CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Cornell University Library 3 1924 031 229 051 olin.anx Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031229051 ABRAHAM LINCOLN "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with flrmneas in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish tlie work we are m. " PREFACE. The author's excuse for one more postponement of the end " of making many books " can be briefly given. He early determined that if it should ever lie in his power, he would write a book to encourage, inspire, and stimu- late boys and girls who long to be somebody and do something in the world, but feel that they have no chance in life. Among hundreds of American and Eng- lish books for the young, claiming to give the " secret of success," he found but few which satisfy the cravings of youth, hungry for stories of successful lives, and eager for every hint and every bit of information which may help them to make their way in the world. He believed that the power of an ideal book for youth should lie in its richness of concrete examples, as the basis and inspira- tion of character-building; in its uplifting, energizing^ suggestive force, more than in its arguments ; that it should be free from materialism, on the one hand, and from cant on the other ; and that it should abound in stir- ring examples of men and women who have brought things to pass. To the preparation of such a book he had devoted all his spare moments for ten years, when a fire destroyed all his manuscript and notes. The memory of some of the lost illustrations of diflficulties overcome stimulated to another attempt ; so once more the gleanings of odd bits of time for years have been arranged in the following pages. The author's aim has been to spur the perplexed youth to act the Columbus to his own undiscovered possibili- ties ; to urge him not to brood over the past, nor dream of the future, but to get his lesson from the hour ; to encourage him to make every occasion a great occasion, for he cannot tell when fate may take his measure for a higher place ; to show him that he must not wait for his lb iv PREFACE. opportunity, but make it ; to tell the round boy how he may get out of the square hole, into which he has been wedged by circumstances or mistakes ; to help him to find his right place in life ; to teach the hesitating youth that in a land where shoemakers and farmers sit in Con- gress no limit can be placed to the career of a deter- mined youth who has once learned the alphabet. The standard of the book is not measured in gold, but in growth ; not in position, but in personal power ; not in capital, but in character. It shows that a great check- book can never make a great man ; that beside the charac- ter of a Washington, the millions of a Croesus look con- temptible ; that a man may be rich without money, and may succeed though he does not become President or member of Congress ; that he who would grasp the key to power must be greater than his calling, and resist the vulgar prosperity that retrogrades toward barbarism ; that there is something greater than wealth, grander than fame ; that cJiaracter is success, and there is no other. If this volume shall open wider the door of some nar- row life, and awaken powers before unknown, the author will feel repaid for his labor. No special originality is claimed for the book. It has been prepared in odd moments snatched from a busy life, and is merely a new way of telling stories and teaching lessons that have been told and taught by many others from Solomon down. In these well-worn and trite topics lie " the marrow of the wisdom of the world." " Though old the thought, and oft expresfsed, 'T is his at last who says it best." If in rewriting this book from lost manuscript, the author has failed to always give due credit, he desires to hereby express the fullest obligation. He also wishes to acknowledge valuable assistance from Mr. Arthur W. Brown, of West Kingston, E. I. 43 BowDoiN Street, Boston, November 11, 1894. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGB I, The Man and the Opportunity o . 5 Don't wait for your opportunity : inake it. II. Boys with no Chance . . » 25 Necessity is the priceless spur. III. An Iron Will 55 Give a youth resolution and the alphabet, and who shall place limits to his career ? rV". Possibilities in Spare Moments o . o . . . . 63 If a genius like Gladstone carries through life a book in his pocket, lest an unexpected spare moment slip from his grasp, what should we of common abilities not resort to, to save the pre- cious moments from oblivion ? V. Round Boys in Square Holes 74 Man is doomed to perpetual inferiority and disappointment if out of his place, and gets his living by his weakness instead of by his strength. VI. What Career ? 89 Your talent is your call. " What can you do ? " is the interro- gation of the century. Better adorn your own than seek another's place. VII- Concentrated Energy , , . . 106 One unwavering aim. Don't dally with your purpose. Not many things indifferently, but one thing supremely. VIII. " On Time," or the Triumph of Promptness . . 121 Don't brood over the past or dream of the future ; but seize the instant, and get your lesson from the hour. IX. Cheerfulness and Longevity o . 133 Tou must take joy with you, or you will not find it even in heaven. X. A Fortune in Good Manners 146 The good-mannered can do without riches : all doors fly open to them, and they enter everywhere without money and without price. XI. The Triumphs of Enthusiasm 170 " What are hardships, ridicule, persecution, toil, sickness, to a soul throbbing with an overmastering enthusiasm ? " XII. Tact or Common Sense 187 Talent is no match ^f or tact ; we see its failure everywhere. In the race of life, common sense has the right of way. VI CONTENTS, Xin. Sblf-Rbspect and SeiiP-Confldence ..... 202 We stamp our own value upon ouraelvesj and cannot expect to paBB for more, XIV. GbEATEB TKA.N Weai^th 210 A man may make miUions and be a failure still. He ia the richest man who enriches mankind most. XV. The Price of Success 232 " "Work or starve " is Nature's motto, — it is written on the stars and the sod alike, — starve mentally, starve morally, starve physically. XVI. Chakacteb is Power 250 Beside the character of a Washington the millions of many, an American look contemptible. Character is success, and there ia no other. XVII. Enamored of Accuracy 273 Twenty things half done do not make one thing well done. There is a great difference between going just right and a little wrong. XVIII. Life is what we make it 292 We get out of life just what we put into it. The world has for us just what we have for it. XIX. The VictorV in Defeat 304 To know how to wring victory from our defeats, and make stepping-stones of our stumbling-blocks, is the secret of success. XX. Nerve — Grit, Grip, Px-uck 318 There is something grand and inspiring in a young man who fails squarely after doing his level best, and then enters the con- teat a second and a third time with undaunted courage and re- doubled energy. XXI. The Reward of Persistence 337 " Mere genius darts, flutters, and tires ; but perseverance wears and wins." XXII. A Long Life, and how to beach it 356 The first requisite to success is to be a first-class animal. Even the greatest industry cannot amount to much, if a feeble body does not respond to the ambition. XXm. Be Brief 372 *' Brevity ia the soul of wit." Boil it down. XXIV. Aspiration 375 " A man cannot aspire if he looks down." Look upward, live upward. XXV. The Army of the Reserve 389 We never can tell what is in a man until an emergency calls out his reserve, and ne cannot call out an ounce more than has been stored up. LIST OF PORTRAITS. PAQE Abbabam LiNOOiJif. From an original nnretonched negative, made in 1864, at the time the President commissioned Ulysses S. Grant lieutenant-general and commander of all the armies of the republic. It is said that this negative, with one of General Grant, was made in commemoration of that event. Frontispiece. Napoleon. After Painting by Charles de ChatUlon .... 6 Benjamin Franklin. After Painting by D&noyers . . . '. 26 Bismarck. After the Lenbach Portrait 56 Harriet Beecher Stowe. After an English Engraving by R. Young, from an original portrait taken about the time that "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was published 64 James Watt. Alter an English Engraving 74 Francis Pabkman. After Photograph 106 John Quihct Adams. After Painting by Healy in Corcoran GaUery, "Washington, D. C 122 Oliveh Wendell Holmes. After Photograph 134 Madame de StaSl. After Painting by Baron Frangois Gerard 146 Sib Humphry Davy. After Painting by Sir Thomas Law- rence 170 Horace Greeley. After Photograph 188 George Peabody. After Photograph ... 202 William Lloyd Garrison. After Photograph 210 Pbofessob S. F. B. Morse. After Photograph 232 George Washington. After the Stuart Painting in Museum Fine Arts, Boston 250 Galileo Galilei. After Painting by Sustermans in the Ufizzi Palace, Florence 274 Henry Ward Beecheb. After Etching by Rajon .... 292 General Robert E. Lee. After Photograph 304 General Ulysses S. Grant. After Photograph . . . . 318 Charles Robert DARVifiN. After an Etching by Rajon . . 338 William Ewart Gladstone. After Photograph .... 356 David Glasgow Farragut. After Treasury Department Engraving "'" Daniel Webster. After Daguerreotype 390 Most of these portraits are from original sources, and have never been used before. PUSHING TO THE FEONT. CHAPTEE I. THE MAN AN!) THE OPPOKTUNITY. No man is born into this world whose work is not born with him. — • Lowell. No royal permission is requisite to launch forth on the broad sea of dis- cover}' that surrounds us — most full of novelty where most explored. — Edwakd Eveeett. Things don't turn up in this world until somebody turns them up. — Garfield. We live in a new and exceptional age. America is another name for Opportunity. Our whole history appears like a last effort of the Divine Providence in behalf of the human race. — Emekson. '' Vigilance in watching opportunitj* ; tact and daring in seizing upon op- portunity ; force and persistence in crowding opportunity to its utmost of possible achievement — these are the martial virtues which must command success. — Austin Phelps. " I will find a way or make one." There never was a day that did not bring its own opportunity for doing good, that never could have been done before, and never can be again. — W. H. Bukleiuh. "Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute ; What you can do, or dream 3'ou can, begin it." "If we succeed, what will the world say?" asked Captain Berry in delight, when Nelson had explained his carefully formed plan before the battle of the Nile. '• There is no if in the case," replied Nelson. " That we shall succeed is certain. Who may live to tell the tale is a very different question." Then, as his cap- tains rose from the council to go to their respective ships, he added : " Before this time to-morrow I shall have gained a peerage or Westminster Abbey." His quick eye and daring spirit saw an opportunity of glo< rious victory where others saw only probable defeat. 6 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. "Is it POSSIBLE to cross the path ? " asked Najjoleoa of the engineers who had been sent to explore the dreaded pass of St. Bernard. "Perhaps," was the hesi- tating reply, " it is within the limits of possibUitij." "FoKWABD, THEN," said tlie Little Corporal, heeding not their account of difficulties, apparently insurmount- able. England and Austria laughed in scorn at the idea of transporting across the Alps, where " no wheel had ever rolled, or by any possibility could roll," an army of sixty thousand men, with ponderous artillery, and tons of cannon balls and baggage, and all the bulky munitions of war. But the besieged Massena was starv- ing in Genoa, and the victorious Austrians thundered at the gates of Nice. Napoleon was not the man to fail his former comrades in their hour of peril. The soldiers and all their equipments were inspected with rigid care. A worn shoe, a torn coat, or a dam- aged musket was at once repaired or replaced, and the columns swept forward, fired with the spirit of their chief. " High on those craggy steeps, gleaming through the mists, the glittering bands of armed men, like phan- toms, appeared. The eagle wheeled and screamed be- neath their feet. The mountain goat, affrighted by the unwonted spectacle, bounded away, and paused in bold relief upon the cliff to gaze at the martial array which so suddenly had peopled the solitude. When they ap- proached any spot of very special difficulty, the trum- pets sounded the charge, which reechoed with sublime reverberations from pinnacle to pinnacle of rock and ice. Everything was so carefully arranged, and the in- fluence of Napoleon so boundless, that not a soldier left the ranks. Whatever obstructions were in the way were to be at all hazards surmounted, so that the long file extending nearly twenty miles, might not be thrown into confusion." In four days the army was marchino- on the plains of Italy. NAPOLEON "There BhaU be no Alps." " Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary o£ fools." THE MAN AND THE OPPORTUNITY. 7 When this "impossible" deed was accomplished, others saw that it might have been done long before. Many a commander had possessed the necessary sup plies, tools, and rugged soldiers, but lacked the grit and resolution of Bonaparte. Others excused themselves from encountering such gigantic obstacles by calling them insuperable. He did not shrink from mere diffi- culties, however great, but out of his very need made and mastered his opportunity. Grant at New Orleans had just been seriously in- jured by a fall from his horse, when he received orders to take command at Chattanooga, so sorely beset by the Confederates that its surrender seemed only a question of a few days ; for the hills around were all aglow by night with the camp-fires of the enemy, and supplies had been cut off. Though in great pain, GeneraL Grant gave directions for his removal to the new scene of ac- tion immediately. On transports up the Mississippi, the Ohio, and one of its tributaries ; on a litter borne by horses for many miles through the wilderness ; and into the city at last on the shoulders of four men, he was taken to Chatta- nooga. Things assumed a different aspect immediately. A Master had arrived who was equal to the situation. The army felt the grip of his power. Before he could mount his horse, he ordered an advance. Soon the sur- rounding hills were held by Union soldiers, although the enemy contested the ground inch by inch. Were these things the result of chance, or were they compelled by the indomitable determination of the in- jured General ? Did things adjust themselves when Horatius with two companions held ninety thousand Tuscans at bay until the bridge across the Tiber had been destroyed ? — when Leonidas at Thermopylae checked the mighty march of Xerxes ? — when Themistocles, off the coast of Greece, shattered the Persian's Armada ? — when Caesar, find 8 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. ing Ms army hard pressed, seized spear and buckler, fought while he reorganized his men, and snatched vic- tory from defeat ? — when Winkelried gathered to his breast a sheaf of Austrian spears, thus opening a path through which his comrades pressed to freedom ? — when Benedict Arnold, by desperate daring at Sara- toga, won the battle which seemed doubtful to Horatio Gates, loitering near his distant tent ? — when for years, Napoleon did not lose a single battle in which he was personally engaged ? — when Wellington fought in many climes without ever being conquered ? — when Ney, on a hundred fields, changed apparent disaster into brilliant triumph ? — when Perry left the disabled Law- rence, rowed to the Niagara, and silenced the British guns ? — when Sheridan arrived from Winchester just as the Union retreat was becoming a rout, and turned the tide by riding along the line ? — when Sherman sig- naled his men to hold the fort, though sorely pressed ; and they held it, knowing that their leader was coming ? History furnishes thousands of examples of men who have seized occasions to accomplish results deemed im- possible by those less resolute. Prompt decision and whole-souled action sweep the world before them. True, there has been but one Napoleon ; but, on the other hand, the Alps that oppose the progress of the average American youth are not as high or dangerous as the summits crossed by the Corsican. Don't wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and Tnake them, great. On the morning of September 6, 1838, a young woman in the Longstone Lighthouse, between England and Scot- land, was awakened by shrieks of agony rising above the roar of wind and wave. A storm of unwonted fury was raging, and her parents could not hear the cries ; but a telescope showed nine human beings clinging to the windlass of a wrecked vessel whose bow was hang, ing on the rocks half a mile away. " We can do no- THE MAN AND THE OPPORTUNITY. 9 thing," said William Darling, the light-keeper. "Ah, yes, we must go to the rescue," exclaimed his daughter, pleading tearfully with both father and mother until the former replied : " Very well, Grace, I will let you persuade me, though it is against my better judgment." Like a feather in a whirlwind the little boat was tossed on the tumultuous sea, and it seemed to Grace that she could feel her brain reel amid the maddening swirl. But borne on the blast that swept the cruel surge, the shrieks of those shipwrecked sailors seemed to change her weak sinews into cords of steel. Strength hitherto unsuspected came from somewhere, and the heroic girl pulled one oar in even time with her father. At length the nine were safely on board. " God bless you ; but ye 're a bonny English lass," said one poor fellow, as he looked wonderingly upon this marvelous girl, who that day had done a deed which added more to England's glory than the exploits of many of her monarchs. A cat-boat was capsized in 1854 near Lime Eock Lighthouse, Newport, E. I., and four young men were left struggling in the cold waves of a choppy sea. Keeper Lewis was not at home, and his sick wife could do nothing ; but their daughter Ida, twelve years old, rowed out in a small boat and saved the men. During the next thirty years she rescued nine others, at various times. Her work was done without assistance, and showed skill and endurance fully equal to her great courage. "If you will let me try, I think I can make some- thing that will do," said a boy who had been employed as a scullion at the mansion of Signer Faliero, as the story is told by George Gary Eggleston. A large com- pany had been invited to the banquet, and just before the hour the confectioner, who had been making a large ornament for "the table, sent word that he had spoiled the piece. " You ! " exclaimed the head servant, in astonishment ; " and who are you ? " "I am Antonio 10 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. Canova, the grandson of Pisano the stone-cutter," re- plied the pale-faced little fellow. " And, pray, what can you do ? " asked the major- domo. " I can make you something that will do for the middle of the table, if you '11 let me try." The servant was at his wit's end, so he told Antonio to go ahead and see what he could do. Calling for some butter, the scullion quickly moulded a large crouching lion, which the admiring major-domo placed upon the table. Dinner was announced, and many of the most noted merchants, princes, and noblemen of Venice were ushered into the dining-room. Among them were skilled critics of art work. When their eyes fell upon the butter lion, they forgot the purpose for which they had come, in their wonder at such a work of genius. They looked at the lion long and carefully, and asked Signer Faliero what great sculptor had been persuaded to waste his skill upon a work in such a temporary material. Faliero could not tell; so he asked the head servant, who brought Antonio before the company. When the distinguished guests learned that the lion had been made in a short time by a scullion, the dinner was turned into a feast in his honor. The rich host declared that he would pay the boy's expenses under the best masters, and he kept his word. But Antonio was not spoiled by his good fortune. He remained at heart the same simple, earnest, faithful boy, who had tried so hard to become a good stone-cutter in the shop of Pisano. Some may not have heard how the boy Antonio took advantage of this first great opportunity ; but all know of Canova, one of the greatest sculptors of all time. Weak men wait for opportunities, strong men make them. " The best men," says E. H. Chapin, " are not those who have waited for chances but who have taken them • besieged the chance ; conquered the chance ; and made chance the servitor." " Oh, how I wish I were rich ! " exclaimed a bright, THE MAN AND THE OPPORTUNITY. 