomy, theendless names of drugs and technical terms. 

Scientists tell us that there is nothing in nature so ugly anddisagreeable but intense light will make it beautiful. The completemastery of one profession will render even the driest detailsinteresting. The consciousness of thorough knowledge, the habit ofdoing everything to a finish, gives a feeling of strength, ofsuperiority, which takes the drudgery out of an occupation. The morecompletely we master a vocation the more thoroughly we enjoy it. Infact, the man who has found his place and become master in it couldscarcely be induced, even though he be a farmer, or a carpenter, orgrocer, to exchange places with a governor or congressman. To besuccessful is to _find your sphere and fill it, to get into your placeand master it_. 

There is a sense of great power in a vocation after a man has reachedthe point of efficiency in it, the point of productiveness, the pointwhere his skill begins to tell and bring in returns. Up to this pointof efficiency, while he is learning his trade, the time seems to havebeen almost thrown away. But he has been storing up a vast reserve ofknowledge of detail, laying foundations, forming his acquaintances, gaining his reputation for truthfulness, trustworthiness, andintegrity, and in establishing his credit. When he reaches this pointof efficiency, all the knowledge and skill, character, influence, andcredit thus gained come to his aid, and he soon finds that in whatseemed almost thrown away lies the secret of his prosperity. Thecredit he established as a clerk, the confidence, the integrity, thefriendships formed, he finds equal to a large capital when he startsout for himself and takes the highway to fortune; while the young manwho half learned several trades, and got discouraged and stopped justshort of the point of efficiency, just this side of success, is afailure because he didn't go far enough; he did not press on to thepoint at which his acquisition would have been profitable. 

In spite of the fact that nearly all very successful men have made alife work of one thing, we see on every hand hundreds of young men andwomen flitting about from occupation to occupation, trade to trade, inone thing to-day and another to-morrow, --just as though they could gofrom one thing to another by turning a switch, as if they could run aswell on another track as on the one they have left, regardless of thefact that no two careers have the same gauge, that every man builds hisown road upon which another's engine cannot run either with speed orsafety. This fickleness, this disposition to shift about from oneoccupation to another, seems to be peculiar to American life, so muchso that, when a young man meets a friend whom he has not seen for sometime, the commonest question to ask is, "What are you doing now?"showing the improbability or uncertainty that he is doing to-day whathe was doing when they last met. 

Some people think that if they "keep everlastingly at it" they willsucceed, but this is not so. Working without a plan is as foolish asgoing to sea without a compass. A ship which has broken its rudder inmid-ocean may "keep everlastingly at it, " may keep on a full head ofsteam, driving about all the time, but it never arrives anywhere, itnever reaches any port unless by accident, and if it does find a haven, its cargo may not be suited to the people, the climate, or conditionsamong which it has accidentally drifted. The ship must be directed toa definite port, for which its cargo is adapted, and where there is ademand for it, and it must aim steadily for that port through sunshineand storm, through tempest and fog. So a man who would succeed mustnot drift about rudderless on the ocean of life. He must not onlysteer straight toward his destined port when the ocean is smooth, whenthe currents and winds serve, but he must keep his course in the veryteeth of the wind and the tempest, and even when enveloped in the fogsof disappointment and mists of opposition. The Cunarders do not stopfor fogs or storms; they plow straight through the rough seas with onlyone thing in view, their destined port, and no matter what the weatheris, no matter what obstacles they encounter, their arrival in port canbe predicted to within a few hours. It is practically certain, too, that the ship destined for Boston will not turn up at Fort Sumter or atSandy Hook. 

On the prairies of South America there grows a flower that alwaysinclines in the same direction. If a traveler loses his way and hasneither compass nor chart, by turning to this flower he will find aguide on which he can implicitly rely; for no matter how the rainsdescend or the winds blow, its leaves point to the north. So there aremany men whose purposes are so well known, whose aims are so constant, that no matter what difficulties they may encounter, or what oppositionthey may meet, you can tell almost to a certainty where they will comeout. They may be delayed by head winds and counter currents, but theywill _always head for the port_ and will steer straight towards theharbor. You know to a certainty that whatever else they may lose, theywill not lose their compass or rudder. 

Whatever may happen to a man of this stamp, even though his sails maybe swept away and his mast stripped to the deck, though he may bewrecked by the storms of life, the needle of his compass will stillpoint to the North Star of his hope. Whatever comes, his life will notbe purposeless. Even a wreck that makes its port is a greater successthan a full-rigged ship with all its sails flying, with every mast andrope intact; which merely drifts into an accidental harbor. 

To fix a wandering life and give it direction is not an easy task, buta life which has no definite aim is sure to be frittered away in emptyand purposeless dreams. "Listless triflers, " "busy idlers, ""purposeless busybodies, " are seen everywhere. A healthy, definitepurpose is a remedy for a thousand ills which attend aimless lives. Discontent, dissatisfaction, flee before a definite purpose. An aimtakes the drudgery out of life, scatters doubts to the winds, andclears up the gloomiest creeds. What we do without a purposebegrudgingly, with a purpose becomes a delight, and no work is welldone nor healthily done which is not enthusiastically done. It is justthat added element which makes work immortal. 

Mere energy is not enough, it must be concentrated on some steady, unwavering aim. What is more common than "unsuccessful geniuses, " orfailures with "commanding talents"? Indeed, "unrewarded genius" hasbecome a proverb. Every town has unsuccessful educated and talentedmen. But education is of no value, talent is worthless, unless it cando something, achieve something. Men who can do something ateverything, and a very little at anything, are not wanted in this age. In Paris, a certain Monsieur Kenard announced himself as a "publicscribe, who digests accounts, explains the language of flowers, andsells fried potatoes. " Jacks-at-all-trades are at war with the geniusof the times. 

What this age wants is young men and women who can do one thing withoutlosing their identity or individuality, or becoming narrow, cramped, ordwarfed. Nothing can take the place of an all-absorbing purpose;education will not, genius will not, talent will not, industry willnot, will-power will not. The purposeless life must ever be a failure. What good are powers, faculties, unless we can use them for a purpose?What good would a chest of tools do a carpenter unless he could usethem? A college education, a head full of knowledge, are worth littleto the men who cannot use them to some definite end. 

The man without a purpose never leaves his mark upon the world. He hasno individuality; he is absorbed in the mass, lost in the crowd, weak, wavering, incompetent. His outlines of individuality and angles ofcharacter have been worn off, planed down to suit the common thoughtuntil he has, as a man, been lost in the throng of humanity. 

"He who would do some great thing in this short life must apply himselfto the work with such a concentration of his forces as, to idlespectators, who live only to amuse themselves, looks like insanity. "

What a great directness of purpose may be traced in the career of Pitt, who lived--ay, and died--for the sake of political supremacy. From achild, the idea was drilled into him that he must accomplish a publiccareer worthy of his illustrious father. Even from boyhood he bent allhis energy to this one great purpose. He went straight from college tothe House of Commons. In one year he was Chancellor of the Exchequer;two years later he was Prime Minister of England, and reigned virtuallyking for a quarter of a century. He was utterly oblivious ofeverything outside his aim; insensible to the claims of love, art, literature, living and steadily working for the sole purpose ofwielding the governing power of the nation. His whole soul wasabsorbed in the overmastering passion for political power. 

"Consider, my lord, " said Rowland Hill to the Prime Minister ofEngland, "that a letter to Ireland and the answer back would costthousands upon thousands of my affectionate countrymen more than afifth of their week's wages. If you shut the post office to them, which you do now, you shut out warm hearts and generous affections fromhome, kindred, and friends. " The lad learned that it cost to carry aletter from London to Edinburgh, four hundred and four miles, oneeighteenth of a cent, while the government charged for a simple foldedsheet of paper twenty-eight cents, and twice as much if there was thesmallest inclosure. Against the opposition and contempt of thepost-office department he at length carried his point, and on January10, 1840, penny postage was established throughout Great Britain. Mr. Hill was chosen to introduce the system, at a salary of fifteen hundredpounds a year. His success was most encouraging, but at the end of twoyears a Tory minister dismissed him without paying for his services, asagreed. The public was indignant, and at once contributed sixty-fivethousand dollars; and, at the request of Queen Victoria, Parliamentvoted him one hundred thousand dollars and ten thousand dollars a yearfor life. 

Christ knew that one affection rules in man's life when he said, "Noman can serve two masters. " One affection, one object, will be supremein us. Everything else will be neglected and done with half a heart. One may have subordinate plans, but he can have but one supreme aim, and from this aim all others will take their character. 

It is a great purpose which gives meaning to life, it unifies all ourpowers, binds them together in one cable; makes strong and united whatwas weak, separated, scattered. 

"Painting is my wife and my works are my children, " replied MichaelAngelo when asked why he did not marry. 

"Smatterers" are weak and superficial. Of what use is a man who knowsa little of everything and not much of anything? It is the momentum ofconstantly repeated acts that tells the story. "Let thine eyes lookstraight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet and let all thy waysbe established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left. " Onegreat secret of St. Paul's power lay in his strong purpose. Nothingcould daunt him, nothing intimidate. The Roman Emperor could notmuzzle him, the dungeon could not appall him, no prison suppress him, obstacles could not discourage him. "This one thing I do" was writtenall over his work. The quenchless zeal of his mighty purpose burnedits way down through the centuries, and its contagion will never ceaseto fire the hearts of men. 

"Try and come home somebody, " said the fond mother to Gambetta as shesent him off to Paris to school. Poverty pinched this lad hard in hislittle garret study and his clothes were shabby, but what of that? Hehad made up his mind to get on in the world. For years this youth waschained to his desk and worked like a hero. At last his opportunitycame. Jules Favre was to plead a great cause on a certain day; but, being ill, he chose this young man, absolutely unknown, rough anduncouth, to take his place. For many years Gambetta had been preparingfor such an opportunity, and he was equal to it, for he made one of thegreatest speeches that up to that time had ever been made in France. That night all the papers in Paris were sounding the praises of thisragged, uncouth Bohemian, and soon all France recognized him as theRepublican leader. This sudden rise was not due to luck or accident. He had been steadfastly working and fighting his way up againstopposition and poverty for just such an occasion. Had he not beenequal to it, it would only have made him ridiculous. What a stride;yesterday, poor and unknown, living in a garret, to-day, deputy elect, in the city of Marseilles, and the great Republican leader! Thegossipers of France had never heard his name before. He had beenexpelled from the priest-making seminary as totally unfit for a priestand an utterly undisciplinable character. In two weeks, this raggedson of an Italian grocer arose in the Chamber, and moved that theNapoleon dynasty be disposed of and the Republic be declaredestablished. 

When Louis Napoleon had been defeated at Sedan and had delivered hissword to William of Prussia, and when the Prussian army was marching onParis, the brave Gambetta went out of the besieged city in a balloonbarely grazed by the Prussian guns, landed in Amiens, and by almostsuperhuman skill raised three armies of 800, 000 men, provided for theirmaintenance, and directed their military operations. A German officersaid, "This colossal energy is the most remarkable event of modernhistory, and will carry down Gambetta's name to remote posterity. "This youth who was poring over his books in an attic while other youthswere promenading the Champs Élysées, although but thirty-two years old, was now virtually dictator of France, and the greatest orator in theRepublic. What a striking example of the great reserve of personalpower, which, even in dissolute lives, is sometimes called out by agreat emergency or sudden sorrow, and ever after leads the life tovictory! When Gambetta found that his first speech had electrified allFrance, his great reserve rushed to the front, he was suddenly weanedfrom dissipation, and resolved to make his mark in the world. Nor didhe lose his head in his quick leap into fame. He still lived in theupper room in the musty Latin quarter, and remained a poor man, withoutstain of dishonor, though he might easily have made himself amillionaire. When Gambetta died the "Figaro" said, "The Republic haslost its greatest man. " American boys should study this great man, forhe loved our country, and made our Republic the pattern for France. 

There is no grander sight in the world than that of a young man firedwith a great purpose, dominated by one unwavering aim. He is bound towin; the world stands one side and lets him pass; it always makes wayfor the man with a will in him. He does not have one half theopposition to overcome that the undecided, purposeless man has who, like driftwood, runs against all sorts of snags to which he must yield, because he has no momentum to force them out of his way. What asublime spectacle it is to see a youth going straight to his goal, cutting his way through difficulties, and surmounting obstacles, whichdishearten others, as though they were but stepping-stones! Defeat, like a gymnasium, only gives him new power; opposition only doubles hisexertions, dangers only increase his courage. No matter what comes tohim, sickness, poverty, disaster, he never turns his eye from his goal. 

"Duos qui sequitur lepores, neutrum capit. "

CHAPTER VII. 

SOWING AND REAPING. 

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, thatshall he also reap. --GALATIANS. 

Sow an act, and you reap a habit; sow a habit, and you reap acharacter; sow a character, and you reap a destiny. --G. D. BOARDMAN. 

Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined. --POPE. 

How use doth breed a habit in a man. --SHAKESPEARE. 

 All habits gather, by unseen degrees, As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas. DRYDEN. 

Infinite good comes from good habits which must result from the commoninfluence of example, intercourse, knowledge, and actualexperience--morality taught by good morals. --PLATO. 

The chains of habit are generally too small to be felt till they aretoo strong to be broken. --SAMUEL JOHNSON. 

Man is first startled by sin; then it becomes pleasing, then easy, thendelightful, then frequent, then habitual, then confirmed. Then man isimpenitent, then obstinate, then he is damned. --JEREMY TAYLOR. 

"Rogues differ little. Each began as a disobedient son. "

In the great majority of things, habit is a greater plague than everafflicted Egypt. --JOHN FOSTER. 

You cannot in any given case, by any sudden and single effort, will tobe true if the habit of your life has been insincere. --F. W. ROBERTSON. 

 The tissue of the life to be, We weave with colors all our own; And in the field of destiny, We reap as we have sown. WHITTIER. 

"Gentlemen of the jury, you will now consider your verdict, " said thegreat lawyer, Lord Tenterden, as he roused from his lethargy a moment, and then closed his eyes forever. "Tête d'armée" (head of the army), murmured Napoleon faintly; and then, "on the wings of a tempest thatraged with unwonted fury, up to the throne of the only power thatcontrolled him while he lived, went the fiery soul of that wonderfulwarrior. " "Give Dayrolles a chair, " said the dying Chesterfield withhis old-time courtesy, and the next moment his spirit spread its wings. "Young man, keep your record clean, " thrilled from the lips of John B. Gough as he sank to rise no more. What power over the mind of man isexercised by the dominant idea of his life "that parts not quite withparting breath!" It has shaped his purpose throughout his earthlycareer, and he passes into the Great Unknown, moving in the directionof his ideal; impelled still, amid the utter retrocession of the vitalforce, by all the momentum resulting from his weight of character andsingleness of aim. 

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[Illustration: VICTOR HUGO]

"Every one is the son of his own works. "

"Cast forth thy act, thy word, into the ever-living, ever-workinguniverse: it is seed-grain that cannot die. "

 * * * * * *

 "It is a beautiful arrangement in the mental andmoral economy of our nature, that that which is performed as a dutymay, by frequent repetitions, become a habit, and the habit of sternvirtue, so repulsive to others, may hang around the neck like a wreathof flowers. "

Cholera appeared mysteriously in Toulon, and, after a carefulexamination, the medical inspectors learned that the first victims weretwo sailors on the Montebello, a government transport, long out ofservice, anchored at the entrance to the port. For many years thevessel had been used for storing old, disused military equipments. Some of these had belonged to French soldiers who had died beforeSebastopol. The doctors learned that the two poor sailors were seized, suddenly and mortally, a few days after displacing a pile of equipmentsstored deep in the hold of the Montebello. The cholera of Toulon camein a direct line from the hospital of Varna. It went to sleep, apparently gorged, on a heap of the cast-off garments of its victims, to awaken thirty years later to victorious and venomous life. 

Professor Bonelli, of Turin, punctured an animal with the tooth of arattlesnake. The head of this serpent had lain in a dry state forsixteen years exposed to the air and dust, and, moreover, hadpreviously been preserved more than thirty years in spirits of wine. To his great astonishment an hour afterward the animal died. Sohabits, good or bad, that have been lost sight of for years will springinto a new life to aid or injure us at some critical moment, as kernelsof wheat which had been clasped in a mummy's hand four thousand yearssprang into life when planted. They only awaited moisture, heat, sunlight, and air to develop them. 

In Jefferson's play, Rip Van Winkle, after he had "sworn off, " at everyinvitation to drink said, "Well, this time don't count. " True, asProfessor James says, he may not have counted it, as thousands ofothers have not counted it, and a kind heaven may not count it, but itis being counted none the less. Down among his nerve cells and fibresthe molecules are counting it, registering and storing it up to be usedagainst him when the next temptation comes. Nothing we ever do is instrict scientific literalness wiped out. There is a tendency in thenervous system to repeat the same mode of action at regularly recurringintervals. Dr. Combe says that all nervous diseases have a markedtendency to observe regular periods. "If we repeat any kind of mentaleffort at the same hour daily, we at length find ourselves enteringupon it without premeditation when the time approaches. "

"The great thing in all education is to make our nervous system ourally instead of our enemy. It is to fund and capitalize ouracquisition, and live at ease upon the interest of the fund. For thiswe must make automatic and habitual, as soon as possible, as manyuseful actions as we can, and guard against the growing into ways thatare likely to be disadvantageous to us, as we would guard against theplague. "

The nervous system is a living phonograph, infinitely more marvelousthan that of Edison. No sound, however feeble, however slight, canescape being recorded in its wonderful mechanism. Although themolecules of this living machine may all be entirely changed many timesduring a lifetime, yet these impressions are never erased or lost. They become forever fixed in the character. Like Rip Van Winkle, theyouth may say to himself, I will do this just once "just to see what itis like, " no one will ever know it, and "I won't count this time. " Thecountry youth says it when he goes to the city. The young man says itwhen he drinks "just to be social. " Americans, who are good churchpeople at home, say it when in Paris and Vienna. Yes, "just to seewhat it is like" has ruined many a noble life. Many a man has lost hisbalance and fallen over the precipice into the sink of iniquity whilejust attempting "to see what it was like. " "If you have been pilot onthese waters twenty-five years, " said a young man to the captain of asteamer, "you must know every rock and sandbank in the river. " "No, Idon't, but I know where the deep water is. "

Just one little lie to help me out of this difficulty; "I won't countthis. " Just one little embezzlement; no one will know it, and I canreturn the money before it will be needed. Just one little indulgence;I won't count it, and a good night's sleep will make me all rightagain. Just one small part of my work slighted; it won't make anygreat difference, and, besides, I am usually so careful that a littlething like this ought not to be counted. 

But, my young friend, it will be counted, whether you will or not; thedeed has been recorded with an iron pen, even to the smallest detail. The Recording Angel is no myth; it is found in ourselves. Its name isMemory, and it holds everything. We think we have forgotten thousandsof things until mortal danger, fever, or some other great stimulusreproduces them to the consciousness with all the fidelity ofphotographs. Sometimes all one's past life will seem to pass beforehim in an instant; but at all times it is really, althoughunconsciously, passing before him in the sentiments he feels, in thethoughts he thinks, in the impulses that move him apparently withoutcause. 

 "Our acts our angels are, or good or ill, Our fatal shadows that walk by us still. "

In a fable one of the Fates spun filaments so fine that they wereinvisible, and she became a victim of her cunning, for she was bound tothe spot by these very threads. 

Father Schoenmaker, missionary to the Indians, tried for years toimplant civilization among the wild tribes. After fifteen years' laborhe induced a chief to lay aside his blanket, the token of savagery; buthe goes on to say, "It took fifteen years to get it off, and justfifteen minutes to get it on him again. "

Physiologists say that dark-colored stripes similar to those on thezebra reappear, after a hundred or a thousand generations, on the legsand shoulders of horses, asses, and mules. Large birds on sea islandswhere there are no beasts to molest them lose the power of flight. 

After a criminal's head had been cut off his breast was irritated, andhe raised his hands several times as if to brush away the excitingcause. It was said that the cheek of Charlotte Corday blushed on beingstruck by a rude soldier after the head had been severed from the body. 

Humboldt found in South America a parrot which was the only livingcreature that could speak a word of the language of a lost tribe. Thebird retained the habit of speech after his teachers had died. 

Caspar Hauser was confined, probably from birth, in a dungeon where nolight or sound from the outer world, could reach him. At seventeen hewas still a mental infant, crying and chattering without much apparentintelligence. When released, the light was disagreeable to his eyes;and, after the babbling youth had been taught to speak a few words, hebegged to be taken back to the dungeon. Only cold and dismal silenceseemed to satisfy him. All that gave pleasure to others gave hisperverted senses only pain. The sweetest music was a source of anguishto him, and he could eat only his black crust without violent vomiting. 

Deep in the very nature of animate existence is that principle offacility and inclination, acquired by repetition, which we call habit. Man becomes a slave to his constantly repeated acts. In spite of theprotests of his weakened will the trained nerves continue to repeat theacts even when the doer abhors them. What he at first chooses, at lastcompels. Man is as irrevocably chained to his deeds as the atoms arechained by gravitation. You can as easily snatch a pebble fromgravitation's grasp as you can separate the minutest act of life fromits inevitable effect upon character and destiny. "Children may bestrangled, " says George Eliot, "but deeds never, they have anindestructible life. " The smirched youth becomes the tainted man. 

Practically all the achievements of the human race are but theaccomplishments of habit. We speak of the power of Gladstone toaccomplish so much in a day as something marvelous; but when we analyzethat power we find it composed very largely of the results of habit. His mighty momentum has been rendered possible only by the law of thepower of habit. He is now a great bundle of habits, which all his lifehave been forming. His habit of industry no doubt was irksome andtedious at first, but, practiced so conscientiously and persistently, it has gained such momentum as to astonish the world. His habit ofthinking, close, persistent, and strong, has made him a power. Heformed the habit of accurate, keen observation, allowing nothing toescape his attention, until he could observe more in half a day inLondon than a score of men who have eyes but see not. Thus he hasmultiplied himself many times. By this habit of accuracy he hasavoided many a repetition; and so, during his lifetime, he has savedyears of precious time, which many others, who marvel at hisachievements, have thrown away. 

Gladstone early formed the habit of cheerfulness, of looking on thebright side of things, which, Sydney Smith says, "is worth a thousandpounds a year. " This again has saved him enormous waste of energy, ashe tells us he has never yet been kept awake a single hour by anydebate or business in Parliament. This loss of energy has wasted yearsof many a useful life, which might have been saved by forming theeconomizing habit of cheerfulness. 

The habit of happy thought would transform the commonest life intoharmony and beauty. The will is almost omnipotent to determine habitswhich virtually are omnipotent. The habit of directing a firm andsteady will upon those things which tend to produce harmony of thoughtwould produce happiness and contentment even in the most lowlyoccupations. The will, rightly drilled, can drive out all discordantthoughts, and produce a reign of perpetual harmony. Our trouble isthat we do not half will. After a man's habits are well set, about allhe can do is to sit by and observe which way he is going. Regret it ashe may, how helpless is a weak man bound by the mighty cable of habit, twisted from the tiny threads of single acts which he thought wereabsolutely within his control!

Drop a stone down a precipice. By the law of gravitation it sinks withrapidly increasing momentum. If it falls sixteen feet the firstsecond, it will fall forty-eight feet the next second, and eighty feetthe third second, and one hundred and forty-four feet the fifth second, and if it falls for ten seconds it will in the last second rush throughthree hundred and four feet till earth stops it. Habit is cumulative. After each act of our lives we are not the same person as before, butquite another, better or worse, but not the same. There has beensomething added to, or deducted from, our weight of character. 

"There is no fault nor folly of my life, " said Ruskin; "that does notrise against me and take away my joy, and shorten my power ofpossession, of sight, of understanding; and every past effort of mylife, every gleam of righteousness or good in it, is with me now tohelp me in my grasp of this hour and its vision. "

"Many men of genius have written worse scrawls than I do, " said a boyat Rugby when his teacher remonstrated with him for his bad penmanship;"it is not worth while to worry about so trivial a fault. " Ten yearslater, when he had become an officer in the Crimea, his illegible copyof an order caused the loss of many brave men. 

"Resist beginning" was an ancient motto which is needed in our day. The folly of the child becomes the vice of the youth, and then thecrime of the man. 

In 1880 one hundred and forty-seven of the eight hundred andninety-seven inmates of Auburn State Prison were there on a secondvisit. What brings the prisoner back the second, third, or fourthtime? It is habit which drives him on to commit the deed which hisheart abhors and which his very soul loathes. It is the momentum madeup from a thousand deviations from the truth and right, for there is agreat difference between going just right and a little wrong. It isthe result of that mysterious power which the repeated act has ofgetting itself repeated again and again. 

When a woman was dying from the effects of her husband's cruelty anddebauchery from drink she asked him to come to her bedside, and pleadedwith him again for the sake of their children to drink no more. Grasping his hand with her thin, long fingers, she made him promiseher: "Mary, I will drink no more till I take it out of this hand whichI hold in mine. " That very night he poured out a tumbler of brandy, stole into the room where she lay cold in her coffin, put the tumblerinto her withered hand, and then took it out and drained it to thebottom. John B. Gough told this as a true story. How powerless a manis in the presence of a mighty habit, which has robbed him ofwill-power, of self-respect, of everything manly, until he becomes itsslave!

Walpole tells of a gambler who fell at the table in a fit of apoplexy, and his companions began to bet upon his chances of recovery. When thephysician came they refused to let him bleed the man because they saidit would affect the bet. When President Garfield was hanging betweenlife and death men bet heavily upon the issue, and even sold pools. 

No disease causes greater horror or dread than cholera; yet when it isonce fastened upon a victim he is perfectly indifferent, and wonders atthe solicitude of his friends. His tears are dried; he cannot weep ifhe would. His body is cold and clammy and feels like dead flesh, yethe tells you he is warm, and calls for ice water. Have you never seensimilar insensibility to danger in those whose habits are alreadydragging them to everlasting death?

Etherized by the fascinations of pleasure, we are often unconscious ofpain while the devil amputates the fingers, the feet and hands, or eventhe arms and legs of our character. But oh, the anguish that visitsthe sad heart when the lethe passes away, and the soul becomesconscious of virtue sacrificed, of manhood lost. 

The leper is often the last to suspect his danger, for the disease ispainless in its early stages. A leading lawyer and public official inthe Sandwich Islands once overturned a lighted lamp on his hand, andwas surprised to find that it caused no pain. At last it dawned uponhis mind that he was a leper. He resigned his offices and went to theleper's island, where he died. So sin in its early stages is not onlypainless but often even pleasant. 

The hardening, deadening power of depraving habits and customs wasstrikingly illustrated by the Romans. 

Under Nero, the taste of the people had become so debauched and morbidthat no mere representation of tragedy would satisfy them. Theircold-blooded selfishness, the hideous realism of "a refined, delicate, aesthetic age, " demanded that the heroes should actually be killed onthe stage. The debauched and sanguinary Romans reckoned life worthlesswithout the most thrilling experiences of horror or delight. Tragedymust be genuine bloodshed, comedy, actual shame. When "TheConflagration" was represented on the stage they demanded that a housebe actually burned and the furniture plundered. When "Laureolus" wasplayed they demanded that the actor be really crucified and mangled bya bear, and he had to fling himself down and deluge the stage with hisown blood. Prometheus must be really chained to his rock, and Dirce invery fact be tossed and gored by the wild bull, and Orpheus be torn topieces by a real bear, and Icarus was compelled to fly, even though itwas known he would be dashed to death. When the heroism of "MuciusScaevola" was represented, a real criminal was compelled to thrust hishand into the flame without a murmur, and stand motionless while it wasbeing burned. Hercules was compelled to ascend the funeral pyre, andthere be burned alive. The poor slaves and criminals were compelled toplay their parts heroically until the flames enveloped them. 

The pirate Gibbs, who was executed in New York, said that when herobbed the first vessel his conscience made a hell in his bosom; butafter he had sailed for years under the black flag, he could rob avessel and murder all the crew, and lie down and sleep soundly. A manmay so accustom himself to error as to become its most devoted slave, and be led to commit the most fearful crimes in order to defend it, orto propagate it. 

When Gordon, the celebrated California stage-driver, was dying, he puthis foot out of the bed and swung it to and fro. When asked why he didso, he replied, "I am on the down grade and cannot get my foot on thebrake. "

In our great museums you see stone slabs with the marks of rain thatfell hundreds of years before Adam lived, and the footprint of somewild bird that passed across the beach in those olden times. Thepassing shower and the light foot left their prints on the softsediment; then ages went on, and the sediment hardened into stone; andthere the prints remain, and will remain forever. So the child, sosoft, so susceptible to all impressions, so joyous to receive newideas, treasures them all up, gathers them all into itself, and retainsthem forever. 

A tribe of Indians attacked a white settlement and murdered the fewinhabitants. A woman of the tribe, however, carried away a very younginfant, and reared it as her own. The child grew up with the Indianchildren, different in complexion, but like them in everything else. To scalp the greatest possible number of enemies was, in his view, themost glorious thing in the world. While he was still a youth he wasseen by some white traders, and by them conducted back to civilizedlife. He showed great relish for his new life, and especially a strongdesire for knowledge and a sense of reverence which took the directionof religion, so that he desired to become a clergyman. He went throughhis college course with credit, and was ordained. He fulfilled hisfunction well, and appeared happy and satisfied. After a few years hewent to serve in a settlement somewhere near the seat of war which wasthen going on between Britain and the United States, and before longthere was fighting not far off. He went forth in his usualdress--black coat and neat white shirt and neckcloth. When he returnedhe was met by a gentleman of his acquaintance, who was immediatelystruck by an extraordinary change in the expression of his face and theflush on his cheek, and also by his unusually shy and hurried manner. After asking news of the battle the gentleman observed, "But you arewounded?" "No. " "Not wounded! Why, there is blood upon the bosom ofyour shirt!" The young man quickly crossed his hands firmly upon hisbreast; and his friend, supposing that he wished to conceal a woundwhich ought to be looked to, pulled open his shirt, and saw--what madethe young man let fall his hands in despair. From between his shirtand his breast the friend took out--a bloody scalp! "I could not helpit, " said the poor victim of early habits, in an agonized voice. Heturned and ran, too swiftly to be overtaken, betook himself to theIndians, and never more appeared among the whites. 

An Indian once brought up a young lion, and finding him weak andharmless, did not attempt to control him. Every day the lion gained instrength and became more unmanageable, until at last, when excited byrage, he fell upon his master and tore him to pieces. So what seemedto be an "innocent" sin has grown until it strangled him who was onceits easy master. 

Beware of looking at sin, for at each view it is apt to become betterlooking. 

Habit is practically, for a middle-aged person, fate; for is it notpractically certain that what I have done for twenty years I shallrepeat to-day? What are the chances for a man who has been lazy andindolent all his life starting in to-morrow morning to be industrious;or a spendthrift, frugal; a libertine, virtuous; a profane, foul-mouthed man, clean and chaste?

A Grecian flute-player charged double fees for pupils who had beentaught by inferior masters, on the ground that it was much harder toundo than to form habits. 

Habit tends to make us permanently what we are for the moment. Wecannot possibly hear, see, feel, or experience anything which is notwoven in the web of character. What we are this minute and what we dothis minute, what we think this minute, will be read in the futurecharacter as plainly as words spoken into the phonograph can bereproduced in the future. 

"The air itself, " says Babbage, "is one vast library on whose pages arewritten forever all that man has ever said, whispered, or done. " Everysin you ever committed becomes your boon companion. It rushes to yourlips every time you speak, and drags its hideous form into yourimagination every time you think. It throws its shadow across yourpath whichever way you turn. Like Banquo's ghost, it will not down. You are fastened to it for life, and it will cling to you in the vastforever. Do you think yourself free? You are a slave to every sin youever committed. They follow your pen and work their own character intoevery word you write. 

Rectitude is only the confirmed habit of doing what is right. Some mencannot tell a lie: the habit of truth telling is fixed, it has becomeincorporated with their nature. Their characters bear the indeliblestamp of veracity. You and I know men whose slightest word isunimpeachable; nothing could shake our confidence in them. There areother men who cannot speak the truth: their habitual insincerity hasmade a twist in their characters, and this twist appears in theirspeech. 

"I never in my life committed more than one act of folly, " saidRulhière one day in the presence of Talleyrand. "But where will itend?" inquired the latter. It was lifelong. One mistake too manymakes all the difference between safety and destruction. 

How many men would like to go to sleep beggars and wake up Rothschildsor Astors? How many would fain go to bed dunces and wake up Solomons?You reap what you have sown. Those who have sown dunce-seed, vice-seed, laziness-seed, always get a crop. They that sow the windshall reap the whirlwind. 

Habit, like a child, repeats whatever is done before it. Oh, the powerof a repeated act to get itself repeated again and again! But, likethe wind, it is a power which we can use to force our way in its veryteeth as does the ship, and thus multiply our strength, or we can driftwith it without exertion upon the rocks and shoals of destruction. 

What a great thing it is to "start right" in life. Every young man cansee that the first steps lead to the last, with all except his own. No, his little prevarications and dodgings will not make him a liar, but he can see that they surely will in John Smith's case. He can seethat others are idle and on the road to ruin, but cannot see it in hisown case. 

There is a wonderful relation between bad habits. They all belong tothe same family. If you take in one, no matter how small orinsignificant it may seem, you will soon have the whole. A man who hasformed the habit of laziness or idleness will soon be late at hisengagements; a man who does not meet his engagements will dodge, apologize, prevaricate, and lie. I have rarely known a perfectlytruthful man who was always behind time. 

You have seen a ship out in the bay swinging with the tide and thewaves; the sails are all up, and you wonder why it does not move, butit cannot, for down beneath the water it is anchored. So we often seea young man apparently well equipped, well educated, and we wonder thathe does not advance toward manhood and character. But, alas! we findthat he is anchored to some secret vice, and he can never advance untilhe cuts loose. 

 "The first crime past compels us into more, And guilt grows _fate_ that was but _choice_ before. "

 "Small habits, well pursued betimes, May reach the dignity of crimes. "

Thousands can sympathize with David when he cried, "My sins have takensuch hold upon me that I am not able to look up; my heart faileth me. "Like the damned spot of blood on Lady Macbeth's hand, these foul spotson the imagination will not out. What a penalty nature exacts forphysical sins. The gods are just, and "of our pleasant vices makeinstruments to plague us. "

Plato wrote over his door, "Let no one ignorant of geometry enterhere. " The greatest value of the study of the classics and mathematicscomes from the habits of accurate and concise thought which it induces. The habit-forming portion of life is the dangerous period, and we needthe discipline of close application to hold us outside of our studies. 

Washington at thirteen wrote one hundred and ten maxims of civility andgood behavior, and was most careful in the formation of all habits. Franklin, too, devised a plan of self-improvement and characterbuilding. No doubt the noble characters of these two men, almostsuperhuman in their excellence, are the natural result of their earlycare and earnest striving towards perfection. 