11 industrious drayman in Philadelphia, who had many mouths to fill at home. " Well, why don't you get rich ? " asked Stephen Girard, who had overheard the remark. " I don't know how, without money," replied the drayman. "You don't need money," replied Mr. Girard. "Well, if you will tell me how to get rich without money, I won't let the grass grow before try- ing it." " A ship-load of confiscated tea is to be sold at auction to-morrow at the wharf," said the millionaire. "Go down and buy it, and then come to me." " But I have no money to buy a whole ship-load of tea with," pro- tested the drayman. " You don't need any money, I tell you," said Girard sharply ; " go down and bid on the whole cargo, and then come to me." The next day the auctioneer said that purchasers would have the privilege of taking one case, or the whole ship-load, buying by the pound. A retail grocer started the bidding, and the drayman at once named a higher figure, to the surprise of the large crowd present. " I '11 take the whole ship-load," said he coolly, when a sale was announced. The auctioneer was astonished, but when he learned that the young bidder was Mr. Girard's drayman, his manner changed, and he said it was probably all right. The news spread that Girard was buying tea in large quantities, and the price rose several cents per pound. "Go and sell your tea," said the great merchant the next day. The young man secured quick sales by quot- ing a price a trifle below the market rate, and in a few hours he was worth fifty thousand dollars. The author does not endorse this method of doing business, but tells . the story merely as an example of seizing an opportunity. There may not be one chance in a million that you will ever receive aid of this kind; but opportunities are often presented which you can improve to good advantage, if you will only act. 12 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. " You are too young," said the advertiser for a factory manager in Manchester, England, after a single glance at an applicant. " They used to object to me on that score four or five years ago," replied Robert Owen, " but I did not expect to have it brought up now." " How often do you get drunk in the week ? " "I never was drunk in my life," said Owen, blushing. " What salary do you ask ? " " Three hundred (pounds) a year." " Three hundred a year ! Why I have had I don't know how many after the place here this morning, and aU their askings together would not come up to what you want." "Whatever others may ask, I cannot take less. I am making three hundred a year by my own business." The youth, who had never been in a large cotton mill, was put in charge of a factory employing five hundred operatives. By studying machines, cloth, and processes at night, he mastered every detail of the business in a short time, and was soon without a superior in his line in Manchester. The lack of opportunity is ever the excuse of a weak, vacillating mind. Opportunities ! Every life is full of them. Every lesson in school or college is an opportu^ nity. Every examination is a chance in life. Every patient is an opportunity. Every newspaper article is an opportunity. Every client is an opportunity. Every sermon is an opportunity. Every business transaction is an opportunity, — an opportunity to be polite, — an opportunity to be manly, — an opportunity to be hon- est, — an opportunity to make friends. Every proof of. confidence in you is a great opportunity. Every respon- sibility thrust upon your strength and your honor is priceless. Existence is the privilege of effort, and when that privilege is met like a man, opportunities to suc- ceed along the line of your aptitude will come faster than you can use them. If a slave like Ered Douglass can elevate himself into an orator, editor, statesman, THE MAN AND THE OPPORTUNITY. 13 what ought the poorest white boy to do, who is rich in opportunities compared with Douglass, who did not even own his body ? It is the idle man, not the great worker, who is always complaining that he has no time or opportunity. Some young men will make more out of the odds and ends of opportunities, which many carelessly throw away, than others will get out of a whole lifetime. Like bees, they extract honey from every flower. Every person they meet, every circumstance of the day, must add some- thing to their store of useful knowledge or personal power. " There is nobody whom Fortune does not visit once in his life," says a Cardinal ; " but when she finds he is not ready to receive her, she goes in at the door and out at the window." " What is its name ? " asked a visitor in a studio, when shown, among many gods, one whose face was concealed by hair, and which had wings on its feet. " Opportunity," replied the sculptor. " Why is its face hidden ? " " Because men seldom know him when he comes to them." "Why has he wings on his feet?" "Because he is soon gone, and once gone, cannot be overtaken." Life pulsates with chances. They may not be dra- matic or great, but they are important to him who would get on in the world. Cornelius Vanderbilt saw his opportunity in the steamboat, and determined to identify himself with steam navigation. To the surprise of all his friends, he abandoned his prosperous business and took com- mand of one of the first steamboats launched, at one thousand dollars a year. Livingston and Fulton had acquired the sole right to navigate New York waters by steam, but Vanderbilt thought the law unconstitutional, and defied it until it was repealed. He soon became a steamboat owner. When the government was paying a 14 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. large subsidy for carrying the European mails, he offered to carry them free and give better service. His offer was accepted, and in this way he soon built up an enor- mous freight and passenger traffic. Foreseieing the great future of railroads in a country like ours, he plunged into railroad enterprises with all his might, laying the foundation for the vast Vanderbilt system of to-day. Young Philip Armour joined the long caravan of Forty- Niners, and crossed the " Great American Desert " with all his possessions in a prairie schooner drawn by mules. Hard work and steady gains carefully saved in the mines enabled him to start, six years later, in the grain and warehouse business in Milwaukee. In nine years he made five hundred thousand dollars. But he saw his great opportunity in Grant's order, " On to Eich- mond." One morning in 1864, he knocked at the door of Plankinton, partner in his venture as a pork packer. " I am going to take the next train to Kew York," said he, " to sell pork ' short.' Grant and Sherman have the rebellion by the throat, and pork will go down to twelve dollars a barrel." This was his opportunity. He went to New York and offered pork in large quantities at forty dollars per barrel. It was eagerly taken. The shrewd Wall Street speculators laughed at the young Westerner, and told him pork would go to sixty dollars, for the war was not nearly over. Mr. Armour kept on selling. Grant continued to advance. Eichmond fell, and pork fell with it to twelve dollars a barrel. Mr. Armour cleared two millions of dollars. John D. Eockefeller saw his opportunity in petroleum. He could see a large population rd»r for that purpose immediately." 222 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. Barrows of Cambridge resigned his professorstip to make a place for his pupil, Isaac Newton. If we work upon gold it will perish ; if upon brass, time will efface it; if we rear temples, they will crum- ble into dust. But if we work upon immortal minds — if we imbue them with high principles, with the just fear of God, with manhood and the respect of it — we engrave on these tables something which no time can efface, but which will grow brighter through all eter- nity. " Education — a debt due from present to future gen- erations," fras the sentiment found in a sealed envelope opened during the centennial celebration at Danvers, Mass. In the same envelope was a check for twenty thousand dollars for a town library and institute. The sender was George Peabody, one of the most remark- able men of this century, once a poor boy, but then a millionaire banker. At another banquet given in his honor at Danvers, years afterwards, he gave two hun- dred and fifty thousand dollars to the same institute. "Steadfast and undeviating truth," said he, "fearless and straightforward integrity, and an honor ever unsul- lied by an unworthy word or action, make their pos- sessor greater than worldly success or prosperity. These qualities constitute greatness." Neither a man's means, nor his worth, are measurable by his money. If he has a fat purse and a lean heart, a broad estate and a narrow understanding, what will his " means " do for him — what will his " worth " gain him ? "What sadder sight is there than an old man who has spent his whole life getting instead of growing ? He has piled up books, statuary, and paintings, with his wealth, but he is a stranger amongst them. His soul has shriveled to that of a miser, and all his nobler in- stincts are dead. The honesty and integrity of A. T. Stewart won for him a great reputation, and the young schoolm^stei GREATER THAN WEALTH. 223 who began life in New York on less than a dollar a day, amassed nearly forty million dollars, and there was not a smirched dollar in all those millions. Do you call him successful who wears a bull-dog ex- pression that but too plainly tells the story of how he gained his fortune, taking but never giving ? Can you not read in that brow-beating face the sad experience of widows and orphans? Do you call him a self-made man who has unmade others to make himself, — who tears others down to build himself up? Can a man be really rich who makes others poorer ? Can he be happy in whose every lineament chronic' avarice is seen as plainly as hunger in the countenance of a wolf ? How seldom sweet, serene, beautiful faces are seen on men who have been very successful as the world rates success ! Nature expresses in the face arid manner the sentiment which rules the heart. When petitioned to license the opium traffic, the pa- gan emperor of China said: "Nothing will induce me to derive a revenue from the vice and misery of my peo- ple." But Christian England has been only too glad to derive an immense income from this very traffic, and Christian America still obtains large sums from the sale of licenses to dealers in alcoholic drinks. No wonder the state, which should be a father instead of a murderer, nourishes a degraded race of men, bereft of the old-fashioned virtues of pity, and benevolence, and generosity, who, wherever there is a glitter of gold, claw one another to obtain the vulgar metal. In the days of the Abolitionists, a great " Union Sav- ing Committee " of their opponents met at Castle Gar- den, New York, and decided that merchants who would not oppose the " fanatics " should be put on a " Black List " and crushed financially. Messrs. Bowen & Mc- Namee, however, stated in their advertisements that they hoped to sell their silks, but would not sell their principles. Their independent stand created a great 224 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. sensation throughout the country. People wanted to buy of men who would not sell themselves. When Scipio Africanus was accused of peculation, he refused to disgrace himself by waiting for justification, though he had the scroll of his accounts in his hands. He immediately tore the paper to pieces before the trib- unes. When the corner-stone of the Washington monument was laid, July 4, 1848, Mr. Winthrop said : "Build it to the skies — you cannot outreach the loftiness of his principles ; found it upon the massive and eternal rock — you cannot make it more enduring than his fame; construct it of the purest Parian marble — you cannot make it purer than his life." Webster said : " America has furnished to the world the character 'of Washington ; if our American institu- tions had done nothing else, that alone would have en- titled them to the respect of mankind." Where, asked Byron, — " Where may the wearied eye repose When gazing on the great, Where neitlier guilty glory glows. Nor despicable state ! " Yes, one — the first, the last, the best, The Cincinnatus of the West, Whom envy dared not hate — Bequeathed the name of Washington, To make men blush there was but one ! " Lord Erskine wrote to Washington: "You are the only being for whom I have an awful reverence." Charles James Fox, in the House of Commons, spoke of that "illustrious man, before whom all borrowed greatness sinks into insignificance." Lord Brougham said : " Until time shall be no more, will a test of the progress which our race has made in wisdom and virtue be derived from the veneration paid to the immortal name of Washington ! " GREATER THAN WEALTH. 225 Gladstone called Washingtou "the purest figure in history," and added : " If, among all the pedestals sup- plied by history for public characters of extraordinary nobility and purity, I saw one higher than all the rest, and if I were required at a moment's notice to name the fittest occupant for it, I think my choice, at any time within the last forty-five years, would have lighted, and it would now light, upon Washington ! " Fisher Ames wrote : " He changed mankind's ideas of political greatness." Lafayette, speaking of his friend, said : " Never did I behold so superb a man." "We look with amazement," wrote an eminent thinker, "on such eccentric characters as Alexander, Caesar, Cromwell, ^Frederick, and Napoleon, but when Washington's face rises before us, instinctively mankind exclaims, ' This is the man for nations to trust and rev- erence, and for rulers to follow.' " Washington practiced the profound diplomacy of truthful speech, — the consummate tact of direct atten- tion. Lincoln always yearned for a rounded wholeness of character; and his fellow lawyers called him "per- versely honest." Nothing could induce him to take the wrong side of a case, or to continue on that side after learning that it was unjust or hopeless. After giving considerable time to a case in which he had received from a lady a retainer of two hundred dollars, he re- turned the money, saying : " Madam, you have not a peg to hang your case on." "But you have earned that money," said the lady. "No, no," replied Lincoln, " that would not be right. I can't take pay for doing my duty." "The greatest works," says Waters, "have brought the least benefit to their authors. They were beyond the reach of appreciation before appreciation came. The benefactors of mankind have never stooped to the 226 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. quest of lucre. Who can conceive of Socrates or St. Paul, Martin Luther or John Wesley, John Hampden or George Washington, scheming to make money ? " There should be something in a man's life greater than his occupation or his achievements ; grander than acquisition or wealth ; higher than genius ; more en- during than fame. Men and nations put their trust in education, culture, and the refining influences of civilized life, but these alone can never elevate or save a people. Art, luxury, and degradation have been boon companions all down the centuries. Phidias was adding the last touch of grace to Grecian art in the Parthenon when the glory of Athens departed. Home fell when art was in its golden age, while Mars, Bacchus, and Venus sat upon the throne of the Caesars. Wealth is demoralizing when obtained at the sacrifice of character. The more money a man or nation has, the more moral strength is needed to protect from its de- moralizing influence. A man may make millions and be a failure stO. Money-making is not the highest success. The life of a well-known millionau-e was not truly successful. He had but one ambition. He coined his very soul into dollars. The almighty dollar was his sun, and was mirrored in his heart. He strangled all other emotions and hushed and stifled all nobler aspirations. He grasped his riches tightly, tHl stricken by the scythe of death ; when, in the twinkling of an eye, he was transformed from one of the richest men who ever lived iu this world to one of the poorest souls that ever went out of it. " The truest test of civilization," says Emerson, " is not the census, nor the size of cities, nor the crops ; no, but the kind of man the country turns out." Character is success, and there is no other. The passion for wealth often stifles every noble as- piration. Rothschild was called "one of the most GREATER THAN WEALTH. 227 devout worshipers that ever laid a withered soul upon the altar of Mammon." Is it any wonder that our young men start out with a false idea of the great object of life, when they see everybody else bowing and scraping and running after the men with crowns of gold upon their heads, but with corruption in their hearts ? When a lady is married, people ask, " Did she marry well ? " That is, did she marry money ; not, did she marry an honest, clean, upright man ? Can anything be more pitiable than a fat purse and a lean soul, a large house and a small character ? " When I asked you for anecdotes upon the age of this king," said Voltaire, while preparing his " History of Louis XIV.," "I referred less to the king himself than to the art which flourished in his reign. I should prefer details relating to Eacine and Boileau, to Sully, Moliere, Lebrun, Bossuet, Poussiu, Descartes, and others, than to the battle of Steinkirk. Nothing but a name remains of those who commanded battalions and fleets, nothing results to the human race from a hun- dred battles gained ; but the great men of whom I have spoken prepared pure and durable delights for genera- tions unborn. A canal that connects the seas, a picture by Poussin, a beautiful tragedy, a discovered truth, are things a thousand times more precious than all the an- nals of the court, than all the narratives of war. You know that with me great men rank first, heroes last. I call great men those who have excelled in the useful or the agreeable. The ravagers of provinces are mere heroes." " Not a child did I injure," says the epitaph of an Egyptian ruler who lived in a pagan age more than forty centuries ago. "Not a widow did I oppress. Not a herdsman did I ill treat. There were no beggars in my day, no one starved in my time. And when the years of famine came, I ploughed all the lands of the 228 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. province to its northern and southern boundaries, feed- ing its inhabitants and providing their food. There was no starving person in it, and I made the widow to be as though she possessed a husband." What ruler can say as much in our enlightened age ? " When real history shall be written by the truthful and the wise," says IngersoU, "the kneelers at the shrines of chance and fraud, the brazen idols once wor- shiped as gods, shall be the very food of scorn, while those who have borne the burden of defeat, who have earned and kept their self-respect, who have never bowed to men or power, will wear upon their brows the laurel mingled with the oak." Emerson well said that the advantage of riches re- mains with him who procured them, not with the heir. "When I go into my garden with a spade," he says, " and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and health, that I discover I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have done with my own hands. But not only health, but education, is in the work. Is it possible that I who get indeiinite quantities of sugar, hominy, cotton, buckets, crockery-ware, and letter-paper, by simply signing my name once in three months to a check in favor of John Smith & Co., traders, get the fair share of exercise to my faculties by that act, which nature intended for me in making all these far-fetched matters important to my comfort ? " " ]\Iy kingdom for a horse," said Kichard III. of Eng- land amid the press of Bosworth Eield. " My kingdom for a moment," said Queen Elizabeth on her death-bed. And millions of others, when they have felt earth, its riches and power slipping from their grasp, have shown plainly that deep down in their hearts they value such things at naught when really compared with the blessed light of life, the stars and flowers, the companionship of friends, and far above aL. else, the opportunity of GREATER THAN WEALTH. 