Fielding, describing a game of cards between Jonathan Wild, ofpilfering propensities, and a professional gambler, says: "Such was thepower of habit over the minds of these illustrious persons, that Mr. Wild could not keep his hands out of the count's pockets, though heknew they were empty; nor could the count abstain from palming a card, though he was well aware Mr. Wild had no money to pay him. "

"Habit, " says Montaigne, "is a violent and treacherous schoolmistress. She, by little and little, slyly and unperceived, slips in the foot ofher authority, but having by this gentle and humble beginning, with theaid of time, fixed and established it, she then unmasks a furious andtyrannic countenance against which we have no more the courage nor thepower so much as to lift up our eyes. " It led a New York man actuallyto cut off his hand with a cleaver under a test of what he would resortto, to get a glass of whiskey. It has led thousands of nature'snoblemen to drunkards' and libertines' graves. 

Gough's life is a startling illustration of the power of habit, and ofthe ability of one apparently a hopeless slave to break his fetters andwalk a free man in the sunlight of heaven. He came to America whennine years old. Possessed of great powers of song, of mimicry, and ofacting, and exceedingly social in his tastes, a thousand temptations

 "Widened and strewed with flowers the way Down to eternal ruin. "

"I would give this right hand to redeem those terrible seven years ofdissipation and death, " he would often say in after years when, withhis soul still scarred and battered from his conflict with blightingpassion, he tearfully urged young men to free themselves from thechains of bestial habits. 

In the laboratory of Faraday a workman one day knocked into a jar ofacid a silver cup; it disappeared, was eaten up by the acid, and couldnot be found. The question came up whether it could ever be found. The great chemist came in and put certain chemicals into the jar, andevery particle of the silver was precipitated to the bottom. The masswas then sent to a silversmith, and the cup restored. So a preciousyouth who has fallen into the sink of iniquity, lost, dissolved in sin, can only be restored by the Great Chemist. 

What is put into the first of life is put into the whole of life. "Outof a church of twenty-seven hundred members, I have never had toexclude a single one who was received while a child, " said Spurgeon. It is the earliest sin that exercises the most influence for evil. 

Benedict Arnold was the only general in the Revolution that disgracedhis country. He had great military talent, wonderful energy, and acourage equal to any emergency. But Arnold _did not start right_. Even when a boy he was despised for his cruelty and his selfishness. He delighted in torturing insects and birds that he might watch theirsufferings. He scattered pieces of glass and sharp tacks on the floorof the shop he was tending, to cut the feet of the barefooted boys. Even in the army, in spite of his bravery, the soldiers hated him, andthe officers dared not trust him. 

 Let no man trust the first false step Of guilt; it hangs upon a precipice, Whose steep descent in last perdition ends. YOUNG

Years ago there was a district lying near Westminster Abbey, London, called the "Devil's Acre, "--a school for vicious habits, wheredepravity was universal; where professional beggars were fitted withall the appliances of imposture; where there was an agency for the hireof children to be carried about by forlorn widows and deserted wives, to move the compassion of street-giving benevolence; where youngpickpockets were trained in the art and mystery which was to conductthem in due course to an expensive voyage for the good of their countryto Botany Bay. 

Victor Hugo describes a strange association of men in the seventeenthcentury who bought children and distorted and made monstrosities ofthem to amuse the nobility with; and in cultured Boston there is anassociation of so-called "respectable men, " who have opened thousandsof "places of business" for deforming men, women, and children's souls. But we deform ourselves with agencies so pleasant that we think we arehaving a good time, until we become so changed and enslaved that wescarcely recognize ourselves. Vice, the pleasant guest which we firstinvited into our heart's parlor, becomes vulgarly familiar, andintrenches herself deep in our very being. We ask her to leave, butshe simply laughs at us from the hideous wrinkles she has made in ourfaces, and refuses to go. Our secret sins defy us from the hideousfurrows they have cut in our cheeks. Each impure thought has chiseledits autograph deep into the forehead, too deep for erasure, and theglassy, bleary eye adds its testimony to our ruined character. 

The devil does not apply his match to the hard coal; but he firstlights the shavings of "innocent sins, " and the shavings the wood, andthe wood the coal. Sin is gradual. It does not break out on a manuntil it has long circulated through his system. Murder, adultery, theft, are not committed in deed until they have been committed inthought again and again. 

"Don't write there, " said a man to a boy who was writing with a diamondpin on a pane of glass in the window of a hotel. "Why not?" inquiredthe boy. "Because you can't rub it out. " Yet the glass might havebeen broken and all trace of the writing lost, but things written uponthe human soul can never be removed, for the tablet is immortal. 

"In all the wide range of accepted British maxims, " said Thomas Hughes, "there is none, take it all in all, more thoroughly abominable thanthis one, as to the sowing of wild oats. Look at it on what side youwill, and I defy you to make anything but a devil's maxim of it. Whatman, be he young, old, or middle-aged, sows, that, and nothing else, shall he reap. The only thing to do with wild oats is to put themcarefully into the hottest part of the fire, and get them burnt todust, every seed of them. If you sow them, no matter in what ground, up they will come with long, tough roots and luxuriant stalks andleaves, as sure as there is a sun in heaven. The devil, too, whosespecial crop they are, will see that they thrive, and you, and nobodyelse, will have to reap them. "

 We scatter seeds with careless hand, And dream we ne'er shall see them more; But for a thousand years Their fruit appears, In weeds that mar the land. JOHN KEBLE. 

Theodora boasted that she could draw Socrates' disciples away from him. "That may be, " said the philosopher, "for you lead them down an easydescent whereas I am forcing them to mount to virtue--an arduous ascentand unknown to most men. "

"When I am told of a sickly student, " said Daniel Wise, "that he is'studying himself to death, ' or of a feeble young mechanic, or clerk, that his hard work is destroying him, I study his countenance, andthere, too often, read the real, melancholy truth in his dull, averted, sunken eye, discolored skin, and timid manner. These signs proclaimthat the young man is in some way violating the laws of his physicalnature. He is secretly destroying himself. Yet, say his unconsciousand admiring friends, 'He is falling a victim to his own diligence!'Most lame and impotent conclusion! He is sapping the very source oflife, and erelong will be a mind in ruins or a heap of dust. Youngman, beware of his example! 'Keep thyself pure;' observe the laws ofyour physical nature, and the most unrelaxing industry will never robyou of a month's health, nor shorten the thread of your life; forindustry and health are companions, and long life is the heritage ofdiligence. "

 "How shall I a habit break?" As you did that habit make. As you gathered, you must lose; As you yielded, now refuse. Thread by thread the strands we twist Till they bind us neck and wrist. Thread by thread the patient hand Must untwine ere free we stand. As we builded, stone by stone, We must toil, unhelped, alone, Till the wall is overthrown. 

 But remember, as we try, Lighter every test goes by; Wading in, the stream grows deep Toward the centre's downward sweep; Backward turn, each step ashore Shallower is than that before. 

 Ah, the precious years we waste Leveling what we raised in haste; Doing what must be undone, Ere content or love be won! First across the gulf we cast Kite-borne threads till lines are passed, And habit builds the bridge at last. JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

SELF-HELP. 

I learned that no man in God's wide earth is either willing or able tohelp any other man. --PESTALOZZI. 

What I am I have made myself. --HUMPHRY DAVY. 

Be sure, my son, and remember that the best men always makethemselves. --PATRICK HENRY. 

 Hereditary bondsmen, know ye not Who would be free themselves must strike the blow? BYRON. 

God gives every bird its food, but he does not throw it into thenest. --J. G. HOLLAND. 

Never forget that others will depend upon you, and that you cannotdepend upon them. --DUMAS, FILS. 

Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, which we ascribe toHeaven. --SHAKESPEARE. 

The best education in the world is that got by struggling to obtain aliving. --WENDELL PHILLIPS. 

Every person has two educations, one which he receives from others, andone, more important, which he gives himself. --GIBBON. 

What the superior man seeks is in himself: what the small man seeks isin others. --CONFUCIUS. 

 Who waits to have his task marked out, Shall die and leave his errand unfulfilled. LOWELL. 

 In battle or business, whatever the game, In law, or in love, it's ever the same: In the struggle for power, or scramble for pelf, Let this be your motto, "Rely on yourself. " SAXE. 

 Let every eye negotiate for itself, And trust no agent. SHAKESPEARE. 

"Colonel Crockett makes room for himself!" exclaimed a backwoodscongressman in answer to the exclamation of the White House usher to"Make room for Colonel Crockett!" This remarkable man was not afraidto oppose the head of a great nation. He preferred being right tobeing president. Though rough, uncultured, and uncouth, Crockett was aman of great courage and determination. 

Garfield was the youngest member of the House of Representatives whenhe entered, but he had not been in his seat sixty days before hisability was recognized and his place conceded. He stepped to the frontwith the confidence of one who belonged there. He succeeded becauseall the world in concert could not have kept him in the background, andbecause when once in the front he played his part with an intrepidityand a commanding ease that were but the outward evidences of theimmense reserves of energy on which it was in his power to draw. 

[Illustration: James A. Garfield (missing from book)]

"Take the place and attitude which belong to you, " says Emerson, "andall men acquiesce. The world must be just. It leaves every man withprofound unconcern to set his own rate. "

Grant was no book soldier. Some of his victories were contrary to allinstructions in military works. He did not dare to disclose his planto invest Vicksburg, and he even cut off all communication on theMississippi River for seven days that no orders could reach him fromGeneral Halleck, his superior officer; for he knew that Halleck went bybooks, and he was proceeding contrary to all military theories. He wasmaking a greater military history than had ever been written up to thattime. He was greater than all books of tactics. The consciousness ofpower is everything. That man is strongest who owes most to himself. 

"Man, it is within yourself, " says Pestalozzi, "it is in the innersense of your power that resides nature's instrument for yourdevelopment. "

Richard Arkwright, the thirteenth child, in a hovel, with no education, no chance, gave his spinning model to the world, and put a sceptre inEngland's right hand such as the queen never wielded. 

"A person under the firm persuasion that he can command resourcesvirtually has them, " says Livy. 

Solario, a wandering gypsy tinker, fell deeply in love with thedaughter of the painter Coll' Antonio del Fiore, but was told that noone but a painter as good as the father should wed the maiden. "Willyou give me ten years to learn to paint, and so entitle myself to thehand of your daughter?" Consent was given, Coll' Antonio thinking thathe would never be troubled further by the gypsy. About the time thatthe ten years were to end the king's sister showed Coll' Antonio aMadonna and Child, which the painter extolled in terms of the highestpraise. Judge of his surprise on learning that Solario was the artist. But later, his son-in-law surprised him even more by his rare skill. 

Louis Philippe said he was the only sovereign in Europe fit to govern, for he could black his own boots. 

When asked to name his family coat-of-arms, a self-made President ofthe United States replied, "A pair of shirtsleeves. "

"Poverty is uncomfortable, as I can testify, " said James A. Garfield;"but nine times out of ten the best thing that can happen to a youngman is to be tossed overboard and compelled to sink or swim forhimself. In all my acquaintance I have never known a man to be drownedwho was worth the saving. "

It is not the men who have inherited most, except it be in nobility ofsoul and purpose, who have risen highest; but rather the men with no"start" who have won fortunes, and have made adverse circumstances aspur to goad them up the steep mount, where

 "Fame's proud temple shines afar. "

To such men, every possible goal is accessible, and honest ambition hasno height that genius or talent may tread, which has not felt theimpress of their feet. 

You may leave your millions to your son, but have you really given himanything? You cannot transfer the discipline, the experience, thepower which the acquisition has given you; you cannot transfer thedelight of achieving, the joy felt only in growth, the pride ofacquisition, the character which trained habits of accuracy, method, promptness, patience, dispatch, honesty of dealing, politeness ofmanner have developed. You cannot transfer the skill, sagacity, prudence, foresight, which lie concealed in your wealth. It meant agreat deal for you, but means nothing to your heir. In climbing toyour fortune, you developed the muscle, stamina, and strength whichenabled you to maintain your lofty position, to keep your millionsintact. You had the power which comes only from experience, and whichalone enables you to stand firm on your dizzy height. Your fortune wasexperience to you, joy, growth, discipline, and character; to him itwill be a temptation, an anxiety, which will probably dwarf him. Itwas wings to you, it will be a dead weight to him; it was education toyou and expansion of your highest powers; to him it may mean inaction, lethargy, indolence, weakness, ignorance. You have taken the pricelessspur--necessity--away from him, the spur which has goaded man to nearlyall the great achievements in the history of the world. 

You thought it a kindness to deprive yourself in order that your sonmight begin where you left off. You thought to spare him the drudgery, the hardships, the deprivations, the lack of opportunities, the meagreeducation, which you had on the old farm. But you have put a crutchinto his hand instead of a staff; you have taken away from him theincentive to self-development, to self-elevation, to self-disciplineand self-help, without which no real success, no real happiness, nogreat character is ever possible. His enthusiasm will evaporate, hisenergy will be dissipated, his ambition, not being stimulated by thestruggle for self-elevation, will gradually die away. If you doeverything for your son and fight his battles for him, you will have aweakling on your hands at twenty-one. 

"My life is a wreck, " said the dying Cyrus W. Field, "my fortune gone, my home dishonored. Oh, I was so unkind to Edward when I thought I wasbeing kind. If I had only had firmness enough to compel my boys toearn their living, then they would have known the meaning of money. "His table was covered with medals and certificates of honor from manynations, in recognition of his great work for civilization in mooringtwo continents side by side in thought, of the fame he had won andcould never lose. But grief shook the sands of life as he thought onlyof the son who had brought disgrace upon a name before unsullied, thewounds were sharper than those of a serpent's tooth. 

During the great financial crisis of 1857 Maria Mitchell, who wasvisiting England, asked an English lady what became of daughters whenno property was left them. "They live on their brothers, " was thereply. "But what becomes of the American daughters, " asked the Englishlady, "when there is no money left?" "They earn it, " was the reply. 

Men who have been bolstered up all their lives are seldom good foranything in a crisis. When misfortune comes, they look around forsomebody to lean upon. If the prop is not there down they go. Oncedown, they are as helpless as capsized turtles, or unhorsed men inarmor. Many a frontier boy has succeeded beyond all his expectationssimply because all props were knocked out from under him and he wasobliged to stand upon his own feet. 

"A man's best friends are his ten fingers, " said Robert Collyer, whobrought his wife to America in the steerage. Young men who are alwayslooking for something to lean upon never amount to anything. 

There is no manhood mill which takes in boys and turns out men. Whatyou call "no chance" may be your "only chance. " Don't wait for yourplace to be made for you; make it yourself. Don't wait for somebody togive you a lift; lift yourself. Henry Ward Beecher did not wait for acall to a big church with a large salary. He accepted the firstpastorate offered him, in a little town near Cincinnati. He becameliterally the light of the church, for he trimmed the lamps, kindledthe fires, swept the rooms, and rang the bell. His salary was onlyabout $200 a year, --but he knew that a fine church and great salarycannot make a great man. It was work and opportunity that he wanted. He felt that if there was anything in him work would bring it out. 

"Physiologists tell us, " says Waters, "that it takes twenty-eight yearsfor the brain to attain its full development. If this is so, whyshould not one be able, by his own efforts, to give this long-growingorgan a particular bent, a peculiar character? Why should the will notbe brought to bear upon the formation of the brain as well as of thebackbone?" The will is merely our steam power, and we may put it toany work we please. It will do our bidding, whether it be building upa character, or tearing it down. It may be applied to building up ahabit of truthfulness and honesty, or of falsehood and dishonor. Itwill help build up a man or a brute, a hero or a coward. It will braceup resolution until one may almost perform miracles, or it may bedissipated in irresolution and inaction until life is a wreck. It willhold you to your task until you have formed a powerful habit ofindustry and application, until idleness and inaction are painful, orit will lead you into indolence and listlessness until every effortwill be disagreeable and success impossible. 

"The first thing I have to impress upon you is, " says J. T. Davidson, "that a good name must be the fruit of one's own exertion. You cannotpossess it by patrimony; you cannot purchase it with money; you willnot light on it by chance; it is independent of birth, station, talents, and wealth; it must be the outcome of your own endeavor, andthe reward of good principles and honorable conduct. Of all theelements of success in life none is more vital than self-reliance, --adetermination to be, under God, the creator of your own reputation andadvancement. If difficulties stand in the way, if exceptionaldisadvantages oppose you, all the better, as long as you have pluck tofight through them. I want each young man here (you will notmisunderstand me) to have faith in himself and, scorning props andbuttresses, crutches and life-preservers, to take earnest hold of life. Many a lad has good stuff in him that never comes to anything becausehe slips too easily into some groove of life; it is commonly those whohave a tough battle to begin with that make their mark upon their age. "

When Beethoven was examining the work of Moscheles, he found written atthe end "Finis, with God's help. " He wrote under it "Man, helpyourself. "

A young man stood listlessly watching some anglers on a bridge. He waspoor and dejected. At length, approaching a basket filled with fish, he sighed, "If now I had these I would be happy. I could sell them andbuy food and lodgings. " "I will give you just as many and just asgood, " said the owner, who chanced to overhear his words, "if you willdo me a trifling favor. " "And what is that?" asked the other. "Onlyto tend this line till I come back; I wish to go on a short errand. "The proposal was gladly accepted. The old man was gone so long thatthe young man began to get impatient. Meanwhile the fish snappedgreedily at the hook, and he lost all his depression in the excitementof pulling them in. When the owner returned he had caught a largenumber. Counting out from them as many as were in the basket, andpresenting them to the youth, the old fisherman said, "I fulfill mypromise from the fish you have caught, to teach you whenever you seeothers earning what you need to waste no time in foolish wishing, butcast a line for yourself. "

A white squall caught a party of tourists on a lake in Scotland, andthreatened to capsize the boat. When it seemed that the crisis wasreally come the largest and strongest man in the party, in a state ofintense fear, said, "Let us pray. " "No, no, my man, " shouted the bluffold boatman; "_let the little man pray. You take an oar. _" Thegreatest curse that can befall a young man is to lean. 

The grandest fortunes ever accumulated or possessed on earth were andare the fruit of endeavor that had no capital to begin with saveenergy, intellect, and the will. From Croesus down to Rockefeller thestory is the same, not only in the getting of wealth, but also in theacquirement of eminence; those men have won most who relied most uponthemselves. 

It has been said that one of the most disgusting sights in this worldis that of a young man with healthy blood, broad shoulders, presentablecalves, and a hundred and fifty pounds, more or less, of good bone andmuscle, standing with his hands in his pockets longing for help. 

"The male inhabitants in the Township of Loaferdom, in the County ofHatework, " says a printer's squib, "found themselves laboring undergreat inconvenience for want of an easily traveled road between Povertyand Independence. They therefore petitioned the Powers that be to levya tax upon the property of the entire county for the purpose of layingout a macadamized highway, broad and smooth, and all the way down hillto the latter place. "

"It is interesting to notice how some minds seem almost to createthemselves, " says Irving, "springing up under every disadvantage, andworking their solitary but irresistible way through a thousandobstacles. "

"Every one is the artificer of his own fortune, " says Sallust. 

Man is not merely the architect of his own fortune, but he must lay thebricks himself. Bayard Taylor, at twenty-three, wrote: "I will becomethe sculptor of my own mind's statue. " His biography shows how oftenthe chisel and hammer were in his hands to shape himself into hisideal. "I have seen none, known none, of the celebrities of my time, "said Samuel Cox. "All my energy was directed upon one end, to improvemyself. "

"Man exists for culture, " says Goethe; "not for what he can accomplish, but for what can be accomplished in him. "

When young Professor Tyndall was in the government service, he had nodefinite aim in life until one day a government official asked him howhe employed his leisure time. "You have five hours a day at yourdisposal, " said he, "and this ought to be devoted to systematic study. Had I at your age some one to advise me as I now advise you, instead ofbeing in a subordinate position, I might have been at the head of mydepartment. " The very next day young Tyndall began a regular course ofstudy, and went to the University of Marburg, where he became noted forhis indomitable industry. He was so poor that he bought a cask, andcut it open for a bathtub. He often rose before daylight to study, while the world was slumbering about him. 

Labor is the only legal tender in the world to true success. The godssell everything for that, nothing without it. You will never findsuccess "marked down. " The door to the temple of success is never leftopen. Every one who enters makes his own door which closes behind himto all others. 

Circumstances have rarely favored great men. They have fought theirway to triumph over the road of difficulty and through all sorts ofopposition. A lowly beginning and a humble origin are no bar to agreat career. The farmers' boys fill many of the greatest places inlegislatures, in syndicates, at the bar, in pulpits, in Congress, to-day. Boys of lowly origin have made many of the greatestdiscoveries, are presidents of our banks, of our colleges, of ouruniversities. Our poor boys and girls have written many of ourgreatest books, and have filled the highest places as teachers andjournalists. Ask almost any great man in our large cities where he wasborn, and he will tell you it was on a farm or in a small countryvillage. Nearly all of the great capitalists of the city came from thecountry. "'T is better to be lowly born. "

The founder of Boston University left Cape Cod for Boston to make hisway with a capital of only four dollars. Like Horace Greeley, he couldfind no opening for a boy; but what of that? He made an opening. Hefound a board, and made it into an oyster stand on the street corner. He borrowed a wheelbarrow, and went three miles to an oyster smack, bought three bushels of oysters, and wheeled them to his stand. Soonhis little savings amounted to $130, and then he bought a horse andcart. This poor boy with no chance kept right on till he became themillionaire Isaac Rich. 

Chauncey Jerome, the inventor of machine-made clocks, started with twoothers on a tour through New Jersey, they to sell the clocks, and he tomake cases for them. On his way to New York he went through New Havenin a lumber wagon, eating bread and cheese. He afterward lived in afine mansion in New Haven. 

Self-help has accomplished about all the great things of the world. How many young men falter, faint, and dally with their purpose becausethey have no capital to start with, and wait and wait for some goodluck to give them a lift. But success is the child of drudgery andperseverance. It cannot be coaxed or bribed; pay the price and it isyours. Where is the boy to-day who has less chance to rise in theworld than Elihu Burritt, apprenticed to a blacksmith, in whose shop hehad to work at the forge all the daylight, and often by candle-light?Yet, he managed, by studying with a book before him at his meals, carrying it in his pocket that he might utilize every spare moment, andstudying nights and holidays, to pick up an excellent education in theodds and ends of time which most boys throw away. While the rich boyand the idler were yawning and stretching and getting their eyes open, young Burritt had seized the opportunity and improved it. At thirtyyears of age he was master of every important language in Europe andwas studying those of Asia. 

What chance had such a boy for distinction? Probably not a singleyouth will read this book who has not a better opportunity for success. Yet he had a thirst for knowledge, and a desire for self-improvement, which overcame every obstacle in his pathway. A wealthy gentlemanoffered to pay his expenses at Harvard; but no, he said he could gethis education himself, even though he had to work twelve or fourteenhours a day at the forge. Here was a determined boy. He snatchedevery spare moment at the anvil and forge as though it were gold. Hebelieved, with Gladstone, that thrift of time would repay him in afteryears with usury, and that waste of it would make him dwindle. Thinkof a boy working nearly all the daylight in a blacksmith's shop, andyet finding time to study seven languages in a single year!

If the youth of America who are struggling against cruel circumstances, to do something and be somebody in the world, could only understandthat ninety per cent. Of what is called genius is merely the result ofpersistent, determined industry, is in most cases downright hard work, that it is the slavery to a single idea which has given to many amediocre talent the reputation of being a genius, they would beinspired with new hope. It is interesting to note that the men whotalk most about genius are the men who like to work the least. Thelazier the man, the more he will have to say about great things beingdone by genius. 

The greatest geniuses have been the greatest workers. Sheridan wasconsidered a genius, but it was found that the "brilliants" and"off-hand sayings" with which he used to dazzle the House of Commonswere elaborated, polished and repolished, and put down in hismemorandum book ready for any emergency. 

Genius has been well defined as the infinite capacity for taking pains. If men who have done great things could only reveal to the strugglingyouth of to-day how much of their reputations was due to downright harddigging and plodding, what an uplift of inspiration and encouragementthey would give. How often I have wished that the discouraged, struggling youth could know of the heart-aches, the head-aches, thenerve-aches, the disheartening trials, the discouraged hours, the fearsand despair involved in works which have gained the admiration of theworld, but which have taxed the utmost powers of their authors. Youcan read in a few minutes or a few hours a poem or a book with onlypleasure and delight, but the days and months of weary plodding overdetails and dreary drudgery often required to produce it would staggerbelief. 

The greatest works in literature have been elaborated and elaborated, line by line, paragraph by paragraph, often rewritten a dozen times. The drudgery which literary men have put into the productions whichhave stood the test of time is almost incredible. Lucretius workednearly a lifetime on one poem. It completely absorbed his life. It issaid that Bryant rewrote "Thanatopsis" a hundred times, and even thenwas not satisfied with it. John Foster would sometimes linger a weekover a single sentence. He would hack, split, prune, pull up by theroots, or practice any other severity on whatever he wrote, till itgained his consent to exist. Chalmers was once asked what Foster wasabout in London. "Hard at it, " he replied, "at the rate of a line aweek. " Dickens, one of the greatest writers of modern fiction, was soworn down by hard work that he looked as "haggard as a murderer. " EvenLord Bacon, one of the greatest geniuses that ever lived, left largenumbers of MSS. Filled with "sudden thoughts set down for use. " Humetoiled thirteen hours a day on his "History of England. " Lord Eldonastonished the world with his great legal learning, but when he was astudent too poor to buy books, he had actually borrowed and copied manyhundreds of pages of large law books, such as Coke upon Littleton, thussaturating his mind with legal principles which afterward blossomed outinto what the world called remarkable genius. Matthew Hale for yearsstudied law sixteen hours a day. Speaking of Fox, some one declaredthat he wrote "drop by drop. " Rousseau says of the labor involved inhis smooth and lively style: "My manuscripts, blotted, scratched, interlined, and scarcely legible, attest the trouble they cost me. There is not one of them which I have not been obliged to transcribefour or five times before it went to press. . . . Some of my periods Ihave turned or returned in my head for five or six nights before theywere fit to be put to paper. "

It is said that Waller spent a whole summer over ten lines in one ofhis poems. Beethoven probably surpassed all other musicians in hispainstaking fidelity and persistent application. There is scarcely abar in his music that was not written and rewritten at least a dozentimes. His favorite maxim was, "The barriers are not yet erected whichcan say to aspiring talent and industry 'thus far and no further. '"Gibbon wrote his autobiography nine times, and was in his study everymorning, summer and winter, at six o'clock; and yet youth who wastetheir evenings wonder at the genius which can produce "The Decline andFall of the Roman Empire, " upon which Gibbon worked twenty years. EvenPlato, one of the greatest writers that ever lived, wrote the firstsentence in his "Republic" nine different ways before he was satisfiedwith it. Burke's famous "Letter to a Noble Lord, " one of the finestthings in the English language, was so completely blotted over withalterations when the proof was returned to the printing-office that thecompositors refused to correct it as it was, and entirely reset it. Burke wrote the conclusion of his speech at the trial of Hastingssixteen times, and Butler wrote his famous "Analogy" twenty times. Ittook Virgil seven years to write his Georgics, and twelve years towrite the Aeneid. He was so displeased with the latter that heattempted to rise from his deathbed to commit it to the flames. 

Haydn was very poor; his father was a coachman and he, friendless andlonely, married a servant girl. He was sent away from home to act aserrand boy for a music teacher. He absorbed a great deal ofinformation, but he had a hard life of persecution until he became abarber in Vienna. Here he blacked boots for an influential man, whobecame a friend to him. In 1798 this poor boy's oratorio, "TheCreation, " came upon the musical world like the rising of a new sunwhich never set. He was courted by princes and dined with kings andqueens; his reputation was made; there was no more barbering, no morepoverty. But of his eight hundred compositions, "The Creation"eclipsed them all. He died while Napoleon's guns were bombardingVienna, some of the shot falling in his garden. The greatest creationsof musicians were written with an effort, to fill the "aching void" inthe human heart. 

Frederick Douglass, America's most representative colored man, born aslave, was reared in bondage, liberated by his own exertions, educatedand advanced by sheer pluck and perseverance to distinguished positionsin the service of his country, and to a high place in the respect andesteem of the whole world. 

When a man like Lord Cavanagh, without arms or legs, manages to puthimself into Parliament, when a man like Francis Joseph Campbell, ablind man, becomes a distinguished mathematician, a musician, and agreat philanthropist, we get a hint as to what it means to make themost possible out of ourselves and opportunities. Perhaps ninety-nineout of a hundred under such unfortunate circumstances would be contentto remain helpless objects of charity for life. If it is your call toacquire money power instead of brain power, to acquire business powerinstead of professional power, double your talent just the same, nomatter what it may be. 

A glover's apprentice of Glasgow, Scotland, who was too poor to affordeven a candle or a fire, and who studied by the light of the shopwindows in the streets, and when the shops were closed climbed thelamp-post, holding his book in one hand, and clinging to the lamp-postwith the other, --this poor boy, with less chance than almost any boy inAmerica, became the most eminent scholar of Scotland. 

Francis Parkman, half blind, became one of America's greatesthistorians in spite of everything, because he made himself such. Personal value is a coin of one's own minting; one is taken at theworth he has put into himself. Franklin was but a poor printer's boy, whose highest luxury at one time was only a penny roll, eaten in thestreets of Philadelphia. Richard Arkwright, a barber all his earlierlife, as he rose from poverty to wealth and fame, felt the need ofcorrecting the defects of his early education. After his fiftieth yearhe devoted two hours a day, snatched from his sleep, to improvinghimself in orthography, grammar, and writing. 

Michael Faraday was a poor boy, son of a blacksmith, who apprenticedhim at the age of thirteen to a bookbinder in London. Michael laid thefoundations of his future greatness by making himself familiar with thecontents of the books he bound. He remained at night, after others hadgone, to read and study the precious volumes. Lord Tenterden was proudto point out to his son the shop where his father had shaved for apenny. A French doctor once taunted Fléchier, Bishop of Nismes, whohad been a tallow-chandler in his youth, with the meanness of hisorigin, to which he replied, "If you had been born in the samecondition that I was, you would still have been but a maker of candles. "

The Duke of Argyle, walking in his garden, saw a Latin copy of Newton's"Principia" on the grass, and supposing that it had been taken from hislibrary, called for some one to carry it back. Edmund Stone, however, the son of the duke's gardener, claimed it. "Yours?" asked thesurprised nobleman. "Do you understand geometry, Latin, and Newton?""I know a little of them, " replied Edmund. "But how, " asked the duke, "came you by the knowledge of all these things?" "A servant taught meto read ten years since, " answered Stone. "Does one need to knowanything more than the twenty-four letters, in order to learneverything else that one wishes?" The duke was astonished. "I firstlearned to read, " said the lad; "the masons were then at work upon yourhouse. I approached them one day and observed that the architect useda rule and compasses, and that he made calculations. I inquired whatmight be the meaning and use of these things, and I was informed thatthere was a science called arithmetic. I purchased a book ofarithmetic and learned it. I was told that there was another sciencecalled geometry; I bought the necessary books and learned geometry. Byreading I found that there were good books on these sciences in Latin, so I bought a dictionary and learned Latin. I understood, also, thatthere were good books of the same kind in French; I bought adictionary, and learned French. This, my lord, is what I have done; itseems to me that we may learn everything when we know the twenty-fourletters of the alphabet. "

Edwin Chadwick, in his report to the British Parliament, stated thatchildren, working on half time, that is, studying three hours a day andworking the rest of their time out of doors, really made the greatestintellectual progress during the year. Business men have oftenaccomplished wonders during the busiest lives by simply devoting one, two, three, or four hours daily to study or other literary work. 

James Watt received only the rudiments of an education at school, forhis attendance was irregular on account of delicate health. He morethan made up for all deficiencies, however, by the diligence with whichhe pursued his studies at home. Alexander V. Was a beggar; he was"born mud, and died marble. " William Herschel, placed at the age offourteen as a musician in the band of the Hanoverian Guards, devotedall his leisure to philosophical studies. He acquired a large fund ofgeneral knowledge, and in astronomy, a science in which he was whollyself-instructed, his discoveries entitle him to rank with the greatestastronomers of all time. 

George Washington was the son of a widow, born under the roof of aWestmoreland farmer; almost from infancy his lot had been the lot of anorphan. No academy had welcomed him to its shade, no college crownedhim with its honors; to read, to write, to cipher, these had been hisdegrees in knowledge. Shakespeare learned little more than reading andwriting at school, but by self-culture he made himself the great masteramong literary men. Burns, too, enjoyed few advantages of education, and his youth was passed in almost abject poverty. 

James Ferguson, the son of a half-starved peasant, learned to read bylistening to the recitations of one of his elder brothers. While amere boy he discovered several mechanical principles, made models ofmills and spinning-wheels, and by means of beads on strings worked outan excellent map of the heavens. Ferguson made remarkable things witha common penknife. How many great men have mounted the hill ofknowledge by out-of-the-way paths. Gifford worked his intricateproblems with a shoemaker's awl on a bit of leather. Rittenhouse firstcalculated eclipses on his plow-handle. _A will finds a way_. 

Julius Caesar, who has been unduly honored for those great militaryachievements in which he appears as the scourge of his race, is farmore deserving of respect for those wonderful Commentaries, in whichhis military exploits are recorded. He attained distinction by hiswritings on astronomy, grammar, history, and several other subjects. He was one of the most learned men and one of the greatest orators ofhis time. Yet his life was spent amid the turmoil of a camp or thefierce struggle of politics. If he found abundant time for study, whomay not? Frederick the Great, too, was busy in camp the greater partof his life, yet whenever a leisure moment came, it was sure to bedevoted to study. He wrote to a friend, "I become every day morecovetous of my time, I render an account of it to myself, and I losenone of it but with great regret. "

Columbus, while leading the life of a sailor, managed to become themost accomplished geographer and astronomer of his time. 

When Peter the Great, a boy of seventeen, became the absolute ruler ofRussia, his subjects were little better than savages, and in himself, even, the passions and propensities of barbarism were so strong thatthey were frequently exhibited during his whole career. But hedetermined to transform himself and the Russians into civilized people. He instituted reforms with great energy, and at the age of twenty-sixstarted on a visit to the other countries of Europe for the purpose oflearning about their arts and institutions. At Saardam, Holland, hewas so impressed with the sights of the great East India dockyard, thathe apprenticed himself to a shipbuilder, and helped build the St. Peter, which he promptly purchased. Continuing his travels, after hehad learned his trade, he worked in England in paper-mills, saw-mills, rope-yards, watchmaker's shops, and other manufactories, doing the workand receiving the treatment of a common laborer. 

While traveling, his constant habit was to obtain as much informationas he could beforehand with regard to every place he was to visit, andhe would demand, "Let me see all. " When setting out on hisinvestigations, on such occasions, he carried his tablets in his hand, and whatever he deemed worthy of remembrance was carefully noted down. He would often leave his carriage, if he saw the country people at workby the wayside as he passed along, and not only enter into conversationwith them, on agricultural affairs, but accompany them to their houses, examine their furniture, and take drawings of their implements ofhusbandry. Thus he obtained much minute and correct knowledge, whichhe would scarcely have acquired by other means, and which he afterwardturned to admirable account in the improvement of his own country. 