229 growth, and development here and of preparation for fu- ture life. History shows that the time always comes when an- guish and hunger rise greater than wealth and crush it. That was the story of the French Revolution. What anarchist is so base as to have threatened George W. Childs, of Philadelphia, because he was a rich man ? He might blow up others, but not Mr. Childs. Is it not because the famous editor exhibited something in his character greater than wealth, that irresistibly soft- ened hatred, drew the hungry to him for bread, the ignorant for education, the homeless for a home ? He was here to supply those needs, and the love of humanity, and the sympathy for all kinds of want and suffering, — these were the greatest things in the world to him. Doing good to others, he said, was the greatest pleasure of his life. History demonstrates what the Bible teaches, that love is the greatest thing in the world. A beautiful illustration comes to us from the life of Mr. Charles N. Crittenden, who has strik- ingly lived up to the Golden Eule. When he became as rich as he thought he ought to be, he took into part- nership five of the heads of departments in his great wholesale house in New York. The voluntary transfer by a man of large means, of a large interest in his busi- ness to his employees without the payment of a penny, is unique in this money-grasping age. Mr. Crittendon devotes his entire time to evangelistic work, and his fortune to founding Morence Crittendon missions for the rescue of erring girls. The story of their founding melts all hearts to tenderness and all eyes to tears. A few years ago, his little four-year-old Florence, on her dying bed, pleaded : " Papa, sing ' The Sweet By and By.' " With choking voice and break- ing heart her father sang the beautiful words, and her beloved' spirit floated heavenward on the wings of song. Mr. Crittendon went down into the slums and helped 230 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. to uplift the fallen, and one night when he was plead- ing with a poor erring girl to leave her life of shame, he said in the words of Christ : " ISTeither do I condemn thee ; go and sia no more." Through her tears she said, " Where can I go ? " Quick as a flash came the thought, "Where can she go ? Scarce a door save a door of sin is open to her ; " and then and there he determined, as a memorial to his own little Florence, to found a home where other fa- thers' little girls, lost in the whirlpool of shame, might be rescued and restored to a life of virtue. So on Bleecker Street, New York, a few years ago, was opened the first Florence Crittendon Mission, a large double four-story house, where food and shelter and clothing and a home are freely given, and under the iufluence of Mother Prindle, the W. C. T. U. matron, hundreds become Christian women. Over five hundred girls annually find a home here, and three fourths of them are redeemed. Mr. Crittendon has also established Florence Critten- don missions in New Brunswick, N. J., San Jose, Sacrar mento, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, California. It is the dream of his life to found a Florence Crit- tendon mission in every large city in America and Europe, and plans to that end are made with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, under the lead- ership of Miss Frances E. WUlard and Lady Henry Somerset. Thank God ! there are some things beyond the reach of " influence " and better than the madness for a brown-stone front. Gold cannot vie with virtue, and social position does not create manhood. Trusts and monopolies only control the lower things of life. There are men who choose honesty as a soul compan- ion. They live in it, with it, by it. They embody it in their actions and lives. Their words speak it. Their faces beam it. Their actions proclaim it. Their GREATER THAN WEALTH. 231 iands are true to it. Their feet tread its path. They are full of it. They love it. It is to them like a God. Not gold, or crowns, or fame, could bribe them to leave it. It makes them beautiful men, noble, great, brave, righteous men. " No man has come to true greatness," said Phillips Brooks, " who has not felt in some degree that his life belongs to his race, and that what God gives him, He gives him for mankind." " The rank is but the guinea's stamp The man 's the gowd for a' that." " The noblest men that live on earth Are men whose hands are brown with toil, Who, backed by no ancestral graves, Hew down the woods and till the soil. And win thereby a prouder name Than follows king's or warrior's fame." CHAPTEE XV. THE PRICE OF SUCCESS. The gods sell anything and to everybody at a fair price. — Emerson. To color well requires your life. It cannot be done cheaper. — Ruskin. There is no fate ! Between the thought and the success, God is ths only agent. — Bulwer. "We have but what we make, and every good Is locked by nature in a granite hand, Sheer labor must unclench." "By hammer and hand all arts do stand." To be thrown upon one's own resources is to be cast into the very lap of fortune. — Frakklin. Heaven never helps the man who will not act. — Sophocles. • The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do well, and doing well whatever you do, without a thought, of fame. — Long- fellow. '■ There is no road to success but through a clear, strong purpose. A purpose underlies character, culture, position, attainment of whatever sort. — T. T. Hunger. Mankind worships success, but thinks too little of the means by which it is attained, — what days and nights of watching and weariness, how year after year has dragged on, and seen the end still far off; all that counts for little, if the long struggle do not close in victory. — H. M. Field. " What a heavenly mournful expression ! " exclaims Miss Sybil ia Bulwer's "Kenelm Chillingly," as she gazes at the baby ; " it seems so grieTed to have left the angels ! " "That is prettily said, cousid Sybil," replied the clergyman, " but the infant must pluck up courage and fight its way among mortals with a good heart, if it wants to get back to the angels again." The same principle obtains in the performance of even trivial tasks. An ancient Greek thought to save his bees a laborious SAMUEL F. B. MORSE " What hath God wrought." {First telegraphic message.) " A constant struggle, a ceaseless battle to bring success from mhospitable surroundings, is the price of all great achievements-" THE PRICE OF SUCCESS. 233 flight to Hymettus. He cut their wings and gathered flowers for them to work upon at home, but they made no- honey. " Oh, if I could thus put a dream on canvas ! " ex- claimed an enthusiastic young artist, pointing to a most beautiful painting. " Dream on canvas ! " growled the master, " it is the ten thousand touches with the brush you must learn to put on canvas that make your dream." " Not so very long to do the work itself," said a great artist, when asked the time required to paint a cottage scene with an old woman trying to thread a needle near the open door, " but it took me twenty years to get that pose of the figure, and to correctly represent that sun- light coming in at the door." " You charge me fifty sequins," said a Venetian noble- man to a sculptor, " for a bust that cost you only ten days' labor." "You forget," said the artist, "that I have been thirty years learning to make that bust in ten days." "If only Milton's imagination could have conceived his visions," says Waters, "his consummate industry alone could have carved the immortal lines which en- shrine them. If only Newton's mind could reach out to the secrets of nature, even his genius could only do it by the homeliest toil. The works of Bacon are not mid- summer's-night dreams, but, like coral islands, they have risen from the depths of truth, and formed their broad surfaces above the ocean by the minutest accre- tions of persevering labor. The conceptions of Michael Angelo would have perished like a night's phantasy, had not his industry given them permanence." "There is but one method of attaining excellence," said Sydney Smith, " and that is hard labor." The mottoes of great men often give us glimpses of the secret of their characters and success. "Work! work ! work ! " was the motto of Sir Joshua Reynolds, 234 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. David Wilkie, and scores of other men who have left their mark upon the -world. Voltaire's motto was "Toujours au travail" (always at work). Scott's maxim was "Never be doing nothing." Michael An- gelo was a wonderful worker. He even slept in his clothes ready to spring to his work as soon as he awoke. He kept a block of marble in his bedroom that he might get up in the night and work when he could not sleep. His favorite device was an old man in a go-cart, with an hour-glass upon it, bearing this inscription : " Ancora im- paro" (still I'm learning). Even after he was blind he would ask to be wheeled into the Belvidere, to ex- amine the statues with his hands. Cobden used to say, " I 'm working like a horse without a moment to spare." It was said that Handel, the musician, did the work of a dozen men. Nothing ever daunted him. He feared neither ridicule nor defeat. Lord Palmerston worked like a slave, even in his old age. Being asked when he considered a man in his prime, he replied, "Seventy- nine," that being his own age. Humboldt was one of the world's great workers. In summer he arose at four in the morning for thirty years. He used to say work was as much of a necessity as eating or sleeping. Sir Walter Scott was a phenomenal worker. He wrote the " Waverley Novels " at the rate of twelve volumes a year. He averaged a volume every two months during his whole working life. What an example is this to the young men of to-day, of the possibilities of an ear- nest life ! Edmund Burke was one of the most prodi- gious workers that ever lived. Daniel Webster said, " I have worked for more than twelve hours a day for fifty years." Charles James Eox became a great orator, yet few people outside of his per- sonal friends had any idea of how he struggled to per- fect himself in " the art of all arts." He never let an opportunity for speaking or self-culture pass unim- proved. Henry Clay could have been found almost THE PRICE OP SUCCESS. 235 daily for years in some old Virginia barn, declaiming to the cattle for an audience. He said, " Never let a day go by without exercising your power of speech." Caesar controlled men by exciting their fear ; Cicero by capti- vating their affections and swaying their passions. The influence of one perished with its author ; that of the other continues to this day. Beecher used to practice speaking for years in the woods and pastures. " Work or starve," is nature's motto, — and it is writ- ten on the stars and the sod alike, — starve mentally, starve morally, starve physically. It is au inexorable law of nature that whatever is not used, dies. "No- thing for nothing," is her maxim. If we are idle and shiftless by choice, we shall be nerveless and powerless by necessity. We are the sum of our endeavors. " Our reward is in the race we run, not in the prize." " I acquired all the talent I have," said John Sebas- tian Bach, "by working hard ; and all who like to work as hard will succeed just as I have done." " What is the secret of success in business ? " asked a friend of Cornelius Vanderbilt. " Secret ! there is no secret about it," replied the commodore ; " all you have to do is to attend to your business and go ahead." , If you would adopt Vanderbilt's method, know your busi- ness, attend to it, and keep down expenses until your fortune is safe from business perils. A Southern student at Andover bought some wood, and went to Professor Stuart to learn whom he could get to saw it. " I am out of a job of that kind," said Mr. Stuart ; " I will saw it myself." Do not choose your life-work solely for the money that you can make by it. It is a contemptible estimate of an occupation to regard it as a mere means of making a living. The Creator might have given us our bread ready-made. He might have kept us in luxurious Eden forever ; but He had a grander and nobler end in view 236 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. ■when He created man, than the mere satisfaction of his animal appetites and passions. There was a divinity within man, which the luxuries of Eden could never de- velop. There was an inestimable blessing in that curse which drove him from the garden, and compelled him forever to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. It was not without significance that the Creator concealed our highest happiness and greatest good beneath the sternest diflSculties, and made their attainment condi- tional upon a struggle for existence. " Our motive power is always found in what we lack." Never feel above your business. All legitimate occupations are re- spectable. " The ploughman may be a Cincinnatus, or a Washington, or he may be brother to the clod he turns." During the Revolutionary War the soldiers were trying to raise a heavy timber which they could scarcely lift from the ground. A young corporal stood by, urging the men to lift hard, and shouting, "Now, boys, right up," when a superior officer rode up, dis- mounted, and lifted with the men. When the timber was in place the officer asked the corporal why he did not help. " I am a corporal," he replied. " I am George Washington," responded the officer. " You will meet me at your commander's headquarters." Depend upon it, there is always something wrong about the young man or woman wha looks upon manual labor as degrading. Manual labor was never considered degrading until slavery came into existence. " Laboremus " (we must work) was the last word of the dying Emperor Severus, as his soldiers gathered around him. " Labor," " achievement," was the great Roman motto, and the secret of her conquest of the world. The greatest generals returned from their triumphs to the plough. Agriculture was held in great esteem, and it was considered the highest compliment to call a Roman a great agriculturist. Many of their family names were derived from agricultural terms, as THE PRICE OF SUCCESS. 237 Cicero from "cicer," a chick-pea, and Fabius from "faba," a bean, etc. The rural tribes held the fore- most rank in the early days of the Empire. City people were regarded as an indolent, nerveless race. Eome was a mighty nation while industry led her people, but when her great conquest of wealth and slaves placed her citizens above the necessity of labor, that moment her glory began to fade ; vice and corrup- tion, induced by idleness, doomed the proud city to an ignominious history. Cicero, Eome's great orator and statesman, said: "All artisans are engaged in a dis- graceful occupation ; " and Aristotle, a stranger to Christian philosophy, said : " The best regulated cities will not permit a mechanic to be a citizen, for it is im- possible for one who leads the life of a mechanic, or hired servant, to practice a life of virtue. Some were born to be slaves." But fortunately, there came One mightier than Rome, Cicero, or Aristotle, whose magnifi- cent life and example forever lifted the ban from labor, and redeemed it from disgrace. He gives significance to labor and dignity to the most menial service. Christ did not say, " Come unto me, all ye pleasure-hunters, ye indolent, and ye lazy ; " but, " Come all ye that labor and are heavy laden." A noble manhood or womanhood will lift any legitimate calling into respectability. It is manhood nature is after, not money or fame. Oh, what price will she not pay for a man ! Ages and aeons were nothing for her to spend in preparing for his coming, or in making his existence possible. She has rifled the centuries for his development, and placed the universe at his disposal. The world is but his kin- dergarten, and every created thing but an object-lesson from the unseen universe. Nature resorts to a thousand expedients to develop a perfect type of her grandest creation. To do this she must induce him to fight his way up to his own loaf. She never allows him once to lose sight of the fact that it is the struggle to attain 238 PUSHING TO THE FKONT. that develops the man. The moment we put our hand upon that which looks attractive at a distance, and which we struggle so hard to reach, nature robs it of its charm by holding up before us another prize still more attrac- tive. The toy which the child could not be induced to give up, he forsakes willingly when he sees the orange. So we relinquish one prize to pursue another, but with the added strength, developed in the struggle to attain the last. rNature has left man in this unstable equilibrium, lest the satisfaction from the possession of that which he struggled so hard to get rob him of his ambition for new conquests. The struggle to obtain is the great gymnasium of the race. Nature puts pleasure in the acquisition of that which the heart covets, but the mo- ment we place our hand upon the, prize, the charm vanishes ; its usefulness is gone ; it can develop no more character, no more stamina, no more manhood. What if — " That which shone afar so grand Turns to ashes in the hand ? On again ; the virtue lies In the struggle, not in the prize." Labor is the great schoolmaster of the race. It is the grand drill in life's army, without which we are only confused and powerless when called into action. What a teacher industry is ! It calls us away from con- ventional instructors, books, and theories, and brings us into the world's great school — into actual contact with men and things. The perpetual attrition of mind upon mind rasps off the rough edges of unpractical life and gives polish to character. It teaches patience, perseverance, forbearance, and application. It teaches method and system, by compelling us to crowd the most possible into every day and hour. Industry is a perpetual call upon the judgment, the power of quick decision ; it makes ready men, practical men. THE PRICE OF SUCCESS. 239 "To lave any chance of success, I must be more steady than other men," Lord Campbell wrote to his father as an excuse for not visiting home ; " I must be in chambers when they are at the theatre; I must study when they are asleep ; I must, above all, remain in town when they are in the country." Why does a bjt of canvas with the " Angelus " on it bring one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, while that of another artist brings but a dollar ? Be- cause Millet put one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars' worth of brains and labor into his canvas, while the other man put only a dollar's worth into his. Work is worthless unless mixed with brains. A blacksmith makes five dollars' worth of iron into horseshoes, and gets ten dollars for them. The cutler makes the same iron into knives, and gets two hundred dollars. The machinist makes the same iron into nee- dles, and gets sixty-eight hundred dollars. The watch- maker takes it and makes it into mainsprings, and gets two hundred thousand dollars ; or into hair-springs, and gets two million dollars, sixty times the value of the same weight of gold. So it is with our life material which is given us at birth. Do something with it we must. We cannot throw it away, for even idleness leaves its curse upon it. One young man works his up into objects of beauty and utility. He mixes brains with it. Another botches and spoils his without purpose or aim until, perhaps late in life, he comes to his senses and tries to patch up the broken and wasted pieces ; but it is a sorry apology to leave, in payment for a life of magnificent possibili- ties. "Why, my lord," said a flippant English clergyman to the Bishop of Litchfield, "it'is the easiest thing in the world to preach. Why, very often, »I choose my text after I go into the pulpit, and then go on and preach a sermon, and think nothing of it." " Ah, yes," 240 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. said the Hsliop, " that agrees exactly with what I hear your people say, for they hear the sermon, and they, tgo, think nothing of it." Clhe -world is full of just-a^going-to-bes, — subjunctive heroes who might, could, would, or should be this or that but for certain obstacles or discouragements, — prospectuses which never become published works. They aU. long for success, but they want it at a dis- count. The "one price" for all is too high. They covet the golden round in the ladder, but they do not like to climb the difficult steps by which alone it can be reached. They long for victory, but shrink from the fight. They are forever looking for soft places and smooth surfaces where there will be the least resistance, forgetting that t he very friction which re tar ds the train upon the track , and counteracts a iourtli oi ai l the en- gine's power, is essentiat 't o its loeomo^um! Grease the track, and, though the engine puffs and the wheels re- volve, the train will not move an inclil'^ Work is difficult in proportion as the end to be attained is high and noble. God has put the highest price upon the greatest worth. If a man would reach the highest success he must pay the price himself. No titled pedigree, no money inherited from ancestors with long bank accounts, can be given in exchange for this commodity. He must be self-made or never made. The Eomans arranged the seats in their two temples to Virtue and Honor, so that no one could enter the second without passing through the first. Such is the order of advance, — Virtue, Toil, Honor. All would like to succeed, but this is not enough. Who would be satisfied with the success which may be had for the wishing ? You can have what you desire, if you will pay the price. But how much do you want to succeed ? Will you pay the price ? How eager are you to strive for success ? How much can you endure ? How long can you wait ? THE PRICE OF SUCCESS. 241 Do you long for an education ? Would you, if neces- sary, wear threadbare clothes in college, and board yourself? Would you, like Thurlow Weed, study nights by the light of a camp-fire in a sugar-orchard ? Would you walk through the snow two miles, with pieces of rag carpet tied about your feet for shoes, that you might, like him, borrow a coveted book ? Have you the stamina to go on with your studies when too poor to buy bread, and when you can appease the pangs of hunger only by tying tighter and tighter about your body a girdle, as did Samuel Drew or Kitto ? Would you, like John Scott, rise at four and study until ten or eleven at night, tying a wet towel around your head to keep awake ; would you, when too poor to buy books, borrow and copy three folio volumes of precedents, and the whole of Coke on Littleton, with the boy who be- came Lord Eldon ? Would you be disheartened by Wilberforce's suggestion to a student of law: "You must make up your mind to live like a hermit and work like a horse " ? Can you eat sawdust without butter, as the great lawyer, Chitty, asked the young man who came to him for advice about studying law ? Have you the determination that would hammer an education from the stone-quarry, with Hugh Miller ; the patience that would spend a lifetime tracing the handwriting of the Creator down through the ages in the strata of the rocks ? Would you work on a farm for twelve long years for a yoke of oxen and six sheep, with Henry Wilson ? Do you love learning well enough to walk forty miles to obtain a book you could not afford to buy, with Abraham Lincoln ? Not that we would recommend such extreme measures ; but if you saw no way open except such as was traveled by these and many other great men, would you be equal to the stern ordeal, and learn from experience that " the royal road to learning " is a myth, and that the real road is one that tears the brow with its thorns, and exhausts the heart with its disappointments ? 242 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. Would you be an orator and sway the minds of men ? Would you train your voice for months on the sea- shore with only the wild waves for your audience, with Demosthenes ? Would you, like him, cure yourself of a peculiar shrug by practicing with naked shoulders under the sharp points of suspended swords ? Could you stand calm and unmoved in raneuH Hall, amid "hisses and showers of rotten eggs, with Wendell Phil- lips ? Have you the stamina that would keep you on your feet in Parliament with a Disraeli when every sentence is hailed with derisive laughter ? Could you stand your ground, as he did, ujitil you had compelled the applause of " the first gentlemen in the world " ? Have you the determination that carried Curran agaia and again to speak in that august Parliament from which he had been so often hissed ? Would you perse- vere, like Savonarola, Cobden, Sheridan, and scores of others who broke down completely at their first at- tempts, in spite of repeated and ignominious failures ? If, like Daniel Webster, you could not manage to de- claim throughout your whole school course, could you still find courage to become a public speaker ? Would you black boots for the students at Oxford with George Whitefield ? Would you, like Beecher, begin preaching in a church of nineteen members in an obscure town in Indiana, and act as sexton, janitor, and minister ? Would you, like Anna Dickinson, face the jeers and hisses, and even the pistol-bullets of the Molly Ma- guires ? Would you preach Christ and Him crucified amid the scorn of skeptics, the pangs of martyrdom ? Do you yearn to be an artist, and transfer to canvas or set free from marble the beauty which haunts your soul ? Would you join Michael Angelo in carrying mortar for the frescoers up long ladders, to catch some suggestions from their words or work ? Would you, at sixty-five, while the pope yet sleeps, don your overalls and dig your own ochre in the rear of THE PRICE OF SUCCESS. 243 the Vatican, and devote your whole day to your art? Could you work patiently for seven long years decora- ting the Sistine Chapel with the "Story of the Crea- tion " and the immortal " Last Judgment " ? Would you refuse remuneration for this work, lest you be swerved from the ideal dominating your soul ? Would you rise at dead of night, seize hammer and chisel, and call from the rough marble the angel which haunts your dreams and will not let you sleep ? Would you excel in literature ? Would not the dread of rejected manuscript, returned with thanks, dishearten you after you had given it years of your ripest thought and great sacrifice ? Are you willing to live unre- cognized and die unknown ? You would have written Shakespeare's plays, but could you wait two hundred years for recognition, and die without even receiving mention from your greatest contemporary ? Would you pay Goethe's price for distinction ? " Each bon mot of mine," said he, " has cost a purse of gold. Half a million of my own money, the fortune I inherited, my salary, and the large income derived from my writings for fifty years back, have been expended to instruct me in what I know." Would you have laboriously created and dictated " Paradise Lost " in a world you could not see, and then sell it for fifteen pounds, in an age in which a learned London critic could say : " The blind school- master has written a tedious poem on 'The Fall of Man,' and unless length has merit, it has none " ? Would not the grating of the jail door and the long nights in a dungeon dampen your ardor for the author- ship of even the immortal " Pilgrim's Progress " ? Would you endure the agonies of a De Quincey in order to write his matchless visions and analyses ? Would you live on the border-land of want and woe and temptar tion for many years, with Poe, even for the sake of pioneering human thought into unexplored regions of weird and mystic speculation, of exquisite, ethereal 244 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. beauty ? "Would you endure the misery of CowiDer that you might wail your anguish in song, or dally with'the story of the inimitable John Gilpin ? Could you, with Euripides, be content to devote three days to five lines, that those lines might live centuries after your language had 'ceased to be spoken ? Could you have the patience and perseverance of Moore, that you might produce ten immortal lines a day ? Could you have the persistence of Isaac Newton, who, after spending long years on au intricate calculation, had his papers destroyed by his dog Diamond, and then cheerfully began to replace them ? Have you the courage of Carlyle, who, after he had lent the manuscript of the " French Eevolution " to a friend, whose servant carelessly used it to kindle the fire, calmly went to work and rewrote it ? Would you wheel supplies in a barrow through the streets of Phil- adelphia, with a Franklin ? Would you be a soldier ? Could you, like Napoleon, wait for an appointment seven years aftei you had pre- pared yourself thoroughly, and use all your enforced leisure in further intense study ? Could you, while losing nine battles out of every ten, still press on with an iron determination which would win you Blucher's title of " Marshal Forward " ? Could you, while losing more battles than you won, go on with Washington and conquer by the power of your character ? Would you bless your race by inventions or discov- eries ? Could you cheerfully earn the means to carry on your experiments by working in Kichard Arkwright's barber-shop in a basement, with this sign over your door : " Come to the Subterraneous Barber — a Clean Shave for a HaKpenny " ? Could you plod on with en- thusiasm after seeing a mob tear down the mill you had erected for the employment of your machLuery ? Is incessant labor for fifteen weary years too great a price to pay for George Stephenson's first successful locomo- tive ? Is thirty years too long to spend with Watt THE PRICE OF SUCCESS. 245 amid want and woe in perfecting the condensing-engine ? Is your determination strong enough to carry you to the verge of ruin, time and again, and to enable you when your credit is exhausted, and your wife has turned against you, to burn the palings of your fence and the furniture and floor of your house, and then add the shelves of your pantry to the fire which develops an enamel like Palissy's ? If cast into prison, could you experiment with the straw in your cell, with Galileo ? Can you lie more than once in a debtor's prison and live on charity much of the time, for ten years, to win the triumph of Goodyear, whose friend could truthfully say : " If you see a man with an India-rubber coat on. India-rubber shoes, and India-rubber cap, and in his pocket an India-rubber purse, with not a cent in it, that is Goodyear " ? Could you have the heart to perfect an invention beyond almost any other at its first introduc- tion, only to find with Eli Whitney or Elias Howe, that those whom it was intended to bless refused to use it at first, and later tried to steal it ? Could you wait eight years for a patent on telegraphy with Samuel E. B. Morse, and then almost fight for a chance to introduce it ? Could you invent a hay -tedder, and then pay a farmer for trying it on his hay, because he said it would " knock the seeds off " ? Would you, after inventing McCormick's reaper, have the persist- ence to introduce it into England amid the ridicule of the press, the " London Times " calling it " a cross be- tween an Astley chariot, a wheelbarrow, and a flying- machine " ? Would you live in the woods for years to reproduce Audubon's drawings of North American birds, after they had been destroyed by Norway rats, or toil over Alps and Andes with Agassiz, or go with Pliny to describe the volcano, Mt. Vesuvius, that was to destroy your life ? Would your passion for art give you nerve like that of Vernet to sketch the towering wave on the Mediterranean that threatened to engulf your vessel ? 246 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. Would your patience suffice to practice on Handel's harpsichord in secret until every key was hollowed by your fingers to resemble the bowl of a spoon? If a physician, would you inoculate yourself with a yellow- fever or cholera bacillus, to test its power ? Would you take three grains of opium to test the power of a new antidote you believed you had discovered, permanga- nate of potash ? In politics, could you persevere to be a candidate sixteen times in vain, to be elected Governor Marcus Morton of Massachusetts in 1840 by a majority of but one vote ? Could you endure the most bitter persecu- tion for years, to rank with William Lloyd Garrison as a benefactor of an unfortunate race ? After acquiring fortune, could you give up your well-earned leisure, devote years of almost hopeless drudgery, and risk aU your wealth, amid the scoffs of men, in a seemingly futile attempt to bind two continents together by an electric cord, with Cyrus W. Field ? Success is the child of drudgery and perseverance. Fame never comes because it is craved. If you are built of such material as this, you will succeed ; if not, in spite of all your dreams and wishes you will fail. Most people look upon poverty as bad fortune, and forget that it has ever been the priceless spur in nearly all great achievements, all down the Jean Paul Eiehter, who suffered greatly from pov- erty, said that he would not have been rich for worlds. " How unfortunate it is for a boy to have rich par- ents," said James Gordon Bennett to George W. Childs. "If you and I had been born that way, we would never have done anything worth mentioning.'' "I began life with a sixpence," said Gii-ard, "and believe that a man's best capital is his industry." How nature laughs at puny society caste, and at at- tempts to confine greatness behind brown-stone fronts \ THE PRICE OF SUCCESS. 247 She drops au idiot on Fifth Avenue or Beacon Street, where a millionaire looked for a Webster or a Sumner, and leaves a Garfield in a log-cabin in the wilderness, where humble parents expected only a pioneer. She astonishes a poor blacksmith with a Burritt, and gives a dunce to a wealthy banker. A fool may be born in a palace, and the Saviour of the world in a stable. Truly royal men and women look out of cold and miserable attic windows, from factories and poorhouses, upon people much their inferiors, though dressed in broad- cloths and satins, whose dishonesty and craft have overcome them in the battle of life. What an army of young men enters the success- contest every year as raw recruits ! Many of them are country youths flocking to the cities to buy success. Their young ambitions have been excited by some book, or fired by the story of some signal success, and they dream of becoming Astors or Girards, Stewarts or Wauamakers, Vanderbilts or Goulds, Lincolns or Garfields, until their innate energy impels them to try their own fortune in the magic metropolis. But what are you willing to pay for "success," as you call it, young man ? Do you realize what that word means in a great city in the nineteenth century, where men grow gray at thirty and die of old age at forty, — where the race of life has become so intense that the runners are treading on the heels of those before them ; and " woe to him who stops to tie his shoestring " ? Do you know that only two or three out of every hundred will ever win permanent success, and only because they have kept everlastingly at it ; and that the rest will sooner or later fail and many die in poverty because they have given up the struggle ? It is said of the young, men who entered business on State Street, Boston, forty years ago, that even their names are almost forgotten. Most of them were killed in the fierce struggle of competition. 248 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. Eead the diary of an old man on Long "Wharf, Boston, where the battle waged less fiercely : " Of all I knew in business, only five have succeeded in forty years. All the others failed or died in want." Of a thousand depositors in the Union Bank, all but sis failed or died poor. "Bankruptcy," said one of the old bank directors, " is like death and almost as certain. They fall single and alone, and are thus forgotten, but there is no escape, and he is fortunate who fails young." In Pemberton Square among the lawyers, an old friend of Eufus Choate and Daniel Webster tells us there are two thousand attorneys in Boston, and only four hundred get a living by their profession, and only now and then one becomes distinguished. In a work on business, published in eighteen hun- dred and fifty-two, Edwin T. Freedley gave a select list of the first-class wholesale houses in Philadelphia. On reexamining the list twenty-three years later, he found but two out of seventeen of the importing firms he had mentioned; two out of twenty-two dry goods houses ; four out of twenty-five dry goods jobbing houses ; nine of the silk firms ; eight out of twenty-five drug houses ; one out of seventeen boot and shoe job- bers ; and a total of only twenty-five out of the one hundred and seventy-seven wholesale firms he had con- sidered the most solid in the City of Brotherly Love. The thought of this cold reality is appalling, and we almost shrink from effort when success seems so much like a lottery with very few prizes. But he who .would succeed must pay the price. He must not look for a " soft job." Into work which he feels to be a part of his very existence he must pour his whole heart and soul. He must be fired by a deter- mination which knows no defeat, which cares not for hunger or ridicule, which spurns hardships and laughs at want and disaster. They were not men of luck and broadcloth, nor of legacy and laziness, but men inured THE PRICE OF SUCCESS. 249 to hardship and deprivation, — not afraid of threadbare clothes and honest poverty, men who fought their way to their own loaf, — who have pushed the world up from chaos into the light of the highest civilization. They were men who, as they climbed, expanded ind lifted others to a higher plane and opened wider the doors of narrow lives. If thou canst plan a noble deed, And never flag till it succeed, Though in the strife thy heart should bleed ; Whatever obstacles control, Thine hour will come, — go on, true soul. Thou 'It win the prize, — thou 'It reach the goal. Charles Mackay. No pain, no palm ; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory j no cross- no crown. — Penn. CHAPTEE XVI. CHAKACTER IS POWER. Character is power — is influence ; it makes friends ; creates funds ; draws patronage and support ; and opens a sure and easy way to wealth, honor, and happiness. — J. Hawes. When all have done their utmost, surely he Hath given the best who gives a character Erect and constant. Lowell. I 'm called away by particular business, but I leave my character be- hind me. — Sheridan. As there is nothing in the world great but man, there is nothing truly great in man but character. — W. M. Evakts. The spirit of a single mind Makes that of multitudes take one direction. As roll the waters to the breathing wind. Bteon. Character must stand behind and back up everj^hing — the sermon, the poem, the picture, the play. None.of them is worth a straw without it. — J. G. Holland. The alleged power to charm down insanity, or ferocity in beasts, is a power behind the eye. — Emerson. Character is the diamond that scratches every other stone. — Bartol. " Barest thou kill Caius Marius ? " said the unarmed Koman to the assassin sent to his dungeon. The Gim- brian quailed before the captive's eye, dropped his Weapon, and fled. Learning that Napoleon -would soon pass alone through a long dim passage, a young man hid there to slay the ruthless invader of his country. As the em- peror approached, his massive head bowed in thought, the young man raised his weapon, took careful aim, and was about to press the trigger when a slight noise be- trayed his presence. ISTapoleon looked up, and compre- hended the situation at a glance. He did not speak, but gazed intently upon the youth, a smile of haughty GEORGE WASHINGTON " That tower of strength Which stood four square to all the winds tliat blew-' CHARACTER IS POWER. 251 challenge upon his face. The weapon fell from nerve- less hands, and the hero of a hundred fields passed on in silence, his head again bowed in meditation upon affairs of state. To him it was but one incident in a crowded career, a mere personal triumph soon lost sight of amid memories of battles which shook the world with the thunder of his victorious legions. To the young man it was the experience of a lifetime, a crush- ing, bewildering sense of his own inferiority in compar- ison with the enormous, ponderous weight of character of a man who threw every fibre and faculty and power of his being into the life he was living. As well might the glowworm match himself against the lightning ! " Let a king and a beggar converse freely together," said Bulwer, "and it is the beggar's fault if he does not say something which makes the king lift his hat to him." What is that to which the king would make obei- sance ? Information ? No. He would not lift his hat to that. Is there not something which the poorest and humblest may have in equal or greater proportion than the monarch — manliness ? We admire wisdom, but we bow our heads before a man, whether he be a child of misfortune or a king. "Be you only whole and sufficient," says Emerson, " and I shall feel you in every part of my life and for- tune, and I can as easily dodge the gravitation of the globe as escape your influence." Character is power. "No, say- what you have to say in her presence, too," said King Cleomenes of Sparta, when his visitor Anistagoras asked him to send away his little daughter Gorgo, ten years old, knowing how much harder it is to persuade a man to do wrong when his child is at his side. So Gorgo sat at her father's feet, and listened while the stranger offered more and more money if Cleomenes would aid him to become king in a neighbor- ing country. She did not understand the matter, but when she saw her father look troubled and hesitate, 252 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. she took hold of his hand and said, " Papa, come away — come, or this strange man will make you do wrong." The king went away with the child, and saved himself and his country from dishonor. Character is power, even in a child. When grown to womanhood, Gorge was married to the hero Leonidas. One day a messen- ger brought a tablet sent by a friend who was a prisoner in Persia. But the closest scrutiny failed to reveal a single word or line on the white waxen surface, and the king and all his noblemen concluded that it was sent as a jest. " Let me take it," said Queen Gorgo ; and, after looking it all over, she exclaimed, "There must be some writing underneath the wax ! " They scraped away the wax and found a warning to Leonidas from the Grecian prisoner, saying that Xerxes was coming with his immense host to conquer all Greece. Acting on this warning Leonidas and the other kings assembled their armies and checked the mighty host of Xerxes, which is said to have shaken the earth as it marched. During the Revolutionary War, Richard Jackson was accused of an intention to join the British army, and admitted the truth of the charge. He was com- mitted to the rude county jail, from which he could have escaped easily ; but he considered himself held by due process of law, and his sense of duty forbade flight under such circumstances. He asked leave of the sheriff to go out and work by day, promising to return each night. Consent was given readily, as his character for simple honesty was well known, and for eight months he went out each morning and returned at evening. At length the sher- iff prepared to take him to Springfield, to be tried for high treason. Jackson said this would be needless trouble and expense, for he could go just as well alone. Again his word was taken, and he set off alone. On the way he was overtaken by Mr. Edwards of the council CHARACTER IS POWER. 