The ancients said, "Know thyself;" the nineteenth century says, "Helpthyself. " Self-culture gives a second birth to the soul. A liberaleducation is a true regeneration. When a man is once liberallyeducated, he will generally remain a man, not shrink to a manikin, nordwindle to a brute. But if he is not properly educated, if he hasmerely been crammed and stuffed through college, if he has merely abroken-down memory from trying to hold crammed facts enough to pass theexamination, he will continue to shrink and shrivel and dwindle, oftenbelow his original proportions, for he will lose both his confidenceand self-respect, as his crammed facts, which never became a part ofhimself, evaporate from his distended memory. Many a youth has madehis greatest effort in his graduating essay. But, alas! the beautifulflowers of rhetoric blossomed only to exhaust the parent stock, whichblossoms no more forever. 

In Strasburg geese are crammed with food several times a day by openingtheir mouths and forcing the pabulum down the throat with the finger. The geese are shut up in boxes just large enough to hold them, and arenot allowed to take any exercise. This is done in order to increaseenormously the liver for _pâté de fois gras_. So are our youthsometimes stuffed with education. What are the chances for success ofstudents who "cut" recitations or lectures, and gad, lounge about, anddissipate in the cities at night until the last two or three weeks, sometimes the last few days, before examination, when they employtutors at exorbitant prices with the money often earned by hard-workingparents, to stuff their idle brains with the pabulum of knowledge; notto increase their grasp or power of brain, not to discipline it, notfor assimilation into the mental tissue to develop personal power, butto fatten the memory, the liver of the brain; to fatten it with crammedfacts until it is sufficiently expanded to insure fifty per cent. Inthe examination. 

True teaching will create a thirst for knowledge, and the desire toquench this thirst will lead the eager student to the Pierian spring. "Man might be so educated that all his prepossessions would be truth, and all his feelings virtues. "

Every bit of education or culture is of great advantage in the strugglefor existence. The microscope does not create anything new, but itreveals marvels. To educate the eye adds to its magnifying power untilit sees beauty where before it saw only ugliness. It reveals a worldwe never suspected, and finds the greatest beauty even in the commonestthings. The eye of an Agassiz could see worlds which the uneducatedeye never dreamed of. The cultured hand can do a thousand things theuneducated hand cannot do. It becomes graceful, steady of nerve, strong, skillful, indeed it almost seems to think, so animated is itwith intelligence. The cultured will can seize, grasp, and hold thepossessor, with irresistible power and nerve, to almost superhumaneffort. The educated touch can almost perform miracles. The educatedtaste can achieve wonders almost past belief. What a contrast this, between the cultured, logical, profound, masterly reason of a Gladstoneand that of the hod-carrier who has never developed or educated hisreason beyond what is necessary to enable him to mix mortar and carrybrick. 

"Culture comes from the constant choice of the best within our reach, "says Bulwer. "Continue to cultivate the mind, to sharpen by exercisethe genius, to attempt to delight or instruct your race; and, evensupposing you fall short of every model you set before you, supposingyour name moulder with your dust, still you will have passed life morenobly than the unlaborious herd. Grant that you win not that gloriousaccident, 'a name below, ' how can you tell but that you may have fittedyourself for high destiny and employ, not in the world of men, but ofspirits? The powers of the mind cannot be less immortal than the meresense of identity; their acquisitions accompany us through the EternalProgress, and we may obtain a lower or a higher grade hereafter, inproportion as we are more or less fitted by the exercise of ourintellect to comprehend and execute the solemn agencies of God. "

But be careful to avoid that over-intellectual culture which ispurchased at the expense of moral vigor. An observant professor of oneof our colleges has remarked that "the mind may be so rounded andpolished by education, so well balanced, as not to be energetic in anyone faculty. In other men not thus trained, the sense of deficiencyand of the sharp, jagged corners of their knowledge leads to efforts tofill up the chasms, rendering them at last far better educated men thanthe polished, easy-going graduate who has just knowledge enough toprevent consciousness of his ignorance. While all the faculties of themind should be cultivated, it is yet desirable that it should have twoor three rough-hewn features of massive strength. Young men are tooapt to forget the great end of life which is to be and do, not to readand brood over what other men have been and done. "

In a gymnasium you tug, you expand your chest, you push, pull, strike, run, in order to develop your physical self; so you can develop yourmoral and intellectual nature only by continued effort. 

"I repeat that my object is not to give him knowledge but to teach himhow to acquire it at need, " said Rousseau. 

All learning is self-teaching. It is upon the working of the pupil'sown mind that his progress in knowledge depends. The great business ofthe master is to teach the pupil to teach himself. 

"Thinking, not growth, makes manhood, " says Isaac Taylor. "Accustomyourself, therefore, to thinking. Set yourself to understand whateveryou see or read. To join thinking with reading is one of the firstmaxims, and one of the easiest operations. "

 "How few think justly of the thinking few: How many never think who think they do. "

CHAPTER IX. 

WORK AND WAIT. 

What we do upon some great occasion will probably depend on what wealready are; and what we are will be the result of previous years ofself-discipline. --H. P. LIDDON. 

In all matters, before beginning, a diligent preparation should bemade. --CICERO. 

I consider a human soul without education like marble in a quarry whichshows none of its inherent beauties until the skill of the polishersketches out the colors, makes the surface shine, and discovers everyornamental cloud, spot, and vein that runs throughout the body ofit. --ADDISON. 

Many a genius has been slow of growth. Oaks that flourish for athousand years do not spring up into beauty like a reed. --GEORGE HENRYLEWES. 

Use your gifts faithfully, and they shall be enlarged; practice whatyou know, and you shall attain to higher knowledge. --ARNOLD. 

All good abides with him who waiteth wisely. --THOREAU. 

The more haste, ever the worse speed. --CHURCHILL. 

Haste trips up its own heels, fetters and stops itself. --SENECA. 

"Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast. "

How can we expect a harvest of thought who have not had the seed-timeof character?--THOREAU. 

I call a complete and generous education that which fits a man toperform justly, skillfully, and magnanimously, all the offices, bothpublic and private, of peace and war. --MILTON. 

The safe path to excellence and success, in every calling, is that ofappropriate preliminary education, diligent application to learn theart and assiduity in practicing it. --EDWARD EVERETT. 

The more you know, the more you can save yourself and that whichbelongs to you, and do more work with less effort. --CHARLES KINGSLEY. 

"I was a mere cipher in that vast sea of human enterprise, " said HenryBessemer, speaking of his arrival in London in 1831. Although buteighteen years old, and without an acquaintance in the city, he soonmade work for himself by inventing a process of copying bas-reliefs oncardboard. His method was so simple that one could learn in tenminutes how to make a die from an embossed stamp for a penny. Havingascertained later that in this way the raised stamps on all officialpapers in England could easily be forged, he set to work and invented aperforated stamp which could not be forged nor removed from a document. At the public stamp office he was told by the chief that the governmentwas losing 100, 000 pounds a year through the custom of removing stampsfrom old parchments and using them again. The chief also appreciatedthe new danger of easy counterfeiting. So he offered Bessemer adefinite sum for his process of perforation, or an office for life ateight hundred pounds a year. Bessemer chose the office, and hastenedto tell the good news to a young woman with whom he had agreed to sharehis fortune. In explaining his invention, he told how it would preventany one from taking a valuable stamp from a document a hundred yearsold and using it a second time. 

 * * * * * *

[Illustration: THOMAS ALVA EDISON]

"The Wizard of Menlo Park. "

"What the world wants is men who have the nerve and the grit to workand wait, whether the world applaud or hiss. "

 * * * * * *

"Yes, " said his betrothed, "I understand that; but, surely, if allstamps had a date put upon them they could not at a future time be usedwithout detection. "

This was a very short speech, and of no special importance if we omit asingle word of four letters; but, like the schoolboy's pins which savedthe lives of thousands of people annually by not getting swallowed, that little word, by keeping out of the ponderous minds of the Britishrevenue officers, had for a long period saved the government the burdenof caring for an additional income of 100, 000 pounds a year. And thesame little word, if published in its connection, would render Henry'sperforation device of far less value than a last year's bird's nest. Henry felt proud of the young woman's ingenuity, and suggested theimprovement at the stamp office. As a result his system of perforationwas abandoned and he was deprived of his promised office, thegovernment coolly making use from that day to this, withoutcompensation, of the idea conveyed by that little insignificant word. 

So Bessemer's financial prospects were not very encouraging; but, realizing that the best capital a young man can have is a capital wife, he at once entered into a partnership which placed at his command thecombined ideas of two very level heads. The result, after years ofthought and experiment, was the Bessemer process of making steelcheaply, which has revolutionized the iron industry throughout theworld. His method consists simply in forcing hot air from below intoseveral tons of melted pig-iron, so as to produce intense combustion;and then adding enough spiegel-eisen (looking-glass iron), an ore richin carbon, to change the whole mass to steel. He discovered thissimple process only after trying in vain much more difficult andexpensive methods. 

 "All things come round to him who will but wait. "

The great lack of the age is want of thoroughness. How seldom you finda young man or woman who is willing to take time to prepare for hislife work. A little education is all they want, a little smattering ofbooks, and then they are ready for business. 

"Can't wait" is characteristic of the century, and is written oneverything; on commerce, on schools, on society, on churches. Can'twait for a high school, seminary, or college. The boy can't wait tobecome a youth, nor the youth a man. Youth rush into business with nogreat reserve of education or drill; of course they do poor, feverishwork, and break down in middle life, and many die of old age in theforties. Everybody is in a hurry. Buildings are rushed up so quicklythat they will not stand, and everything is made "to sell. "

Not long ago a professor in one of our universities had a letter from ayoung woman in the West, asking him if he did not think she could teachelocution if she could come to the university and take twelve lessons. Our young people of to-day want something, and want it quickly. Theyare not willing to lay broad, deep foundations. The weary years inpreparatory school and college dishearten them. They only want a"smattering" of an education. But as Pope says, --

 "A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again. "

The shifts to cover up ignorance, and "the constant trembling lest someblunder should expose one's emptiness, " are pitiable. Short cuts andabridged methods are the demand of the hour. But the way to shortenthe road to success is to take plenty of time to lay in your reservepower. You can't stop to forage your provender as the army advances;if you do the enemy will get there first. Hard work, a definite aim, and faithfulness, will shorten the way. Don't risk a life'ssuperstructure upon a day's foundation. 

Unless you have prepared yourself to profit by your chance, theopportunity will only make you ridiculous. A great occasion isvaluable to you just in proportion as you have educated yourself tomake use of it. Beware of that fatal facility of thoughtless speechand superficial action which has misled many a young man into thebelief that he could make a glib tongue or a deft hand take the placeof deep study or hard work. 

Patience is nature's motto. She works ages to bring a flower toperfection. What will she not do for the greatest of her creation?Ages and aeons are nothing to her, out of them she has been carving hergreat statue, a perfect man. 

Johnson said a man must turn over half a library to write one book. When an authoress told Wordsworth she had spent six hours on a poem, hereplied that he would have spent six weeks. Think of Bishop Hallspending thirty years on one of his works. Owens was working on the"Commentary to the Epistle to the Hebrews" for twenty years. Moorespent several weeks on one of his musical stanzas which reads as if itwere a dash of genius. Carlyle wrote with the utmost difficulty, andnever executed a page of his great histories till he had consultedevery known authority, so that every sentence is the quintessence ofmany books, the product of many hours of drudging research in the greatlibraries. To-day, "Sartor Resartus" is everywhere. You can get itfor a mere trifle at almost any bookseller's, and hundreds of thousandsof copies are scattered over the world. But when Carlyle brought it toLondon in 1851, it was refused almost contemptuously by three prominentpublishers. At last he managed to get it into "Fraser's Magazine, " theeditor of which conveyed to the author the pleasing information thathis work had been received with "unqualified disapprobation. " HenryWard Beecher sent a half dozen articles to the publisher of a religiouspaper to pay for his subscription, but they were respectfully declined. The publishers of the "Atlantic Monthly" returned Miss Alcott'smanuscript, suggesting that she had better stick to teaching. One ofthe leading magazines ridiculed Tennyson's first poems, and consignedthe young poet to oblivion. Only one of Ralph Waldo Emerson's bookshad a remunerative sale. Washington Irving was nearly seventy yearsold before the income from his books paid the expenses of his household. 

In some respects it is very unfortunate that the old system of bindingboys out to a trade has been abandoned. To-day very few boys learn anytrade. They pick up what they know, as they go along, just as astudent crams for a particular examination, just to "get through, "without any effort to see how much he may learn on any subject. 

Think of an American youth spending twelve years with Michael Angelo, studying anatomy that he might create the masterpiece of all art; orwith Da Vinci devoting ten years to the model of an equestrian statuethat he might master the anatomy of the horse. Most young Americanartists would expect, in a quarter of that time, to sculpture an ApolloBelvidere. While Michael Angelo was painting the Sistine Chapel hewould not allow himself time for meals or to dress or undress; but hekept bread within reach that he might eat when hunger impelled, and heslept in his clothes. 

A rich man asked Howard Burnett to do a little thing for his album. Burnett complied and charged a thousand francs. "But it took you onlyfive minutes, " objected the rich man. "Yes, but it took me thirtyyears to learn how to do it in five minutes. "

"I prepared that sermon, " said a young sprig of divinity, "in half anhour, and preached it at once, and thought nothing of it. " "In that, "said an older minister, "your hearers are at one with you, for theyalso thought nothing of it. "

What the age wants is men who have the nerve and the grit to work andwait, whether the world applaud or hiss. It wants a Bancroft, who canspend twenty-six years on the "History of the United States;" a NoahWebster, who can devote thirty-six years to a dictionary; a Gibbon, whocan plod for twenty years on the "Decline and Fall of the RomanEmpire;" a Mirabeau, who can struggle on for forty years before he hasa chance to show his vast reserve, destined to shake an empire; aFarragut, a Von Moltke, who have the persistence to work and wait forhalf a century for their first great opportunities; a Garfield, burninghis lamp fifteen minutes later than a rival student in his academy; aGrant, fighting on in heroic silence, when denounced by his brothergenerals and politicians everywhere; a Field's untiring perseverance, spending years and a fortune laying a cable when all the world calledhim a fool; a Michael Angelo, working seven long years decorating theSistine Chapel with his matchless "Creation" and the "Last Judgment, "refusing all remuneration therefor, lest his pencil might catch thetaint of avarice; a Titian, spending seven years on the "Last Supper;"a Stephenson, working fifteen years on a locomotive; a Watt, twentyyears on a condensing engine; a Lady Franklin, working incessantly fortwelve long years to rescue her husband from the polar seas; a ThurlowWeed, walking two miles through the snow with rags tied around his feetfor shoes, to borrow the history of the French Revolution, and eagerlydevouring it before the sap-bush fire; a Milton, elaborating "ParadiseLost" in a world he could not see, and then selling it for fifteenpounds; a Thackeray, struggling on cheerfully after his "Vanity Fair"was refused by a dozen publishers; a Balzac, toiling and waiting in alonely garret, whom neither poverty, debt, nor hunger could discourageor intimidate; not daunted by privations, not hindered bydiscouragements. It wants men who can work and wait. 

When a young lawyer Daniel Webster once looked in vain through all thelaw libraries near him, and then ordered at an expense of fifty dollarsthe necessary books, to obtain authorities and precedents in a case inwhich his client was a poor blacksmith. He won his cause, but, onaccount of the poverty of his client, only charged fifteen dollars, thus losing heavily on the books bought, to say nothing of his time. Years after, as he was passing through New York city, he was consultedby Aaron Burr on an important but puzzling case then pending before theSupreme Court. He saw in a moment that it was just like theblacksmith's case, an intricate question of title, which he had solvedso thoroughly that it was to him now as simple as the multiplicationtable. Going back to the time of Charles II. He gave the law andprecedents involved with such readiness and accuracy of sequence thatBurr asked in great surprise if he had been consulted before in thecase. "Most certainly not, " he replied, "I never heard of your casetill this evening. " "Very well, " said Burr, "proceed, " and, when hehad finished, Webster received a fee that paid him liberally for allthe time and trouble he had spent for his early client. 

Albert Bierstadt first crossed the Rocky Mountains with a band ofpioneers in 1859, making sketches for the paintings of western scenesfor which he had become famous. As he followed the trail to Pike'sPeak, he gazed in wonder upon the enormous herds of buffaloes whichdotted the plains as far as the eye could reach, and thought of thetime when they would have disappeared before the march of civilization. The thought haunted him and found its final embodiment in "The Last ofthe Buffaloes" in 1890. To perfect this great work he had spent twentyyears. 

Everything which endures, which will stand the test of time, must havea deep, solid foundation. In Rome the foundation is often the mostexpensive part of an edifice, so deep must they dig to build on theliving rock. 

Fifty feet of Bunker Hill Monument is under ground; unseen andunappreciated by those who tread about that historic shaft, but it isthis foundation, apparently thrown away, which enables it to standupright, true to the plumb-line through all the tempests that lash itsgranite sides. A large part of every successful life must be spent inlaying foundation stones under ground. Success is the child ofdrudgery and perseverance and depends upon "knowing how long it takesto succeed. " Havelock joined the army at twenty-eight, and forthirty-four years worked and waited for his opportunity; conscious ofhis power, "fretting as a subaltern while he saw drunkards and foolsput above his head. "

But during all these years he was fitting himself to lead thatmarvelous march to Lucknow. 

It was many years of drudgery and reading a thousand volumes thatenabled George Eliot to get fifty thousand dollars for "DanielDeronda. " How came writers to be famous? By writing for years withoutany pay at all; by writing hundreds of pages for mere practice work; byworking like galley-slaves at literature for half a lifetime. It wasworking and waiting many long and weary years that put one hundred andtwenty-five thousand dollars into "The Angelus. " Millet's firstattempts were mere daubs, the later were worth fortunes. Schiller"never could get done. " Dante sees himself "growing lean over hisDivine Comedy. " It is working and waiting that gives perfection. 

"I do not remember, " said Beecher, "a book in all the depths oflearning, nor a scrap in literature, nor a work in all the schools ofart, from which its author has derived a permanent renown, that is notknown to have been long and patiently elaborated. "

Endurance is a much better test of character than any one act ofheroism, however noble. 

The pianist Thalberg said he never ventured to perform one of hiscelebrated pieces in public until he had played it at least fifteenhundred times. He laid no claim whatever to genius; he said it was alla question of hard work. The accomplishments of such industry, suchperseverance, would put to shame many a man who claims genius. 

Before Edmund Kean would consent to appear in that character which heacted with such consummate skill, The Gentleman Villain, he practicedconstantly before a glass, studying expression for a year and a half. When he appeared upon the stage, Byron, who went to see him with Moore, said he never looked upon so fearful and wicked a face. As the greatactor went on to delineate the terrible consequences of sin, Byronfainted. 

"For years I was in my place of business by sunrise, " said a wealthybanker who had begun without a dollar, "and often I did not leave itfor fifteen or eighteen hours. "

_Festina lente_--hasten slowly--is a good Latin motto. Patience, it issaid, changes the mulberry leaf to satin. The giant oak on thehillside was detained months or years in its upward growth while itsroots took a great turn around some rock, in order to gain a hold bywhich the tree was anchored to withstand the storms of centuries. DaVinci spent four years on the head of Mona Lisa, perhaps the mostbeautiful ever painted, but he left therein, an artistic thought forall time. 

Said Captain Bingham: "You can have no idea of the wonderful machinethat the German army is and how well it is prepared for war. A chartis made out which shows just what must be done in the case of wars withthe different nations. And every officer's place in the scheme is laidout beforehand. There is a schedule of trains which will supersede allother schedules the moment war is declared, and this is so arrangedthat the commander of the army here could telegraph to any officer totake such a train and go to such a place at a moment's notice. Whenthe Franco-Prussian war was declared, Von Moltke was awakened atmidnight and told of the fact. He said coolly to the official whoaroused him, 'Go to pigeonhole No. ---- in my safe and take a paperfrom it and telegraph as there directed to the different troops of theempire. ' He then turned over and went to sleep and awoke at his usualhour in the morning. Every one else in Berlin was excited about thewar, but Von Moltke took his morning walk as usual, and a friend whomet him said, 'General, you seem to be taking it very easy. Aren't youafraid of the situation? I should think you would be busy. ' 'Ah, 'replied Von Moltke, 'all of my work for this time has been done longbeforehand and everything that can be done now has been done. '"

That is done soon enough which is done well. Soon ripe, soon rotten. He that would enjoy the fruit must not gather the flower. He who isimpatient to become his own master is more likely to become his ownslave. Better believe yourself a dunce and work away than a genius andbe idle. One year of trained thinking is worth more than a wholecollege course of mental absorption of a vast series of undigestedfacts. The facility with which the world swallows up the ordinarycollege graduate who thought he was going to dazzle mankind should bidyou pause and reflect. But just as certainly as man was created not tocrawl on all fours in the depths of primeval forests, but to develophis mental and moral faculties, just so certainly he needs education, and only by means of it will he become what he ought to become, --man, in the highest sense of the word. Ignorance is not simply the negationof knowledge, it is the misdirection of the mind. "One step inknowledge, " says Bulwer, "is one step from sin; one step from sin isone step nearer to Heaven. "

A learned clergyman was thus accosted by an illiterate preacher whodespised education: "Sir, you have been to college, I presume?" "Yes, sir, " was the reply. "I am thankful, " said the former, "that the Lordopened my mouth without any learning. " "A similar event, " retorted theclergyman, "happened in Balaam's time. "

"If a cloth were drawn around the eyes of Praxiteles' statue of Love, "says Bulwer, "the face looked grave and sad; but as the bandage wasremoved, a beautiful smile would overspread the countenance. Even sodoes the removal of the veil of ignorance from the eyes of the mindbring radiant happiness to the heart of man. "

A young man just graduated told the President of Trinity College thathe had completed his education, and had come to say good-by. "Indeed, "said the President, "I have just begun my education. "

Many an extraordinary man has been made out of a very ordinary boy; butin order to accomplish this we must begin with him while he is young. It is simply astonishing what training will do for a rough, uncouth, and even dull lad, if he has good material in him, and comes under thetutelage of a skilled educator before his habits have become confirmed. Even a few weeks' or months' drill of the rawest and roughest recruitsin the late Civil War so straightened and dignified stooping anduncouth soldiers, and made them so manly, erect, and courteous in theirbearing, that their own friends scarcely knew them. If this change isso marked in the youth who has grown to maturity, what a miracle ispossible in the lad who is taken early and put under a course of drilland systematic training, both physical, mental, and moral. How many aman who is now in the penitentiary, in the poorhouse, or among thetramps, or living out a miserable existence in the slums of our cities, bent over, uncouth, rough, slovenly, has possibilities slumberingwithin the rags, which would have developed him into a magnificent man, an ornament to the human race instead of a foul blot and scar, had heonly been fortunate enough early in life to have come under efficientand systematic training. 

Laziness begins in cobwebs and ends in iron chains. The more businessa man has, the more he can do, for be learns to economize his time. 

The industry that acquired riches, according to a wise teacher, thepatience that is required in obtaining them, the reserved self-control, the measuring of values, the sympathy felt for fellow-toilers, theknowledge of what a dollar costs to the average man, the memory ofit--all these things are preservative. But woe to the young farmer whohates farming; does not like sowing and reaping; is impatient with thedilatory and slow path to a small though secure fortune in theneighborhood where he was born, and comes to the city, hoping to becomesuddenly rich, thinking that he can break into the palace of wealth androb it of its golden treasures!

Edison described his repeated efforts to make the phonograph reproducean aspirated sound, and added: "From eighteen to twenty hours a day forthe last seven months I have worked on this single word 'specia. ' Isaid into the phonograph 'specia, specia, specia, ' but the instrumentresponded 'pecia, pecia, pecia. ' It was enough to drive one mad. ButI held firm, and I have succeeded. "

The road to distinction must be paved with years of self-denial andhard work. 

Horace Mann, the great author of the common school system ofMassachusetts, was a remarkable example of that pluck and patiencewhich can work and wait. His only inheritance was poverty and hardwork. But he had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and adetermination to get on in the world. He braided straw to get money tobuy books which his soul thirsted for. 

To Jonas Chickering there were no trifles in the manufacture of apiano. Others might work for salaries, but he was working for fame andfortune. Neither time nor pains were of any account to him comparedwith accuracy and knowledge. He could afford to work and wait, forquality, not quantity, was his aim. Fifty years ago the piano was amiserable, instrument compared with the perfect mechanism of to-day. Chickering was determined to make a piano which would yield thefullest, richest volume of melody with the least exertion to theplayer, and one which would withstand atmospheric changes and preserveits purity and truthfulness of tone. And he strove patiently andpersistently till he succeeded. 

"Thy life, wert thou the pitifullest of all the sons of earth, is noidle dream, but a solemn reality, " said Carlyle. "It is thy own. Itis all thou hast to comfort eternity with. Work then like a star, unhasting, yet unresting. "

Gladstone was bound to win; although he had spent many years ofpreparation for his life work, in spite of the consciousness ofmarvelous natural endowments which would have been deemed sufficient bymany young men, and notwithstanding he had gained the coveted prize ofa seat in Parliament, yet he decided to make himself master of thesituation; and amid all his public and private duties, he not onlyspent eleven terms more in the study of the law, but he studied Greekconstantly and read every well written book or paper he could obtain, so determined was he that his life should be rounded out to its fullestmeasure, and that his mind should have broad and liberal culture. 

Emperor William I. Was not a genius, but the secret of his power lay intireless perseverance. A friend says of him, "When I passed the palaceat Berlin night after night, however late, I always saw that grandimperial figure standing beside the green lamp, and I used to say tomyself, 'That is how the imperial crown of Germany was won. '"

Ole Bull said, "If I practice one day, I can see the result. If Ipractice two days my friends can see it; if I practice three days thegreat public can see it. "

The habit of seizing every bit of knowledge, no matter howinsignificant it may seem at the time, every opportunity, everyoccasion, and grinding them all up into experience, cannot beoverestimated. You will find use for all of it. Webster once repeatedan anecdote with effect which he heard fourteen years before, and whichhe had not thought of in the mean time. It exactly fitted theoccasion. "It is an ill mason that rejects any stone. "

Webster was once urged to speak on a subject of great importance, butrefused, saying he was very busy and had no time to master the subject. "But, " replied his friend, "a very few words from you would do much toawaken public attention to it. " Webster replied, "If there be so muchweight in my words, it is because I do not allow myself to speak on anysubject until my mind is imbued with it. " On one occasion Webster madea remarkable speech before the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard, whena book was presented to him, but after he had gone, his "impromptu"speech, carefully written out, was found in the book which he hadforgotten to take away. 

Demosthenes was once urged to speak on a great and sudden emergency, but replied, "I am not prepared. " In fact, it was thought by many thatDemosthenes did not possess any genius whatever, because he neverallowed himself to speak on any subject without thorough preparation. In any meeting or assembly, when called upon, he would never rise, evento make remarks, it was said, without previously preparing himself. 

Alexander Hamilton said, "Men give me credit for genius. All thegenius I have lies just in this: when I have a subject in hand I studyit profoundly. Day and night it is before me. I explore it in all itsbearings. My mind becomes pervaded with it. Then the effort which Imake the people are pleased to call the fruit of genius; it is thefruit of labor and thought. " The law of labor is equally binding ongenius and mediocrity. 

Are the results so distant that you delay the preparation in the hopethat fortuitous good luck may make it unnecessary? As well might thehusbandman delay sowing his seed until the spring and summer are pastand the ground hardened by the frosts of a rigorous winter. As wellmight one who is desirous of enjoying firm health inoculate his systemwith the seeds of disease, and expect at such time as he may see fit torecover from its effects, and banish the malady. Nelaton, the greatsurgeon, said that if he had four minutes in which to perform anoperation, on which a life depended, he would take one minute toconsider how best to do it. 

"Many men, " says Longfellow, "do not allow their principles to takeroot, but pull them up every now and then, as children do flowers theyhave planted, to see if they are growing. " We must not only work, butwait. 

"The spruce young spark, " says Sizer, "who thinks chiefly of hismustache and boots and shiny hat, of getting along nicely and easilyduring the day, and talking about the theatre, the opera, or a fasthorse, ridiculing the faithful young fellow who came to learn thebusiness and make a man of himself, because he will not join in wastinghis time in dissipation, will see the day, if his useless life is notearlier blasted by vicious indulgences, when he will be glad to accepta situation from his fellow-clerk whom he now ridicules and affects todespise, when the latter shall stand in the firm, dispensing benefitsand acquiring fortune. "

"I have been watching the careers of young men by the thousand in thisbusy city of New York for over thirty years, " said Dr. Cuyler, "and Ifind that the chief difference between the successful and the failureslies in the single element of staying power. Permanent success isoftener won by holding on than by sudden dash, however brilliant. Theeasily discouraged, who are pushed back by a straw, are all the timedropping to the rear--to perish or to be carried along on the stretcherof charity. They who understand and practice Abraham Lincoln's homelymaxim of 'pegging away' have achieved the solidest success. "

"When a man has done his work, " says Ruskin, "and nothing can any waybe materially altered in his fate, let him forget his toil, and jestwith his fate if he will, but what excuse can you find for willfulnessof thought at the very lime when every crisis of fortune hangs on yourdecisions? A youth thoughtless, when all the happiness of his homeforever depends on the chances or the passions of the hour! A youththoughtless, when the career of all his days depends on the opportunityof a moment! A youth thoughtless, when his every action is afoundation-stone of future conduct, and every imagination a foundationof life or death! Be thoughtless in any after years, rather thannow--though, indeed, there is only one place where a man may be noblythoughtless, his deathbed. Nothing should ever be left to be donethere. "

The Duke of Wellington became so discouraged because he did not advancein the army that he applied for a much inferior position in the customsdepartment, but was refused. Napoleon had applied for every vacantposition for seven years before he was recognized, but meanwhile hestudied with all his might, supplementing what was considered athorough military education by researches and reflections which inlater years enabled him easily to teach the art of war to veterans whohad never dreamed of his novel combinations. 

Reserves which carry us through great emergencies are the result oflong working and long waiting. Collyer declares that reserves mean toa man also achievement, --"the power to do the grandest thing possibleto your nature when you feel you must, or some precious thing will belost, --to do well always, but best in the crisis on which all thingsturn; to stand the strain of a long fight, and still find you havesomething left, and so to never know you are beaten, because you neverare beaten. " Every defeat is a Waterloo to him who has no reserves. 

He only is independent in action who has been earnest and thorough inpreparation and self-culture. "Not for school, but for life, welearn;" and our habits--of promptness, earnestness, and thoroughness, or of tardiness, fickleness, and superficiality--are the thingsacquired most readily and longest retained. 

"One who reads the chronicles of discoveries is struck with theprominent part that accident has played in such annals. For some ofthe most useful processes and machinery the world is indebted toapparently chance occurrences. Inventors in search of one object havefailed in their quest, but have stumbled on something more valuablethan that for which they were looking. Saul is not the only man whohas gone in search of asses and found a kingdom. Astrologers sought toread from the heavens the fate of men and the fortune of nations, andthey led to a knowledge of astronomy. Alchemists were seeking for thephilosopher's stone, and from their efforts sprung the science ofchemistry. Men explored the heavens for something to explainirregularities in the movements of the planets, and discovered a starother than the one for which they were looking. A careless glance atsuch facts might encourage the delusion that aimless straying inbypaths is quite as likely to be rewarded as is the steady pressingforward, with fixed purpose, towards some definite goal. 

"But it is to be remembered that the men who made the accidentaldiscoveries were men who were looking for something. The unexpectedachievement was but the return for the toil after what was attained. Others might have encountered the same facts, but only the eye madeeager by the strain of long watching would be quick to note themeaning. If vain search for hidden treasure has no other recompense, it at least gives ability to detect the first gleam of the true metal. Men may wake at times surprised to find themselves famous, but it wasthe work they did before going to sleep, and not the slumber, that gavethe eminence. When the ledge has been drilled and loaded and theproper connections have been made, a child's touch on the electric keymay be enough to annihilate the obstacle, but without the longpreparation the pressure of a giant's hand would be without effect. 

"In the search for truth and the shaping of character the principleremains the same as in science and literature. Trivial causes arefollowed by wonderful results, but it is only the merchantman who is onthe watch for goodly pearls who is represented as finding the pearl ofgreat price. "

To vary the language of another, the three great essentials to successin mental and physical labor are Practice, Patience, and Perseverance, but the greatest of these is Perseverance. 

 Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait. LONGFELLOW. 

CHAPTER X. 

CLEAR GRIT. 

 I shall show the cinders of my spirits Through the ashes of my chance. SHAKESPEARE. 

 What though ten thousand faint, Desert, or yield, or in weak terror flee! Heed not the panic of the multitude; Thine be the captain's watchword, --Victory! HORATIUS BONAR. 

 Better to stem with heart and hand The roaring tide of life, than lie, Unmindful, on its flowery strand, Of God's occasions drifting by! Better with naked nerve to hear The needles of this goading air, Than in the lap of sensual ease forego The godlike power to do, the godlike aim to know. WHITTIER. 

 Let fortune empty her whole quiver on me, I have a soul that, like an ample shield, Can take in all, and verge enough for more. DRYDEN. 

 There's a brave fellow! There's a man of pluck! A man who's not afraid to say his say, Though a whole town's against him. LONGFELLOW. 

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time wefall. --GOLDSMITH. 

 Attempt the end and never stand to doubt; Nothing's so hard but search will find it out. HERRICK. 

The barriers are not yet erected which shall say to aspiring talent, "Thus far and no farther. "--BEETHOVEN. 

"Friends and comrades, " said Pizarro, as he turned toward the south, after tracing with his sword upon the sand a line from east to west, "on that side are toil, hunger, nakedness, the drenching storm, desertion, and death; on this side, ease and pleasure. There lies Peruwith its riches; here, Panama and its poverty. Choose, each man, whatbest becomes a brave Castilian. For my part, I go to the south. " Sosaying, he crossed the line and was followed by thirteen Spaniards inarmor. Thus, on the little island of Gallo in the Pacific, when hismen were clamoring to return to Panama, did Pizarro and his fewvolunteers resolve to stake their lives upon the success of a desperatecrusade against the powerful empire of the Incas. At the time they hadnot even a vessel to transport them to the country they wished toconquer. Is it necessary to add that all difficulties yielded at lastto such resolute determination?

 * * * * * *

[Illustration: ANDREW JACKSON]

"Old Hickory. "

 "Stick to your aim: the mongrel's hold will slip, But only crowbars loose the bull-dog's grip. "

"The nerve that never relaxes, the eye that never blenches, the thoughtthat never wanders, --these are the masters of victory. "

 * * * * * *

 "Perseverance is a Roman virtue, That wins each godlike act, and plucks success E'en from the spear-proof crest of rugged danger. "

At a time when abolitionists were dangerously unpopular, a crowd ofbrawny Cape Cod fishermen had made such riotous demonstrations that allthe speakers announced, except Stephen Foster and Lucy Stone, had fledfrom an open-air platform. "You had better run, Stephen, " said she, "they are coming. " "But who will take care of you?" asked Foster. "This gentleman will take care of me, " she replied, calmly laying herhand within the arm of a burly rioter with a club, who had just sprungupon the platform. "Wh--what did you say?" stammered the astonishedrowdy, as he looked at the little woman; "yes, I'll take care of you, and no one shall touch a hair of your head. " With this he forced a wayfor her through the crowd, and, at her earnest request, placed her upona stump and stood guard with his club while she delivered an address soeffective that the audience offered no further violence, and even tookup a collection of twenty dollars to repay Mr. Foster for the damagehis clothes had received when the riot was at its height. 