253 of Massachusetts, who asked whither he was going. " To Springfield, sir," was the reply, "to be tried for my life." The proof was complete, and Jackson was condemned to death. When the president of the council asked if a pardon should be granted, member after member op- posed, until Mr. Edwards told the story of his meeting with Jackson in the woods. By common consent a par- don was at once made out. The childlike simplicity and integrity of the man had saved his life. Character is power. In the great monetary panic of 1857, a meeting was called of the various bank presidents of New York city. When asked what percentage of specie had been drawn during the day, some replied fifty per cent., some even as high as seventy-five per cent., but Moses Taylor of the City Bank said : " We had in the bank this morn- ing, f 400,000; this evening, |470,000." While other banks were badly " run," the confidence in the City Bank under Mr. Taylor's management was such that people had deposited in that institution what they had drawn from other banks. Character gives confidence. " One man speaks with the accent of conviction, and his words are edicts. ISTations run to obey, as if to obey was the only joy they coveted. Another speaks hesitatingly and only makes us question whether the gift of speech be, on the whole, a blessing." We can calculate the efficiency of an engine to the last ounce of pressure. Its power can be as accurately determined as the temperature of a room. But who can rightly determine the inherent force of a man of pre- dominant character ? Who can estimate the influence of a single boy or girl upon the character of a school ? Traditions, customs, manners have been changed for sev- eral school generations by one or two strong characters, who in their own small way, but none the less impor- tant, have become school heroes — as much real forces 254 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. in life as if they were locomotives dragging loads of cars. Any teacher "will tell you that many a school has been pulled up grade, or run down, by just such impe- rious characters. When war with Prance seemed imminent, in 1798, President Adams wrote to George "Washington, then a private citizen in retirement at Mount Vernon: "We must have your name, if you will permit us to use it ; there wiU be more efficacy in it than in many an army." Character is power. Wellington said that ISTapoleon's presence in the French army was equivalent to forty thousand ad- ditional soldiers, and Eichter said of the invincible Luther, " His words were half battles." St. Bernard had such power over men that mothers hid their sons, wives their husbands, companions their friends, lest they should be persuaded to enter the monastery. "You could not stand with Burke under an archway while a shower of rain was passing," said Dr. Johnson, "without discovering that he was an extraordinary man." Warren Hastings said he thought himself the basest of men while Burke was hurling at him his terrible denunciations when on trial for his alleged misrule in India. "Hence it was," said Franklin, speaking of the in- fluence of his known integrity of character, " that I had so much weight with my fellow citizens. I was but a bad speaker, never eloquent, subject to much hesita- tion in my choice of words, hardly correct in language, and yet I generally carried my point." " The man behind the sermon," said William M. Evarts, "is the secret of John Hall's power." In fact if there is not a man with a character behind it nothing about it is of the slightest consequence. John Brown (of Ossawatomie) said : " One good. CHARACTER IS POWER. 255 strong, sound man is worth one hundred, nay, one thou- sand men without character, in building up a state." We all believe in the man of character. What power of magic lies in a great name ! Theodore Parker used to say that Socrates was worth more to a nation than many such states as South Carolina. Jefferson once wrote to Washington : " The confi- dence of the whole nation centres in you." There was not a throne in Europe that could stand against Wash- ington's character, and in comparison with it the mil- lions of the Eothschilds would look ridiculous. What are the works of avarice compared with the names of Lincoln, Grant, or Garfield ? A few names have ever been the salt which has preserved the nations from pre- mature decay. " It is the nature of party in England," said John Russell, " to ask the assistance of men of genius, but to follow the guidance of men of character." "My road must be through character to power," wrote Canning in 1801. " I will try no other course ; and I am sanguine enough to believe that this course, though not perhaps the quickest, is the surest." Power is the great goal of ambition, and it is only through a noble character that one can arrive at a per- sonality strong enough to move men and nations. "The thought, the feeling in the central man in a great city touches all who are in it who think and feel," said C. T. Brooks. " The very boys catch something of his power, and have something about them that would not be there if he were not in the town." During the civil war in France, Montaigne alone kept his castle gates unbarred, and was not molested. His character was more powerful than the king's guards. Truly, as Pope says, he 's armed without that 's inno- cent within. History and biography show many wonderful in- stances of the immunity accorded to men of character. 266 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. A strange talisman seemed to surround them. Read the lives of William Penn, Eoger Williams, Xavier, Living- stone, and of many others who courted danger for the sake of religion or science, and why is it that they have been spared by the savage spear ? Character is protec- tion. In the army, fleeing from Moscow amid the bewilder- ing snows of a biting Russian winter, was a German prince whose sterling character had endeared him to all his soldiers. One bitter night, in the ruins of a shed built for cattle, all lay down to sleep, cold, tired, and hungry. At dawn the prince awoke,- warm and refreshed, and listened to the wind as it howled and shrieked around the shed. He called his men, but re- ceived no reply. Looking around, he found their dead bodies covered with snow, while their cloaks were pUed upon himself — their lives given to save his. " There is a time for all things," said the Reverend Peter J. G. Muhlenburg to his congregation at Wood- stock, Va., about the close of seventeen hundred and seventy-five ; " a time to preach and a time to pray, but those times have passed away. There is a time to fight and that time has now come." So saying, he flung aside his ministerial robes and stood before them in the full uniform of a Virginia colonel. Nearly every man in his congregation joined him; and, with others quickly rallied from a distance, he marched to do noble service in the Revolutionary War, from which he returned an honored major-general. "I fear, my AttOia, that, for this year, our little fields must remain unsown," said Quintius Cincinnatus to his wife, as the deputies of the Roman Senate led him away to a consulship, when the great empire was in danger. They had found him holding the plough, clad in plain attire, and apparently destitute of ambi- tion for oflB.ce. By his moderation, humanity, and jus- tice in the midst of factional jealousy, he soon restored public tranquillity, and returned to his plough. CHARACTER IS POWER. 257 Another exigency soon arose, wlien the Eternal City- needed character, and the senate made him dictator, with unlimited power. He restored public confidence, reorganized the army, defeated a powerful enemy, and then, having refused any share of the rich spoil, he re- signed the dictatorship which he had held but fourteen days, and resumed work upon his farm as calmly as if nothing had happened. " sir, we are beaten," exclaimed the general in command of Sheridan's army, retreating before the vic- torious Early. " No, sir," replied the indignant Sheri- dan; "you are beaten, but this army is not beaten." Drawing his sword, he waved it above his head, and pointed it at the pursuing host, while his clarion voice rose above the horrid din in a command to charge once more. The lines paused, turned, — "And with the ocean's mighty swing, When heaving to the tempest's wing, They hurled them on the foe; " and the Confederate army was wildly routed. How could an ancient battle be won by bringing upon the field, bound upright upon his familiar charger, the corpse of Douglas, of whose death his troops were ignorant ? When Clan Alpine's best were borne back- ward in Scott's "Lady of the Lake," why would one blast upon his bugle-horn have been worth a thousand men, if blown by Eoderick Dhu, then lying in his blood at Stirling Castle ? Surely a living private were better than a dead general, and scores of mountaineers could blow as loud a blast as Eoderick. The power all ema- nated from the character or spirit of which the clay on horseback was known as the outward embodiment, and the stirring bugle-caU the voice. One of the most dramatic illustrations of the force of manhood in action, and at the same time in restraint, comes to us from the Civil War. The following thrill- ing description of the charge at New Market Heights 258 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. is an extract from General Butler's speech on the Civil- Rights Bill : — " Now, sir, yon will allow me to state how I got over my prejudices. I think the House got over theirs after the exhibition we had yesterday. I think no man will get up here and say he speaks only to white men again. He must, at first, show himself worthy before he can speak for some colored men in the House, after what occurred yesterday. " I came into command in Virginia in eighteen hun- dred and sixty-three. I there organized twenty-five regiments, with some that were sent to me, and disci- plined them. Still, all my brother officers of the regu- lar army said my colored soldiers would not fight, and I felt it was necessary that they should fight to show that their race was capable of the duties of citizens; for one of the highest duties of citizens is to defend their own liberties and their country's flag and honor. I went myseK with the colored troops to attack the enemy at New Market Heights, which was the key to the enemy's flank on the north side of James Eiver. When the flash of dawn was breaking, I placed a column of three thousand colored troops, in close column by division, right in front, with guns at right shoulder shift. ." I said : ' That work must be taken by the weight of your column : no shot must be fired ; ' and to prevent their firing I had the caps taken from the nipples of their guns. Then I said : ' Your cry, when you charge, will be " Remember Fort Pillow ; " ' and as the sun rose up in the heavens the order was given 'Forward,' and they marched forward, steadily as if on parade — went down the hill, across the marsh, and as they got into the brook they came within range of the enemy's fire, which vigorously opened upon them. They broke a little as they forded the brook, and the column wavered. Oh, it was a moment of intensest anxiety, but they CHARACTER IS POWER. 259 formed again as they reached the firm giound, march- ing steadily on with closed ranks under the enemy's fire, until the head of the column reached the first line of abatis, some one hundred and fiity yards from the enemy's works. Then axemen ran to the front to cut away the heavy obstructions of defense, while one thou- sand men of the enemy with their artillery concen- trated, from the redoubt, poured a heavy fire upon the head of the column hardly wider than the clerk's desk. The axemen went down under the murderous fire ; other strong hands grasped the axes in their stead, and the abatis was cut away. Again, at double-quick, the col- umn goes forward to within forty yards of the fort, to meet there another line of abatis. The column halts. And there a very fire of hell is poured upon them. The abatis resists and holds, the head of the column seemed literally to' melt away under the shot and shell, the flags of the leading regiments go down, but a brave black hand seizes the colors ; strong hands and willing hearts seize the heavy, sharpened trees and drag them away, and the column went forward, and, with a shout which now rings in my ear, they went over that redoubt like a flash, and the enemy never stopped running for four miles. "It became my painful duty, sir, to follow in the track of that charging column, and there, in a space not wider than the clerk's desk and three hundred yards long, lay the dead bodies of five hundred and forty-three of my colored soldiers, slain in defense of their country, and who had laid down their lives to uphold its flag and its honor as a willing sacrifice ; and, as I rode along among them, guiding my horse this way and that way, lest he should profane with his foot what seemed to me the sacred dead, and I looked on their bronzed faces up- turned in the shining sun to heaven, as if in mute ap- peal against the wrongs of that country for which they had given their lives, and whose flag had only been to 2QP PUSHING TO THE FRONT. them a flag of stripes, on wliicli no star of glory had ever shone for them, — feeling that I had wronged them in the past, and believing what was the future of my country to them, — among my dead comrades there I swore to myself a solemn oath : ' May my right hand forget its cunning and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I ever fail to defend the rights of these men who have given their blood for me and my country this day and for their grace forever ; ' and, God help- ing me, I will keep that oath." On the 2d of September, 1792, the populace broke into the prisons of Paris, crowded almost to suffocation with aristocrats and priests. These fell like grain before the scythe of the reaper. But in the midst of that wild revel of blood, a sans culotte recognized the Abbd Sicard, who had spent his life teaching the deaf and dumb, and in whose house — " The cunning fingers finely twined The subtle thread that knitteth mind to mind ; There that strange bridge of signs was built where roll The sunless waves that sever soul from soul, And by the arch, no bigger than a hand, Truth traveled over to the silent land." " Behold the bosom through which you must pass to reach that of this good citizen," said Mounot, who knew the abbe only by sight and reputation ; " you do not know him. He is the Abbd Sicard, one of the most benevolent of men, the most useful to his country, the father of the deaf and dumb." And the murderers around embraced him, and wished to carry him home in their arms. Even in that bloodstained throng the power of a noble character was still supreme. The Franks had maintained a siege of the Roman walls of Paris until the starving garrison began to de- spair, although their fortifications were strong enough. No warrior was willing to incur the risk of going out in search of provisions. But Genevieve, a maid of the CHARACTER IS POWER. 24l garrison, went down the Seine in a little boat, beyond the camp of the besiegers, and succeeded in persuading the different Gallic tribes to send supplies to their fam- ished brethren. The Franks withdrew ; but, in a later attempt when Genevieve was absent, thej^ seized the city and closed the gates in mysterious fear that she might return, the guards being specially instructed to deny her admit- tance. But in the homely gown and veil of a peasant she entered unsuspected, and appeared before the Frank leader Hilperik in the midst of a wild carousal. What passed iu that interview is not known beyond the fact that the barbarian granted safety to his captives and mercy to all the people. She is regarded to this day the patron saint of Paris. Character, when expressed, is only reflex action : it is the doing what we have always resolved to do when the chance came. Character is like stock in trade ; the more of it a man possesses, the greater his facilities for adding to it. Just as a man prizes his character, so is he. Sir Philip Sidney, mortally wounded at Zutphen, was tortured by thirst from his great loss of blood. Water was carried to him. A wounded soldier borne by on a litter fixed his eyes upon the bottle with such a wistful gaze that Sidney insisted on giving it to him, saying, "Thy necessity is greater than mine." Sidney died, but this deed alone would have made his name honored when that of the king he served is forgotten. Florence Nightingale tells of soldiers suffering with dysentery, who, scorning to report themselves sick lest they should force more labor on their overworked comrades, would go down to the. trenches and make them their death-beds. Say what yau will, there is in the man who gives his time, his strength, his life, if need be, for something not himself, — whether he call it his queen, his country, Ms colors, or his fellow man, — something more truly 262 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. Christian than in all the ascetic fasts, humiliations, and confessions that have ever been made. Porsena threatened Cains Mutius with torture, when the latter coolly stretched his right hand into the camp- iire, and watched it burn to a crisp without a groan. The Tuscan freed his prisoner, and concluded a treaty with Eome, the country which reared such men as Mutius and Horatius. "I have read," Emerson says, "that they who lis- tened to Lord Chatham felt that there was something finer in the man than anything which he said." It has been complained of Carlyle that when he has told all his facts about Mirabeau they do not justify his esti- mate of the latter's genius. The Gracchi, Agis, Cle- omenes, and others of Plutarch's heroes do not in the record of facts equal their own fame. Sir Philip Sid- ney and Sir Walter Ealeigh are men of great figure and of few deeds. We cannot find the smallest part of the personal weight of Washington in the narrative of his exploits. The authority of the name of Schiller is too great for his books. This inequality of the reputa- tion to the works or the ancedotes is not accounted for by saying that the reverberation is longer than the thun- der-clap ; but something resided in these men which begot an expectation that outran all their performance. The largest part of their power was latent. This is that which we call character, — a reserved force which acts directly by presence, and without means. What 'others effect by talent or eloquence, the man of character accomplishes by some magnetism. " Half his strength he puts not forth." His victories are by demonstration of superiority, and not by crossing bayonets. He con- quers, because his arrival alters the face of affairs. " lole ! how didst thou know that Hercules was a god ? " " Because," answered lole, " I was content the moment my eyes fell on him. When I beheld Theseus, I desired that I might see bini offer battle, or at least CHARACTER IS POWER. 263 drive his horses in the chariot-race ; but Hercules did not wait for a contest ; he conquered whether he stood, or walked, or sat, or whatever else he did." There are men and women in every country who con- quer before they speak, and who exert an influence out of all proportion to their ability, and people wonder what is the secret of their power over men. It is nat- ural for all classes to believe in and to follow character, for character is power. Even the murderer respects the justice of the judge who pronounces his death-sentence. Something in him instinctively feels and indorses its right and justice. Never did Caesar exert a greater in- fluence over the Eoman people than when he lay upon the marble floor of the senate, pierced by cruel daggers, — his wounds so many open mouths pleading for him. It was said of Sheridan : " Had he possessed principle he might have ruled the world." How few young men realize that their success in life depends more upon what they are than upon what they know. It was character, not abUity, that elected Washington and Lincoln to the presidency. Webster bid high for the presidency. The price was his honor — all his former convictions. When a farmer heard that he had lost the nomination, he said : " The South never pays its slaves." What is this principle that Napoleon and Webster lacked? Is it not a deathless loyalty to the highest ideal which the world has been able to produce up to the present date ? This is what we admire and respect in strong men whose roots are deep in the ground and whose character is robust enough to keep them like oaks in their places when all around is whirling. " Trying to run without a pilot," was the only com- ment of a captain, as a passenger once pointed to a wreck lying upon the rocks. This would form a perti- nent inscription over Byron, Burns, and many a prema- ture grave. Character is safety. 