"When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, tillit seems as if you could not hold on a minute longer, " said HarrietBeecher Stowe, "never give up then, for that's just the place and timethat the tide'll turn. "

Charles Sumner said, "Three things are necessary: first, backbone;second, backbone; third, backbone. "

While digging among the ruins of Pompeii, which was buried by the dustand ashes from an eruption of Vesuvius, A. D. 79, the workmen found theskeleton of a Roman soldier in the sentry-box at one of the city'sgates. He might have found safety under sheltering rocks close by;but, in the face of certain death, he had remained at his post, a mutewitness to the thorough discipline, the ceaseless vigilance andfidelity which made the Roman legionaries masters of the known world. Bulwer, describing the flight of a party amid the dust, and ashes, andstreams of boiling water, and huge hurtling fragments of scoria, andgusty winds, and lurid lightnings, continues: "The air was now stillfor a few minutes; the lamp from the gate streamed out far and clear;the fugitives hurried on. They gained the gate. They passed by theRoman sentry. The lightning flashed over his livid face and polishedhelmet, but his stern features were composed even in their awe! Heremained erect and motionless at his post. That hour itself had notanimated the machine of the ruthless majesty of Rome into the reasoningand self-acting man. There he stood amidst the crashing elements; hehad not received the permission to desert his station and escape. "

The world admires the man who never flinches from unexpecteddifficulties, who calmly, patiently, and courageously grapples with hisfate, who dies, if need be, at his post. 

"Clear grit" always commands respect. It is that quality whichachieves, and everybody admires achievement. In the strife of partiesand principles, backbone without brains will carry against brainswithout backbone. "A politician weakly and amiably in the right is nomatch for a politician tenaciously and pugnaciously in the wrong. " Youcannot, by tying an opinion to a man's tongue, make him therepresentative of that opinion; at the close of any battle forprinciples, his name will be found neither among the dead nor among thewounded, but among the missing. 

The "London Times" was an insignificant sheet published by Mr. Walterand was steadily losing money. John Walter, Jr. , then onlytwenty-seven years old, begged his father to give him full control ofthe paper. After many misgivings, the father finally consented. Theyoung journalist began to remodel the establishment and to introducenew ideas everywhere. The paper had not attempted to mould publicopinion, and had no individuality or character of its own. Theaudacious young editor boldly attacked every wrong, even thegovernment, when he thought it corrupt. Thereupon the public customs, printing, and the government advertisements were withdrawn. The fatherwas in utter dismay. The son he was sure would ruin the paper andhimself. But no remonstrance could swerve him from his purpose, togive the world a great journal which should have weight, character, individuality, and independence. 

The public soon saw that a new power stood behind the "Times"; that itsarticles meant business; that new life and new blood and new ideas hadbeen infused into the insignificant sheet; that a man with brains andpush and tenacity of purpose stood at the helm, --a man who could make away when he could not find one. Among other new features foreigndispatches were introduced, and they appeared in the "Times" severaldays before their appearance in the government organs. The "leadingarticle" also was introduced to stay. But the aggressive editorantagonized the government, and his foreign dispatches were all stoppedat the outpost, while those of the ministerial journalists were allowedto proceed. But nothing could daunt this resolute young spirit. Atenormous expense he employed special couriers. Every obstacle put inhis way, and all opposition from the government, only added to hisdetermination to succeed. Enterprise, push, grit were behind the"Times, " and nothing could stay its progress. Walter was the soul ofthe paper, and his personality pervaded every detail. In those daysonly three hundred copies of the "Times" could be struck off in an hourby the best presses, and Walter had duplicate and even triplicate typesset. Then he set his brain to work, and finally the Walter Press, throwing off 17, 000 copies, both sides printed, per hour, was theresult. It was the 29th of November, 1814, that the first steamprinted paper was given to the world. Walter's tenacity of purpose wasremarkable. He shrank from no undertaking, and neglected no detail. 

"Mean natures always feel a sort of terror before great natures, andmany a base thought has been unuttered, many a sneaking vote withheld, through the fear inspired by the rebuking presence of one noble man. "As a rule, pure grit, character, has the right of way. In the presenceof men permeated with grit and sound in character, meanness andbaseness slink out of sight. Mean men are uncomfortable, dishonestytrembles, hypocrisy is uncertain. 

Lincoln, being asked by an anxious visitor what he would do after threeor four years if the rebellion was not subdued, replied: "Oh, there isno alternative but to keep pegging away. "

"It is in me and it shall come out, " said Sheridan, when told that hewould never make an orator, as he had failed in his first speech inParliament. He became known as one of the foremost orators of his day. 

When a boy Henry Clay was very bashful and diffident, and scarcelydared recite before his class at school, but he determined to become anorator. So he committed speeches and recited them in the cornfields, or in the barn with the horse and cows for an audience. 

Look at Garrison reading this advertisement in a Southern paper: "Fivethousand dollars will be paid for the head of W. L. Garrison by theGovernor of Georgia. " Behold him again; a broadcloth mob is leadinghim through the streets of Boston by a rope. He is hurried to jail. See him return calmly and unflinchingly to his work, beginning at thepoint at which he was interrupted. Note this heading in the"Liberator, " the type of which he set himself in an attic on StateStreet, in Boston: "I am in earnest, I will not equivocate, I will notexcuse, I will not retreat a single inch, and I will be heard. " WasGarrison heard? Ask a race set free largely by his efforts. Even thegallows erected in front of his own door did not daunt him. He heldthe ear of an unwilling world with that burning word "freedom, " whichwas destined never to cease its vibrations until it had breathed itssweet secret to the last slave. 

If impossibilities ever exist, popularly speaking, they ought to havebeen found somewhere between the birth and the death of Kitto, thatdeaf pauper and master of Oriental learning. But Kitto did not findthem there. In the presence of his decision and imperial energy theymelted away. Kitto begged his father to take him out of the poorhouse, even if he had to subsist like the Hottentots. He told him that hewould sell his books and pawn his handkerchief, by which he thought hecould raise about twelve shillings. He said he could live uponblackberries, nuts, and field turnips, and was willing to sleep on ahayrick. Here was real grit. What were impossibilities to such aresolute will? Patrick Henry voiced that decision which characterizedthe great men of the Revolution when he said, "Is life so dear, orpeace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; butas for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

Grit is a permanent, solid quality, which enters into the verystructure, the very tissues of the constitution. A weak man, awavering, irresolute man, may be "spunky" upon occasion, he may be"plucky" in an emergency; but pure "grit" is a part of the verycharacter of strong men alone. Lord Erskine was a plucky man; he evenhad flashes of heroism, and when he was with weaker men, he was thoughtto have nerve and even grit; but when he entered the House of Commons, although a hero at the bar, the imperiousness, the audacious scorn, andthe intellectual supremacy of Pitt disturbed his equanimity and exposedthe weak places in his armor. In Pitt's commanding presence he losthis equilibrium. His individuality seemed off its centre; he feltfluttered, weak, and uneasy. 

Many of our generals in the late war exhibited heroism. They were"plucky, " and often displayed great determination, but Grant had pure"grit" in the most concentrated form. He could not be moved from hisbase; he was self-centred, immovable. "If you try to wheedle out ofhim his plans for a campaign, he stolidly smokes; if you call him animbecile and a blunderer, he blandly lights another cigar; if youpraise him as the greatest general living, he placidly returns the pufffrom his regalia; and if you tell him he should run for the presidency, it does not disturb the equanimity with which he inhales and exhalesthe unsubstantial vapor which typifies the politician's promises. While you are wondering what kind of creature this man without a tongueis, you are suddenly electrified with the news of some splendidvictory, proving that behind the cigar, and behind the face dischargedof all tell-tale expression, is the best brain to plan and thestrongest heart to dare among the generals of the Republic. "

Demosthenes was a man who could rise to sublime heights of heroism, buthis bravery was not his normal condition and depended upon his geniusbeing aroused. 

He had "pluck" and "spunk" on occasions, but Lincoln had pure "grit. "When the illustrated papers everywhere were caricaturing him, when noepithet seemed too harsh to heap upon him, when his methods werecriticised by his own party, and the generals in the war weredenouncing his "foolish" confidence in Grant, and delegations werewaiting upon him to ask for that general's removal, the great Presidentsat with crossed legs, and was reminded of a story. 

Lincoln and Grant both had that rare nerve which cares not forridicule, is not swerved by public clamor, can bear abuse and hatred. There is a mighty force in truth and in the sublime conviction andsupreme self-confidence behind it, in the knowledge that truth ismighty and the conviction and confidence that it will prevail. 

Pure grit is that element of character which enables a man to clutchhis aim with an iron grip, and keep the needle of his purpose pointingto the star of his hope. Through sunshine and storm, through hurricaneand tempest, through sleet and rain, with a leaky ship, with a crew inmutiny, it perseveres; in fact, nothing but death can subdue it, and itdies still struggling. 

The man of grit carries in his very presence a power which controls andcommands. He is spared the necessity of declaring himself, for hisgrit speaks in his every act. It does not come by fits and starts, itis a part of his very life. It inspires a sublime audacity and aheroic courage. Many of the failures of life are due to the want ofgrit or business nerve. It is unfortunate for a young man to start outin business life with a weak, yielding disposition, with no resolutionor backbone to mark his own course and stick to it, with no ability tosay "No" with an emphasis, obliging this man by investing in hopelessspeculation, and rather than offend a friend, indorsing a questionablenote. 

A little boy was asked how he learned to skate. "Oh, by getting upevery time I fell down, " he replied. 

Whipple tells a story of Masséna which illustrates the masterfulpurpose that plucks victory out of the jaws of defeat. "After thedefeat at Essling, the success of Napoleon's attempt to withdraw hisbeaten army depended on the character of Masséna, to whom the Emperordispatched a messenger, telling him to keep his position for two hourslonger at Aspern. This order, couched in the form of a request, required almost an impossibility; but Napoleon knew the indomitabletenacity of the man to whom he gave it. The messenger found Massénaseated on a heap of rubbish, his eyes bloodshot, his frame weakened byhis unparalleled exertions during a contest of forty hours, and hiswhole appearance indicating a physical state better befitting thehospital than the field. But that steadfast soul seemed altogetherunaffected by bodily prostration; half dead as he was with fatigue, herose painfully and said, 'Tell the Emperor that I will hold out for twohours. ' And he kept his word. "

"Often defeated in battle, " said Macaulay of Alexander the Great, "hewas always successful in war. " He might have said the same ofWashington, and, with appropriate changes, of all who win greattriumphs of any kind. 

In the battle of Marengo, the Austrians considered the day won. TheFrench army was inferior in numbers, and had given way. The Austrianarmy extended its wings on the right and on the left, to follow up theFrench. Then, though the French themselves thought the battle lost, and the Austrians were confident it was won, Napoleon gave the commandto charge; and, the trumpet's blast being given, the Old Guard chargeddown into the weakened centre of the enemy, cut it in two, rolled thetwo wings up on either side, and the battle was won for France. 

"Never despair, " says Burke, "but if you do, work on in despair. "

Once when Marshal Ney was going into battle, looking down at his kneeswhich were smiting together, he said, "You may well shake; you wouldshake worse yet if you knew where I am going to take you. "

It is victory after victory with the soldier, lesson after lesson withthe scholar, blow after blow with the laborer, crop after crop with thefarmer, picture after picture with the painter, and mile after milewith the traveler, that secures what all so much desire--SUCCESS. 

A promising Harvard student was stricken with paralysis of both legs. Physicians said there was no hope for him. The lad determined tocontinue his college studies. The examiners heard him at his bedside, and in four years he took his degree. He resolved to make a criticalstudy of Dante, to do which he had to learn Italian and German. Hepersevered in spite of repeated attacks of illness and partial loss ofsight. He was competing for the university prize. Think of theparalytic lad, helpless in bed, competing for a prize, fighting deathinch by inch. What a lesson! Before his book was published or theprize awarded, the brave student died, but the book was successful. Hemeant that his life should not be a burden or a failure, and he was notonly graduated from the best college in America, but competedsuccessfully for the university prize, and made a valuable contributionto literature. 

Professor L. T. Townsend, the famous author of "Credo, " is anothertriumph of grit over environment. He had a hard struggle as a boy, butsucceeded in working his way through Amherst College, living onforty-five cents a week. 

Orange Judd was a remarkable example of success through grit. Heearned corn by working for farmers, carried it on his back to mill, brought back the meal to his room, cooked it himself, milked cows forhis pint of milk per day, and lived on mush and milk for monthstogether. He worked his way through Wesleyan University, and took athree years' post-graduate course at Yale. 

Congressman William W. Crapo, while working his way through college, being too poor to buy a dictionary, actually copied one, walking fromhis home in the village of Dartmouth, Mass. , to New Bedford toreplenish his store of words and definitions from the town library. 

Oh, the triumphs of this indomitable spirit of the conqueror! This itwas that enabled Franklin to dine on a small loaf in theprinting-office with a book in his hand. It helped Locke to live onbread and water in a Dutch garret. It enabled Gideon Lee to gobarefoot in the snow, half starved and thinly clad. It sustainedLincoln and Garfield on their hard journeys from the log cabin to theWhite House. 

President Chadbourne put grit in place of his lost lung, and workedthirty-five years after his funeral had been planned. 

Lord Cavanagh put grit in the place of arms and legs, and went toParliament in spite of his deformity. 

Henry Fawcett put grit in place of eyesight, and became the greatestPostmaster-General England ever had. 

Prescott also put grit in place of eyesight, and became one ofAmerica's greatest historians. Francis Parkman put grit in place ofhealth and eyesight, and became the greatest historian of America inhis line. Thousands of men have put grit in place of health, eyes, ears, hands, legs, and yet have achieved marvelous success. Indeed, most of the great things of the world have been accomplished by gritand pluck. You cannot keep a man down who has these qualities. Hewill make stepping-stones out of his stumbling-blocks, and lift himselfto success. 

At fifty, Barnum was a ruined man, owing thousands more than hepossessed, yet he resolutely resumed business once more, fairlywringing success from adverse fortune, and paying his notes at the sametime. Again and again he was ruined, but phoenix-like, he roserepeatedly from the ashes of his misfortune each time more determinedthan before. 

It was the last three days of the first voyage of Columbus that told. All his years of struggle and study would have availed nothing if hehad yielded to the mutiny. It was all in those three days. But whatdays!

"It is all very well, " said Charles J. Fox, "to tell me that a youngman has distinguished himself by a brilliant first speech. He may goon, or he may be satisfied with his first triumph; but show me a youngman who has not succeeded at first, and nevertheless has gone on, and Iwill back that young man to do better than most of those who havesucceeded at the first trial. "

Cobden broke down completely the first time he appeared on a platformin Manchester, and the chairman apologized for him. But he did notgive up speaking till every poor man in England had a larger, better, and cheaper loaf. 

See young Disraeli, sprung from a hated and persecuted race; withoutopportunity, pushing his way up through the middle classes, up throughthe upper classes, until he stands self-poised upon the topmost roundof political and social power. Scoffed, ridiculed, rebuffed, hissedfrom the House of Commons, he simply says, "The time will come when youwill hear me. " The time did come, and the boy with no chance swayedthe sceptre of England for a quarter of a century. 

One of the most remarkable examples in history is Disraeli, forcing hisleadership upon that very party whose prejudices were deepest againsthis race, and which had an utter contempt for self-made men andinterlopers. Imagine England's surprise when she awoke to find thisinsignificant Hebrew actually Chancellor of the Exchequer. He waseasily master of all the tortures supplied by the armory of rhetoric;he could exhaust the resources of the bitterest invective; he couldsting Gladstone out of his self-control; he was absolute master ofhimself and his situation. You can see that this young man intends tomake his way in the world. A determined audacity is in his very face. He is a gay fop. Handsome, with the hated Hebrew blood in his veins, after three defeats in parliamentary elections he was not the leastdaunted, for he knew his day would come, as it did. Lord Melbourne, the great Prime Minister, when this gay young fop was introduced tohim, asked him what he wished to be. "Prime Minister of England, " washis audacious reply. 

One of the greatest preachers of modern times, Lacordaire, failed againand again. Everybody said he would never make a preacher, but he wasdetermined to succeed, and in two years from his humiliating failureshe was preaching in Notre Dame to immense congregations. 

The boy Thorwaldsen, whose father died in the poor-house, and whoseeducation was so scanty that he had to write his letters over manytimes before they could be posted, by his indomitable perseverance, tenacity, and grit, fascinated the world with the genius which neitherhis discouraging father, poverty, nor hardship could suppress. 

William H. Seward was given a thousand dollars by his father to go tocollege with; this was all he was to have. The son returned at the endof the freshman year with extravagant habits and no money. His fatherrefused to give him more, and told him he could not stay at home. Whenthe youth found the props all taken out from under him, and that hemust now sink or swim, he left home moneyless, returned to college, graduated at the head of his class, studied law, was elected Governorof New York, and became Lincoln's great Secretary of State during theCivil War. 

Louisa M. Alcott wrote the conclusion to "An Old-Fashioned Girl" withher left hand in a sling, one foot up, head aching, and no voice. Sheproudly writes in her diary, "Twenty years ago I resolved to make thefamily independent if I could. At forty, that is done. Debts allpaid, even the outlawed ones, and we have enough to be comfortable. Ithas cost me my health, perhaps. " She earned two hundred thousanddollars by her pen. 

Mrs. Frank Leslie often refers to the time she lived in her carpetlessattic while striving to pay her husband's obligations. She has foughther way successfully through nine lawsuits, and has paid the entiredebt. She manages her ten publications entirely herself, signs allchecks and money-orders, makes all contracts, looks over all proofs, and approves the make-up of everything before it goes to press. Shehas developed great business ability, which no one dreamed shepossessed. 

Garfield said, "If the power to do hard work is not talent, it is thebest possible substitute for it. " The triumph of industry and gritover low birth and iron fortune in America, this land of opportunity, ought to be sufficient to put to shame all grumblers over their hardfortune and those who attempt to excuse aimless, shiftless, successlessmen because they have no chance. 

The fear of ridicule and the dread of humiliation often hinder one fromtaking decisive steps when it is plainly a duty, so that courage is avery important element of decision. In a New England academy a pupilwho was engaged to assist the teacher was unable to solve a problem inalgebra. The class was approaching the problem, and he was mortifiedbecause, after many trials, he was obliged to take it to the teacherfor solution. The teacher returned it unsolved. What could he do? Hewould not confess to the class that he could not solve it, so, aftermany futile attempts, he went to a distant town to seek the assistanceof a friend who, he believed, could do the work. But, alas! his friendhad gone away, and would not be back for a week. On his way back hesaid to himself, "What a fool! am I unable to perform a problem inalgebra, and shall I go back to my class and confess my ignorance? Ican solve it and I will. " He shut himself in his room, determined notto sleep until he had mastered the problem, and finally he won success. Underneath the solution he wrote, "Obtained Monday evening, September2, at half past eleven o'clock, after more than a dozen trials thathave consumed more than twenty hours of time. "

During a winter in the war of 1812, General Jackson's troops, unprovided for and starving, became mutinous and were going home. Butthe general set the example of living on acorns; then rode before therebellious line and threatened with death the first mutineer thatshould try to leave. 

The race is not always to the swift, the battle is not always to thestrong. Horses are sometimes weighted or hampered in the race, andthis is taken into account in the result. So in the race of life thedistance alone does not determine the prize. We must take intoconsideration the hindrances, the weights we have carried, thedisadvantages of education, of breeding, of training, of surroundings, of circumstances. How many young men are weighted down with debt, withpoverty, with the support of invalid parents or brothers and sisters, or friends? How many are fettered with ignorance, hampered byinhospitable surroundings, with the opposition of parents who do notunderstand them? How many a round boy is hindered in the race by beingforced into a square hole? How many are delayed in their coursebecause nobody believes in them, because nobody encourages them, because they get no sympathy and are forever tortured for not doingthat against which every fibre of their being protests, and every dropof their blood rebels? How many have to feel their way to the goal, through the blindness of ignorance and lack of experience? How many gobungling along from the lack of early discipline and drill in thevocation they have chosen? How many have to hobble along on crutchesbecause they were never taught to help themselves, but to lean upon afather's wealth or a mother's indulgence? How many are weakened forthe journey of life by self-indulgence, by dissipation, by"life-sappers;" how many are crippled by disease, by a weakconstitution, by impaired eyesight or hearing?

When the prizes of life shall be awarded by the Supreme Judge, whoknows our weaknesses and frailties, the distance we have run, theweights we have carried, the handicaps, will all be taken into account. Not the distance we have run, but the obstacles we have overcome, thedisadvantages under which we have made the race, will decide theprizes. The poor wretch who has plodded along against unknowntemptations, the poor woman who has buried her sorrows in her silentheart and sewed her weary way through life, those who have sufferedabuse in silence, and who have been unrecognized or despised by theirfellow-runners, will often receive the greater prize. 

 "The wise and active conquer difficulties, By daring to attempt them: sloth and folly Shiver and sink at sight of toil and hazard, And make the impossibility they fear. "

 Tumble me down, and I will sit Upon my ruins, smiling yet: Tear me to tatters, yet I'll be Patient in my necessity: Laugh at my scraps of clothes, and shun Me as a fear'd infection: Yet scare-crow like I'll walk, as one Neglecting thy derision. ROBERT HERRICK. 

CHAPTER XI. 

THE GRANDEST THING IN THE WORLD. 

"One ruddy drop of manly blood the surging sea outweighs. "

"Manhood overtops all titles. "

The truest test of civilization is not the census, nor the size ofcities, nor the crops; no, but the kind of man the country turnsout. --EMERSON. 

Hew the block off, and get out the man. --POPE. 

Eternity alone will reveal to the human race its debt of gratitude to thepeerless and immortal name of Washington. --JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

 Better not be at all Than not be noble. TENNYSON. 

 Be noble! and the nobleness that lies In other men, sleeping, but never dead, Will rise in majesty to meet thine own. LOWELL. 

 Virtue alone out-builds the pyramids: Her monuments shall last when Egypt's fall. YOUNG. 

 Were one so tall to touch the pole, Or grasp creation in his span, He must be measured by his soul, The mind's the measure of the man. WATTS. 

 We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. BAILEY. 

 "Good name in man or woman Is the immediate jewel of their souls. "

But this one thing I know, that these qualities did not now begin toexist, cannot be sick with my sickness, nor buried in my grave. --EMERSON. 

A Moor was walking in his garden when a Spanish cavalier suddenly fell athis feet, pleading for concealment from pursuers who sought his life inrevenge for the killing of a Moorish gentleman. The Moor promised aid, and locked his visitor in a summer-house until night should affordopportunity for his escape. Not long after the dead body of his son wasbrought home, and from the description given he knew the Spaniard was themurderer. He concealed his horror, however, and at midnight unlocked thesummer-house, saying, "Christian, the youth whom you have murdered was myonly son. Your crime deserves the severest punishment. But I havesolemnly pledged my word not to betray you, and I disdain to violate arash engagement even with a cruel enemy. " Then, saddling one of hisfleetest mules, he said, "Flee while the darkness of night conceals you. Your hands are polluted with blood; but God is just; and I humbly thankHim that my faith is unspotted, and that I have resigned judgment to Him. "

[Illustration: John Greenleaf Whittier (missing from book)]

Character never dies. As Longfellow says:--

 "Were a star quenched on high, For ages would its light, Still traveling downward from the sky, Shine on our mortal sight. 

 "So when a great man dies, For years beyond our ken, The light he leaves behind him lies Upon the paths of men. "

The character of Socrates was mightier than the hemlock, and banished thefear and sting of death. 

Who can estimate the power of a well-lived life? _Character is power_. Hang this motto in every school in the land, in every home, in everyyouth's room. Mothers, engrave it on every child's heart. 

You cannot destroy one single atom of a Garrison, even though he werehanged. The mighty force of martyrs to truth lives; the candle burnsmore brilliantly than before it was snuffed. "No varnish or veneer ofscholarship, no command of the tricks of logic or rhetoric, can ever makeyou a positive force in the world;" but your character can. 

When the statue of George Peabody, erected in one of the thoroughfares ofLondon, was unveiled, the sculptor Story was asked to speak. Twice hetouched the statue with his hand, and said, "That is my speech. That ismy speech. " What could be more eloquent? Character needs norecommendation. It pleads its own cause. 

"Show me, " said Omar the Caliph to Amru the warrior, "the sword withwhich you have fought so many battles and slain so many infidels. " "Ah!"replied Amru, "the sword without the arm of the master is no sharper norheavier than the sword of Farezdak the poet. " So one hundred and fiftypounds of flesh and blood without character is of no great value. 

Napoleon was so much impressed with the courage and resources of MarshalNey, that he said, "I have two hundred millions in my coffers, and Iwould give them all for Ney. "

In Agra, India, stands the Taj Mahal, the acme of Oriental architecture, said to be the most beautiful building in the world. It was planned as amausoleum for the favorite wife of Shah Jehan. When the latter wasdeposed by his son Aurungzebe, his daughter Jahanara chose to share hiscaptivity and poverty rather than the guilty glory of her brother. Onher tomb in Delhi were cut her dying words: "Let no rich coverlet adornmy grave; this grass is the best covering for the tomb of the poor inspirit, the humble, the transitory Jahanara, the disciple of the holy menof Christ, the daughter of the Emperor Shah Jehan. " Travelers who visitthe magnificent Taj linger long by the grass-green sarcophagus in Delhi, but give only passing notice to the beautiful Jamma Masjid, a mausoleumafterwards erected in her honor. 

Some writer has well said that David of the throne we cannot alwaysrecall with pleasure, but David of the Psalms we never forget. Thestrong, sweet faith of the latter streams like sunlight through even theclosed windows of the soul, long after the wearied eye has turned withdisgust from all the gilded pomp and pride of the former. 

Robertson says that when you have got to the lowest depths of your heart, you will find there not the mere desire of happiness, but a craving asnatural to us as the desire for food, --the craving for nobler, higherlife. 

"Private Benjamin Owen, ---- Regiment, Vermont Volunteers, was foundasleep at his post while on picket duty last night. The court-martialhas sentenced him to be shot in twenty-four hours, as the offenseoccurred at a critical time. " "I thought when I gave Bennie to hiscountry, " said farmer Owen as he read the above telegram with dimmingeyes, "that no other father in all this broad laud made so precious agift. He only slept a minute, --just one little minute, --at his post, Iknow that was all, for Bennie never dozed over a duty. How prompt andtrustworthy he was! He was as tall as I, and only eighteen! and now theyshoot him because he was found asleep when doing sentinel duty!" Justthen Bennie's little sister Blossom answered a tap at the door, andreturned with a letter. "It is from him, " was all she said. 

DEAR FATHER, --For sleeping on sentinel duty I am to be shot. At first, it seemed awful to me; but I have thought about it so much now that ithas no terror. They say that they will not bind me, nor blind me; butthat I may meet my death like a man. I thought, father, that it mighthave been on the battlefield, for my country, and that, when I fell, itwould be fighting gloriously; but to be shot down like a dog for nearlybetraying it, --to die for neglect of duty! Oh, father, I wonder the verythought does not kill me! But I shall not disgrace you. I am going towrite you all about it; and when I am gone, you may tell my comrades; Icannot now. 

You know I promised Jemmie Carr's mother I would look after her boy; and, when he fell sick, I did all I could for him. He was not strong when hewas ordered back into the ranks, and the day before that night I carriedall his baggage, besides my own, on our march. Toward night we went inon double-quick, and the baggage began to feel very heavy. Everybody wastired; and as for Jemmie, if I had not lent him an arm now and then, hewould have dropped by the way. I was all tired out when we came intocamp; and then it was Jemmie's turn to be sentry, and I could take hisplace; but I was too tired, father. I could not have kept awake if a gunhad been pointed at my head; but I did not know it until, --well, until itwas too late. 

They tell me to-day that I have a short reprieve, --given to me bycircumstances, --"time to write to you, " our good colonel says. Forgivehim, father, he only does his duty; he would gladly save me if he could;and do not lay my death up against Jemmie. The poor boy isbroken-hearted, and does nothing but beg and entreat them to let him diein my stead. I can't bear to think of mother and Blossom. Comfort them, father! Tell them I die as a brave boy should, and that, when the war isover, they will not be ashamed of me, as they must be now. God help me:it is very hard to bear! Good-by, father. To-night, in the earlytwilight, I shall see the cows all coming home from pasture, and preciouslittle Blossom standing on the back stoop, waiting for me, --but I shallnever, never come! God bless you all!

"God be thanked!" said Mr. Owen reverently; "I knew Bennie was not theboy to sleep carelessly. "

Late that night a little figure glided out of the house and down thepath. Two hours later the conductor of the southward mail lifted herinto a car at Mill Depot. Next morning she was in New York, and the nextshe was admitted to the White House at Washington. "Well, my child, "said the President in pleasant, cheerful tones, "what do you want sobright and early this morning?" "Bennie's life, please, sir, " falteredBlossom. "Bennie? Who is Bennie?" asked Mr. Lincoln. "My brother, sir. They are going to shoot him for sleeping at his post, " said the littlegirl. "I remember, " said the President; "it was a fatal sleep. You see, child, it was a time of special danger. Thousands of lives might havebeen lost through his culpable negligence. " "So my father said; but poorBennie was so tired, sir, and Jemmie so weak. He did the work of two, sir, and it was Jemmie's night, not his; but Jemmie was too tired, andBennie never thought about himself, --that he was tired, too. " "What isthat you say, child? Come here; I do not understand. " He read Bennie'sletter to his father, which Blossom held out, wrote a few lines, rang hisbell, and said to the messenger who appeared, "Send this dispatch atonce. " Then, turning to Blossom, he continued: "Go home, my child, andtell that father of yours, who could approve his country's sentence, evenwhen it took the life of a child like that, that Abraham Lincoln thinksthe life far too precious to be lost. Go back, or--wait until to-morrow;Bennie will need a change after he has so bravely faced death, he shallgo with you. " "God bless you, sir, " said Blossom. _Not all the queensare crowned. _

Two days later, when the young soldier came with his sister to thank thePresident, Mr. Lincoln fastened the strap of a lieutenant upon hisshoulder, saying, "The soldier that could carry a sick comrade's baggage, and die for the act without complaining, deserves well of his country. "

When telegrams poured in announcing terrible carnage upon battlefields inour late war, and when President Lincoln's heart-strings were nearlybroken over the cruel treatment of our prisoners at Andersonville, BelleIsle, and Libby Prison, he never once departed from his famous motto, "With malice toward none, with charity for all. " When it was reportedthat among those returned at Baltimore from Southern prisons, not one inten could stand alone from hunger and neglect, and many were so eaten andcovered by vermin as to resemble those pitted by smallpox, and soemaciated that they were living skeletons, not even these reports couldmove the great President to retaliate in kind upon the Southern prisoners. 

Among the slain on the battlefield at Fredericksburg was the body of ayouth upon which was found next the heart a photograph of Lincoln. Uponthe back of it were these words: "God bless President Lincoln. " Theyouth had been sentenced to death for sleeping at his post, but had beenpardoned by the President. 

David Dudley Field said he considered Lincoln the greatest man of hisday. Webster, Clay, Calhoun, and others were great, each in one way, butLincoln was great in many ways. There seemed to be hidden springs ofgreatness in this man that would gush forth in the most unexpected way. The men about him were at a loss to name the order of his genius. HoraceGreeley was almost as many-sided, but was a wonderful combination ofgoodness and weakness, while Lincoln seemed strong in every way. AfterLincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation he said, "The promisemust now be kept; I shall never recall one word. "

Bishop Hamilton, of Salisbury, bears the following testimony to theinfluence for good which Gladstone, when a school-fellow at Eton, exercised upon him. "I was a thoroughly idle boy; but I was saved fromworse things by getting to know Gladstone. " At Oxford we are told theeffect of his example was so strong that men who followed him there tenyears later declare "that undergraduates drank less in the fortiesbecause Gladstone had been so courageously abstemious in the thirties. "

The Rev. John Newton said, "I see in this world two heaps of humanhappiness and misery; now if I can take but the smallest bit from oneheap and add it to the other, I carry a point; if as I go home a childhas dropped a half-penny, and by giving it another I can wipe away itstears, I feel I have done something. "

A holy hermit, who had lived for six years in a cave of the Thebaid, fasting, praying, and performing severe penances, spending his whole lifein trying to make himself of some account with God, that he might be sureof a seat in Paradise, prayed to be shown some saint greater thanhimself, in order that he might pattern after him to reach still greaterheights of holiness. The same night an angel came to him and said, "Ifthou wouldst excel all others in virtue and sanctity, strive to imitate acertain minstrel who goes begging and singing from door to door. " Thehermit, much chagrined, sought the minstrel and asked him how he hadmanaged to make himself so acceptable to God. The minstrel hung down hishead and replied, "Do not mock me, holy father; I have performed no goodworks, and I am not worthy to pray. I only go from door to door to amusepeople with my viol and my flute. " The hermit insisted that he must havedone some good deeds. The minstrel replied, "Nay, I know of nothing goodthat I have done. " "But how hast thou become a beggar? Hast thou spentthy substance in riotous living?" "Nay, not so, " replied the minstrel. "I met a poor woman running hither and thither, distracted, because herhusband and children had been sold into slavery to pay a debt. I tookher home and protected her from certain sons of Belial, for she was verybeautiful. I gave her all I possessed to redeem her family and returnedher to her husband and children. Is there any man who would not havedone the same?" The hermit shed tears, and said in all his life he hadnot done as much as the poor minstrel. 

"A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favorthan silver or gold. "

A gentleman, traveling through West Virginia, went to a house, andprocured food for himself and companion and their horses. He wanted tomake payment, but the woman was ashamed to take pay for a mere act ofkindness. He pressed the money upon her. Finally she said, "If youdon't think I'm mean, I'll take one quarter of a dollar from you, so asto look at it now and then, for there has been no money in this house fora year. "

Do not take the world's estimate of success. The real height of theWashington Monument is not measured between the capstone and the earth, but includes the fifty feet of solid masonry below. Many of the mostsuccessful lives are like the rivers of India which run under ground, unseen and unheard by the millions who tread above them. But have theserivers therefore no influence? Ask the rich harvest fields if they feelthe flowing water beneath. The greatest worth is never measured. It isonly the nearest stars whose distances we compute. That life whoseinfluence can be measured by the world's tape-line of dollars and corn isnot worth the measuring. 

All the forces in nature that are the most powerful are the quietest. Wespeak of the rolling thunder as powerful; but gravitation, which makes nonoise, yet keeps orbs in their orbits, and the whole system in harmony, binding every atom in each planet to the great centre of all attraction, is ten thousand times ten thousand times more powerful. We say thebright lightning is mighty; so it is when it rends the gnarled oak intosplinters, or splits solid battlements into fragments; but it is not halfso powerful as the gentle light that comes so softly from the skies thatwe do not feel it, that travels at an inconceivable speed, strikes andyet is not felt, but exercises an influence so great that the earth isclothed with verdure through its influence, and all nature beautified andblessed by its ceaseless action. The things that make no noise, make nopretension, may be really the strongest. The most conclusive logic thata preacher uses in the pulpit will never exercise the influence that theconsistent piety of character will exercise over all the earth. 

The old Sicilian story relates how Pythias, condemned to death throughthe hasty anger of Dionysius of Syracuse, asked that he might go to hisnative Greece, and arrange his affairs, promising to return before thetime appointed for his execution. The tyrant laughed his request toscorn, saying that when he was once safe out of Sicily no one wouldanswer for his reappearance. At this juncture, Damon, a friend of thedoomed man, offered to become surety for him, and to die in his stead ifhe did not come back in time. Dionysius was surprised, but accepted theproposition. When the fatal day came, Pythias had not reached Syracuse, but Damon remained firm in his faith that his friend would not fail him. At the very last hour Pythias appeared and announced himself ready todie. But such touching loyalty moved even the iron heart of Dionysius;accordingly he ordered both to be spared, and asked to be allowed to makea third partner in such a noble friendship. It is a grander thing to benobly remembered than to be nobly born. 

When Attila, flushed with conquest, appeared with his barbarian hordebefore the gates of Rome in 452, Pope Leo alone of all the people daredgo forth and try to turn his wrath aside. A single magistrate followedhim. The Huns were awed by the fearless majesty of the unarmed old man, and led him before their chief, whose respect was so great that he agreednot to enter the city, provided a tribute should be paid to him. 

Blackie thinks there is no kind of a sermon so effective as the exampleof a great man, where we see the thing done before us, --actuallydone, --the thing of which we were not even dreaming. 

It was said that when Washington led the American forces as commandingofficer, it "doubled the strength of the army. "

When General Lee was in conversation with one of his officers in regardto a movement of his army, a plain farmer's boy overheard the general'sremark that he had decided to march upon Gettysburg instead ofHarrisburg. The boy telegraphed this fact to Governor Curtin. A specialengine was sent for the boy. "I would give my right hand, " said thegovernor, "to know if this boy tells the truth. " A corporal replied, "Governor, I know that boy; it is impossible for him to lie; there is nota drop of false blood in his veins. " In fifteen minutes the Union troopswere marching to Gettysburg, where they gained a victory. Character ispower. The great thing is to be a man, to have a high purpose, a nobleaim, to be dead in earnest, to yearn for the good and the true. 

"Your lordships, " said Wellington in Parliament, "must all feel the highand honorable character of the late Sir Robert Peel. I was longconnected with him in public life. We were both in the councils of oursovereign together, and I had long the honor to enjoy his privatefriendship. In all the course of my acquaintance with him, I never knewa man in whose truth and justice I had greater confidence, or in whom Isaw a more invariable desire to promote the public service. In the wholecourse of my communication with him, I never knew an instance in which hedid not show the strongest attachment to truth; and I never saw in thewhole course of my life the smallest reason for suspecting that he statedanything which he did not firmly believe to be the fact. "

"The Secretary stood alone, " said Grattan of the elder Pitt. "Moderndegeneracy had not reached him. Original and unaccommodating, thefeatures of his character had the hardihood of antiquity. His augustmind overawed majesty; and one of his sovereigns thought royalty soimpaired in his presence, that he conspired to remove him, in order to berelieved from his superiority. No state chicanery, no narrow system ofvicious politics, sunk him to the level of the vulgar great; but, overbearing, persuasive, and impracticable, his object was England, hisambition, fame. A character so exalted, so unsullied, so various, soauthoritative, astonished a corrupt age, and the Treasury trembled at thename of Pitt through all the classes of venality. Corruption imagined, indeed, that she had found defects in this statesman, and talked much ofthe inconsistency of his policy, and much of the ruin of his victories;but the history of his country and the calamities of the enemy answeredand refuted her. Upon the whole, there was in this man something thatcould create, subvert, or reform; an understanding, a spirit, and aneloquence to summon mankind to united exertion, or to break the bonds ofslavery asunder, and to rule the wilderness of free minds with unboundedauthority; something that could establish or overwhelm an empire, andstrike a blow in the world that would resound through the universe. "

Pitt was Paymaster-General for George II. When a subsidy was voted aforeign office, it was customary for the office to claim one half percent. For honorarium. Pitt astonished the King of Sardinia by sendinghim the sum without any deduction, and further astonished him by refusinga present as a compliment to his integrity. He was a poor man. 

Washington would take no pay as commander-in-chief of the Continentalarmies. He would keep a strict account of his expenses; and these, hedoubted not, would be discharged. 

Remember, the main business of life is not to do, but to become; anaction itself has its finest and most enduring fruit in character. 

In 1837, after George Peabody moved to London, there came a commercialcrisis in the United States. Many banks suspended specie payments. Manymercantile houses went to the wall, and thousands more were in greatdistress. Edward Everett said, "The great sympathetic nerve of thecommercial world, credit, as far as the United States were concerned, wasfor the time paralyzed. " Probably not a half dozen men in Europe wouldhave been listened to for a moment in the Bank of England upon thesubject of American securities, but George Peabody was one of them. Hisname was already a tower of strength in the commercial world. In thosedark days his integrity stood four-square in every business panic. Peabody retrieved the credit of the State of Maryland, and, it mightalmost be said, of the United States. His character was the magic wandwhich in many a case changed almost worthless paper into gold. Merchantson both sides of the Atlantic procured large advances from him, evenbefore the goods consigned to him had been sold. 

Thackeray says, "Nature has written a letter of credit upon some men'sfaces which is honored wherever presented. You cannot help trusting suchmen; their very presence gives confidence. There is a 'promise to pay'in their very faces which gives confidence, and you prefer it to anotherman's indorsement. " _Character is credit. _

With most people, as with most nations, "things are worth what they willsell for, " and the dollar is mightier than the sword. As good as goldhas become a proverb--as though it were the highest standard ofcomparison. 

Themistocles, having conceived the design of transferring the governmentof Greece from the hands of the Lacedaemonians into those of theAthenians, kept his thoughts continually fixed on this great project. Being at no time very nice or scrupulous in the choice of his measures, he thought anything which could tend to the accomplishment of the end hehad in view just and lawful. Accordingly in an assembly of the peopleone day, he intimated that he had a very important design to propose; buthe could not communicate it to the public at large, because the greatestsecrecy was necessary to its success, and he therefore desired that theywould appoint a person to whom he might explain himself on the subject. Aristides was unanimously selected by the assembly, which deferredentirely to his opinion. Themistocles, taking him aside, told him thatthe design he had conceived was to burn the fleet belonging to the restof the Grecian states, which then lay in a neighboring port, when Athenswould assuredly become mistress of all Greece. Aristides returned to theassembly, and declared to them that nothing could be more advantageous tothe commonwealth than the project of Themistocles, but that, at the sametime, nothing in the world could be more unfair. The assemblyunanimously declared that, since such was the case, Themistocles shouldwholly abandon his project. 

A tragedy by Aeschylus was once represented before the Athenians, inwhich it was said of one of the characters, "that he cared not more to bejust than to appear so. " At these words all eyes were instantly turnedupon Aristides as the man who, of all the Greeks, most merited thatdistinguished reputation. Ever after he received, by universal consent, the surname of the Just, --a title, says Plutarch, truly royal, or rathertruly divine. This remarkable distinction roused envy, and envyprevailed so far as to procure his banishment for years, upon the unjustsuspicion that his influence with the people was dangerous to theirfreedom. When the sentence was passed by his countrymen, Aristideshimself was present in the midst of them, and a stranger who stood near, and could not write, applied to him to write for him on his shell-ballot. "What name?" asked the philosopher. "Aristides, " replied the stranger. 

"Do you know him, then?" said Aristides, "or has he in any way injuredyou?" "Neither, " said the other, "but it is for this very thing I wouldhe were condemned. I can go nowhere but I hear of Aristides the Just. "Aristides inquired no further, but took the shell, and wrote his name onit as desired. The absence of Aristides soon dissipated theapprehensions which his countrymen had so idly indulged. He was in ashort time recalled, and for many years after took a leading part in theaffairs of the republic, without showing the least resentment against hisenemies, or seeking any other gratification than that of serving hiscountrymen with fidelity and honor. The virtues of Aristides did notpass without reward. He had two daughters, who were educated at theexpense of the state, and to whom portions were allotted from the publictreasury. 

The strongest proof, however, of the justice and integrity of Aristidesis, that notwithstanding he had possessed the highest employments in therepublic, and had the absolute disposal of its treasures, yet he died sopoor as not to leave money enough to defray the expenses of his funeral. 

Men of character are the conscience of the society to which they belong;they, and not the police, guarantee the execution of the laws. Theirinfluence is the bulwark of good government. 

It was said of the first Emperor Alexander of Russia, that his personalcharacter was equivalent to a constitution. Of Montaigne, it was saidthat his high reputation for integrity was a better protection for himthan a regiment of horse would have been, he being the only man among theFrench gentry who, during the wars of the Fronde, kept his castle gatesunbarred. There are men, fortunately for the world, who would rather beright than be President. 

Fisher Ames, while in Congress, said of Roger Sherman, of Connecticut:"If I am absent during a discussion of a subject, and consequently knownot on which side to vote, when I return I always look at Roger Sherman, for I am sure if I vote with him, I shall vote right. "

Character gravitates upward, as with a celestial gravitation, while meregenius, without character, gravitates downward. How often we see inschool or college young men, who are apparently dull and even stupid, rise gradually and surely above others who are without character, merelybecause the former have an upward tendency in their lives, a reaching-upprinciple, which gradually but surely unfolds, and elevates them topositions of honor and trust. There is something which everybody admiresin an aspiring soul, one whose tendency is upward and onward, in spite ofhindrances and in defiance of obstacles. 

We may try to stifle the voice of the mysterious angel within, but italways says "yes" to right actions and "no" to wrong ones. No matterwhether we heed it or not, no power can change its decision one iota. Through health, through disease, through prosperity and adversity, thisfaithful servant stands behind us in the shadow of ourselves, neverintruding, but weighing every act we perform, every word we utter, pronouncing the verdict "right" or "wrong. "

Francis Horner, of England, was a man of whom Sydney Smith said, that"the ten commandments were stamped upon his forehead. " The valuable andpeculiar light in which Horner's history is calculated to inspire everyright-minded youth is this: he died at the age of thirty-eight, possessedof greater influence than any other private man, and admired, beloved, trusted, and deplored by all except the heartless and the base. Nogreater homage was ever paid in Parliament to any deceased member. Howwas this attained? By rank? He was the son of an Edinburgh merchant. By wealth? Neither he nor any of his relatives ever had a superfluoussixpence. By office? He held but one, and that for only a few years, ofno influence, and with very little pay. By talents? His were notsplendid, and he had no genius. Cautious and slow, his only ambition wasto be right. By eloquence? He spoke in calm, good taste, without any ofthe oratory that either terrifies or seduces. By any fascination ofmanner? His was only correct and agreeable. By what was it, then?Merely by sense, industry, good principles and a good heart, qualitieswhich no well constituted mind need ever despair of attaining. It wasthe force of his character that raised him; and this character was notimpressed on him by nature, but formed, out of no peculiarly fineelements, by himself. There were many in the House of Commons of fargreater ability and eloquence. But no one surpassed him in thecombination of an adequate portion of these with moral worth. Horner wasborn to show what moderate powers, unaided by anything whatever exceptculture and goodness, may achieve, even when these powers are displayedamidst the competition and jealousies of public life. 

"When it was reported in Paris that the great Napoleon was dead, I passedthe Palais Royal, " says a French writer, "where a public crier called, 'Here's your account of the death of Bonaparte. ' This cry which oncewould have appalled all Europe fell perfectly flat. I entered, " he adds, "several cafés, and found the same indifference, --coldness everywhere; noone seemed interested or troubled. This man, who had conquered Europeand awed the world, had inspired neither the love nor the admiration ofeven his own countrymen. He had impressed the world with hismarvelousness, and had inspired astonishment but not love. "

Emerson says that Napoleon did all that in him lay to live and thrivewithout moral principle. It was the nature of things, the eternal law ofman and of the world, which balked and ruined him; and the result, in amillion attempts of this kind, will be the same. His was an experiment, under the most favorable conditions, to test the powers of intellectwithout conscience. Never elsewhere was such a leader so endowed, and soweaponed; never has another leader found such aids and followers. Andwhat was the result of this vast talent and power, of these immensearmies, burned cities, squandered treasures, immolated millions of men, of this demoralized Europe? He left France smaller, poorer, feebler thanhe found her. 

A hundred years hence what difference will it make whether you were richor poor, a peer or a peasant? But what difference may it not makewhether you did what was right or what was wrong?

"The 'Vicar of Wakefield, '" said George William Curtis, "was sold, through Dr. Johnson's mediation, for sixty pounds; and ten years after, the author died. With what love do we hang over its pages! What springsof feeling it has opened! Goldsmith's books are influences and friendsforever, yet the five thousandth copy was never announced, and OliverGoldsmith, M. D. , often wanted a dinner! Horace Walpole, the coxcomb ofliterature, smiled at him contemptuously from his gilded carriage. Goldsmith struggled cheerfully with his adverse fate, and died. But thensad mourners, whom he had aided in their affliction, gathered around hisbed, and a lady of distinction, whom he had only dared to admire at adistance, came and cut a lock of his hair for remembrance. When I seeGoldsmith, thus carrying his heart in his hand like a palm branch, I lookon him as a successful man, whom adversity could not bring down from thelevel of his lofty nature. "

Dr. Maudsley tells us that the aims which chiefly predominate--riches, position, power, applause of men--are such as inevitably breed and fostermany bad passions in the eager competition to attain them. Hence, infact, come disappointed ambition, jealousy, grief from loss of fortune, all the torments of wounded self-love, and a thousand other mentalsufferings, --the commonly enumerated moral causes of insanity. They aregriefs of a kind to which a rightly developed nature should not fall aprey. There need be no envy nor jealousy, if a man were to consider thatit mattered not whether he did a great thing or some one else did it, Nature's only concern being that it should be done; no grief from loss offortune, if he were to estimate at its true value that which fortune canbring him, and that which fortune can never bring him; no woundedself-love, if he had learned well the eternal lesson oflife, --self-renunciation. 

Soon after his establishment in Philadelphia Franklin was offered a piecefor publication in his newspaper. Being very busy, he begged thegentleman would leave it for consideration. The next day the authorcalled and asked his opinion of it. "Well, sir, " replied Franklin, "I amsorry to say I think it highly scurrilous and defamatory. But being at aloss on account of my poverty whether to reject it or not, I thought Iwould put it to this issue: At night, when my work was done, I bought atwo-penny loaf, on which I supped heartily, and then, wrapping myself inmy great coat, slept very soundly on the floor till morning, when anotherloaf and mug of water afforded a pleasant breakfast. Now, sir, since Ican live very comfortably in this manner, why should I prostitute mypress to personal hatred or party passion for a more luxurious living?"

One cannot read this anecdote of our American sage without thinking ofSocrates' reply to King Archelaus, who had pressed him to give uppreaching in the dirty streets of Athens, and come and live with him inhis splendid courts: "Meal, please your Majesty, is a half-penny a peckat Athens, and water I get for nothing!"

During Alexander's march into Africa he found a people dwelling in peace, who knew neither war nor conquest. While he was interviewing the chieftwo of his subjects brought a case before him for judgment. The disputewas this: the one had bought of the other a piece of ground, which, afterthe purchase, was found to contain a treasure, for which he felt bound topay. The other refused to receive anything, stating that when he soldthe ground he sold it with all the advantages apparent or concealed whichit might be found to afford. The king said, "One of you has a daughterand the other a son; let them be married and the treasure given to themas a dowry. " Alexander was surprised, and said, "If this case had beenin our country it would have been dismissed, and the king would have keptthe treasure. " The chief said, "Does the sun shine on your country, andthe rain fall, and the grass grow?" Alexander replied, "Certainly. " Thechief then asked, "Are there any cattle?" "Certainly, " was the reply. The chief replied, "Then it is for these innocent cattle that the GreatBeing permits the rain to fall and the grass to grow. "

A good character is a precious thing, above rubies, gold, crowns, orkingdoms, and the work of making it is the noblest labor on earth. 

Professor Blackie of the University of Edinburgh said to a class of youngmen: "Money is not needful; power is not needful; liberty is not needful;even health is not the one thing needful; but character alone is thatwhich can truly save us, and if we are not saved in this sense, wecertainly must be damned. " It has been said that "when poverty is yourinheritance, virtue must be your capital. "

During the American Revolution, while General Reed was President ofCongress, the British Commissioners offered him a bribe of ten thousandguineas to desert the cause of his country. His reply was, "Gentlemen, Iam poor, very poor; but your king is not rich enough to buy me. "

"When Le Père Bourdaloue preached at Rouen, " said Père Arrius, "thetradesmen forsook their shops, lawyers their clients, physicians theirsick, and tavern-keepers their bars; but when I preached the followingyear I set all things to rights, --every man minded his own business. "

"I fear John Knox's prayers more than an army of ten thousand men, " saidMary, Queen of Scotland. 

When Pope Paul IV. Heard of the death of Calvin he exclaimed with a sigh, "Ah, the strength of that proud heretic lay in--riches? No. Honors?No. But nothing could move him from his course. Holy Virgin! With twosuch servants, our church would soon be mistress of both worlds. "

Garibaldi's power over his men amounted to fascination. Soldiers andofficers were ready to die for him. His will power seemed to enslavethem. In Rome he called for forty volunteers to go where half of themwould be sure to be killed and the others probably wounded. The wholebattalion rushed forward; and they had to draw lots, so eager were all toobey. 

What power of magic lies in a great name! There was not a throne inEurope that could stand against Washington's character, and in comparisonwith it the millions of the Croesuses would look ridiculous. What arethe works of avarice compared with the names of Lincoln, Grant, orGarfield? A few names have ever been the leaven which has preserved manya nation from premature decay. 

 "But strew his ashes to the wind Whose sword or voice has served mankind-- And is he dead, whose glorious mind Lifts thine on high?-- To live in hearts we leave behind Is not to die. "

Mr. Gladstone gave in Parliament, when announcing the death of PrincessAlice, a touching story of sick-room ministration. The Princess' littleboy was ill with diphtheria, the physician had cautioned her not toinhale the poisoned breath; the child was tossing in the delirium offever. The mother took the little one in her lap and stroked his feveredbrow; the boy threw his arms around her neck, and whispered, "Kiss me, mamma;" the mother's instinct was stronger than the physician's caution;she pressed her lips to the child's, but lost her life. 

At a large dinner-party given by Lord Stratford after the Crimean War, itwas proposed that every one should write on a slip of paper the namewhich appeared most likely to descend to posterity with renown. When thepapers were opened every one of them contained the name of FlorenceNightingale. 

Leckey says that the first hospital ever established was opened by thatnoble Christian woman, Fabiola, in the fourth century. The two foremostnames in modern philanthropy are those of John Howard and FlorenceNightingale. Not a general of the Crimean War on either side can benamed by one person in ten. The one name that rises instantly, when thatcarnival of pestilence and blood is suggested, is that of a young womanjust recovering from a serious illness, Florence Nightingale. A soldiersaid, "Before she came there was such cussin' and swearin'; and afterthat it was as holy as a church. " She robbed war of half its terrors. Since her time the hospital systems of all the nations during war havebeen changed. No soldier was braver and no patriot truer than ClaraBarton, and wherever that noble company of Protestant women known as theRed Cross Society, --the cross, I suppose, pointing to Calvary, and thered to the blood of the Redeemer, --wherever those consecrated workersseek to alleviate the condition of those who suffer from plagues, cholera, fevers, flood, famine, there this tireless angel moves on herpathway of blessing. And of all heroes, what nobler ones than these, whose names shine from the pages of our missionary history? I never readof Mrs. Judson, Mrs. Snow, Miss Brittain, Miss West, without feeling thatthe heroic age of our race has just begun, the age which opens to womanthe privilege of following her benevolent inspirations wheresoever shewill, without thinking that our Christianity needs no other evidence. 

"Duty is the cement without which all power, goodness, intellect, truth, happiness, and love itself can have no permanence, but all the fabric ofexistence crumbles away from under us and leaves us at last sitting inthe midst of a ruin, astonished at our own desolation. " A constant, abiding sense of duty is the last reason of culture. 

 "I slept and dreamed that life is beauty; I woke and found that life is duty. "

We have no more right to refuse to perform a duty than to refuse to pay adebt. Moral insolvency is certain to him who neglects and disregards hisduty to his fellow-men. Nor can we hire another to perform our duty. The mere accident of having money does not release you from your duty tothe world. Nay, it increases it, for it enables you to do a larger andnobler duty. 

If your money is not clean, if there is a dirty dollar in your millions, you have not succeeded. If there is the blood of the poor andunfortunate, of orphans and widows, on your bank account, you have notsucceeded. If your wealth has made others poorer, your life is afailure. If you have gained it in an occupation that kills, thatshortens the lives of others, that poisons their blood, or engendersdisease, if you have taken a day from a human life, if you have gainedyour money by that which has debauched other lives, you have failed. 

Remember that a question will be asked you some time which you cannotevade, the right answer to which will fix your destiny forever: "How didyou get that fortune?" Are other men's lives in it; are others' hope andhappiness buried in it; are others' comforts sacrificed to it; areothers' rights buried in it; are others' opportunities smothered in it;others' chances strangled by it; has their growth been stunted by it;their characters stained by it; have others a smaller loaf, a meanerhome? If so, you have failed; all your millions cannot save you from thecurse, "thou hast been weighed in the balance and found wanting. "

When Walter Scott's publisher and printer failed and $600, 000 of debtstared them in the face, friends came forward and offered to raise moneyenough to allow him to arrange with his creditors. "No, " said heproudly, "this right hand shall work it all off; if we lose everythingelse, we will at least keep our honor unblemished. " What a grand pictureof manliness, of integrity in this noble man, working like a dray-horseto cancel that great debt, throwing off at white heat the "Life ofNapoleon, " "Woodstock, " "The Tales of a Grandfather, " articles for the"Quarterly, " and so on, all written in the midst of great sorrow, pain, and ruin. "I could not have slept soundly, " he writes, "as I now canunder the comfortable impression of receiving the thanks of my creditors, and the conscious feeling of discharging my duty as a man of honesty. Isee before me a long, tedious, and dark path, but it leads to stainlessreputation. If I die in the harness, as is very likely, I shall die withhonor. "

One of the last things he uttered was, "I have been, perhaps, the mostvoluminous author of my day, and it is a comfort to me to think that Ihave tried to unsettle no man's faith, to corrupt no man's principles, and that I have written nothing which, on my deathbed, I would wishblotted out. "

Although Agassiz refused to lecture even for a large sum of money, yet heleft a greater legacy to the world, and left even more money to HarvardUniversity ($300, 000) than he would have left if he had taken the time tolecture for money. 

Faraday had to choose between a fortune of nearly a million and a life ofalmost certain poverty if he pursued science. He chose poverty andscience, and earned a name never to be erased from the book of fame. 

Beecher says that we are all building a soul-house for eternity; yet withwhat differing architecture and what various care!

What if a man should see his neighbor getting workmen and buildingmaterials together, and should say to him, "What are you building?" andhe should answer, "I don't exactly know. I am waiting to see what willcome of it. " And so walls are reared, and room is added to room, whilethe man looks idly on, and all the bystanders exclaim, "What a fool heis!" Yet this is the way many men are building their characters foreternity, adding room to room, without plan or aim, and thoughtlesslywaiting to see what the effect will be. Such builders will never dwellin "the house of God, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. "

Some people build as cathedrals are built, the part nearest the groundfinished; but that part which soars towards heaven, the turrets and thespires, forever incomplete. 

Many men are mere warehouses full of merchandise--the head and heart arestuffed with goods. Like those houses in the lower streets of citieswhich were once family dwellings, but are now used for commercialpurposes, there are apartments in their souls which were once tenanted bytaste, and love, and joy, and worship; but they are all deserted now, andthe rooms are filled with material things. 

CHAPTER XII. 

WEALTH IN ECONOMY. 

Economy is half the battle of life. --SPURGEON. 

Economy is the parent of integrity, of liberty and ease, and thebeauteous sister of temperance, of cheerfulness and health. --DR. JOHNSON. 

Can anything be so elegant as to have few wants and to serve them one'sself?

As much wisdom can be expended on a private economy as on anempire. --EMERSON. 

Riches amassed in haste will diminish; but those collected by hand andlittle by little will multiply. --GOETHE. 

No gain is so certain as that which proceeds from the economical use ofwhat you have. --LATIN PROVERB. 

Beware of little extravagances: a small leak will sink a bigship. --FRANKLIN. 

Better go to bed supperless than rise with debts. --GERMAN PROVERB. 

Debt is like any other trap, easy enough to get into, but hard enough toget out of. --H. W. SHAW. 

Sense can support herself handsomely in most countries on some eighteenpence a day; but for phantasy, planets and solar systems will notsuffice. --MACAULAY. 

Economy, the poor man's mint. --TUPPER. 

I can get no remedy against this consumption of the purse; borrowing onlylingers and lingers it out; but the disease is incurable. --SHAKESPEARE. 

Whatever be your talents, whatever be your prospects, never speculateaway on the chance of a palace that which you may need as a provisionagainst the workhouse. --BULWER. 

 Not for to hide it in a hedge, Nor for a train attendant, But for the glorious privilege Of being independent. BURNS. 

"We shan't get much here, " whispered a lady to her companion, as JohnMurray blew out one of the two candles by whose light he had been writingwhen they asked him to contribute to some benevolent object. He listenedto their story and gave one hundred dollars. "Mr. Murray, I am veryagreeably surprised, " said the lady quoted; "I did not expect to get acent from you. " The old Quaker asked the reason for her opinion; and, when told, said, "That, ladies, is the reason I am able to let you havethe hundred dollars. It is by practicing economy that I save up moneywith which to do charitable actions. One candle is enough to talk by. "

 * * * * * *

[Illustration: ALEXANDER HAMILTON]

"The Moses of Colonial Finance. "

"Poverty is a condition which no man should accept, unless it is forcedupon him as an inexorable necessity or as the alternative of dishonor. "

"Comfort and independence abide with those who can postpone theirdesires. "

 * * * * * *

Emerson relates the following anecdote: "An opulent merchant in Bostonwas called on by a friend in behalf of a charity. At that time he wasadmonishing his clerk for using whole wafers instead of halves; hisfriend thought the circumstance unpropitious; but to his surprise, onlistening to the appeal, the merchant subscribed five hundred dollars. The applicant expressed his astonishment that any person who was soparticular about half a wafer should present five hundred dollars to acharity; but the merchant said, "It is by saving half wafers, andattending to such little things, that I have now something to give. "

"How did you acquire your great fortune?" asked a friend of Lampis, theshipowner. "My great fortune, easily, " was the reply, "my small one, bydint of exertion. "

Four years from the time Marshall Field left the rocky New England farmto seek his fortune in Chicago he was admitted as a partner in the firmof Coaley, Farwell & Co. The only reason the modest young man gave, toexplain his promotion when he had neither backing, wealth, nor influence, was that he saved his money. 

If a man will begin at the age of twenty and lay by twenty-six centsevery working day, investing at seven per cent. Compound interest, hewill have thirty-two thousand dollars when he is seventy years old. Twenty cents a day is no unusual expenditure for beer or cigars, yet infifty years it would easily amount to twenty thousand dollars. Even asaving of one dollar a week from the date of one's majority would givehim one thousand dollars for each of the last ten of the allotted yearsof life. "What maintains one vice would bring up two children. "

Such rigid economy, such high courage, enables one to surprise the worldwith gifts even if he is poor. In fact, the poor and the middle classesgive most in the aggregate to missions and hospitals and to the poor. Only frugality enables them to outdo the rich on their own ground. 

But miserliness or avariciousness is a different thing from economy. Themiserly is the miserable man, who hoards money from a love of it. Amiser who spends a cent upon himself where another would spend a quarterdoes it from parsimony, which is a subordinate characteristic of avarice. Of this the following is an illustration: "True, I should like some soup, but I have no appetite for the meat, " said the dying Ostervalde; "what isto become of that? It will be a sad waste. " And so the rich Parisbanker would not let his servant buy meat for broth. 

A writer on political economy tells of the mishaps resulting from abroken latch on a farmyard gate. Every one going through would shut thegate, but as the latch would not hold it, it would swing open with everybreeze. One day a pig ran out into the woods. Every one on the farmwent to help get him back. A gardener jumped over a ditch to stop thepig, and sprained his ankle so badly as to be confined to his bed for twoweeks. When the cook returned, she found that her linen, left to dry atthe fire, was all badly scorched. The dairymaid in her excitement leftthe cows untied, and one of them broke the leg of a colt. The gardenerlost several hours of valuable time. Yet a new latch would not have costfive cents. 

Guy, the London bookseller, and afterward the founder of the greathospital, was a great miser, living in the back part of his shop, eatingupon an old bench, and using his counter for a table, with a newspaperfor a cloth. He did not marry. One day he was visited by "Vulture"Hopkins, another well-known miser. "What is your business?" asked Guy, lighting a candle. "To discuss your methods of saving money, " was thereply, alluding to the niggardly economy for which Guy was famous. Onlearning Hopkins's business he blew out the light, saying, "We can dothat in the dark. " "Sir, you are my master in the art, " said the"Vulture;" "I need ask no further. I see where your secret lies. "

Yet that kind of economy which verges on the niggardly is better than theextravagance that laughs at it. Either, when carried to excess, is notonly apt to cause misery, but to ruin the character. 

"Lay by something for a rainy day, " said a gentleman to an Irishman inhis service. Not long afterwards he asked Patrick how much he had addedto his store. "Faith, nothing at all, " was the reply; "I did as you bidme, but it rained very hard yesterday, and it all went--in drink. "

 "Wealth, a monster gorged 'Mid starving populations. "

But nowhere and at no period were these contrasts more startling than inImperial Rome. There a whole population might be trembling lest theyshould be starved by the delay of an Alexandrian corn-ship, while theupper classes were squandering fortunes at a single banquet, drinking outof myrrhine and jeweled vases worth hundreds of pounds, and feasting onthe brains of peacocks and the tongues of nightingales. As aconsequence, disease was rife, men were short-lived. At this time thedress of Roman ladies displayed an unheard-of splendor. The elder Plinytells us that he himself saw Lollia Paulina dressed for a betrothal feastin a robe entirely covered with pearls and emeralds, which had cost40, 000, 000 sesterces, and which was known to be less costly than some ofher other dresses. Gluttony, caprice, extravagance, ostentation, impurity, rioted in the heart of a society which knew of no other meansby which to break the monotony of its weariness or alleviate the anguishof its despair. 

The expense ridiculously bestowed on the Roman feasts passes all belief. Suetonius mentions a supper given to Vitellius by his brother, in which, among other articles, there were two thousand of the choicest fishes, seven thousand of the most delicate birds, and one dish, from its sizeand capacity, named the aegis or shield of Minerva. It was filledchiefly with the liver of the scari, a delicate species of fish, thebrains of pheasants and peacocks, and the tongues of parrots, considereddesirable chiefly because of their great cost. 

"I hope that there will not be another sale, " exclaimed Horace Walpole, "for I have not an inch of room nor a farthing left. " A woman oncebought an old door-plate with "Thompson" on it because she thought itmight come in handy some time. The habit of buying what you don't needbecause it is cheap encourages extravagance. "Many have been ruined bybuying good pennyworths. "

"Where there is no prudence, " said Dr. Johnson, "there is no virtue. "

The eccentric John Randolph once sprang from his seat in the House ofRepresentatives, and exclaimed in his piercing voice, "Mr. Speaker, Ihave found it. " And then, in the stillness which followed this strangeoutburst, he added, "I have found the Philosopher's Stone: it is _Pay asyou go_. "

Many a young man seems to think that when he sees his name on a sign heis on the highway to fortune, and he begins to live on a scale as thoughthere was no possible chance of failure; as though he were already beyondthe danger point. Unfortunately Congress can pass no law that willremedy the vice of living beyond one's means. 

"The prosperity of fools shall destroy them. " "However easy it may be tomake money, " said Barnum, "it is the most difficult thing in the world tokeep it. " Money often makes the mare--run away with you. 

Very few men know how to use money properly. They can earn it, lavishit, hoard it, waste it, but to deal with it _wisely_, as a means to anend, is an education difficult of acquirement. 

After a large stained-glass window had been constructed an artist pickedup the discarded fragments and made one of the most exquisite windows inEurope for another cathedral. So one boy will pick up a splendideducation out of the odds and ends of time which others carelessly throwaway, or gain a fortune by saving what others waste. 

It has become a part of the new political economy to argue that a debt ona church or a house or a firm is a desirable thing to develop character. When the young man starts out in life with the old-fashioned idea strongin his mind that debt is bondage and a disgrace, that a mortgage is to beshunned like the cholera, and that to owe a dollar that you cannot pay, unless overtaken by misfortune, is nothing more or less than stealing, then he is bound in so much at least to succeed, and save his old agefrom being a burden upon his friends or the state. 

To do your best you must own every bit of yourself. If you are in debt, part of you belongs to your creditors. Nothing but actual sin is soparalyzing to a young man's energies as debt. 

The "loose change" which many young men throw away carelessly, or worse, would often form the basis of a fortune and independence. The earningsof the people of the United States, rich and poor, old and young, maleand female, amount to an average of less than fifty cents a day. But itis by economizing such savings that one must get his start in business. The man without a penny is practically helpless, from a business point ofview, except so far as he can immediately utilize his powers of body andmind. Besides, when a man or woman is driven to the wall, the chance ofgoodness surviving self-respect and the loss of public esteem isfrightfully diminished. 

"Money goes as it comes. " "A child and a fool imagine that twenty yearsand twenty shillings can never be spent. "

Live between extravagance and meanness. Don't save money and starve yourmind. "The very secret and essence of thrift consists in getting thingsinto higher values. Spend upward, that is, for the higher faculties. Spend for the mind rather than for the body, for culture rather than foramusement. Some young men are too stingy to buy the daily papers, andare very ignorant and narrow. " "There is that withholdeth more than ismeet, but it tendeth to poverty. " "Don't squeeze out of your life andcomfort and family what you save. "

Liberal, not lavish, is Nature's hand. Even God, it is said, cannotafford to be extravagant. When He increased the loaves and fishes, Hecommanded to gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost. 

"Nature uses a grinding economy, " says Emerson, "working up all that iswasted to-day into to-morrow's creation; not a superfluous grain of sandfor all the ostentation she makes of expense and public works. She flungus out in her plenty, but we cannot shed a hair or a paring of a nail butinstantly she snatches at the shred and appropriates it to her generalstock. " Last summer's flowers and foliage decayed in autumn only toenrich the earth this year for other forms of beauty. Nature will noteven wait for our friends to see us, unless we die at home. The momentthe breath has left the body she begins to take us to pieces, that theparts may be used again for other creations. Mark the followingcontrast:--

 1772. 1822. Man, to the plow; Man, tally-ho; Wife, to the cow; Wife, piano; Girl, to the sow; Miss, silk and satin; Boy, to the mow; Boy, Greek and Latin; And your rents will be netted. And you'll all be gazetted. _Hone's Works. _ _The Times. _

More than a lifetime has elapsed since the above was published, butinstead of returning to the style of 1772, our farmers have out-HerodedHerod in the direction of the fashion, of 1822, and many a farmhouse, like the home of Artemas [Transcriber's note: Artemus?] Ward, may beknown by the cupola and the mortgage with which it is decorated. 