264 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. Wlien promised protection in Turkey if he would embrace the Mohammedan religion, the exiled Kossuth replied : " Between death and shame, I have never been dubious. Though once the governor of a generous people, I leave no inheritance to my children. That were at least better than an insulted name. God's will be done. I am prepared to die." "These hands of mine," he said at another time, " are empty but clean." "Mamma," exclaimed the young Princess Victoria, " I cannot see who is to come after .Uncle William un- less it is myself." When told that she was the heir apparent, she said : " I will be good." More than half a century has elapsed since this princess of eighteen years was roused from slumber on the 21st of June, 1837, and summoned to appear before the Archbishop of Canterbury. Without even time to dress, she hastily threw a wrapper over her night- robes, and, with slippers on bare feet, and hair in disorder, she went before the archbishop and was saluted "Queen." The king was dead, and business of state will not wait for ladies' toilets. With all the dignity, innocence, and good sense of a true woman, the young queen extended her hand for the customary kiss of allegiance. Character, courtesy, and sound judgment have distinguished her wonderful reign of over half a century, and not once has she ceased to be a real queen. When Petrarch approached the tribunal to take the customary oath as a witness, he was told that such was the confidence of the court in his veracity that his word would be sufficient, and he would not be required to swear to his testimony. Hugh Miller was offered the position of cashier in a large bank, but declined, saying that he knew little of accounts, and could not get a bondsman. " We do not require bonds of you," said Mr. Eoss, president of the bank. Miller did not even know that Eoss knew him. CHARACTER IS POWER. 265 Our characteristics are always under inspection whether we realize it or not. " No man ever entered Mr. Pitt's closet who did not feel himself a braver man when he came out," said an eminent soldier who knew Chatham well. When Florence Nightingale entered the hospital at the Crimea, the whole atmosphere seemed changed. From those rough soldiers, tossing on beds of anguish, there came not a word to shock the most fastidious. Vittoria Colonna wrote her husband, when the princes of Italy urged him to desert the Spanish cause, to which he was bound by every tie of faithfulness, " Remember your honor, which raises you above kings. By that alone, and not by titles and splendor, is glory acquired — the glory which it will be your happiness and pride to transmit unspotted to your posterity." When Thoreau lay dying, a Calvinistic friend asked anxiously, "Henry, have you made your peace with God ? " " John," whispered the dying naturalist, " I did n't know God and myself had quarreled." Lincoln, although President of a great people, was the laughing-stock of the aristocratic and fashionable circles of Europe. The illustrated papers of all Chris- tendom caricatured the awkwardness and want of dig- nity of this backwoods graduate. Politicians were shocked at the simplicity of his state papers, and wished to make them more conventional ; but Lincoln only re- plied, "The people will understand them." Even in Washington he was ridiculed as "the ape," "stupid block- head," and " satyr." On reading these terrible denun- ciations and criticisms, he once said, "Well, Abraham Lincoln, are you a man or are you a dog ? " After the repulse at Fredericksburg he said, " If there is a man out of hell that suffers more than I do, I pity him." But the great heart of the common people beat in unison with his. The poor operatives in European cotton-mills sometimes nearly starved for lack of cotton, but they 266 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. never petitioned their government to break Lincoln's blockade. Working people, the world over, believed in and sympathized with him. Ko man ever lived of whom it could have been more truly said that, — " The elements So mixed in him that nature might stand up And say to all the world, ' This is a man.' " The world, it is said, is always looking for men who are not for sale ; men who are honest, sound from cen- tre to circumference, true to the heart's core ; men whose consciences are as steady as the needle to the pole ; men who will stand for the right if the heavens totter and the earth reels ; men who can tell the truth, and look the world and the devil right in the eye ; men that neither brag nor run ; men that neither flag nor flinch ; men who can have courage without shouting to it ; men in whom the courage of everlasting life runs still, deep, and strong; men who know their message and tell it ; men who know their places and fill them ; men who know their own business and attend to it ; men who wUl not lie, shirk, nor dodge ; men who are not too lazy to work, not too proud to be poor ; men who are willing to eat what they have earned, and wear what they have paid for ; men who are not afraid to say " No " with emphasis, and who are not ashamed to say, « I can't afford it." " How true it is that many millionaires, like the but- ternut, impoverish the ground upon which they grow ; others are like the olive-trees which enrich the very soil upon which they feed. Others are affluent souls, which enrich by their very presence, whose smiles are full of blessing, and whose touch has a balm of healing in it like the touch of Him of Nazareth." If there is any one power in the world that will make itself felt, it is character. There may be little culture, CHARACTER IS POWER, 267 slender abilities, no property, no position in " society ; " yet, if there be a character of sterling excellence, it will demand influence and secure respect. " A man, Caesar, is born," says Emerson, " and for ages after, we have a Koman empire. Napoleon changes the front of the world. Bacon turns in a new direction the thought of the human race. Newton interprets the thoughts of Grod. Eranklin unlocks the temple of Nature." " A right act strikes a chord that extends through the whole universe, touches all moral intelligence, visits every world, vibrates along its whole extent, and con- veys its vibrations to the very bosom of God." Do you not see a quality greater than leadership or generalship in Moses at the Eed Sea, Leonidas at Ther- mopylaB, Horatius at the bridge, Winkelried at Lake Zurich, Napoleon at Areola or Lodi, Ney guarding the rear of the Grand Army, Nelson at the Nile, Wolfe at Quebec, Allen at Ticonderoga, Arnold at Saratoga, Washington at Yorktown, Perry at Lake Erie, Jackson at New Orleans, Earragut on the Mississippi, Grant at Vicksburg, Sheridan at Winchester, or in scores of others who have achieved triumphs in war or in peace ? Louis XIV. asked Colbert how it was that, ruling so great and populous a country as Erance, he had been unable to conquer so small a country as Holland. " Be- cause," said the minister, " the greatness of a country does not depend upon the extent of its territory, but on the character of its people." The characters of great men are the dowry of a na- tion. Chateaubriand said he saw Washington but once, yet it inspired his whole life. An English tanner whose leather gained a great reputation said he should not have made it so good had he not read Carlyle. It is said that Eranklin reformed the manners of a whole workshop in London. Ariosto and Titian inspired each other and heightened each other's glory. "Tell me 268 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. whom you admire, and I will tell you what you are." A book or work of art puts us in the mood or train of thought of him who produced it. Is Michael Angelo dead ? Ask the hundreds of thousands who have gazed with rapt souls upon his immortal works at Rome. In how many thousands of lives has he lived and reigned ? Are Washington, Grant, and Lincoln dead ? Did they ever live more truly than to-day ? What American heart or home does not enshrine their characters ? Picture to yourself, if you can, Egypt without a Moses, Babylon without a Daniel, Athens without a Demosthenes, Phidias, Socrates, or Plato. What was Carthage two hundred years before Christ without her Hannibal ? What was Eome without her Caesar, her Cicero, Marcus Aurelius ? What is Paris without her Napoleon, and Hugo, and Pere Hyacinthe ? What is England without her Newton, Shakespeare, Milton, Pitt, Burke, Gladstone ? What is Boston without such char- acters as Garrison, and Phillips, and Whittier, and Emer- son, and Holmes ? What is New York without such men. as Peter Cooper, or Horace Greeley? What is Cali- fornia without her Stanford, or Chicago without her Armour, Pullman, and Field ? In these cities millions of lesser note have planned, and toiled, and worshiped, — have lived and died, and have made the real history which should receive our most careful attention ; but the leaven of the thoughts, the genius, the character of a few eminent men and women has so leavened the whole lump of life in either city, that they are largely typical of its history. What were the Crusades without Peter the Hermit, Godfrey de Bouillon, and Eichard' Coeur de Lion ? Take from England a score of names like Gladstone's, and who would read her history ? Through all the centuries of Italy's degradation Dante's name was the watchword of the country, while in the brain of many a slave still echoed the impas- sioned words of Cicero, of the Scipios, and the Gracchi CHARACTER IS POWER. 269 Byron said : " The Italians talk Dante, write Dante, and think Dante at this moment to an excess which would be ridiculous but that he deserves their admiration." Even degenerate Greece is not dead to the influence of the intellectual and moral giants of her golden age. Indeed, they still hold sway throughout the earth, more potent than when living, in the realms of thought and feeling. Our minds are shaped by the combined in- fluence of the minds of men called dead, nearly as strongly as by those with whom we associate in life ; our creeds are sanctified by the devotion of martyrs in whose sufferings under persecution we share through sympathy, and are thereby ennobled; our deeds are such as we feel that our ideals would have performed under like conditions. " 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." Every thought which enters the mind, every word we utter, every deed we perform, makes its impression upon the inmost fibre of our being, and the resultant of these impressions is our character. The study of books, of music, or of the fine arts, is not essential to a lofty char- acter. Those most accomplished in learning and art have often been the worst of men and women. Indeed, bookworms who become all books, and artists who be- come all art, are usually weak. Low, aimless lives ' leave their mark upon the character as truly as the Cre- ator branded Cain with his guilt. On the other hand, there are men in whom the very dogs on the street be- lieve. Character is power. Turner was on the hanging-committee of the Royal Academy when the artist Bird presented a picture of merit for which no place could be found. After plead- 270 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. ing hard for it, only to be met by the constant assertion of impracticability, Turner took down one of his own cherished pictures, and hung Bird's in its place. Amos Lawrence gave the odd half cent and the odd quarter of a yard to his customer. It was a little thing, but it indicated his character. We resemble insects which assume the color of the leaves and plants they feed upon, for sooner or later we become like the food of our minds, like the creatures that live in our hearts. Every act of our lives, every word, every association, is written with an iron pen into the very texture of our being. The ghosts of our murdered opportunities, squandered forces, killed time, forever rise up to rebuke us, and will not down. How hard it is to learn that like begets like ; that an acorn will always become an oak, if anything ; that birds of a feather will flock together; that there is a magnetic affinity between kindred things which inevitably brings them together, and that they must communicate their own properties and nothing else ; that they can do no differently. Association with the good can only produce good ; with the wicked, evil. No matter how sly, how secret, no matter if our associations have been in the dark, their images will sooner or later appear in our faces and conduct. The idols of the heart look through our eyes, appear in our manners, and betray their worship- ers. Our associates, our loves, hates, struggles, tri- umphs, defeats, dissipations, aspirations, intrigues, hon- esty, dishonesty, all leave their indelible autographs upon the soul's window and are published to the world. Black hearts cast black shadows iipon the face which all our will power cannot drive away. What a panorama passes across the face of a dissipated life ! Behold the barrooms, the dens of infamy, the dissipated wretches, the polluted companions, the disgusting scenes, the ask- ings and denyings of passions, the struggles for victory, CHARACTER IS POWER. 271 the broken resolutions, the sore defeats. But oh ! what radiance glorifies the faces of those who have overcome temptation and disciplined their powers in striving for self-improvement ! Did you ever see a pure and noble woman enter a room where a lot of coarse, rough men were talking and telling stories ? The whole character and tone of the company rises. The very atmosphere seems purer. The entire company is transformed. Sometimes we see such a woman transform a whole neighborhood. On the other hand, one bad woman may sometimes ruin a hun- dred young men. We do not need an introduction to a great man to feel his greatness. If you meet a cheerful man on the street on a cold day, you seem to feel the mercury rise several degrees. Our manners, our bearing, our presence, tell the story of our lives, though we do not speak, and the influence of every act is felt in the utmost part of the globe. Every man that ever lived contributed something towards making me what I am. The chisel of every member of society contributed a blow to the marble of my life, and influenced its destiny. He is the greatest man, to me, at least, who emanci- pates me from the imprisonment of my surroundings and environments, who loosens my tongue, and unlocks the floodgates of my possibilities. He is a lens to my defective vision. I see things in a broader light, my horizon extends, my possibilities expand. My nerves thrill with the consciousness of added force. My whole being vibrates with the magnetic currents from another soul. Anger begets anger, and hate, hate ; the passions are contagious. Actors tell us that they often go upon the stage with heavy hearts and melancholy moods, when they have to play light and gay characters, without the slightest feeling of sympathy with the parts they have 272 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. taken ; yet so powerful is the law of association that the moment they assume the attitude of the character, the real feelings which belong to it come to them. Every- thing reproduces itself, and cannot do otherwise. One discordant instrument spoils the harmony of the finest orchestra, and one mischief-making man or woman ruins the peace of a town. "Character is always known," says Emerson. "Thefts never enrich; alms never impoverish; murder will speak out of stone walls. The least mixture of a lie — for example, the taint of vanity, any attempt to make a good impression, a favorable appearance — will instantly vitiate the effect. But speak the truth and all nature and all spirits help you with unexpected furtherance." Character is the poor man's capital. Believe with Stevens that every man has in himself a continent of undiscovered possibilities. Happy is he who acts the Columbus to his own soul. Luther says that the prosperity of a country depends, not on the abundance of its revenues, nor on the strength of its fortifications, nor on the beauty of its public build- ings ; but it consists in the number of its cultivated citi- zens, in its men of education, enlightenment, and char- acter ; here are to be found its true interest, its chief strength, its real power. "Eather the ground that 's deep enough for graves, Rather the stream that 's strong enough for waves, Than the loose sandy drift Whose shifting surface cherishes no seed Either of any flower or any weed, Whichever way it shift." CHAPTER XVII. ENAMORED OF ACCUEACY. " Antonio Stradivari has an eye That winces at false worlc and loves the true." Accuracy is the twin brother of honesty. — C. Simmons. Genius is the infinite art of taking pains. — Caklyle. There is no error in this book. — Kokan. I hate » thing done by halves. If it be right, do it boldly; if it be wrong, leave it undone. — GiiPiN. Doing well depends upon doing completely. — Peesian Pkovekb. If I were a cobbler, it would be my pride The best of all cobblers to be ; If I were a tinker, no tinker beside Should mend an old kettle like me. Old Song. If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mouse-trap than his neighbor, though he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door. — Emebson. Seize upon truth, where'er 't is found. Amongst your friends, amongst your foes. On Christian or on heathen ground ; Thejiower 's divine wherever it grows. Watts. " SiE, it is a watch wliich I have made and regulated myself," said George Graham of London to a customer who asked how far he could depend upon its keeping correct time ; " take it with you wherever you please. If after seven years you come back to see me, and can tell me there has been a difference of five minutes, I will return you your money." Seven years later the gentleman returned from India. "Sir," said he, "I bring you back your watch." " I remember our conditions," said Graham. " Let me see the watch. Well, what do you complain of ? " " Why," said the man, " I have had it seven years, and there is a difference of more than five minutes." 274 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. " Indeed ! In that case I return you your money." " I would not part with, my watch," said the man, " for ten times the sum I paid for it." " And I would not break my word for any consideration," replied Graham ; so he paid the money and took the watch, which he used as a regulator. He learned his trade of Tampion, the most exquisite mechanic in London, if not in the world, whose name on a timepiece was considered proof positive of its ex- cellence. Character is power. When a person once asked him to repair a watch upon which his name was fraudulently engraved. Tampion smashed it with a hammer, and handed the astonished customer one of his own masterpieces, saying, " Sir, here is a watch of my making." Graham invented the "compensating mercury pendulum," the "dead escapement," and the " orrery," none of which has been much improved since. The clock which he made for Greenwich Observatory has been running one hundred and fifty years, yet it needs regulating but once in fifteen months. Tampion and Graham lie in Westminster Abbey, because of the accuracy of their work. To insure safety, a navigator must know how far he is from the equator, north or south, and how far east or west of some known point, as Greenwich, Paris, or Washington. He could be sure of this knowledge when the sun is shining, if he could have an absolutely accu- rate timekeeper ; but such a thing has not yet been made. In the sixteenth century Spain offered a prize of a thousand crowns for the discovery of an approxi- mately correct method of determining longitude. About two hundred years later the English government offered £6,000 for a chronometer by which a ship six months from home could get her longitude within sixty miles ; £7,600 if within forty miles ; £10,000 if within thirty miles ; and in another clause £20,000 for correctness within thirty miles, a careless repetition. The watch- GALILEO ' The better is always enemy to the best." ENAMORED OF ACCURACY. 