It is by the mysterious power of economy, it has been said, that the loafis multiplied, that using does not waste, that little becomes much, thatscattered fragments grow to unity, and that out of nothing or next tonothing comes the miracle of something. It is not merely saving, stillless, parsimony. It is foresight and arrangement, insight andcombination, causing inert things to labor, useless things to serve ournecessities, perishing things to renew their vigor, and all things toexert themselves for human comfort. 

English working men and women work very hard, seldom take a holiday, andthough they get nearly double the wages of the same classes in France, yet save very little. The millions earned by them slip out of theirhands almost as soon as obtained to satisfy the pleasures of the moment. In France every housekeeper is taught the art of making much out oflittle. "I am simply astonished, " writes an American lady stopping inFrance, "at the number of good wholesome dishes which my friend heremakes for her table from things, which at home, I always throw away. Dainty little dishes from scraps of cold meat, from hard crusts of bread, delicately prepared and seasoned, from almost everything and nothing. And yet there is no feeling of stinginess or want. "

"I wish I could write all across the sky, in letters of gold, " says Rev. William Marsh, "the one word, savings-bank. "

Boston savings-banks have $130, 000, 000 on deposit, mostly saved indriblets. Josiah Quincy used to say that the servant girls built most ofthe palaces on Beacon Street. 

"So apportion your wants that your means may exceed them, " says Bulwer. "With one hundred pounds a year I may need no man's help; I may at leasthave 'my crust of bread and liberty. ' But with five thousand pounds ayear I may dread a ring at my bell; I may have my tyrannical master inservants whose wages I cannot pay; my exile may be at the fiat of thefirst long-suffering man who enters a judgment against me; for the fleshthat lies nearest my heart some Shylock may be dusting his scales andwhetting his knife. Every man is needy who spends more than he has; noman is needy who spends less. I may so ill manage, that with fivethousand pounds a year I purchase the worst evils of poverty, --terror andshame; I may so well manage my money, that with one hundred pounds a yearI purchase the best blessings of wealth, --safety and respect. "

Edmund Burke, speaking on Economic Reform, quoted from Cicero: "Magnumvectigal est parsimonia, " accenting the second word on the firstsyllable. Lord North whispered a correction, when Burke turned themistake to advantage. "The noble lord hints that I have erred in thequantity of a principal word in my quotation; I rejoice at it, sir, because it gives me an opportunity of repeating the inestimableadage, --'Magnum vectigal est parsimonia. '" The sentiment, meaning"Thrift is a good income, " is well worthy of emphatic repetition by usall. 

Washington examined the minutest expenditures of his family, even whenPresident of the United States. He understood that without economy nonecan be rich, and with it none need be poor. 

"I make a point of paying my own bills, " said Wellington. 

John Jacob Astor said that the first thousand dollars cost him moreeffort than all of his millions. Boys who are careless with their dimesand quarters, just because they have so few, never get this firstthousand, and without it no fortune is possible. 

To find out uses for the persons or things which are now wasted in lifeis to be the glorious work of the men of the next generation, and thatwhich will contribute most to their enrichment. 

Economizing "in spots" or by freaks is no economy at all. It must bedone by management. 

Learn early in life to say "I can't afford it. " It is an indication ofpower and courage and manliness. Dr. Franklin said, "It is not our owneyes, but other people's, that ruin us. " "Fashion wears out more apparelthan the man, " says Shakespeare. 

"Of what a hideous progeny of ill is debt the father, " said DouglasJerrold. "What meanness, what invasions of self-respect, what cares, what double-dealing! How in due season it will carve the frank, openface into wrinkles; how like a knife it will stab the honest heart. Andthen its transformations, --how it has been known to change a goodly faceinto a mask of brass; how with the evil custom of debt has the true manbecome a callous trickster! A freedom from debt, and what nourishingsweetness may be found in cold water; what toothsomeness in a dry crust;what ambrosial nourishment in a hard egg! Be sure of it, he who dinesout of debt, though his meal be a biscuit and an onion, dines in 'TheApollo. ' And then, for raiment, what warmth in a threadbare coat, if thetailor's receipt be in your pocket! What Tyrian purple in the fadedwaistcoat, the vest not owed for; how glossy the well-worn hat, if itcovers not the aching head of a debtor! Next, the home sweets, theoutdoor recreation of the free man. The street door falls not a knell inhis heart, the foot on the staircase, though he lives on the third pair, sends no spasm through his anatomy; at the rap of his door he can crow'come in, ' and his pulse still beats healthfully. See him abroad! Howhe returns look for look with any passenger. Poverty is a bitterdraught, yet may, and sometimes can with advantage, be gulped down. Though the drinker makes wry faces, there may, after all, be a wholesomegoodness in the cup. But debt, however courteously it may be offered, isthe Cup of Siren; and the wine, spiced and delicious though it be, ispoison. My son, if poor, see Hyson in the running spring; see thy mouthwater at a last week's roll; think a threadbare coat the only wear; andacknowledge a whitewashed garret the fittest housing-place for agentleman; do this, and flee debt. So shall thy heart be at rest, andthe sheriff confounded. "

"Whoever has sixpence is sovereign over all men to the extent of thatsixpence, " says Carlyle; "commands cooks to feed him, philosophers toteach him, kings to mount guard over him, --to the extent of thatsixpence. "

If a man owes you a dollar, he is almost sure to owe you a grudge, too. If you owe another money, you will be apt to regard him with uncharitableeyes. Why not economize before getting into debt instead of pinchingafterwards?

Communities which live wholly from hand to mouth never make much progressin the useful arts. Savings mean power. _Comfort and independence abidewith those who can postpone their desires. _

"Hunger, rags, cold, hard work, contempt, suspicion, unjust reproach, aredisagreeable, " says Horace Greeley, "but debt is infinitely worse thanthem all. "

Many a ruined man dates his downfall from the day when he began borrowingmoney. Debt demoralized Daniel Webster, and Theodore Hook, and Sheridan, and Fox, and Pitt. Mirabeau's life was made wretched by duns. 

"Annual income, " says Micawber, "twenty pounds; annual expenditure, nineteen six, result--happiness. Annual income, twenty pounds; annualexpenditure, twenty pounds ought and six, result--misery. "

"We are ruined, " says Colton, "not by what we really want, but by what wethink we do. Therefore never go abroad in search of your wants; if theybe real wants, they will come home in search of you; for he that buyswhat he does not want will soon want what he cannot buy. "

The honorable course is to give every man his due. It is better tostarve than not to do this. It is better to do a small business on acash basis than a large one on credit. _Owe no man anything_, wrote St. Paul. It is a good motto to place in every purse, in everycounting-room, in every church, in every home. 

Economy is of itself a great revenue. --CICERO. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

RICH WITHOUT MONEY. 

Let others plead for pensions; I can be rich without money, byendeavoring to be superior to everything poor. I would have myservices to my country unstained by any interested motive. --LORDCOLLINGWOOD. 

 Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay. GOLDSMITH. 

Pennilessness is not poverty, and ownership is not possession; to bewithout is not always to lack, and to reach is not to attain; sunlightis for all eyes that look up, and color for those who choose. --HELENHUNT. 

I ought not to allow any man, because he has broad lands, to feel thathe is rich in my presence. I ought to make him feel that I can dowithout his riches, that I cannot be bought, --neither by comfort, neither by pride, --and although I be utterly penniless, and receivingbread from him, that he is the poor man beside me. --EMERSON. 

To be content with what we possess is the greatest and most secure ofriches. --CICERO. 

There is no riches above a sound body and no joy above the joy of theheart. --ECCLESIASTES. 

 Where, thy true treasure? Gold says, "Not in me;" And "Not in me, " the Diamond. Gold is poor; India's insolvent: seek it in thyself. YOUNG. 

He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealthof nature. --SOCRATES. 

A great heart in a little house is of all things here below that whichhas ever touched me most. --LACORDAIRE. 

 My crown is in my heart, not on my head, Nor decked with diamonds and Indian stones, Nor to be seen: my crown is called content; A crown it is, that seldom kings enjoy. SHAKESPEAKE. 

Many a man is rich without money. Thousands of men with nothing intheir pockets, and thousands without even a pocket, are rich. 

 * * * * * *

[Illustration: RALPH WALDO EMERSON]

"The Sage of Concord. "

"I revere the person who is riches: so I cannot think of him as alone, or poor, or exiled, or unhappy. "

 * * * * * *

A man born with a good, sound constitution, a good stomach, a goodheart and good limbs, and a pretty good headpiece, is rich. 

Good bones are better than gold, tough muscles than silver, and nervesthat carry energy to every function are better than houses and land. 

"Heart-life, soul-life, hope, joy, and love, are true riches, " saidBeecher. 

Why should I scramble and struggle to get possession of a littleportion of this earth? This is my world now; why should I envy othersits mere legal possession? It belongs to him who can see it, enjoy it. I need not envy the so-called owners of estates in Boston and New York. They are merely taking care of my property and keeping it in excellentcondition for me. For a few pennies for railroad fare whenever I wishI can see and possess the best of it all. It has cost me no effort, itgives me no care; yet the green grass, the shrubbery, and the statueson the lawns, the finer sculptures and the paintings within, are alwaysready for me whenever I feel a desire to look upon them. I do not wishto carry them home with me, for I could not give them half the carethey now receive; besides, it would take too much of my valuable time, and I should be worrying continually lest they be spoiled or stolen. Ihave much of the wealth of the world now. It is all prepared for mewithout any pains on my part. All around me are working hard to getthings that will please me, and competing to see who can give them thecheapest. The little I pay for the use of libraries, railroads, galleries, parks, is less than it would cost to care for the least ofall I use. Life and landscape are mine, the stars and flowers, the seaand air, the birds and trees. What more do I want? All the ages havebeen working for me; all mankind are my servants. I am only requiredto feed and clothe myself, an easy task in this land of opportunity. 

A millionaire pays thousands of pounds for a gallery of paintings, andsome poor boy or girl comes in, with open mind and poetic fancy, andcarries away a treasure of beauty which the owner never saw. Acollector bought at public auction in London, for one hundred andfifty-seven guineas, an autograph of Shakespeare; but for nothing aschoolboy can read and absorb the riches of "Hamlet. "

Why should I waste my abilities pursuing this will-o'-the-wisp"Enough, " which is ever a little more than one has, and which none ofthe panting millions ever yet overtook in his mad chase? Is there nodesirable thing left in this world but gold, luxury, and ease?

"Want is a growing giant whom the coat of Have was never large enoughto cover. " "A man may as soon fill a chest with grace, or a vesselwith virtue, " says Phillips Brooks, "as a heart with wealth. "

Shall we seek happiness through the sense of taste or of touch? Shallwe idolize our stomachs and our backs? Have we no higher missions, nonobler destinies? Shall we "disgrace the fair day by a pusillanimouspreference of our bread to our freedom"?

In the three great "Banquets" of Plato, Xenophon, and Plutarch the foodis not even mentioned. 

What does your money say to you: what message does it bring to you?Does it say to you, "Eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die"?Does it bring a message of comfort, of education, of culture, oftravel, of books, of an opportunity to help your fellow-man, or is themessage "More land, more thousands and millions"? What message does itbring you? Clothes for the naked, bread for the starving, schools forthe ignorant, hospitals for the sick, asylums for the orphans, or ofmore for yourself and none for others? Is it a message of generosityor of meanness, breadth or narrowness? Does it speak to you ofcharacter? Does it mean a broader manhood, a larger aim, a noblerambition, or does it cry "More, more, more"?

Are you an animal loaded with ingots, or a man filled with a purpose?He is rich whose mind is rich, whose thought enriches the intellect ofthe world. It is a sad sight to see a soul which thirsts not for truthor beauty or the good. 

A sailor on a sinking vessel in the Caribbean Sea eagerly filled hispockets with Spanish dollars from a barrel on board while hiscompanions, about to leave in the only boat, begged him to seek safetywith them. But he could not leave the bright metal which he had solonged for and idolized, and was prevented from reaching shore by hisvery riches, when the vessel went down. 

"Who is the richest of men, " asked Socrates? "He who is content withthe least, for contentment is nature's riches. "

In More's "Utopia" gold was despised. Criminals were forced to wearheavy chains of it, and to have rings of it in their ears; it was putto the vilest uses to keep up the scorn of it. Bad characters werecompelled to wear gold head-bands. Diamonds and pearls were used todecorate infants, so that the youth would discard and despise them. 

"Ah, if the rich were as rich as the poor fancy riches!" exclaimsEmerson. 

Many a rich man has died in the poorhouse. 

In excavating Pompeii a skeleton was found with the fingers clenchedround a quantity of gold. A man of business in the town of Hull, England, when dying, pulled a bag of money from under his pillow, whichhe held between his clenched fingers with a grasp so firm as scarcelyto relax under the agonies of death. 

 Oh! blind and wanting wit to choose, Who house the chaff and burn the grain; Who hug the wealth ye cannot use, And lack the riches all may gain. WILLIAM WATSON. 

Poverty is the want of much, avarice the want of everything. 

A poor man was met by a stranger while scoffing at the wealthy for notenjoying themselves. The stranger gave him a purse, in which he wasalways to find a ducat. As fast as he took one out another was to dropin, but he was not to begin to spend his fortune until he had thrownaway the purse. He takes ducat after ducat out, but continuallyprocrastinates and puts off the hour of enjoyment until he has got "alittle more, " and dies at last counting his millions. 

A beggar was once met by Fortune, who promised to fill his wallet withgold, as much as he might please, on condition that whatever touchedthe ground should turn at once to dust. The beggar opens his wallet, asks for more and yet more, until the bag bursts. The gold falls tothe ground, and all is lost. 

When the steamer Central America was about to sink, the stewardess, having collected all the gold she could from the staterooms, and tiedit in her apron, jumped for the last boat leaving the steamer. Shemissed her aim and fell into the water, the gold carrying her down headfirst. 

In the year 1843 a rich miser lived in Padua, who was so mean andsordid that he would never give a cent to any person or object, and hewas so afraid of the banks that he would not deposit with them, butwould sit up nights with sword and pistol by him to guard his idolhoard. When his health gave way from anxiety and watching he built anunderground treasure-chamber, so arranged that if any burglar everentered, he would step upon a spring which would precipitate him into asubterranean river, where he could neither escape nor be heard. Onenight the miser went to his chest to see that all was right, when hisfoot touched the spring of the trap, and he was hurled into the deep, hidden stream. 

"One would think, " said Boswell, "that the proprietor of all this(Keddlestone, the seat of Lord Scarsfield) must be happy. " "Nay, sir, "said Johnson, "all this excludes but one evil, poverty. "

John Duncan, the illegitimate child of a Scottish weaver, was ignorant, near-sighted, bent, a miserable apology for a human being, and at lasta pauper. If he went upon the street he would sometimes be stoned byother boys. The farmer, for whom he watched cattle, was cruel to him, and after a rainy day would send him cold and wet to sleep on amiserable bed in a dark outhouse. Here he would empty the water fromhis shoes, and wring out his wet clothes and sleep as best he might. But the boy had a desire to learn to read, and when, a little later, hewas put to weaving, he persuaded a schoolgirl, twelve years old, toteach him. He was sixteen when he learned the alphabet, after whichhis progress was quite rapid. He was very fond of plants, and workedovertime for several months to earn five shillings to buy a book onbotany. He became a good botanist, and such was his interest in thestudy that at the age of eighty he walked twelve miles to obtain a newspecimen. A man whom he met became interested at finding such awell-stored mind in such a miserable body, poorly clad, and publishedan account of his career. Many readers sent him money, but he savedit, and left it in his will to found eight scholarships and offerprizes for the encouragement of the study of natural science by thepoor. His small but valuable library was left for a similar use. 

Franklin said money never made a man happy yet; there is nothing in itsnature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one. A great bank account cannever make a man rich. It is the mind that makes the body rich. Noman is rich, however much money or land he may possess, who has a poorheart. If that is poor, he is poor indeed, though he own and rulekingdoms. He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according towhat he has. 

Who would not choose to be a millionaire of deeds with a Lincoln, aGrant, a Florence Nightingale, a Childs; a millionaire of ideas withEmerson, with Lowell, with Shakespeare, with Wordsworth; a millionaireof statesmanship with a Gladstone, a Bright, a Sumner, a Washington?

Some men are rich in health, in constant cheerfulness, in a mercurialtemperament which floats them over troubles and trials enough to sink ashipload of ordinary men. Others are rich in disposition, family, andfriends. There are some men so amiable that everybody loves them; someso cheerful that they carry an atmosphere of jollity about them. Someare rich in integrity and character. 

One of the first great lessons of life is to learn the true estimate ofvalues. As the youth starts out in his career, all sorts of wares willbe imposed upon him, and all kinds of temptations will be used toinduce him to buy. His success will depend very largely upon hisability to estimate properly, not the apparent but the real value ofeverything presented to him. Vulgar Wealth will flaunt her bannerbefore his eyes, and claim supremacy over everything else. A thousanddifferent schemes will be thrust into his face with their claims forsuperiority. Every occupation and vocation will present its charms inturn, and offer its inducements. The youth who would succeed must notallow himself to be deceived by appearances, but must place theemphasis of life where it belongs. 

No man, it is said, can read the works of John Ruskin without learningthat his sources of pleasure are well-nigh infinite. There is not aflower, nor a cloud, nor a tree, nor a mountain, nor a star; not a birdthat fans the air, nor a creature that walks the earth; not a glimpseof sea or sky or meadow-greenery; not a work of worthy art in thedomains of painting, sculpture, poetry, and architecture; not a thoughtof God as the Great Spirit presiding over and informing all things, that is not to him a source of the sweetest pleasure. The whole worldof matter and of spirit and the long record of human art are open tohim as the never-failing fountains of his delight. In these purerealms he seeks his daily food and has his daily life. 

There is now and then a man who sees beauty and true riches everywhere, and "worships the splendor of God which he sees bursting through eachchink and cranny. "

Phillips Brooks, Thoreau, Garrison, Emerson, Beecher, Agassiz, wererich without money. They saw the splendor in the flower, the glory inthe grass, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good ineverything. They knew that the man who owns the landscape is seldomthe one who pays the taxes on it. They sucked in power and wealth atfirst hands from the meadows, fields, and flowers, birds, brooks, mountains, and forest, as the bee sucks honey from the flowers. Everynatural object seemed to bring them a special message from the greatAuthor of the beautiful. To these rare souls every natural object wastouched with power and beauty; and their thirsty souls drank it in as atraveler on a desert drinks in the god-sent water of the oasis. Toextract power and real wealth from men and things seemed to be theirmission, and to pour it out again in refreshing showers upon a thirstyhumanity. They believed that man's most important food does not enterby the mouth. They knew that man could not live by estates, dollars, and bread alone, and that if he could he would only be an animal. Theybelieved that the higher life demands a higher food. They believed inman's unlimited power of expansion, and that this growth demands a morehighly organized food product than that which merely sustains animallife. They saw a finer nutriment in the landscape, in the meadows, than could be ground into flour, and which escaped the loaf. They felta sentiment in natural objects which pointed upward, ever upward to theAuthor, and which was capable of feeding and expanding the higher lifeuntil it should grow into a finer sympathy and fellowship with theAuthor of the beautiful. They believed that the Creation thunders theten commandments, and that all Nature is tugging at the terms of everycontract to make it just. They could feel this finer sentiment, thissoul lifter, this man inspirer, in the growing grain, in the wavingcorn, in the golden harvest. They saw it reflected in every brook, inevery star, in every flower, in every dewdrop. They believed thatNature together with human nature were man's great schoolmasters, thatif rightly used they would carve his rough life into beauty and touchhis rude manner with grace. 

"More servants wait on man than he'll take notice of. " But if he wouldenjoy Nature he must come to it from a higher level than the yardstick. He must bring a spirit as grand and sublime as that by which the thingitself exists. 

We all live on far lower levels than we need to do. We linger in themisty and oppressive valleys, when we might be climbing the sunlithills. God puts into our hands the Book of Life, bright on every pagewith open secrets, and we suffer it to drop out of our hands unread. Emerson says, "We have come into a world which is a living poem. Everything is as I am. " Nature provides for us a perpetual festival;she is bright to the bright, comforting to those who will acceptcomfort. We cannot conceive how a universe could possibly be createdwhich could devise more efficient methods or greater opportunities forthe delight, the happiness, and the real wealth of human beings thanthe one we live in. 

The human body is packed full of marvelous devices, of wonderfulcontrivances, of infinite possibilities for the happiness and riches ofthe individual. No physiologist nor scientist has ever yet been ableto point out a single improvement, even in the minutest detail, in thestructure of the human body. No inventor has ever yet been able tosuggest an improvement in this human mechanism. No chemist has everbeen able to suggest a superior combination in any one of the elementswhich make up the human structure. One of the first things to do inlife is to learn the natural wealth of our surroundings, instead ofbemoaning our lot, for, no matter where we are placed, there isinfinitely more about us than we can ever understand, than we can everexhaust the meaning of. 

"Thank Heaven there are still some Matthew Arnolds who prefer theheavenly sweetness of light to the Eden of riches. " Arnold left only afew thousand dollars, but yet was he not one of the richest of men?What the world wants is young men who will amass golden thoughts, golden wisdom, golden deeds, not mere golden dollars; young men whoprefer to have thought-capital, character-capital, to cash-capital. Hewho estimates his money the highest values himself the least. "Irevere the person, " says Emerson, "who is riches; so that I cannotthink of him as alone, or poor, or exiled, or unhappy. "

Raphael was rich without money. All doors opened to him, and he wasmore than welcome everywhere. His sweet spirit radiated sunshinewherever he went. 

Henry Wilson was rich without money. So scrupulous had he been not tomake his exalted position a means of worldly gain, that when thisNatick cobbler, the sworn friend of the oppressed, whose one questionas to measures or acts was ever "Is it right; will it do good?" came tobe inaugurated as Vice-President of the country, he was obliged toborrow of his fellow-senator, Charles Sumner, one hundred dollars tomeet the necessary expenses of the occasion. 

Mozart, the great composer of the "Requiem, " left barely enough moneyto bury him, but he has made the world richer. 

A rich mind and noble spirit will cast a radiance of beauty over thehumblest home, which the upholsterer and decorator can never approach. Who would not prefer to be a millionaire of character, of contentment, rather than possess nothing but the vulgar coins of a Croesus? Whoeveruplifts civilization is rich though he die penniless, and futuregenerations will erect his monument. 

Are we tender, loving, self-denying, and honest, trying to fashion ourfrail life after that of the model man of Nazareth? Then, though ourpockets are often empty, we have an inheritance which is asoverwhelmingly precious as it is eternally incorruptible. 

An Asiatic traveler tells us that one day he found the bodies of twomen laid upon the desert sand beside the carcass of a camel. They hadevidently died from thirst, and yet around the waist of each was alarge store of jewels of different kinds, which they had doubtless beencrossing the desert to sell in the markets of Persia. 

The man who has no money is poor, but one who has nothing but money ispoorer than he. He only is rich who can enjoy without owning; he whois covetous is poor though he have millions. There are riches ofintellect, and no man with an intellectual taste can be called poor. He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness bychanging anything but his own disposition will waste his life infruitless efforts, and multiply the griefs which he purposes to remove. He is rich as well as brave who can face poverty and misfortune withcheerfulness and courage. 

We can so educate the will power that it will focus the thoughts uponthe bright side of things, and upon objects which elevate the soul, thus forming a habit of happiness and goodness which will make us rich. The habit of making the best of everything and of always looking on thebright side of everything is a fortune in itself. 

He is rich who values a good name above gold. Among the ancient Greeksand Romans honor was more sought after than wealth. Rome was imperialRome no more when the imperial purple became an article of traffic. 

This is the evil of trade, as well as of partisan politics. As Emersonremarks, it would put everything into market, --talent, beauty, virtue, and man himself. 

Diogenes was captured by pirates and sold as a slave. His purchaserreleased him, and gave him charge of his household and of the educationof his children. He despised wealth and affectation, and lived in atub. "Do you want anything?" asked Alexander the Great, forciblyimpressed by the abounding cheerfulness of the philosopher under suchcircumstances. "Yes, " replied Diogenes, "I want you to stand out of mysunshine and not to take from me what you cannot give me. " "Were I notAlexander, " exclaimed the great conqueror, "I would be Diogenes. "

Brave and honest men do not work for gold. They work for love, forhonor, for character. When Socrates suffered death rather than abandonhis views of right morality, when Las Casas endeavored to mitigate thetortures of the poor Indians, they had no thought of money or country. They worked for the elevation of all that thought, and for the reliefof all that suffered. 

"I don't want such things, " said Epictetus to the rich Roman orator whowas making light of his contempt for money-wealth; "and besides, " saidthe stoic, "you are poorer than I am, after all. You have silvervessels, but earthenware reasons, principles, appetites. My mind to mea kingdom is, and it furnishes me with abundant and happy occupation inlieu of your restless idleness. All your possessions seem small toyou; mine seem great to me. Your desire is insatiate, mine issatisfied. "

"Do you know, sir, " said a devotee of Mammon to John Bright, "that I amworth a million sterling?" "Yes, " said the irritated but calm-spiritedrespondent, "I do; and I know that it is all you are worth. "

A bankrupt merchant, returning home one night, said to his noble wife, "My dear, I am ruined; everything we have is in the hands of thesheriff. " After a few moments of silence the wife looked into his faceand asked, "Will the sheriff sell you?" "Oh, no. " "Will the sheriffsell me?" "Oh, no. " "Then do not say we have lost everything. Allthat is most valuable remains to us, --manhood, womanhood, childhood. We have lost but the results of our skill and industry. We can makeanother fortune if our hearts and hands are left us. "

What power can poverty have over a home where loving hearts are beatingwith a consciousness of untold riches of head and heart?

Paul was never so great as when he occupied a prison cell; and JesusChrist reached the height of his success when, smitten, spat upon, tormented, and crucified, He cried in agony, and yet with triumphantsatisfaction, "It is finished. "

"Character before wealth, " was the motto of Amos Lawrence, who hadinscribed on his pocket-book, "What shall it profit a man, if he shallgain the whole world and lose his own soul?"

If you make a fortune let every dollar of it be clean. You do not wantto see in it drunkards reel, orphans weep, widows moan. Your richesmust not make others poorer and more wretched. 

Alexander the Great wandered to the gates of Paradise, and knocked forentrance. "Who knocks?" demanded the guardian angel. "Alexander. ""Who is Alexander?" "Alexander, --the Alexander, --Alexander theGreat, --the conqueror of the world. " "We know him not, " replied theangel; "this is the Lord's gate; only the righteous enter here. "

Don't start out in life with a false standard; a truly great man makesofficial position and money and houses and estates look so tawdry, somean and poor, that we feel like sinking out of sight with our cheaplaurels and gold. _Millions look trifling beside character_. 

A friend of Professor Agassiz, an eminent practical man, once expressedhis wonder that a man of such abilities should remain contented withsuch a moderate income as he received. "I have enough, " was Agassiz'sreply. "I have no time to waste in making money. Life is notsufficiently long to enable a man to get rich and do his duty to hisfellow-men at the same time. "

How were the thousands of business men who lost every dollar they hadin the Chicago fire enabled to go into business at once, some intowholesale business, without money? Their record was their bankaccount. The commercial agencies said they were square men; that theyhad always paid one hundred cents on a dollar; that they had paidpromptly, and that they were industrious and dealt honorably with allmen. This record was as good as a bank account. _They drew on theircharacter_. Character was the coin which enabled penniless men to buythousands of dollars' worth of goods. Their integrity did not burn upwith their stores. The best part of them was beyond the reach of fireand could not be burned. 

What are the toil-sweated productions of wealth piled up in vastprofusion around a Girard, or a Rothschild, when weighed against thestores of wisdom, the treasures of knowledge, and the strength, beauty, and glory with which victorious virtue has enriched and adorned a greatmultitude of minds during the march of a hundred generations?

"Lord, how many things are in the world of which Diogenes hath noneed!" exclaimed the stoic, as he wandered among the miscellaneousarticles at a country fair. 

"There are treasures laid up in the heart--treasures of charity, piety, temperance, and soberness. These treasures a man takes with him beyonddeath when he leaves this world. " (Buddhist Scriptures. )

Is it any wonder that our children start out with wrong ideals of life, with wrong ideas of what constitutes success? The child is "urged toget on, " to "rise in the world, " to "make money. " The youth isconstantly told that nothing succeeds like success. False standardsare everywhere set up for him, and then the boy is blamed if he makes afailure. 

It is all very well to urge youth on to success, but the great mass ofmankind can never reach or even approximate the goal constantlypreached to them, nor can we all be rich. One of the great lessons toteach in this century of sharp competition and the survival of thefittest is how to be rich without money, and to learn how to do withoutsuccess, according to the popular standard. 

Gold cannot make the miser rich, nor can the want of it make the beggarpoor. 

In the poem, "The Changed Cross, " a weary woman is represented asdreaming that she was led to a place where many crosses lay, crosses ofdivers shapes and sizes. The most beautiful one was set in jewels ofgold. It was so tiny and exquisite that she changed her own plaincross for it, thinking she was fortunate in finding one so much lighterand lovelier. But soon her back began to ache under the glitteringburden, and she changed it for another cross very beautiful andentwined with flowers. But she soon found that underneath the flowerswere piercing thorns which tore her flesh. At last she came to a veryplain cross without jewels, without carving, and with only the word, "Love, " inscribed upon it. She took this one up and it proved theeasiest and best of all. She was amazed, however, to find that it washer old cross which she had discarded. It is easy to see the jewelsand the flowers in other people's crosses, but the thorns and heavyweight are known only to the bearers. How easy other people's burdensseem to us compared with our own. We do not appreciate the secretburdens which almost crush the heart, nor the years of weary waitingfor delayed success--the aching hearts longing for sympathy, the hiddenpoverty, the suppressed emotion in other lives. 

William Pitt, the great Commoner, considered money as dirt beneath hisfeet compared with the public interest and public esteem. His handswere clean. 

The object for which we strive tells the story of our lives. Men andwomen should be judged by the happiness they create in those aroundthem. Noble deeds always enrich, but millions of mere money mayimpoverish. _Character is perpetual wealth_, and by the side of himwho possesses it the millionaire who has it not seems a pauper. Compared with it, what are houses and lands, stocks and bonds? "It isbetter that great souls should live in small habitations than thatabject slaves should burrow in great houses. " Plain living, richthought, and grand effort are real riches. 

Invest in yourself, and you will never be poor. Floods cannot carryyour wealth away, fire cannot burn it, rust cannot consume it. 

"If a man empties his purse into his head, " says Franklin, "no man cantake it from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the bestinterest. "

"There is a cunning juggle in riches. I observe, " says Emerson, "thatthey take somewhat for everything they give. I look bigger, but I amless, I have more clothes, but am not so warm; more armor, but lesscourage; more books, but less wit. "

 Howe'er it be, it seems to me, 'T is only noble to be good. Kind hearts are more than coronets, And simple faith than Norman blood. TENNYSON. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

OPPORTUNITIES WHERE YOU ARE. 

 To each man's life there comes a time supreme; One day, one night, one morning, or one noon, One freighted hour, one moment opportune, One rift through which sublime fulfillments gleam, One space when fate goes tiding with the stream, One Once, in balance 'twixt Too Late, Too Soon, And ready for the passing instant's boon To tip in favor the uncertain beam. Ah, happy he who, knowing how to wait, Knows also how to watch and work and stand On Life's broad deck alert, and at the prow To seize the passing moment, big with fate, From opportunity's extended hand, When the great clock of destiny strikes Now! MARY A. TOWNSEND. 

 Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side. LOWELL. 

What is opportunity to a man who can't use it? An unfecundated egg, which the waves of time wash away into nonentity. --GEORGE ELIOT. 

 A thousand years a poor man watched Before the gate of Paradise: But while one little nap he snatched, It oped and shut. Ah! was he wise? W. B. ALGER. 

Our grand business is, not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but todo what lies clearly at hand. --CARLYLE. 

 A man's best things are nearest him, Lie close about his feet. R. M. MILNES. 

The secret of success in life is for a man _to be ready for hisopportunity_ when it comes. --DISRAELI. 

"There are no longer any good chances for young men, " complained a lawstudent to Daniel Webster. "There is always room at the top, " repliedthe great lawyer. 

 * * * * * *

[Illustration: THOMAS JEFFERSON]

"The world is all gates, all opportunities to him who can use them. '

 "'T is never offered twice, seize then the hour When fortune smiles and duty points the way. "

 * * * * * *

No chance, no opportunities, in a land where many poor boys become richmen, where newsboys go to Congress, and where those born in the loweststations attain the highest positions? The world is all gates, allopportunities to him who will use them. But, like Bunyan's Pilgrim inthe dungeon of Giant Despair's castle, who had the key of deliveranceall the time with him but had forgotten it, we fail to rely wholly uponthe ability to advance all that is good for us which has been given tothe weakest as well as the strongest. We depend too much upon outsideassistance. 

 "We look too high For things close by. "

A Baltimore lady lost a valuable diamond bracelet at a ball, andsupposed that it was stolen from the pocket of her cloak. Yearsafterward she washed the steps of the Peabody Institute, pondering howto get money to buy food. She cut up an old, worn-out, ragged cloak tomake a hood, when lo! in the lining of the cloak she discovered thediamond bracelet. During all her poverty she was worth $3500, but didnot know it. 

Many of us who think we are poor are rich in opportunities, if we couldonly see them, in possibilities all about us, in faculties worth morethan diamond bracelets. In our large Eastern cities it has been foundthat at least ninety-four out of every hundred found their firstfortune at home, or near at hand, and in meeting common every-daywants. It is a sorry day for a young man who cannot see anyopportunities where he is, but thinks he can do better somewhere else. Some Brazilian shepherds organized a party to go to California to diggold, and took along a handful of translucent pebbles to play checkerswith on the voyage. After arriving in San Francisco, and after theyhad thrown most of the pebbles away, they discovered that they werediamonds. They hastened back to Brazil, only to find that the minesfrom which the pebbles had been gathered had been taken up by othersand sold to the government. 

The richest gold and silver mine in Nevada was sold for $42 by theowner to get money to pay his passage to other mines, where he thoughthe could get rich. Professor Agassiz told the Harvard students of afarmer who owned a farm of hundreds of acres of unprofitable woods androcks, and concluded to sell out and get into a more profitablebusiness. He decided to go into the coal-oil business; he studied coalmeasures and coal-oil deposits, and experimented for a long time. Hesold his farm for $200, and engaged in his new business two hundredmiles away. Only a short time after the man who bought his farmdiscovered upon it a great flood of coal-oil, which the farmer hadpreviously ignorantly tried to drain off. 