275 makers of the world contested for the prizes, but 1761 came, and they had not been awarded. In that year John Harrison asked for a test of his chronometer. In a trip of one hundred and forty-seven days from Ports- mouth to Jamaica and back, it varied less than two minutes, and only four seconds on the outward voyage. In a rovmd trip of one hundred and fifty-six days to Barbadoes, the variation was only fifteen seconds. The £20,000 was paid to the man who had worked and experimented for forty years, and whose hand was as exquisitely delicate in its movement as the mechanism of his chronometer. " Make me as good a hammer as you know how," said a carpenter to the blacksmith in a New York village before the first railroad was built; "six of us have come to work on the new church, and I 've left mine at home." " As good a one as I know how ? " asked David Maydole, doubtfully, "but perhaps you don't want to pay for as good a one as I know how to make." " Yes, I do," said the carpenter, " I want a good hammer." It was indeed a good hammer that he received, the best, probably, that had ever been made. By means of a longer hole than usual, David had wedged the handle in its place so that the head could not fly off, a wonder- ful improvement in the eyes of the carpenter, who boasted of his prize to his companions. They all came to the shop next day, and each ordered just such a ham- 'mer. When the contractor saw the tools, he ordered two for himself, asking that they be made a little better than those for his men. "I can't make any better ones," said Maydole ; " when I make a thing, I make it as well as I can, no matter whom it is for." The storekeeper soon ordered two dozen, a supply unheard of in his previous business career. A New York dealer in tools came to the village to sell his wares, and bought all the storekeeper had, and left a standing order for all the blacksmith could make. 276 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. David might have grown very wealthy by making goods of the standard already attained; but through- out his long and successful life he never ceased to study still further to perfect his hammers in the minutest detail. They were usually sold without any warrant of excellence, the word " Maydole " stamped on the head being universally considered a guaranty of the best article the world could produce. Character is power, and is the best advertisement in the world. "Yes," said he one day to the late James Parton, who told this story, "I have made hammers in this little village for twenty-eight years." " Well," replied the great historian, "by this time you ought to make a pretty good hammer." " ISTo, I can't," was the reply, " I can't make a pretty good hammer. I make the best hammer that's made. My only care is to make a perfect hammer. I make just as many as people want and no more, and I sell them at a fair price. If folks don't want to pay me what they 're worth, they 're welcome to buy cheaper ones somewhere else. My wants are few, and I'm ready any time to go back to my blacksmith's shop, where I worked forty years ago, before I thought of making hammers. Then I had a boy to blow my bellows, now I have one hundred and fifteen men. Do you see them over there watching the heads cook over the charcoal furnace, as your cook, if she knows what she is about, watches the chops broiling? Each of them is hammered out of a piece of iron, and is tem- pered under the inspection of an experienced man. Every handle is seasoned three years, or until there is no shrink left in it. Once I thought I could use machinery in manufacturing them; now I know that a perfect tool can't be made by machinery, and every bit of the work is done by hand." "In telling this little story," said Parton, "I have told thousands of stories. Take the word hammei ENAMORED OF ACCURACY. 277 out of it, and put glue in its place, and you have the history of Peter Cooper. By putting in other words, you can make the true history of every great business in the world which has lasted thirty years." "We have no secret," said Manager Daniel J. Morrill, of the Cambria Iron Works, employing seven thousand men at Johnston, Pa. " We always try to beat our last batch of rails. That is all the secret we 've got, and we don't care who knows it." " I don't try to see how cheap a machine I can pro- duce, but how good a machine," said the late John C. Whitin of Northbridge, Mass., to a customer who com- plained of the high price of some cotton machinery. Business men soon learned what this meant; and when there was occasion to advertise any machinery for sale, New England cotton manufacturers were ac- customed to state the number of years it had been in use and add, as an all-sufficient guaranty of North- bridge products, "Whitin make." Put character into youi- work : it pays. " My whole ambition is to establish for myself, and to deserve, the reputation of a man of science," wrote Joseph Henry, when a young man. As a natural result of following his ambition in this way. Professor Joseph Henry could say years afterward, when his name was held in high honor in every department of science : "The various offices of honor and responsibility which I hold, nine in number, have all been pressed upon me : I never occupied a position for which I have, of my own will and action, been made a candidate." "Madam," said the sculptor H. K. Brown, as he admired a statue in alabaster made by a youth in his teens, "this boy has something in him." It was the figure of an Irishman who worked for the Ward family in Brooklyn years ago, and gave with minutest fidelity not merely the man's features and expression, but even the patches in his trousers, the rent in his coat, and the 278 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. creases in his narrow-brimmed stove-pipe hat. Mr. Brown saw the statue at the house of a lady living at Newburg-on-the-Hudson. Six years later he invited her brother, J. Q. A. Ward, to become a pupil in his studio. To-day the name of Ward is that of the most prosperous of all American sculptors. " Sculpture is the simplest thing in the world," said a rustic. " All you have to do is to take a big chunk of marble and a hammer and chisel, make up your mind what you are about to create, and then chip oif all the marble you don't want." " From whom did the artist paint that head ? " asked a visitor of a "model" in a gallery. "From yours obediently, madam. I sit for the 'eads of all 'is 'oly men." "He must find you a very useful person?" "Yes, madam, I order his frames, stretch his canvas, wash his brushes, set his palette, and mix his colors. All he 's got to do is to shove 'em on." " Paint me just as I am, warts and all," said Crom- well, to the artist who had omitted a mole, thinking to please the great man. "I can remember when you blacked my father's shoes," said one member of the House of Commons to another iu the heat of debate. "True enough," was the prompt reply, " but did I not black them well ? " " It is easy to tell good indigo," said an old lady. " Just take a lump and put it into water, and if it is good, it will either sink or swim, I am not sure which ; biit never mind, you can try it for yourself." John B. Grough told of a colored preacher who, wish- ing his congregation to fresco the recess back of the pulpit, suddenly closed his Bible and said, " There, my bredren, de Gospel will not be dispensed with any more from dis pulpit till de collection am sufficient to fri- cassee dis abscess." When troubled with deafness, Wellington consulted a celebrated physician, who put strong caustic into his ENAMORED OF ACCURACY. 279 ear, causing an inflammation which threatened his life. The doctor apologized, expressed great regrets, and said that the blunder would ruin him. "No," said Wellington, " I will never mention it." " But you will allow me to attend jou, so people will not withdraw their confidence ? " " No," said the Iron Duke, " that would be lying." " Suppose you had called to see Jenny Lind on a day when she was singing," said Mrs. Eeeves ; " she would probably come into the room with a bundle of music in her hand, put it on a chair and sit down upon it, talk away pleasantly enough for a few minutes, turn to a passage in one of the pieces and hum it over. Having satisfied herself of her correctness, she would replace it and sit down again as calmly as possible, and resume the conversation at the point it was broken off." "I am reading over Macbeth," said Mrs. Siddons, when found musing over Shakespeare after she had left the stage; "and I am amazed to discover some new points in the character which I never found out in acting it." "One language well learned," says Robert Waters, "is better than a smattering of twenty. For in the proper learning of one language you get a training of the mind, an increase of mental power, which is never gotten by smatterings." " Father," said a boy, " I saw an immense number of dogs — five hundred, I am sure — in our street, last night." "Surely not so many," said the father. "Well, there were one hundred, I'm quite sure." "It could not be," said the father; "I don't think there are a hundred dogs in our village." " Well, sir, it could not be less than ten : this I am quite certain of." " I will not believe you saw ten even," said the father; "for you spoke as confidently of seeing five hundred as of seeing this smaller number. You have contradicted yourself twice already, and now I cannot 280 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. believe you." "Well, sir," said the disconcerted boy, " I saw at least our Dash and another one." We condemn the boy for exaggerating in order to tell a wonderful story; but how much more truthful are they who "never saw it rain so before," or who call day after day the hottest of the summer or the coldest of the winter ? There is nothing which all mankind venerate and admire so much as simple truth, exempt from artifice, duplicity, and design. It exhibits at once a strength of character and integrity of purpose in which all are willing to confide. There are a thousand ways of lying. Ten lies are acted for every one spoken. Society is a lying organir zation. To say nice things merely to avoid giving of- fence; to keep silent rather than speak the truth; to equivocate, to evade, to dodge, to say what is expedient rather than what is truthful; to shirk the truth; to face both ways ; to exaggerate ; to seem to concur with another's opinions when you do not ; to deceive by a glance of the eye, a nod of the head, a smile, a gesture ; to lack sincerity ; to assume to know or think or feel what you do not — all these are but various manifesta- tions of hoUowness and falsehood resulting from want of accuracy. We find no lying, no inaccuracy, no slipshod business in nature. Eoses blossom and crystals form with the same precision of tint and angle to-day as in Eden on the morning of creation. The rose in the queen's garden is not more beautiful, more fragrant, more ex- quisitely perfect, than that which blooms and blushes unheeded amid the fern-decked brush by the roadside, or in some far-off glen where no human eye ever sees it. The crystal found deep in the earth is constructed with the same fidelity as that formed above ground. Even the tiny snowflake whose destiny is to become an ap- parently insignificant, and a wholly unnoticed part of ENAMORED OF ACCURACY. 281 an enormous bank, assumes its shape of ethereal beauty as faithfully as if preparing for some grand exhibition. Planets rush with dizzy sweep through almost limitless courses, yet return to equinox or solstice at the appointed second, their very movement being " the uniform mani- festation of the will of God." The marvelous resources and growth of America have developed an unfortunate tendency to overstate, overdraw, and exaggerate. It seems strange that there should be so strong a temptation to exaggerate in a country where the truth is more wonderful than fiction. The positive is stronger than the superlative, but we ignore this fact in our speech. Indeed, it is really dif- ficult to ascertain the exact truth in America. Eead the advertisements in our papers and magazines. No one believes half of them, yet enough is believed to bring fortunes to thousands who would starve if they told the unvarnished truth about their goods, patent medicines, and wares. How many American fortunes are built on misrepresentation, needlessly, for nothing else is half so strong as truth. " Does the devil lie ? " was asked of Sir Thomas Browne. "No, for then even he could not exist." Truth is necessary to permanency. In Siberia a traveler found men who could see the satellites of Jupiter with the naked eye. These men have made little advance in civilization, yet they are far superior to us in their accuracy of vision. It is a curious fact that not a single astronomical discovery of importance has been made through a large telescope, the men who have advanced our knowledge of that science the most, working with ordinary instruments backed by most accurately trained minds and eyes. A double convex lens three feet in diameter is worth $60,000. Its adjustment is so delicate that the human hand is the only instrument thus far known suitable for giving the final polish, and one sweep of the hand 282 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. more than is needed, Alvan Clark says, would impair the correctness of the glass. During the test of the great glass which he made for Eussia, the workmen turned it a little with their hands. " Wait, boys, let it cool be- fore making another trial," said Clark ; " the poise is so delicate that the heat from your hands affects it." Mr. Clark's love of accuracy has made his name a synonym of exactness the world over. Character is power : put it into your work. " No, I can't do it, it is impossible," said Webster, when pressed to speak on a question soon to come up, toward the close of a Congressional session. " I am so pressed with other duties that I have n't time to prepare myself to speak upon that theme." "Ah, but, Mr. Webster, you always speak well upon any subject. You never fail." "But that's the very reason," said the orator, "because I never allow myself to speak upon any subject without first making that subject thoroughly my own. I have n't time to do that in this instance. Hence I must refuse." When Andrew Johnson, in a great speech at Wash- ington, said that he had begun his political career as an alderman, and had held office through all the branches of the legislature, a man in the audience shouted, " From a tailor up." " Some gentleman says I have been a tailor," said the President ; " that does not dis- concert me in the least, for when I was a tailor, I had the reputation of being a good one, and making close fits. I was always punctual with my customers, and always did good work." Rufus Choate would plead before a shoemaker jus- tice of the peace, in a petty case, with all the fervor and careful attention to detail with which he addressed the United States Supreme Court. " Whatever is right to do," said an eminent writer, " should be done with our best care, strength, and faith- fulness of purpose ; we have no scales by which we can ENAMORED OF ACCURACY. , 283 weigh our faithfulness to duties, or determine their relative importance in God's eyes. That which seems a trifle to us may be the secret spring which shall move the issues of life and death." " There goes a man that has been in hell," the Moren- tines would say when Dante passed, so Realistic seemed to them his description of the nether world. " Here I stand ; I cannot do otherwise, God help me ! " exclaimed Luther at the Diet of Worms, facing his foes. Many a man has faced death rather than vary a hair's breadth from truth. " There is only one real failure in life possible," said Canon Farrar ; " and that is, not to be true to the best one knows.'' " It is quite astonishing, " Grove said of Beethoven, " to find the length of time during which some of the best known instrumental melodies remained in his thoughts till they were finally used, or the crude, vague, commonplace shape in which they were first written down. The more they are elaborated, the more fresh and spontaneous they become." Leonardo da Vinci would walk across Milan to change a single tint or the slightest detail in his famous picture of the Last Supper. ISTapoleon, when sleepless, would examine the returns of his army, which he kept under his pillow. During an overture at the opera he would set himself such a problem as this : " I have ten thousand men at Strasburg, fifteen thousand at Magde- burg, twenty thousand at Wiirzburg. By what stages must they march so as to arrive at Eatisbon on three successive days ? " " Easy writing," said Sheridan, " is commonly d— d. hard reading.!' He wrote and re- wrote most of his brilliant comedies, again and again. " Bolingbroke," said Swift, "would plod whole days and nights like the lowest clerk in his ofaee." 1' Every line was then written twice over by Pope," said his publisher Dodsley, of manuscript brought to be copied. 284 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. " I gave him a clean transcript, which he sent me some time afterward for the press with every line written twice over a second time." Gibbon wrote his memoir nine times, and the first chapters of his history eighteen times. Of one of his works Montesquieu^ said to a friend : " You" will read it in a few hours, but I assure you it has cost me so much labor that it has whitened my hair." He had made it his study by day and his dream by night, the alpha and omega of his aims and objects. " He who does not write as well as he can on every occasion," said George Eipley, "will soon form the habit of not writing well on any occasion." Sir Isaac Newton said that whatever service he had ren- dered to humanity was not owing to any extraordinary sagacity he possessed, but solely to industry and patient thought. He wrote " Principia " with great care. His great love of accuracy appears in all his works. Pascal wrote one of his professional letters sixteen times. Buffon wrote his " Epoques de la Nature " eleven times before he was willing to have it published. An accomplished entomologist thought he would per- fect his knowledge by a few lessons under Professor Agassiz. The latter handed him a dead fish and told him to use his eyes. Two hours later he examined his new pupil, but soon remarked, " You have n't reaUy looked at the fish yet. You'll have to try again." After a second examination he shook his head, saying, " You do not show that you can use your eyes." This roused the pupil to earnest effort, and he became so interested in things he had never noticed before that he did not see Agassiz when he came for the third examination. " That will do," said the great scientist. " I now see that you can use your eyes." For many years Michael Angelo studied anatomy even more than the physicians of his day. He drew his figures in skeleton, added muscles, fat, and skin successively, and then draped them. ENAMORED OF ACCURACY. 285 Eeynolds said he could go on retouching a picture forever. The captain of a Nantucket whaler told the man at the wheel to steer by the North Star, but was awakened towards morning by a request for another star to steer by, as they had " sailed by the other." Stephen Girard was precision itself. He did not allow those in his employ to deviate in the slightest degree from his iron-clad orders. He believed that no great success is possible without the most rigid accu- racy in everything. Although one of his captains had saved several thousand dollars by not buying a cargo of coifee as instructed, he discharged the man at once, saying, "You should have obeyed your orders if you had broken me." He did not vary from a promise in the slightest de- gree. People knew that his word was not "pretty good," but absolutely good. He left nothing to chance. Every detail of business was calculated and planned to a nicety. He was as exact and precise even in the smallest trifles as Napoleon ; yet his brother merchants attributed his superior success to good luck. In 1805 Napoleon broke up the great camp he had formed on the shores of the English Channel, and gave orders for his mighty host to defile toward the Danube. Vast and various as were the projects fermenting in his brain, however, he did not content himself with giving the order, and leaving the elaboration of its details to his lieutenants. To details and minutiae which inferior captains would have deemed too microscopic for their notice, he gave such exhaustive attention that, before the bugle had sounded for the march, he had planned the exact route which every regiment was to follow, the exact day and hour it was to leave that station, as well as the precise moment when it was to reach its destina- tion. These details, so thoroughly premeditated, were carried out to the letter, and the result or fruit of that 286 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. memorable march was the victory of Austerlitz, which sealed the fate of Europe for ten years. When a noted French preacher speaks in Notre Dame, the scholars of Paris throng the cathedral to hear his fascinating, eloquent, and polished discourses. This brilliant finish is the result of most patient work, as he delivers but five or six sermons a year. Dr. Way- land gave the thought of two years to his sermon on the moral dignity of missions. When Sir Walter Scott visited a ruined castle about which he wished to write, he wrote in a notebook the separate names of the grasses and wild flowers growing near, saying that only by such means can a writer be natural. Macaulay never allowed a sentence to stand until it was as good as he could make it. Besides his serapbooks, Garfield had a large case of some fifty pigeon-holes, labeled "Anecdotes," "Elec- toral Laws and Commissions," "French Spoliation," "General Politics," "Geneva Award," "Parliamentary Decisions," "Public Men," "State Politics," "Tariff," " The Press," " United States History," etc. ; every valuable hint he could get being preserved in the cold exactness of black and white. When he chose to make careful preparation on a subject, no other speaker could command so great an array of facts. Accurate people are methodical people, and method means character. " I know of only three Germans in the United States who have mastered English," says Robert Waters. " I mean Mr. Carl Sehurz, the late Professor Schem, and John B. Stallo of Ohio ; and of only one American who has mastered German, ]Mr. Bayard Taylor. The rest are mere smatterers, who have learned just enough ' to get along ; ' and this is all they wanted to do." "Am offered 10,000 bushels wheat on your account at $1.00. Shall I buy, or is it too high ? " telegraphed a San Erancisco merchant to one in Sacramento. " No ENAMORED OF ACCURACY. 