Hundreds of years ago there lived near the shore of the river Indus aPersian by the name of Ali Hafed. He lived in a cottage on the riverbank, from which he could get a grand view of the beautiful countrystretching away to the sea. He had a wife and children, an extensivefarm, fields of grain, gardens of flowers, orchards of fruit, and milesof forest. He had a plenty of money and everything that heart couldwish. He was contented and happy. One evening a priest of Buddhavisited him, and, sitting before the fire, explained to him how theworld was made, and how the first beams of sunlight condensed on theearth's surface into diamonds. The old priest told that a drop ofsunlight the size of his thumb was worth more than large mines ofcopper, silver, or gold; that with one of them he could buy many farmslike his; that with a handful he could buy a province, and with a mineof diamonds he could purchase a kingdom. Ali Hafed listened, and wasno longer a rich man. He had been touched with discontent, and withthat all wealth vanishes. Early the next morning he woke the priestwho had been the cause of his unhappiness, and anxiously asked himwhere he could find a mine of diamonds. "What do you want ofdiamonds?" asked the astonished priest. "I want to be rich and placemy children on thrones. " "All you have to do is to go and search untilyou find them, " said the priest. "But where shall I go?" asked thepoor farmer. "Go anywhere, north, south, east, or west. " "How shall Iknow when I have found the place?" "When you find a river running overwhite sands between high mountain ranges, in those white sands you willfind diamonds, " answered the priest. 

The discontented man sold the farm for what he could get, left hisfamily with a neighbor, took the money he had at interest, and went tosearch for the coveted treasure. Over the mountains of Arabia, throughPalestine and Egypt, he wandered for years, but found no diamonds. When his money was all gone and starvation stared him in the face, ashamed of his folly and of his rags, poor Ali Hafed threw himself intothe tide and was drowned. The man who bought his farm was a contentedman, who made the most of his surroundings, and did not believe ingoing away from home to hunt for diamonds or success. While his camelwas drinking in the garden one day, he noticed a flash of light fromthe white sands of the brook. He picked up a pebble, and pleased withits brilliant hues took it into the house, put it on the shelf near thefireplace, and forgot all about it. The old priest of Buddha who hadfilled Ali Hafed with the fatal discontent called one day upon the newowner of the farm. He had no sooner entered the room than his eyecaught that flash of light from the stone. "Here's a diamond! here's adiamond!" the old priest shouted in great excitement. "Has Ali Hafedreturned?" said the priest. "No, " said the farmer, "nor is that adiamond. That is but a stone. " They went into the garden and stirredup the white sand with their fingers, and behold, other diamonds morebeautiful than the first gleamed out of it. So the famous diamond bedsof Golconda were discovered. Had Ali Hafed been content to remain athome, had he dug in his own garden, instead of going abroad in searchfor wealth, and reaping poverty, hardships, starvation, and death, hewould have been one of the richest men in the world, for the entirefarm abounded in the richest of gems. 

You have your own special place and work. Find it, fill it. Scarcelya boy or girl will read these lines but has much better opportunity towin success than Garfield, Wilson, Franklin, Lincoln, Harriet BeecherStowe, Frances Willard, and thousands of others. But to succeed youmust be prepared to seize and improve the opportunity when it comes. Remember that four things come not back: the spoken word, the spedarrow, the past life, and the neglected opportunity. 

It is one of the paradoxes of civilization that the more opportunitiesare utilized, the more new ones are thereby created. New openings areas easy to fill as ever to those who do their best; although it is notso easy as formerly to obtain distinction in the old lines, because thestandard has advanced so much and competition has so greatly increased. "The world is no longer clay, " said Emerson, "but rather iron in thehands of its workers, and men have got to hammer out a place forthemselves by steady and rugged blows. "

Thousands of men have made fortunes out of trifles which others passby. As the bee gets honey from the same flower from which the spidergets poison, so some men will get a fortune out of the commonest andmeanest things, as scraps of leather, cotton waste, slag, iron filings, from which others get only poverty and failure. There is scarcely athing which contributes to the welfare and comfort of humanity, not anarticle of household furniture, a kitchen utensil, an article ofclothing or of food, that is not capable of an improvement in whichthere may be a fortune. 

Opportunities? They are all around us. Edison found them in a baggagecar. Forces of nature plead to be used in the service of man, aslightning for ages tried to attract his attention to the great force ofelectricity, which would do his drudgery and leave him to develop theGod-given powers within him. There is power lying latent everywherewaiting for the observant eye to discover it. 

First find out what the world needs and then supply that want. Aninvention to make smoke go the wrong way in a chimney might be a veryingenious thing, but it would be of no use to humanity. The patentoffice at Washington is full of wonderful devices of ingeniousmechanism, but not one in hundreds is of use to the inventor or to theworld. And yet how many families have been impoverished, and havestruggled for years amid want and woe, while the father has beenworking on useless inventions. A. T. Stewart, as a boy, losteighty-seven cents when his capital was one dollar and a half in buyingbuttons and thread which shoppers did not call for. After that he madeit a rule never to buy anything which the public did not want, and soprospered. 

It is estimated that five out of every seven of the millionairemanufacturers began by making with their own hands the articles whichmade their fortunes. One of the greatest hindrances to advancement inlife is the lack of observation and of the inclination to take pains. An observing man, the eyelets of whose shoes pulled out, but who couldnot afford to get another pair, said to himself, "I will make ametallic lacing hook, which can be riveted into the leather;" he was sopoor that he had to borrow a sickle to cut the grass in front of hishired tenement. Now he is a very rich man. 

An observing barber in Newark, N. J. , thought he could make animprovement in shears for cutting hair, invented clippers, and becamerich. A Maine man was called in from the hayfield to wash clothes forhis invalid wife. He had never realized what it was to wash before. Finding the method slow and laborious, he invented the washing-machine, and made a fortune. A man who was suffering terribly with toothachesaid to himself, there must be some way of filling teeth which willprevent their aching. So he invented the principle of gold filling forteeth. 

The great things of the world have not been done by men of large means. Ericsson began the construction of the screw propellers in a bathroom. The cotton-gin was first manufactured in a log cabin. John Harrison, the great inventor of the marine chronometer, began his career in theloft of an old barn. Parts of the first steamboat ever run in Americawere set up in the vestry of a church in Philadelphia by Fitch. McCormick began to make his famous reaper in a gristmill. The firstmodel dry dock was made in an attic. Clark, the founder of ClarkUniversity of Worcester, Mass. , began his great fortune by making toywagons in a horse shed. Farquhar made umbrellas in his sitting-room, with his daughter's help, until he sold enough to hire a loft. Edisonbegan his experiments in a baggage car on the Grand Trunk Railroad whena newsboy. 

As soon as the weather would permit, the Jamestown colonists began tostroll about the country digging for gold. In a bank of sand someglittering particles were found, and the whole settlement was in astate of excitement. Fourteen weeks of the precious springtime, whichought to have been given to plowing and planting, were consumed in thisstupid nonsense. Even the Indians ridiculed the madness of the menwho, for imaginary grains of gold, were wasting their chances for acrop of corn. 

Michael Angelo found a piece of discarded Carrara marble among wasterubbish beside a street in Florence, which some unskillful workman hadcut, hacked, spoiled, and thrown away. No doubt many artists hadnoticed the fine quality of the marble, and regretted that it shouldhave been spoiled. But Michael Angelo still saw an angel in the ruin, and with his chisel and mallet he called out from it one of the finestpieces of statuary in Italy, the young David. 

The lonely island of Nantucket would not be considered a very favorableplace to win success and fame. But Maria Mitchell, on seventy-fivedollars a year, as librarian of the Nantucket Athenaeum, found time andopportunity to become a celebrated astronomer. Lucretia Mott, one ofAmerica's foremost philanthropists and reformers, who made herself feltover a whole continent, gained much of her reputation as a preacher onNantucket Island. 

"Why does not America have fine sculptors?" asked a romping girl, ofWatertown, Mass. , in 1842. Her father, a physician, answered that hesupposed "an American could be a stone-cutter, but that is a verydifferent thing from being a sculptor. " "I think, " said the pluckymaiden, "that if no other American tries it I will. " She began herstudies in Boston, and walked seven miles to and fro daily between herhome and the city. The medical schools in Boston would not admit herto study anatomy, so she had to go to St. Louis. Subsequently she wentto Rome, and there, during a long residence, and afterward, modeled andcarved very beautiful statuary which made the name of Harriet G. Hosmerfamous. Begin where you are; work where you are; the hour which youare now wasting, dreaming of some far-off success, may be crowded withgrand possibilities. 

Patrick Henry was called a lazy boy, a good-for-nothing farmer, and hefailed as a merchant. He was always dreaming of some far-offgreatness, and never thought he could be a hero among the corn andtobacco and saddlebags of Virginia. He studied law six weeks, when heput out his shingle. People thought he would fail, but in his firstcase he showed that he had a wonderful power of oratory. It then firstdawned upon him that he could be a hero in Virginia. From the time theStamp Act was passed and Henry was elected to the Virginia House ofBurgesses, and he had introduced his famous resolution against theunjust taxation of the American colonies, he rose steadily until hebecame one of the brilliant orators of America. In one of his firstspeeches upon this resolution he uttered these words, which wereprophetic of his power and courage: "Caesar had his Brutus, Charles theFirst his Cromwell, and George the Third--may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it. "

The great natural philosopher, Faraday, who was the son of ablacksmith, wrote, when a young man, to Humphry Davy, asking foremployment at the Royal Institution. Davy consulted a friend on thematter. "Here is a letter from a young man named Faraday, he has beenattending my lectures, and wants me to give him employment at the RoyalInstitution--what can I do?" "Do? put him to washing bottles; if he isgood for anything he will do it directly; if he refuses he is good fornothing. " But the boy who could experiment in the attic of anapothecary shop with an old pan and glass vials during every moment hecould snatch from his work saw an opportunity in washing bottles, whichled to a professorship at the Royal Academy at Woolwich. Tyndall saidof this boy with no chance, "He is the greatest experimentalphilosopher the world has ever seen. " He became the wonder of his agein science. 

There is a legend of an artist who long sought for a piece ofsandal-wood, out of which to carve a Madonna. He was about to give upin despair, leaving the vision of his life unrealized, when in a dreamhe was bidden to carve his Madonna from a block of oak wood which wasdestined for the fire. He obeyed, and produced a masterpiece from alog of common firewood. Many of us lose great opportunities in life bywaiting to find sandal-wood for our carvings, when they really liehidden in the common logs that we burn. One man goes through lifewithout seeing chances for doing anything great, while another closebeside him snatches from the same circumstances and privilegesopportunities for achieving grand results. 

Anna Dickinson began life as a school-teacher. Adelaide Neilson was achild's nurse. Charlotte Cushman's parents were poor. The renownedJeanne d'Arc fed swine. Christine Nilsson was a poor Swedish peasant, and ran barefoot in childhood. Edmonia Lewis, the colored sculptor, overcame the prejudice against her sex and color, and pursued herprofession in Italy. Maria Mitchell, the astronomer, was the daughterof a poor man who taught school at two dollars per week. These are buta few of the many who have struggled with fate and risen to distinctionthrough their own personal efforts. 

Opportunities? They are everywhere. "America is another name foropportunities. Our whole history appears like a last effort of divineProvidence in behalf of the human race. " Never before were there suchgrand openings, such chances, such opportunities. Especially is thistrue for girls and young women. A new era is dawning for them. Hundreds of occupations and professions, which were closed to them onlya few years ago, are now inviting them to enter. 

When I hear of a young woman entering the medical profession, orbeginning the study of law, or entering school with a view to teaching, I feel like congratulating her for thus asserting her individuality. 

We cannot all of us perhaps make great discoveries like Newton, Faraday, Edison, and Thompson. We cannot all of us paint immortalpictures like an Angelo or a Raphael. But we can all of us make ourlives sublime, by _seizing common occasions and making them great_. What chance had the young girl, Grace Darling, to distinguish herself, living on those barren lighthouse rocks alone with her aged parents?But while her brothers and sisters, who moved to the cities to winwealth and fame, are not known to the world, she became more famousthan a princess. This poor girl did not need to go to London to seethe nobility; they came to the lighthouse to see her. Right at homethis young girl had won fame which the regal heirs might envy, and aname which will never perish from the earth. She did not wander awayinto dreamy distance for fame and fortune, but did her best where dutyhad placed her. 

If you want to get rich, study yourself and your own wants. You willfind that millions have the same wants. The safest business is alwaysconnected with man's prime necessities. He must have clothing and adwelling; he must eat. He wants comforts, facilities of all kinds forpleasure, luxuries, education, and culture. Any man who can supply agreat want of humanity, improve any methods which men use, supply anydemand of comfort, or contribute in any way to their well-being, canmake a fortune. 

"We cannot doubt, " said Edward Everett, "that truths now unknown are inreserve to reward the patience and the labors of future lovers oftruth, which will go as far beyond the brilliant discoveries of thelast generation as these do beyond all that was known to the ancientworld. "

 The golden opportunity Is never offered twice; seize then the hour When fortune smiles and duty points the way; Nor shrink aside to 'scape the spectre fear, Nor pause, though pleasure beckon from her bower; But bravely bear thee onward to the goal. ANON. 

 For the distant still thou yearnest, And behold the good so near; If to use the good thou learnest, Thou wilt surely find it here. GOETHE. 

 Do not, then, stand idly waiting For some greater work to do; Fortune is a lazy goddess-- She will never come to you. Go and toil in any vineyard, Do not fear to do or dare; If you want a field of labor, You can find it anywhere. ELLEN H. GATES. 

 Why thus longing, thus forever sighing, For the far-off, unattained and dim, While the beautiful, all around thee lying Offers up its low, perpetual hymn? HARRIET WINSLOW. 

 Work for the good that is nighest; Dream not of greatness afar: That glory is ever the highest Which shines upon men as they are. W. MORLEY PUNSHON. 

CHAPTER XV. 

THE MIGHT OF LITTLE THINGS. 

Little strokes fell great oaks. --FRANKLIN. 

 Think naught a trifle, though it small appear; Small sands the mountain, moments make the year, And trifles, life. YOUNG. 

 "Scorn not the slightest word or deed, Nor deem it void of power; There's fruit in each wind-wafted seed, That waits its natal hour. "

It is but the littleness of man that seeth no greatness intrifles. --WENDELL PHILLIPS. 

He that despiseth small things shall fall by little andlittle. --ECCLESIASTICUS. 

Often from our weakness our strongest principles of conduct are born;and from the acorn, which a breeze has wafted, springs the oak whichdefies the storm. --BULWER. 

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn. --EMERSON. 

Men are led by trifles. --NAPOLEON I. 

 "A pebble on the streamlet scant Has turned the course of many a river; A dewdrop on the baby plant Has warped the giant oak forever. "

The mother of mischief is no bigger than a midge's wing. --SCOTCHPROVERB. 

"The bad thing about a little sin is that it won't stay little. "

 "A little bit of patience often makes the sunshine come, And a little bit of love makes a very happy home; A little bit of hope makes a rainy day look gay, And a little bit of charity makes glad a weary way. "

"Arletta's pretty feet, glistening in the brook, made her the mother ofWilliam the Conqueror, " says Palgrave's "History of Normandy andEngland. " "Had she not thus fascinated Duke Robert the Liberal, ofNormandy, Harold would not have fallen at Hastings, no Anglo-Normandynasty could have arisen, no British Empire. "

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[Illustration: AGASSIZ]

Small things become great when a great soul sees them. Trifles lightas air sometimes suggest to the thinking mind ideas which revolutionizethe world. 

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We may tell which way the wind blew before the Deluge by marking theripple and cupping of the rain in the petrified sand now preservedforever. We tell the very path by which gigantic creatures, whom mannever saw, walked to the river's edge to find their food. 

The tears of Veturia and Volumnia saved Rome from the Volscians whennothing else could move the vengeful heart of Coriolanus. 

It was little Greece that rolled back the overflowing tide of Asiaticluxury and despotism, giving instead to Europe and America models ofthe highest political freedom yet attained, and germs of limitlessmental growth. A different result at Plataea had delayed the progressof the human race more than ten centuries. 

Among the lofty Alps, it is said, the guides sometimes demand absolutesilence, lest the vibration of the voice bring down an avalanche. 

The power of observation in the American Indian would put many aneducated man to shame. Returning home, an Indian discovered that hisvenison, which had been hanging up to dry, had been stolen. Aftercareful observation he started to track the thief through the woods. Meeting a man on the route, he asked him if he had seen a little, old, white man, with a short gun, and with a small bob-tailed dog. The mantold him he had met such a man, but was surprised to find that theIndian had not even seen the one he described. He asked the Indian howhe could give such a minute description of the man whom he had neverseen. "I knew the thief was a little man, " said the Indian, "becausehe rolled up a stone to stand on in order to reach the venison; I knewhe was an old man by his short steps; I knew he was a white man by histurning out his toes in walking, which an Indian never does; I knew hehad a short gun by the mark it left on the tree where he had stood itup; I knew the dog was small by his tracks and short steps, and that hehad a bob-tail by the mark it left in the dust where he sat. "

Two drops of rain, falling side by side, were separated a few inches bya gentle breeze. Striking on opposite sides of the roof of acourt-house in Wisconsin, one rolled southward through the Rock Riverand the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico; while the other enteredsuccessively the Fox River, Green Bay, Lake Michigan, the Straits ofMackinaw, Lake Huron, St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, Detroit River, Lake Erie, Niagara River, Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River, andfinally reached the Gulf of St. Lawrence. How slight the influence ofthe breeze, yet such was the formation of the continent that a triflingcause was multiplied almost beyond the power of figures to express itsmomentous effect upon the destinies of these companion raindrops. Whocan calculate the future of the smallest trifle when a mud crack swellsto an Amazon, and the stealing of a penny may end on the scaffold? Whodoes not know that the act of a moment may cause a life's regret? Atrigger may be pulled in an instant, but the soul returns never. 

A spark falling upon some combustibles led to the invention ofgunpowder. Irritable tempers have marred the reputation of many agreat man, as in the case of Edmund Burke and of Thomas Carlyle. A fewbits of seaweed and driftwood, floating on the waves, enabled Columbusto stay a mutiny of his sailors which threatened to prevent thediscovery of a new world. There are moments in history which balanceyears of ordinary life. Dana could interest a class for hours on agrain of sand; and from a single bone, such as no one had ever seenbefore, Agassiz could deduce the entire structure and habits of ananimal so accurately that subsequent discoveries of complete skeletonshave not changed one of his conclusions. 

A cricket once saved a military expedition from destruction. Thecommanding officer and hundreds of his men were going to South Americaon a great ship, and, through the carelessness of the watch, they wouldhave been dashed upon a ledge of rock had it not been for a cricketwhich a soldier had brought on board. When the little insect scentedthe land, it broke its long silence by a shrill note, and this warnedthem of their danger. 

"Strange that a little thing like that should cause a man so muchpain!" exclaimed a giant, as he rolled in his hand and examined witheager curiosity the acorn which his friend the dwarf had obliginglytaken from the huge eye into which it had fallen just as the colossuswas on the point of shooting a bird perched in the branches of an oak. 

Sometimes a conversation, or a sentence in a letter, or a paragraph inan article, will help us to reproduce the whole character of theauthor; as a single bone, a fish scale, a fin, or a tooth, will enablethe scientist and anatomist to reproduce the fish or the animal, although extinct for ages. 

By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation. A little boyin Holland saw water trickling from a small hole near the bottom of adike. He realized that the leak would rapidly become larger if thewater was not checked, so he held his hand over the hole for hours on adark and dismal night until he could attract the attention ofpassers-by. His name is still held in grateful remembrance in Holland. 

The beetling chalk cliffs of England were built by rhizopods, too smallto be clearly seen without the aid of a magnifying-glass. 

What was so unlikely as that throwing an empty wine-flask in the fireshould furnish the first notion of a locomotive, or that the sicknessof an Italian chemist's wife and her absurd craving for reptiles forfood should begin the electric telegraph?

Madame Galvani noticed the contraction of the muscles of a skinned frogwhich was accidentally touched at the moment her husband took a sparkfrom an electrical machine. She gave the hint which led to thediscovery of galvanic electricity, now so useful in the arts and intransmitting vocal or written language. 

M. Louis Pasteur was usher in the Lyceum. Thursdays he took the boysto walk. A student took his microscope to examine insects, and allowedPasteur to look through it. This was the starting of the boy on themicroscopic career which has made men wonder. He was almost wild withenthusiasm at the new world which the microscope revealed. 

A stamp act to raise 60, 000 pounds produced the American Revolution, awar that cost 100, 000, 000 pounds. What mighty contests rise fromtrivial things!

Congress met near a livery stable to discuss the Declaration ofIndependence. The members, in knee breeches and silk stockings, wereso annoyed by flies, which they could not keep away with theirhandkerchiefs, that it has been said they cut short the debate, andhastened to affix their signatures to the greatest document in history. 

"The fate of a nation, " says Gladstone, "has often depended upon thegood or bad digestion of a fine dinner. "

A young man once went to India to seek his fortune, but, finding noopening, he went to his room, loaded his pistol, put the muzzle to hishead, and pulled the trigger. But it did not go off. He went to thewindow to point it in another direction and try it again, resolved thatif the weapon went off he would regard it as a Providence that he wasspared. He pulled the trigger and it went off the first time. Trembling with excitement he resolved to hold his life sacred, to makethe most of it, and never again to cheapen it. This young man becameGeneral Robert Clive, who, with but a handful of European soldiers, secured to the East India Company and afterwards to Great Britain agreat and rich country with two hundred millions of people. 

The cackling of a goose aroused the sentinels and saved Rome from theGauls, and the pain from a thistle warned a Scottish army of theapproach of the Danes. "Had Acre fallen, " said Napoleon, "I shouldhave changed the face of the world. "

Henry Ward Beecher came within one vote of being elected superintendentof a railway. If he had had that vote America would probably have lostits greatest preacher. What a little thing fixes destiny!

In the earliest days of cotton spinning, the small fibres would stickto the bobbins, and make it necessary to stop and clear the machinery. Although this loss of time reduced the earnings of the operatives, thefather of Robert Peel noticed that one of his spinners always drew fullpay, as his machine never stopped. "How is this, Dick?" asked Mr. Peelone day; "the on-looker tells me your bobbins are always clean. " "Ay, that they be, " replied Dick Ferguson. "How do you manage it, Dick?""Why, you see, Meester Peel, " said the workman, "it is sort o' secret!If I tow'd ye, yo'd be as wise as I am. " "That's so, " said Mr. Peel, smiling; "but I'd give you something to know. Could you make all thelooms work as smoothly as yours?" "Ivery one of 'em, meester, " repliedDick. "Well, what shall I give you for your secret?" asked Mr. Peel, and Dick replied, "Gi' me a quart of ale every day as I'm in the mills, and I'll tell thee all about it. " "Agreed, " said Mr. Peel, and Dickwhispered very cautiously in his ear, "Chalk your bobbins!" That wasthe whole secret, and Mr. Peel soon shot ahead of all his competitors, for he made machines that would chalk their own bobbins. Dick washandsomely rewarded with money instead of beer. His little idea hassaved the world millions of dollars. 

Trifles light as air often suggest to the thinking mind ideas whichhave revolutionized the world. 

A poor English boy was compelled by his employer to deposit somethingon board a ship about to start for Algiers, in accordance with themerchant's custom of interesting employees by making them put somethingat risk in his business and so share in the gain or loss of each commonventure. The boy had only a cat, which he had bought for a penny tocatch mice in the garret where he slept. In tears, he carried her onboard the vessel. On arriving at Algiers, the captain learned that theDey was greatly annoyed by rats, and loaned him the cat. The ratsdisappeared so rapidly that the Dey wished to buy the cat, but thecaptain would not sell until a very high price was offered. With thepurchase-money was sent a present of valuable pearls for the owner ofTabby. When the ship returned the sailors were greatly astonished tofind that the boy owned most of the cargo, for it was part of thebargain that he was to bring back the value of his cat in goods. TheLondon merchant took the boy into partnership; the latter became verywealthy, and in the course of business loaned money to the Dey who hadbought the cat. As Lord Mayor of London, our cat merchant wasknighted, and became the second man in the city, --Sir RichardWhittington. 

When John Williams, the martyr missionary of Erromanga, went to theSouth Sea Islands, he took with him a single banana-tree from anEnglish nobleman's conservatory; and now, from that single banana-tree, bananas are to be found throughout whole groups of islands. Before thenegro slaves in the West Indies were emancipated a regiment of Britishsoldiers was stationed near one of the plantations. A soldier offeredto teach a slave to read on condition that he would teach a second, andthat second a third, and so on. This the slave faithfully carried out, though severely flogged by the master of the plantation. Being sent toanother plantation, he repeated the same thing there, and when atlength liberty was proclaimed throughout the island, and the BibleSociety offered a New Testament to every negro who could read, thenumber taught through this slave's instrumentality was found to be noless than six hundred. 

A famous ruby was offered to the English government. The report of thecrown jeweler was that it was the finest he had ever seen or heard of, but that one of the "facets" was slightly fractured. That invisiblefracture reduced its value thousands of dollars, and it was rejectedfrom the regalia of England. 

It was a little thing for the janitor to leave a lamp swinging in thecathedral at Pisa, but in that steady swaying motion the boy Galileosaw the pendulum, and conceived the idea of thus measuring time. 

"I was singing to the mouthpiece of a telephone, " said Edison, "whenthe vibrations of my voice caused a fine steel point to pierce one ofmy fingers held just behind it. That set me to thinking. If I couldrecord the motions of the point and send it over the same surfaceafterward, I saw no reason why the thing would not talk. I determinedto make a machine that would work accurately, and gave my assistantsthe necessary instructions, telling them what I had discovered. That'sthe whole story. The phonograph is the result of the pricking of afinger. "

It was a little thing for a cow to kick over a lantern left in ashanty, but it laid Chicago in ashes, and rendered homeless a hundredthousand people. 

You turned a cold shoulder but once, you made but one stinging remark, yet it lost you a friend forever. 

Some little weakness, some self-indulgence, a quick temper, want ofdecision, are little things, you say, when placed beside greatabilities, but they have wrecked many a career. The Parliament ofGreat Britain, the Congress of the United States, and representativegovernments all over the world have come from King John signing theMagna Charta. 

Bentham says, "The turn of a sentence has decided many a friendship, and, for aught we know, the fate of many a kingdom. "

The sight of a stranded cuttlefish led Cuvier to an investigation whichmade him one of the greatest natural historians in the world. The webof a spider suggested to Captain Brown the idea of a suspension bridge. A man, looking for a lost horse, picked up a stone in the Idahomountains which led to the discovery of a rich gold mine. 

An officer apologized to General O. M. Mitchel, the astronomer, for abrief delay, saying he was only a few moments late. "I have been inthe habit of calculating the value of the thousandth part of a second, "was Mitchel's reply. 

A missing marriage certificate kept the hod-carrier of Hugh Miller fromestablishing his claim to the Earldom of Crawford. The masons wouldcall out, "John, Yearl of Crawford, bring us anither hod o' lime. "

Not long ago the great steamship Umbria was stopped in mid-Atlantic bya flaw in her engine shaft. 

The absence of a comma in a bill which passed through Congress severalyears ago cost our government a million dollars. A single misspelledword prevented a deserving young man from obtaining a situation asinstructor in a New England college. A cinder on the eyeball willconquer a Napoleon. Some little weakness, as lack of courtesy, want ofdecision, a bad temper, may nullify the labor of years. 

"I cannot see that you have made any progress since my last visit, "said a gentleman to Michael Angelo. "But, " said the sculptor, "I haveretouched this part, polished that, softened that feature, brought outthat muscle, given some expression to this lip, more energy to thatlimb, etc. " "But they are trifles!" exclaimed the visitor. "It may beso, " replied the great artist, "but trifles make perfection, andperfection is no trifle. "

That infinite patience which made Michael Angelo spend a week inbringing out a muscle in a statue with more vital fidelity to truth, orGerhard Dow a day in giving the right effect to a dewdrop on a cabbageleaf, makes all the difference between success and failure. 

By scattering it upon a sloping field of grain so as to form, inletters of great size, "Effects of Gypsum, " Franklin brought thisfertilizer into general use in America. By means of a kite heestablished principles in the science of electricity of such broadsignificance that they underlie nearly all the modern applications ofthat science, with probably boundless possibilities of development inthe future. 

More than four hundred and fifty years have passed since Laurens Costeramused his children by cutting their names in the bark of trees, in theland of windmills, and the monks have laid aside forever their oldtrade of copying books. From that day monarchies have crumbled, andLiberty, lifting up her head for the first time among the nations ofthe earth, has ever since kept pace with the march of her sister, Knowledge, up through the centuries. Yet how simple was the thoughtwhich has borne such a rich harvest of benefit to mankind. 

As he carved the names of his prattling children it occurred to himthat if the letters were made in separate blocks, and wet with ink, they would make clear printed impressions better and more rapidly thanwould the pen. So he made blocks, tied them together with strings, andprinted a pamphlet with the aid of a hired man, John Gutenberg. Peoplebought the pamphlets at a slight reduction from the price charged bythe monks, supposing that the work was done in the old way. Costerdied soon afterward, but young Gutenberg kept the secret, andexperimented with metals until he had invented the metal type. In anobscure chamber in Strasburg he printed his first book. 

At about this time a traveler called upon Charles VII. Of France, whowas so afraid somebody would poison him that he dared eat but little, and made his servants taste of every dish of food before he ate any. He looked with suspicion upon the stranger; but when the latter offereda beautiful copy of the Bible for only seven hundred and fifty crowns, the monarch bought it at once. Charles showed his Bible to thearchbishop, telling him that it was the finest copy in the world, without a blot or mistake, and that it must have taken the copyist alifetime to write it. "Why!" exclaimed the archbishop in surprise, "Ibought one exactly like it a few days ago. " It was soon learned thatother rich people in Paris had bought similar copies. The king tracedthe book to John Faust, of Strasburg, who had furnished Gutenberg moneyto experiment with. The people said that Faust must have sold himselfto the devil, and he only escaped burning at the stake by divulging thesecret. 

William Caxton, a London merchant who went to Holland to purchasecloth, bought a few books and some type, and established aprinting-office in Westminster Chapel, where he issued, in 1474, "TheGame of Chess, " the first book printed in England. 

The cry of the infant Moses attracted the attention of Pharaoh'sdaughter, and gave the Jews a lawgiver. A bird alighting on the boughof a tree at the mouth of the cave where Mahomet lay hid turned asidehis pursuers, and gave a prophet to many nations. A flight of birdsprobably prevented Columbus from discovering this continent, for whenhe was growing anxious, Martin Alonzo Pinzon persuaded him to follow aflight of parrots toward the southwest; for to the Spanish seamen ofthat day it was good luck to follow in the wake of a flock of birdswhen on a voyage of discovery. But for his change of course Columbuswould have reached the coast of Florida. "Never, " wrote Humboldt, "hadthe flight of birds more important consequences. "

The children of a spectacle-maker placed two or more pairs of thespectacles before each other in play, and told their father thatdistant objects looked larger. From this hint came the telescope. 

"Of what use is it?" people asked with a sneer, when Franklin told ofhis discovery that lightning and electricity are identical. "What isthe use of a child?" replied Franklin; "it may become a man. "

"He who waits to do a great deal of good at once, " said Dr. Johnson, "will never do any. " Do good with what thou hast, or it will do theeno good. 

Every day is a little life; and our whole life but a day repeated. Those that dare lose a day are dangerously prodigal, those that daremisspend it, desperate. What is the happiness of your life made up of?Little courtesies, little kindnesses, pleasant words, genial smiles, afriendly letter, good wishes, and good deeds. One in a million--oncein a lifetime--may do a heroic action. The atomic theory is the trueone. Many think common fractions vulgar, but they are the componentsof millions. 

He is a great man who sees great things where others see little things, who sees the extraordinary in the ordinary. Ruskin sees a poem in therose or the lily, while the hod-carrier would perhaps not go a rod outof his way to see a sunset which Ruskin would feed upon for a year. 

Napoleon was a master of trifles. To details which his inferiorofficers thought too microscopic for their notice he gave the mostexhaustive attention. Nothing was too small for his attention. Hemust know all about the provisions, the horse fodder, the biscuits, thecamp kettles, the shoes. When the bugle sounded for the march tobattle, every officer had his orders as to the exact route which heshould follow, the exact day he was to arrive at a certain station, andthe exact hour he was to leave, and they were all to reach the point ofdestination at a precise moment. It is said that nothing could be moreperfectly planned than his memorable march which led to the victory ofAusterlitz, and which sealed the fate of Europe for many years. Hewould often charge his absent officers to send him perfectly accuratereturns, even to the smallest detail. "When they are sent to me, Igive up every occupation in order to read them in detail, and toobserve the difference between one monthly return and another. Noyoung girl enjoys her novel as much as I do these returns. " Thecaptain who conveyed Napoleon to Elba was astonished with hisfamiliarity with all the minute details connected with the ship. Napoleon left nothing to chance, nothing to contingency, so far as hecould possibly avoid it. Everything was planned to a nicety before heattempted to execute it. 

Wellington too was "great in little things. " He knew no such things astrifles. While other generals trusted to subordinates, he gave hispersonal attention to the minutest detail. The history of many afailure could be written in three words, "Lack of detail. " How many alawyer has failed from the lack of details in deeds and importantpapers, the lack of little words which seemed like surplusage, andwhich involved his clients in litigation, and often great losses! Howmany wills are contested from the carelessness of lawyers in theomission or shading of words, or ambiguous use of language!

Physicians often fail to make a reputation through their habitualblundering, carelessness in writing prescriptions, failure to giveminute instruction. The world is full of blunderers; business men failfrom a disregard of trifles; they go to the bank to pay a note the dayafter it has gone to protest; they do not pay their bills promptly; donot answer their letters promptly or file them away accurately; theirbooks do not quite balance; they do not know exactly how they stand, they have a contempt for details. 

"My rule of conduct has been that whatever is worth doing at all isworth doing well, " said Nicolas Poussin, the great French painter. When asked the reason why he had become so eminent in a land of famousartists he replied, "Because I have neglected nothing. "

Not even Helen of Troy, it is said, was beautiful enough to spare thetip of her nose; and if Cleopatra's had been an inch shorter MarkAntony would never have become infatuated with her wonderful charms, and the blemish would have changed the history of the world. AnneBoleyn's fascinating smile split the great Church of Rome in twain, andgave a nation an altered destiny. Napoleon, who feared not to attackthe proudest monarchs in their capitols, shrank from the politicalinfluence of one independent woman in private life, Madame de Staël. Had not Scott sprained his foot his life would probably have taken adifferent direction. 

Cromwell was about to sail for America when a law was passedprohibiting emigration. At that time he was a profligate, havingsquandered all his property. But when he found that he could not leaveEngland he reformed his life. Had he not been detained who can tellwhat the history of Great Britain would have been?

When one of his friends asked Scopas the Thessalian for something thatcould be of little use to him, he answered, "It is in these useless andsuperfluous things that I am rich and happy. "

It was the little foxes that spoiled the vines in Solomon's day. Mitesplay mischief now with our meal and cheese, moths with our woolens andfurs, and mice in our pantries. More than half our diseases areproduced by infinitesimal creatures called microbes. 

Most people call fretting a minor fault, a foible, and not a vice. There is no vice except drunkenness which can so utterly destroy thepeace, the happiness, of a home. 

"We call the large majority of human lives obscure, " says Bulwer, "presumptuous that we are! How know we what lives a single thoughtretained from the dust of nameless graves may have lighted to renown?"

The theft of a diamond necklace from a French queen convulsed Europe. From the careful and persistent accumulation of innumerable facts, eachtrivial in itself, but in the aggregate forming a mass of evidence, aDarwin extracts his law of evolution, and Linnaeus constructs thescience of botany. A pan of water and two thermometers were the toolsby which Dr. Black discovered latent heat, and a prism, a lens, and asheet of pasteboard enabled Newton to unfold the composition of lightand the origin of colors. An eminent foreign savant called on Dr. Wollaston, and asked to be shown over those laboratories of his inwhich science had been enriched by so many great discoveries, when thedoctor took him into a little study, and, pointing to an old tea trayon the table, on which stood a few watch glasses, test papers, a smallbalance, and a blow-pipe, said, "There is my laboratory. " A burntstick and a barn door served Wilkie in lieu of pencil and paper. Asingle potato, carried to England by Sir Walter Raleigh in thesixteenth century, has multiplied into food for millions, drivingfamine from Ireland again and again. 

It seemed a small thing to drive William Brewster, John Robinson, andthe poor people of Austerfield and Scrooby into perpetual exile, but asPilgrims they became the founders of a mighty people. A cloud may hidethe sun which it cannot extinguish. 

"Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth. " "A look ofvexation or a word coldly spoken, or a little help thoughtlesslywithheld, may produce long issues of regret. "

It was but a little dispute, a little flash of temper, the trigger waspulled in an instant, but the soul returned never. 

A few immortal sentences from Garrison and Phillips, a few poems fromLowell and Whittier, and the leaven is at work which will not cease itsaction until the whipping-post and bodily servitude are abolishedforever. 

 "For want of a nail the shoe was lost, For want of a shoe the horse was lost; For want of a horse the rider was lost, and all, "

says Poor Richard, "for want of a horse-shoe nail. "

A single remark dropped by an unknown person in the street led to thesuccessful story of "The Bread-winners. " A hymn chanted by thebarefooted friars in the temple of Jupiter at Rome led to the famous"Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. "

"Do little things now, " says a Persian proverb; "so shall big thingscome to thee by and by asking to be done. " God will take care of thegreat things if we do not neglect the little ones. 

"Words are things, " says Byron, "and a small drop of ink, falling likedew upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhapsmillions think. "

"I give these books for the founding of a college in this colony;" suchwere the words of ten ministers who in the year 1700 assembled at thevillage of Branford a few miles east of New Haven. Each of the worthyfathers deposited a few books upon the table around which they weresitting; such was the founding of Yale College. 

"He that has a spirit of detail, " says Webster, "will do better in lifethan many who figured beyond him in the university. "

The pyramid of knowledge is made up of little grains of information, little observations picked up from everywhere. 

For a thousand years Asia monopolized the secret of silk culture, andat Rome the product was sold for its weight in gold. During the sixthcentury, at the request of Justinian, two Persian monks brought a feweggs from China to Europe in a hollow cane. The eggs were hatched bymeans of heat, and Asia no longer held the monopoly of the silkbusiness. 

In comparison with Ferdinand, preparing to lead forth his magnificentarmy in Europe's supreme contest with the Moors, how insignificantseemed the visionary expedition of Columbus, about to start in threesmall shallops across the unknown ocean. But grand as was the triumphof Ferdinand, it now seems hardly worthy of mention in comparison withthe wonderful achievement of the poor Genoese navigator. 

Only one hundred and ninety-two Athenians perished in the battle ofMarathon, but Europe was saved from a host which is said to have drunkrivers dry, and to have shaken the solid earth as they marched. 

Great men are noted for their attention to trifles. Goethe once askeda monarch to excuse him, during an interview, while he went to anadjoining room to jot down a stray thought. Hogarth would makesketches of rare faces and characteristics upon his finger-nails uponthe streets. Indeed, to a truly great mind there are no little things. "The eye of the understanding is like the eye of the sense; for as youmay see objects through small crannies or holes, so you may see greataxioms of nature through small and contemptible instances, " said Bacon. Trifles light as air suggest to the keen observer the solution ofmighty problems. Bits of glass arranged to amuse children led to thediscovery of the kaleidoscope. Goodyear discovered how to vulcanizerubber by forgetting, until it became red hot, a skillet containing acompound which he had before considered worthless. Confined in thehouse by typhoid fever, Helmholtz, with a little money which he hadsaved by great economy, bought a microscope which led him into thefield of science where he became so famous. A ship-worm boring a pieceof wood suggested to Sir Isambard Brunei the idea of a tunnel under theThames at London. Tracks of extinct animals in the old red sandstoneled Hugh Miller on and on until he became the greatest geologist of histime. Sir Walter Scott once saw a shepherd boy plodding sturdilyalong, and asked him to ride. This boy was George Kemp, who became soenthusiastic in his study of sculpture that he walked fifty miles andback to see a beautiful statue. He did not forget the kindness of SirWalter, and, when the latter died, threw his soul into the design ofthe magnificent monument erected in Edinburgh to the memory of theauthor of "Waverley. "

A poor boy applied for a situation at a bank in Paris, but was refused. As he left the door, he picked up a pin. The bank president saw this, called the boy back, and gave him a situation from which he rose untilhe became the greatest banker of Paris, --Laffitte. 

It was the turning point in Theodore Parker's life when he picked up astone to throw at a turtle. Something within him said, "Don't do it, "and he didn't. He went home and asked his mother what it was in himthat said "Don't;" and she taught him the purpose of that inwardmonitor which he ever after chose as his guide. It is said that DavidHume became a deist by being appointed in a debating society to takethe side of infidelity. Voltaire could not erase from his mind theimpression of a poem on infidelity committed at the age of five. The"Arabian Nights" aroused the genius of Coleridge. A Massachusettssoldier in the Civil War observed a bird hulling rice, and shot it;taking its bill for a model, he invented a hulling machine which hasrevolutionized the rice business. A war between France and England, costing more than a hundred thousand lives, grew out of a quarrel as towhich of two vessels should first be served with water. The quarrel oftwo Indian boys over a grasshopper led to the "Grasshopper War. "George IV. Of England fell in a fit, and a village apothecary bled him, restoring him to consciousness. The king made him his physician, aposition of great honor and profit. 

Many a noble ship has stranded because of one defective timber, whenall other parts were strong. Guard the weak point. 

No object the eye ever beheld, no sound however slight caught by theear, or anything once passing the turnstile of any of the senses, isever let go. The eye is a perpetual camera imprinting upon thesensitive mental plates, and packing away in the brain for future useevery face, every tree, every plant, flower, hill, stream, mountain, every scene upon the street, in fact, everything which comes within itsrange. There is a phonograph in our natures which catches, howeverthoughtless and transient, every syllable we utter, and registersforever the slightest enunciation, and renders it immortal. Thesenotes may appear a thousand years hence, reproduced in our descendants, in all their beautiful or terrible detail. 

All the ages that have been are rounded up into the small space we call"To-day. " Every life spans all that precedes it. To-day is a bookwhich contains everything that has transpired in the world up to thepresent moment. The millions of the past whose ashes have mingled withthe dust for centuries still live in their destinies through the lawsof heredity. 

Nothing has ever been lost. All the infinitesimals of the past areamassed into the present. 

The first acorn had wrapped up in it all the oak forests on the globe. 

"Least of all seeds, greatest of all harvests, " seems to be one of thegreat laws of nature. All life comes from microscopic beginnings. Innature there is nothing small. The microscope reveals as great a worldbelow as the telescope above. All of nature's laws govern the smallestatoms, and a single drop of water is a miniature ocean. 

The strength of a chain lies in its weakest link, however large andstrong all the others may be. We are all inclined to be proud of ourstrong points, while we are sensitive and neglectful of our weaknesses. Yet it is our greatest weakness which measures our real strength. Asoldier who escapes the bullets of a thousand battles may die from thescratch of a pin, and many a ship has survived the shocks of icebergsand the storms of ocean only to founder in a smooth sea from holes madeby tiny insects. Drop by drop is instilled into the mind the poisonwhich blasts many a precious life. 

How often do we hear people say, "Oh, it's only ten minutes, or twentyminutes, till dinner time; there's no use doing anything, " or use otherexpressions of a like effect? Why, it is just in these little sparebits of time, these odd moments, which most people throw away, that menwho have risen have gained their education, written their books, andmade themselves immortal. 

_Small things become great when a great soul sees them_. The noble orheroic act of one man has sometimes elevated a nation. Many anhonorable career has resulted from a kind word spoken in season or thewarm grasp of a friendly hand. 

 It is the little rift within the lute, That by and by will make the music mute, And, ever widening, slowly silence all. TENNYSON. 

 "It was only a glad 'good-morning, ' As she passed along the way, But it spread the morning's glory Over the livelong day. "

 "Only a thought in passing--a smile, or encouraging word, Has lifted many a burden no other gift could have stirred. Only!--But then the onlys Make up the mighty all. "

CHAPTER XVI. 

SELF-MASTERY. 

 Give me that man That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart. SHAKESPEARE. 

Strength of character consists of two things, --power of will and powerof self-restraint. It requires two things, therefore, for itsexistence, --strong feelings and strong command over them. --F. W. ROBERTSON. 

 "Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control, These three alone lead life to sovereign power. "

 The bravest trophy ever man obtained Is that which o'er himself himself hath gained. EARL OF STIRLING. 

Real glory springs from the conquest of ourselves; and without that theconqueror is naught but the veriest slave. --THOMSON. 

Whatever day makes man a slave takes half his worth away. --ODYSSEY. 

Chain up the unruly legion of thy breast. Lead thine own captivitycaptive, and be Caesar within thyself. --THOMAS BROWNE. 

He who reigns within himself, and rules passions, desires, and fears, is more than a king. --MILTON. 

He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty: and he that rulethhis spirit than he that taketh a city. --BIBLE. 

Self-trust is of the essence of heroism. --EMERSON. 

 Man who man would be Must rule the empire of himself. P. B. SHELLEY. 

"Ah! Diamond, you little know the mischief you have wrought, " said SirIsaac Newton, returning from supper to find that his dog had upset alighted taper upon the laborious calculations of years, which lay inashes before him. Then he went calmly to work to reproduce them. Theman who thus excelled in self-mastery surpassed all his predecessorsand contemporaries in mastering the laws of nature. 

 * * * * * *

[Illustration: JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL]

 "We rise by the things that are under our feet; By what we have mastered of good or gain: By the pride deposed and the passion slain, And the vanquished ills that we hourly meet. "

 * * * * * *

The sun was high in the heavens when a man called at the house ofPericles to abuse him. The man's anger knew no bounds. He vented hisspite in violent language until he paused from sheer exhaustion, andsaw that it was quite dark without. He turned to go home, whenPericles calmly called a servant, and said, "Bring a lamp and attendthis man home. " Is any argument needed to show the superiority ofPericles?

The gladiators who were trained to tight in the Coliseum were compelledto practice the most graceful postures of falling and the finestattitudes to assume in dying, in case they were vanquished. They wereobliged to eat food which would make the blood thick in order that theyshould not die quickly when wounded, thus giving the spectatorsprolonged gratification by the spectacle of their agonies. Each had totake this oath: "We swear that we will suffer ourselves to be bound, scourged, burned, or killed by the sword, or whatever Eumolpus ordains, and thus, like freeborn gladiators, we religiously devote both oursouls and our bodies to our master. " They were trained to exercisesublime self-control even when dying a cruel death. 

The American Minister at St. Petersburg was summoned one morning tosave a young, dissolute, reckless American youth, Poe, from thepenalties incurred in a drunken debauch. By the Minister's aid youngPoe returned to the United States. Not long after this the author ofthe best story and poem competed for in the "Baltimore Visitor" wassent for, and behold, the youth who had taken both prizes was that samedissolute, reckless, penniless, orphan youth, who had been arrested inSt. Petersburg, --pale, ragged, with no stockings, and with histhreadbare but well brushed coat buttoned to the chin to conceal thelack of a shirt. Young Poe took fresh courage and resolution, and fora while showed that he was superior to the appetite which was strivingto drag him down. But, alas, that fatal bottle! his mind was storedwith riches, yet he died in moral poverty. This was a soldier'sepitaph:--

 "Here lies a soldier whom all must applaud, Who fought many battles at home and abroad! But the hottest engagement he ever was in, Was the conquest of self, in the battle of sin. "

In 1860, when a committee visited Abraham Lincoln at his home inSpringfield, Ill. , to notify him of his nomination as President, heordered a pitcher of water and glasses, "that they might drink eachother's health in the best beverage God ever gave to man. " "Let us, "he continued, "make it as unfashionable to withhold our names from thetemperance pledge as for husbands to wear their wives' bonnets inchurch, and instances will be as rare in one case as the other. "

Burns exercised no control over his appetites, but gave them the rein:--

 "Thus thoughtless follies laid him low And stained his name. "

"The first and best of victories, " says Plato, "is for a man to conquerhimself; to be conquered by himself is, of all things, the mostshameful and vile. "

Self-control is at the root of all the virtues. Let a man yield to hisimpulses and passions, and from that moment he gives up his moralfreedom. 

"Teach self-denial and make its practice pleasurable, " says WalterScott, "and you create for the world a destiny more sublime than everissued from the brain of the wildest dreamer. "

Stonewall Jackson, early in life, determined to conquer every weaknesshe had, physical, mental, and moral. He held all of his powers with afirm hand. To his great self-discipline and self-mastery he owed hissuccess. So determined was he to harden himself to the weather that hecould not be induced to wear an overcoat in winter. "I will not givein to the cold, " he said. For a year, on account of dyspepsia, helived on buttermilk and stale bread, and wore a wet shirt next his bodybecause his doctor advised it, although everybody else ridiculed theidea. This was while he was professor at the Virginia MilitaryInstitute. His doctor advised him to retire at nine o'clock; and, nomatter where he was, or who was present, he always sought his bed onthe minute. He adhered rigidly through life to this stern system ofdiscipline. Such self-training, such self-conquest, gives one greatpower over others. It is equal to genius itself. 

It is a good plan to form the habit of ranking our various qualities, marking our strongest point one hundred and all the others inproportion, in order to make the lowest mark more apparent, andenabling us to try to raise or strengthen it. A man's industry, forexample, may be his strongest point, one hundred, his physical couragemay be fifty; his moral courage, seventy-five; his temper, twenty-five;with but ten for self-control, --which, if he has strong appetites andpassions, will be likely to be the rock on which he will split. Heshould strive in every way to raise it from one of the weakestqualities to one of the strongest. It would take but two or threeminutes a day to rank ourselves in such a table by noting the exerciseof each faculty for the day. If you have worked hard and faithfully, mark industry one hundred. If you have lost your temper, and, inconsequence, lost your self-control, and made a fool of yourself, indicate it by a low mark. This will be an incentive to try to raiseit the next day. If you have been irritable, indicate it by acorresponding mark, and redeem yourself on the morrow. If you havebeen cowardly where you should have been brave, hesitating where youshould have shown decision, false where you should have been true, foolish where you should have been wise, tardy where you should havebeen prompt; if you have prevaricated where you should have told theexact truth; if you have taken the advantage where you should have beenfair, have been unjust where you should have been just, impatient whereyou should have been patient, cross where you should have beencheerful, so indicate by your marks. You will find this a great aid tocharacter building. 

It is a subtle and profound remark of Hegel's that the riddle which theSphinx, the Egyptian symbol of the mysteriousness of Nature, propoundsto Oedipus is only another way of expressing the command of the Delphicoracle, "Know thyself. " And when the answer is given the Sphinx castsherself down from her rock. When man knows himself, the mysteriousnessof Nature and her terrors vanish. 

The command by the ancient oracle at Delphos is of eternalsignificance. Add to it its natural complement--Help thyself--and thepath to success is open to those who obey. 

_Guard your weak point_. Moral contagion borrows fully half itsstrength from the weakness of its victims. Have you a hot, passionatetemper? If so, a moment's outbreak, like a rat-hole in a dam, mayflood all the work of years. One angry word sometimes raises a stormthat time itself cannot allay. A single angry word has lost many afriend. 

A Quaker was asked by a merchant whom he had conquered by his patiencehow he had been able to bear the other's abuse, and replied: "Friend, Iwill tell thee. I was naturally as hot and violent as thou art. Iobserved that men in a passion always speak loud, and I thought if Icould control my voice I should repress my passion. I have thereforemade it a rule never to let my voice rise above a certain key, and by acareful observance of this rule, I have, by the blessing of God, entirely mastered my natural tongue. " Mr. Christmas of the Bank ofEngland explains that the secret of his self-control under very tryingcircumstances was due to a rule learned from the great Pitt, never tolose his temper during banking hours from nine to three. 

When Socrates found in himself any disposition to anger, he would checkit by speaking low, in opposition to the motions of his displeasure. If you are conscious of being in a passion, keep your mouth shut, lestyou increase it. Many a person has dropped dead in a rage. Fits ofanger bring fits of disease. "Whom the gods would destroy they firstmake mad. " "Keep cool, " says Webster, "anger is not argument. " "Becalm in arguing, " says George Herbert, "for fierceness makes error afault, and truth discourtesy. "

To be angry with a weak man is to prove that you are not strongyourself. "Anger, " says Pythagoras, "begins with folly and ends withrepentance. " You must measure the strength of a man by the power ofthe feelings he subdues, not by the power of those which subdue him. 

De Leon, a distinguished Spanish poet, after lying years in dungeons ofthe Inquisition, dreary, and alone, without light, for translating partof the Scriptures into his native tongue, was released and restored tohis professorship. A great crowd thronged to hear his first lecture, out of curiosity to learn what he might say about his imprisonment. But the great man merely resumed the lecture which had been so cruellybroken off five years before, just where he left it, with the words"Heri discebamus" (Yesterday we were teaching). What a lesson in thisremarkable example of self-control for those who allow their tongues tojabber whatever happens to be uppermost in their minds!

Did you ever see a man receive a flagrant insult, and only grow alittle pale, bite his quivering lip, and then reply quietly? Did youever see a man in anguish stand as if carved out of solid rock, mastering himself? Have you not seen one bearing a hopeless dailytrial remain silent and never tell the world what cankered his homepeace? That is strength. "He who, with strong passions, remainschaste; he who, keenly sensitive, with manly power of indignation inhim, can be provoked, and yet restrain himself and forgive, --these arestrong men, the spiritual heroes. "

"You will be remembered only as the man who broke my nose, " said youngMichael Angelo to the man Torrigiano, who struck him in anger. Whatsublime self-control for a quick-tempered man!

"You ask whether it would not be manly to resent a great injury, " saidEardley Wilmot: "I answer that it would be manly to resent it, but itwould be Godlike to forgive it. "

That man has conquered his tongue who can allow the ribald jest orscurrilous word to die unspoken on his lips, and maintain an indignantsilence amid reproaches and accusations and sneers and scoffs. "He isa fool who cannot be angry, " says English, "but he is a wise man whowill not. "

Peter the Great made a law in 1722 that a nobleman who should beat hisslave should be regarded as insane, and a guardian appointed to lookafter his property and person. This great monarch once struck hisgardener, who took to his bed and died. Peter, hearing of this, exclaimed with tears in his eyes, "Alas! I have civilized my ownsubjects; I have conquered other nations; yet have I not been able tocivilize or conquer myself. " The same monarch, when drunk, rushed uponAdmiral Le Fort with a sword. Le Fort, with great self-possession, bared his breast to receive the stroke. This sobered Peter, andafterwards he asked the pardon of Le Fort. Peter said, "I am trying toreform my country, and I am not yet able to reform myself. "Self-conquest is man's last and greatest victory. 

A medical authority of highest repute affirms that excessive labor, exposure to wet and cold, deprivation of sufficient quantities ofnecessary and wholesome food, habitual bad lodging, sloth andintemperance, are all deadly enemies to human life, but they are noneof them so bad as violent and ungoverned passion, --that men and womenhave frequently lived to an advanced age in spite of these, but thatinstances are very rare where people of irascible tempers live toextreme old age. 

It was the self-discipline of a man who had never looked upon war untilhe was forty that enabled Oliver Cromwell to create an army which neverfought without annihilating, yet which retired into the ranks ofindustry as soon as the government was established, each soldier beingdistinguished from his neighbors only by his superior diligence, sobriety, and regularity in the pursuits of peace. 

How sweet the serenity of habitual self-command! When does a man feelmore a master of himself than when he has passed through a sudden andsevere provocation in silence or in undisturbed good humor?

Whether teaching the rules of an exact morality, answering his corruptjudges, receiving sentence of death, or swallowing the poison, Socrateswas still calm, quiet, undisturbed, intrepid. 

It is a great thing to have brains, but it is vastly greater to be ableto command them. The Duke of Wellington had great power over himself, although his natural temper was extremely irritable. He remained atthe Duchess of Richmond's ball till about three o'clock on the morningof the 16th of June, 1815, "showing himself very cheerful, " although heknew that a desperate battle was awaiting him. On the field ofWaterloo he gave his orders at the most critical moments without theslightest excitement. 

Napoleon, having made his arrangements for the terrible conflict of thenext day (Jena and Auerstadt), retired to his tent about midnight, andcalmly sat down to draw up a plan of study and discipline for MadameCampan's female school. "Keep cool, and you command everybody, " saysSt. Just. 

 "He that would govern others first should be The master of himself, "

says Massinger. 

He who has mastered himself, who is his own Caesar, will be strongerthan his passion, superior to circumstances, higher than his calling, greater than his speech. Self-control is the generalship which turns amob of raw recruits into a disciplined army. The rough man has becomethe polished and dignified soldier, in other words, the man has gotcontrol of himself, and knows how to use himself. The human race isunder constant drill. Our occupations, difficulties, obstacles, disappointments, if used aright, are the great schoolmasters which helpus to possess ourselves. The man who is master of himself will not bea slave to drudgery, but will keep in advance of his work. He will notrob his family of that which is worth more than money or position; hewill not be the slave of his occupation, not at the mercy ofcircumstances. His methods and system will enable him to accomplishwonders, and yet give him leisure for self-culture. The man whocontrols himself works to live rather than lives for work. 

The man of great self-control, the man who thinks a great deal and sayslittle, who is self-centred, well balanced, carries a thousand timesmore weight than the man of weak will, always wavering and undecided. 

If a man lacks self-control he seems to lack everything. Without it hecan have no patience, no power to govern himself, he can have noself-reliance, for he will always be at the mercy of his strongestpassion. If he lacks self-control, the very backbone, pith, and nerveof character are lacking also. 

The discipline which is the main end in education is simply controlacquired over one's mental faculties; without this discipline no man isa strong and accurate thinker. "Prove to me, " says Mrs. Oliphant, "that you can control yourself, and I'll say you're an educated man;and, without this, all other education is good for next to nothing. "

The wife of Socrates, Xanthippe, was a woman of a most fantastical andfurious spirit. At one time, having vented all the reproaches uponSocrates her fury could suggest, he went out and sat before the door. His calm and unconcerned behavior but irritated her so much the more;and, in the excess of her rage, she ran upstairs and emptied a vesselupon his head, at which he only laughed and said that "so much thundermust needs produce a shower. " Alcibiades his friend, talking with himabout his wife, told him he wondered how he could bear such aneverlasting scold in the same house with him. He replied, "I have soaccustomed myself to expect it, that it now offends me no more than thenoise of carriages in the street. "

How many men have in their chain of character one weak link. They maybe weak in the link of truthfulness, politeness, trustworthiness, temper, chastity, temperance, courage, industry, or may have some otherweakness which wrecks their success and thwarts a life's endeavor. Hewho would succeed must hold all his faculties under perfect control;they must be disciplined, drilled, until they obey the will. 

Think of a young man just starting out in life to conquer the worldbeing at the mercy of his own appetites and passions! He cannot standup and look the world in the face when he is the slave of what shouldbe his own servants. He cannot lead who is led. There is nothingwhich gives certainty and direction to the life of a man who is not hisown master. If he has mastered all but one appetite, passion, orweakness, he is still a slave; it is the weakest point that measuresthe strength of character. 

Seneca, one of the greatest of the ancient philosophers, said that "weshould every night call ourselves to account. What infirmity have Imastered to-day? what passion opposed? what temptation resisted? whatvirtue acquired?" and then he follows with the profound truth that "ourvices will abate of themselves if they be brought every day to theshrift. " If you cannot at first control your anger, learn to controlyour tongue, which, like fire, is a good servant, but a hard master. 

Five words cost Zacharias forty weeks' silence. There is many a manwhose tongue might govern multitudes if he could only govern histongue. Anger, like too much wine, hides us from ourselves, butexposes us to others. 

General von Moltke, perhaps the greatest strategist of this century, had, as a foundation for his other talents, the power to "hold histongue in seven languages. " A young man went to Socrates to learnoratory. On being introduced, he talked so incessantly that Socratesasked for double fees. "Why charge me double?" asked the young fellow. "Because, " said the orator, "I must teach you two sciences: the one howto hold your tongue, the other how to speak. " The first is the moredifficult. 

Half the actual trouble of life would be saved if people would rememberthat silence is golden, when they are irritated, vexed, or annoyed. 

To feel provoked or exasperated at a trifle, when the nerves areexhausted, is, perhaps, natural to us in our imperfect state. But whyput into the shape of speech the annoyance which, once uttered, isremembered; which may burn like a blistering wound, or rankle like apoisoned arrow? If a child be crying or a friend capricious, or aservant unreasonable, be careful what you say. Do not speak while youfeel the impulse of anger, for you will be almost certain to say toomuch, to say more than your cooler judgment will approve, and to speakin a way that you will regret. Be silent until the "sweet by and by, "when you will be calm, rested, and self-controlled. 

"Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words? There is more hope of afool than of him. "

"Silence, " says Zimmerman, "is the safest response for all thecontradiction that arises from impertinence, vulgarity, or envy. "

In rhetoric, as Emerson truly says, this art of omission is the chiefsecret of power. "Everything tells in favor of the man who talks butlittle. The presumption is that he is a superior man; and if, in pointof fact, he is not a sheer blockhead, the presumption then is that heis very superior indeed. " Grant was master of the science of silence. 

The self-controlled are self-possessed. "Sir, the house is on fire!"shrieked a frightened servant, running into Dr. Lawson's study. "Goand tell your mistress, " said the preoccupied professor, withoutlooking up from the book he was reading; "you know I have no charge ofhousehold matters. " A woman whose house was on fire threw alooking-glass out of the window, and carried a pair of andirons severalrods to a safe place beside a stone wall. "Presence of mind andcourage in distress are more than armies to procure success. "

Xenophon tells us that at one time the Persian princes had for theirteachers the four best men in the kingdom. (1) The wisest man to teachwisdom. (2) The bravest to teach courage. (3) The most just to trainthe moral nature. (4) The most temperate to teach self-control. Wehave them all in the Bible, and in Christ our teacher, an example. "Ifit is a small sacrifice to discontinue the use of wine, " said Samuel J. May, "do it for the sake of others; if it is a great sacrifice, do itfor your own sake. " How many of nature's noblemen, who might be kingsif they could control themselves, drink away their honor, reputation, and money in glasses of "wet damnation, " more costly than the vinegarin which Cleopatra dissolved her pearls. 

Experience shows that, quicker than almost any other physical agency, alcohol breaks down a man's power of self-control. But the physicalevils of intemperance, great as they are, are slight, compared with themoral injury it produces. It is not simply that vices and crimesalmost inevitably follow the loss of rational self-direction, which isthe invariable accompaniment of intoxication; manhood is lowered andfinally lost by the sensual tyranny of appetite. The drunken man hasgiven up the reins of his nature to a fool or a fiend, and he is drivenfast to base or unutterably foolish ends. 

With almost palsied hand, at a temperance meeting, John B. Gough signedthe pledge. For six days and nights in a wretched garret, without amouthful of food, with scarcely a moment's sleep, he fought the fearfulbattle with appetite. Weak, famished, almost dying, he crawled intothe sunlight; but he had conquered the demon, which had almost killedhim. Gough used to describe the struggles of a man who tried to leaveoff using tobacco. He threw away what he had, and said that was theend of it; but no, it was only the beginning of it. He would chewcamomile, gentian, toothpicks, but it was of no use. He bought anotherplug of tobacco and put it in his pocket. He wanted a chew awfully, but he looked at it and said, "You are a weed, and I am a _man_. I'llmaster you if I die for it;" and he did, while carrying it in hispocket daily. 

Natural appetites, if given rein, will not only grow monstrous anddespotic, but artificial appetites will be created which, like aghastly Frankenstein, develop a kind of independent life and force, andthen turn on their creator to torment him without pity, and will mockhis efforts to free himself from this slavery. The victim of strongdrink is one of the most pitiable creatures on earth, he becomes halfbeast, or half demon. Oh, the silent, suffering tongues that whisper"Don't, " but the will lies prostrate, and the debauch goes on. What amute confession of degradation there is in the very appearance of aconfirmed sot. Behold a man no longer in possession of himself; theflesh is master; the spiritual nature is sunk in the mire ofsensuality, and the mental faculties are a mere mob of enfeebled powersunder bondage to a bestial or mad tyrant. As Challis says:--

 "Once the demon enters, Stands within the door; Peace and hope and gladness Dwell there nevermore. "

Many persons are intemperate in their feelings; they are emotionallyprodigal. Passion is intemperance; so is caprice. There is anintemperance even in melancholy and mirth. The temperate man is notmastered by his moods; he will not be driven or enticed into excess;his steadfast will conquers despondency, and is not unbalanced bytransient exhilarations, for ecstasy is as fatal as despair. Temper issubjected to reason and conscience. How many people excuse themselvesfor doing wrong or foolish acts by the plea that they have a quicktemper. But he who is king of himself rules his temper, turning itsvery heat and passion into energy that works good instead of evil. Stephen Girard, when he heard of a clerk with a strong temper, was gladto employ him. He believed that such persons, taught self-control, were the best workers. Controlled temper is an element of strength;wisely regulated, it expends itself as energy in work, just as heat inan engine is transmuted into force that drives the wheels of industry. Cromwell, William the Silent, Wordsworth, Faraday, Washington, andWellington were men of prodigious tempers, but they were also men whoseself-control was nearly perfect. 

George Washington's faculties were so well balanced and combined thathis constitution was tempered evenly with all the elements of activity, and his mind resembled a well organized commonwealth. His passions, which had the intensest vigor, owed allegiance to reason; and with allthe fiery quickness of his spirit, his impetuous and massive will washeld in check by consummate judgment. He had in his composition a calmwhich was a balance-wheel, and which gave him in moments of highestexcitement the power of self-control, and enabled him to excel inpatience, even when he had most cause for disgust. 

It was said by an enemy of William the Silent that an arrogant orindiscreet word never fell from his lips. 

How brilliantly could Carlyle write of heroism, courage, self-control, and yet fly into a rage at a rooster crowing in a neighbor's yard. 

A self-controlled mind is a free mind, and freedom is power. 

"I call that mind free, " says Channing, "which jealously guards itsintellectual rights and powers, which calls no man master, which doesnot content itself with a passive or hereditary faith, which opensitself to light whencesoever it may come, which receives new truth asan angel from heaven, which, whilst consulting others, inquires stillmore of the oracle within itself, and uses instructions from abroad, not to supersede, but to quicken and exalt its own energies. I callthat mind free which is not passively framed by outward circumstances, which is not swept away by the torrent of events, which is not thecreature of accidental impulse, but which bends events to its ownimprovement, and acts from an inward spring, from immutable principleswhich it has deliberately espoused. I call that mind free whichprotects itself against the usurpations of society, which does notcower to human opinion, which feels itself accountable to a highertribunal than man's, which respects a higher law than fashion, whichrespects itself too much to be the slave or tool of the many or thefew. I call that mind free which through confidence in God and in thepower of virtue has cast off all fear but that of wrong-doing, which nomenace or peril can enthrall, which is calm in the midst of tumults, and possesses itself though all else be lost. I call that mind freewhich resists the bondage of habit, which does not mechanically repeatitself and copy the past, which does not live on its old virtues, whichdoes not enslave itself to precise rules, but which forgets what isbehind, listens for new and higher monitions of conscience, andrejoices to pour itself forth in fresh and higher exertions. I callthat mind free which is jealous of its own freedom, which guards itselffrom being merged in others, which guards its empire over itself asnobler than the empire of the world. "

 Be free--not chiefly from the iron chain But from the one which passion forges--be The master of thyself. If lost, regain The rule o'er chance, sense, circumstance. Be free. EPHRAIM PEABODY. 

"It is not enough to have great qualities, " says La Rochefoucauld; "weshould also have the management of them. " No man can call himselfeducated until every voluntary muscle obeys his will. 

Every human being is conscious of two natures. One is ever reaching upafter the good, the true, and the noble, --is aspiring after all thatuplifts, elevates, and purifies. It is the God-side of man, the imageof the Creator, the immortal side, the spiritual side. It is thegravitation of the soul faculties toward their Maker. The other is thebestial side which gravitates downward. It does not aspire, itgrovels; it wallows in the mire of sensualism. Like the beast, itknows but one law, and is led by only one motive, self-indulgence, self-gratification. When neither hungry nor thirsty, or when gorgedand sated by over-indulgence, it lies quiet and peaceful as a lamb, andwe sometimes think it subdued. But when its imperious passionaccumulates, it clamors for satisfaction. You cannot reason with it, for it has no reason, only an imperious instinct for gratification. You cannot appeal to its self-respect, for it has none. It caresnothing for character, for manliness, for the spiritual. 

These two natures are ever at war, one pulling heavenward, the other, earthward. Nor do they ever become reconciled. Either may conquer, but the vanquished never submits. The higher nature may be compelledto grovel, to wallow in the mire of sensual indulgence, but it alwaysrebels and enters its protest. It can never forget that it bears theimage of its Maker, even when dragged through the slough of sensualism. The still small voice which bids man look up is never quite hushed. Ifthe victim of the lower nature could only forget that he was born tolook upward, if he could only erase the image of his Maker, if he couldonly hush the voice which haunts him and condemns him when he is boundin slavery, if he could only enjoy his indulgences without the mockeryof remorse, he thinks he would be content to remain a brute. But theghost of his better self rises as he is about to partake of hisdelight, and robs him of the expected pleasure. He has sold his betterself for pleasure which is poison, and he cannot lose the consciousnessof the fearful sacrifice he has made. The banquet may be ready, butthe hand on the wall is writing his doom. 

 Give me that soul, superior power, That conquest over fate, Which sways the weakness of the hour, Rules little things as great: That lulls the human waves of strife With words and feelings kind, And makes the trials of our life The triumphs of our mind. CHARLES SWAIN. 

 Reader, attend--whether thy soul Soars fancy's flights above the pole, Or darkly grubs this earthly hole, In low pursuits: Know prudent, cautious self-control Is wisdom's root. BURNS. 

The king is the man who can. --CARLYLE. 

I have only one counsel for you--Be master. --NAPOLEON. 

 Ah, silly man, who dream'st thy honor stands In ruling others, not thyself. Thy slaves Serve thee, and thou thy slave: in iron bands Thy servile spirit, pressed with wild passions, raves. Wouldst thou live honored?--clip ambition's wing: To reason's yoke thy furious passions bring: Thrice noble is the man who of himself is king. PHINEAS FLETCHER. 

 "Not in the clamor of the crowded street, Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, But in ourselves are triumph and defeat. "