287 price too Hgh," came back over the wire instead of "No. Price too high," as was intended. The omis- sion of a point cost the Sacramento dealer $1,000. How many thousands have lost their wealth or lives, and how many frightful accidents have occurred through carelessness in sending messages ! " The accurate boy is always the favored one," said President Tuttle. "Those who employ men do not wish to be on the constant lookout, as though they were rogues or fools. If a carpenter must stand at his journeyman's elbow to be sure his work is right, or if a cashier must run over his bookkeeper's columns, he might as well do the work himself as employ another to do it in that way ; and it is very certain that the employer will get rid of such a blunderer as soon as he can." Twenty things half done do not make one well done. " If you make a good pin," said a successful manu- facturer, " you will earn more than if you make a bad steam-engine.'' All bad work is lying. It is thoroughly dishonest. You pay for having work done well ; if it is done badly and dishonestly, you are robbed. 'T is strange, but the masterpiece, a perfect man, is the result of such an extreme delicacy, that the most unobserved iiaw in the boy will neutralize the most aspiring genius, and spoil the work. " There are women," said Fields, " whose stitches always come out, and the buttons they sew on fly off on the mildest provocation ; there are other women who use the same needle and thread, and you may tug away at their work on your coat, or waistcoat, and you can't start a button in a generation." " Carelessness," " indifference," " slouchiness," " slip- shod financiering," could be truthfully written over the graves of thousands who have failed in life. How many clerks, cashiers, clergymen, editors, and profes- 288 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. sors in colleges have lost position and prestige by care- lessness and inaccuracy ! " You would be tlie greatest man of your age, Grat- tan," said Curran, " if you would buy a few yards of red tape and tie up your bills and papers." Curran realized that methodical people are accurate as a rule, and suc- cessful. Of method or system, Fuller says : " Marshal thy notions iato a handsome method. One will carry twice more weight trussed and packed up in bundles, than when it lies untowardly flapping and hanging about his shoulders." Cecil says : " Method is like packing things in a box ; a good packer will get in half as much again as a bad one." Said Walter Scott : " When a regiment is under march, the rear is often thrown into confusion because the front does not move steadily and without interruption. It is the same thing with busi- ness. If that which is first in hand be not instantly, steadily, and regularly dispatched, other things accu- mulate behind, till affairs begin to press all at once, and no human brain can stand the confusion." Bergh tells of a man beginning business who opened and shut his shop regularly at the same hour every day for weeks, without selling two cents' worth, yet whose application attracted attention and paved the way to fortune. " He who every morning plans the transactions of the day," says Victor Hugo, " and follows out that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through the laby- rinth of the most busy life. The orderly arrangement of his time is like a ray of light which darts itself through all his occupations. But where no plan is laid, where the disposal of time is surrendered merely to the chance of incidents, all things lie huddled together in one chaos, which admits of neither distribution noi review." A. T. Stewart was extremely systematic and precise ENAMORED OF ACCURACY. 289 in all his transactions. Method ruled in every depart- ment of his store, and for every delinquency a penalty was rigidly enforced. His eye was upon his business in all its ramifications ; he mastered every detail and worked hard. From the time Jonas Chickering began to work for a piano-maker, he was noted for the pains and care with which he did everything. To him there were no trifles in the manufacturing of pianos. Neither time nor labor was of any account to him, compared with accu- racy and knowledge. He soon made pianos in a fac- tory of his own. He determined to make an instru- ment yielding the fullest and richest volume of melody with the least exertion to the player, withstanding at- mospheric changes, and preserving its purity and truth- fulness of tone. He resolved each piano should be an improvement upon the one which preceded it ; perfection was his aim. To the end of his life he gave the finish- ing touch to each of his instruments, and would trust it to no one else. He permitted no irregularity in work- manship or sales, and was characterized by simplicity, transparency, and straightforwardness. He distanced all competitors. Chickering's name was such a power that one piano-maker had his name changed to Chickering by the Massachusetts legisla- ture, and put it on his pianos ; but Jonas Chickering sent a petition to the legislature, and the name was changed back. Character has a commercial as well as an ethical value. Joseph M. W. Turner was intended by his father for a barber, but he showed such a taste for drawing that a reluctant permission was given for him to follow art as a profession. He soon became skillful, but as he lacked means he took anything to do that came in his way, frequently illustrating guidebooks and almanacs. But though the pay was very small the work was never careless. His work was worth several times what he 290 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. received for it, but the price was increased and work of higher grade given him simply because men seek the services of those who are known to be faithful, and em- ploy them in as lofty work as they seem able to do. And so he toiled upward until he began to employ him- self, his work sure of a market at some price, and the price increasing as other men began to get glimpses of the transcendent art revealed in his paintings, an art not fully comprehended even in our day. He surpassed the acknowledged masters in various fields of landscape work, and left matchless studies of natural scenery in lines never before attempted. What Shakespeare is in literature. Turner is in his special field, the greatest name on record. The demand for perfection in the nature of Wendell Phillips was wonderful. Every word must exactly express the shade of his thought ; every phrase must be of due length and cadence ; every sentence must be per- fectly balanced before it left his lips. Exact precision characterized his style. He was easily the first forensic orator America has produced. The rhythmical fullness and poise of his periods are remarkable. Lord Brougham had such a love for excellence that no amount of labor seemed too great for him. No mat- ter what he did, no one should da it better. To this one thing he owed his success. Eoger Williams was the best shoemaker in town, and one of the best statesmen later in life. Franklin was noted for his thoroughness even when a printer. Alexander Dumas prepared his manuscript with the greatest care. When consulted by a friend whose arti- cle had been rejected by several publishers, he advised him to have it handsomely copied by a professional penman, and then change the title. The advice was taken, and the article eagerly accepted by one of the very publishers who had refused it before. Many able essays have been rejected because of poor penmanship ENAMORED OF ACCURACY. 291 One of the first articles which George H. Lewes sent to the " Edinburgh Eeview " was returned with a request to rearrange it throughout. Although greatly vexed, Lewes complied, and was so much pleased with the result that he never again sent a paper to the press until it had been rewritten from one to three times. Macaulay wrote his best essays two or three times. We must strive after accuracy as we would after wis- dom, or hidden treasure, or anything we would attain. Determine to form exact business habits. Avoid slip- shod financiering as you would the plague. Careless and indifferent habits would soon ruin a millionaire. Nearly every very successful man is accurate and pains- taking. Accuracy means character, and character is power. CHAPTER XVIII. LIFE IS WHAT WE MAKE IT. 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. Whittike. Men at some times are masters of their fates ; The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings. Shakespeare. Every one is the son of his own works. — Cervaktes. He that would bring home the wealth of the Indies, must carry out the wealth of the Indies. — Old Adage. A vase is begun ; why, as |the wheel goes round, does it turn out a pitcher ? — Horace. All looks yellow to the jaundiced eye. — Pope. " Let's find the sunny side of men, Or be believers in it : A light there is in every soul ^That takes the pains to win it. Oh ! there 's a slumbering good in all, And we perchance may wake it ; Our hands contain the magic wand : This life is what we make it." " Thbee is dew in one flower and not in another," said Beeeher, "'because one opens its cup and takes it in, while the other closes itself and the drop runs ofE." Are you dissatisfied with to-day's success ? It is the harvest from yesterday's sowing. Do you dream of a golden morrow ? You will reap what you are sowing to-day. We get out of life just what we put into if. The world has for us just what we have for it. It is a mirror which reflects the faces we make. If we smile and are glad, it reflects a cheerful, sunny face. If we HENRY WARD BEECHER "From the eame materials one builds palaces and another hovels; one rears a stately edifice while his brother, T.%cillAting and incompetent, lives forever amid ruins." LIFE IS WHAT WE MAKE IT. 293 are sour, irritable, mean, and contemptible, it still shows us a true copy of ourselves. The world is a whispering- gallery which returns the echo of our own voices. What we say of others is said of us. We shall find nothing in the world which we do not first find in our- selves. It rests with the workman whether a rude piece of marble shall be squared into a horse-block, or carved into an Apollo, a Psyche, or a Venus de Milo. It is yours, if you choose, to develop a spiritual form more beautiful than any of these, instinct with immortal life, refulgent with all the glory of character. About the middle of the eighteenth century a light- house, called Dunston Pillar, was built on Lincoln Heath to guide travelers over a trackless, barren waste, a veritable desert, almost in the heart of England. But now it stands in the midst of a fertile region. No barren heath has been visible, even from its top, for more than a generation. Superphosphate of lime has effected this magic transformation. Many a barren, useless life has been made fruitful by the inspiration of a high ideal. Improvement hardly less radical is pos- sible even in the best of lives. Apply the superphos- phate of lofty purpose and your useless life will blossom like the rose. Somehow we seem to have an innate conviction that, although we are free, yet there is a kind of fatality within us which hedges us about, limits our liberty, places bounds to our possibilities, and gives direction to our action. But freedom is also a part of fate, and what seems like inexorable destiny is but natural limi- tation. Knowledge, energy, push, annul fate. The broader we become, the more freedom we have. We are given all the liberty we can use. Pate recedes as knowledge advances. Only he who determines to rise superior to what is commonly meant by destiny will ever achieve great success. 294 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. " I saw a delicate flower had grown up two feet high," said Thoreau, " between the horse's path and the wheel- track. An inch more to the right or left had sealed its fate, or an inch higher ; and yet it lived to flourish as much as if it had a thousand acres of untrodden space around it, and never knew the danger it incurred. It did not borrow trouble, nor invite an evil fate by appre- hending it." " I resolved that, like the sun, so long as my day lasted, I would look on the bright side of everything," said Hood. " There is always a black spot in our sunshine," says Carlyle ; " it is the shadow of ourselves." Get out of your own light. Our minds are given us but our characters we make. The lie never told for want of courage, the licentious- ness never indulged in for fear of public rebuke, the ir- reverence of the heart, are just as effectual in staining the character as though the world knew all about them. A good character is a precious thing, above rubies, gold, crowns, or kingdoms, and the work of making it is the noblest on earth. " I live in a constant endeavor to fence against the infirmities of ill health and other evils by mirth," said Sterne ; " I am persuaded that every time a man smiles — but much more so when he laughs — it adds some- thing to his fragment of life." "This pemmican is the finest flavored pemmican I have ever seen," said one of a crew in search of John Franklin, when they were reduced to starvation diet. Take life like a man. Take it just as though it was — as it is — an earnest, vital, essential affair. Take it just as though you personally were born to the task of performing a merry part in it — as though the world had waited for your coming. Take it as though it were a grand opportunity to do and to achieve, to carry for- ward great and good schemes. LIFE IS WHAT WE MAKE IT. 295 " A gay, serene spirit is the source of all that is noble and good," said Schiller. " Whatever is accomplished of the greatest and the noblest sort flows from such a disposition. Petty, gloomy souls that only mourn the past and dread the future are not capable of seizing on the holiest moments of life." " What luck that it was not my arms ! " exclaimed a soldier when both legs were shot away at Chancellors- ville. " Painful ? " asked the young women in surprise, when asked in the fairy tale if it was not a terrible ex- perience to pass through the magical mill at Apolda. " Oh, no ! On the other hand, it is quite delightful ! It is just like waking in the morning after a good night's rest, to see the sun shining in your room, and to hear the trees rustling, and the birds twittering in the branches." No wonder, then, that old women were anxious to be thrown in at the top, wrinkled and bent, without hair or teeth, if they could come out below young and pretty, with cheeks as rosy as an apple. " I want to become young again," said an old woman one day to a servant who sat smoking near the mill. "And, pray," said the man, "what is your name?" " The children call me Mother Eedcap," was the an- swer ; " I was very happy in my youth, and I wish above all things to be young again." " Sit down, then, on this bench, Mother Eedcap ; " and the man went into the mill, and opening a thick book, returned with a long strip of paper. " Is that the bill ? " asked the old woman. " Oh, no ! " replied the man, " we charge nothing here ; only you must sign your name to the paper." " And why should I do that ? " The servant smiled as he answered : " This paper is only a list of all the follies you have ever committed. It is complete, even to the present hour. Before you can become young again, you must 296 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. pledge yourself to commit them all over again in the very same order as before. To be sure, there is quite a long list. From the time you were sixteen until you were thirty, there was at least one folly every day, and on Sunday there were two ; then you improved a little until you were forty; but after that the follies have been plenty enough, I assure you ! " " I know that what you say is all true," said the old woman, sighing ; " and I hardly think it wUl repay one to become young again at such a price." "Neither do I think so," said the man ; " very few, indeed, could it ever repay. So we have an easy time of it — seven days of rest every week ! The mill is always still, at least of late years." " Now, could n't we strike out just a few things ? " pleaded the old lady, with a tap on the man's shoulder. " Suppose we leave off about a dozen things that I remem- ber with sorrow. I would n't mind doing all the rest." " No, no ! " said the servant, " we are not allowed to leave off anything ; the rule is, all or none ! " " Very well, then," said she, turning away, "I shall have nothing to do with your old mill." "Why, Mother Eedcap, you come back older than you went ! " exclaimed her neighbors when she returned to her distant home. " We never thought there was any truth in the story about that mill." "What does it matter about being young again ? " asked the old woman, coughing a little, dry cough ; " if one will try to make it so, old age may be 3,3 beautiful as youth ! " At the gateway of life each soul finds as it were a block of purest marble (time), a chisel and mallet (ability and opportunity), placed at his disposal by an unseen messenger. What shall he do with the marble ? He may chisel out an angel or a devil ; he may rear a palace or a hovel. One shapes his marble into a statue which enchants the world or sculptures it into frozen music. Another chisels his into disgusting forms which LIFE IS WHAT WE MAKE IT. 297 shall demoralize man in all time and poison every beholder. "In the same family and under the same circum- stances one rears a stately edifice, while his brother, vacillating and incompetent, lives forever amid ruins." From the same materials he may fashion vessels of honor or dishonor. We find what we are looking for. The geologist sees design and order in the very pave- ment-stones. The botanist reads volumes in the flowers and grasses which most men tread thoughtlessly beneath their feet. The astronomer gazes with rapt soul into the starry depths, while his fellows seldom glance up- ward. Nature takes on our moods ; she laughs with those who laugh and weeps with those who weep. If we re- joice and are glad the very birds sing more sweetly, the woods and streams murmur our song. But if we are sad and sorrowful a sudden gloom falls upon Nature's face ; the sun shines, but not in our hearts, the birds sing, but not to us. The music of the spheres is pitched in a minor key. If I trust, I am trusted ; if I suspect, I am suspected ; if I love, I am loved ; if I hate, I am despised. Every man is a magnet and attracts to himself kindred spirits and principles until he is surrounded by a world all his own, good or bad like himself ; so all the bodily organs and functions are tied together in closest sympathy. If one laughs, all rejoice ; if one suffers, all the others suf- fer with it. The future will be just what we make it. Our pur- pose will give it its character. One's resolution is one's prophecy. There is no bright hope, no bright outlook for the man who has no great inspiration. A man is just what his resolution is. Tell us his purpose and there is the interpretation of him, of his manhood. There, too, is the revelation of his destiny. Leave all your discouraging pessimism behind. Do not prophesy 298 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. evil, but good. Ha.ve the purpose within you to bring along better times, and better times will come. Men who hope large things are public benefactors. Men of hope to the front. "Well, Eobert, where have you been walking this afternoon ? " asked Mr. Andrews of one of his pupils at the close of a holiday. "Oh, I have been to Brown Heath, and round by Camp Mount, and home through the meadows. But it was very dull. I hardly saw a single person. I would much rather have gone by the turnpike road." " Well, where have you been ? " asked the teacher of another pupil who came in while Eobert was talking. " Oh, sir," replied Master William, " I nc^ had such a pleasant walk before in my life. I foir-. , a curious plant (mistletoe) which grows right out from the bark of an oak-tree just as well as if its roots were deep in the ground. I saw a woodpecker, and a large wheat-ear, and gathered some beautiful flowers in the meadows. I followed a strange bird because I f ,ught its wing was broken, but it led me into a bog here I got very wet, and then it flew off with .o sign broken wing. Perhaps it only meant to get me away from its nest. But I don't mind my wetting, because I met an old man burning charcoal near the bog, who told me all about his business, and gave me a pretty little dead snake. Then I went to the top of the high hill, and saw all the country spread out below me like a map. ISText, because the hill is called Camp Mount, I looked for the ruins of the old camp, and found them; and then I went down to the river, and to twenty other places, and so on and so forth, till I have brought home curiosities enough, and thoughts enough, to last me a week." Mr. Andrews told him all about his curiosities ; and, when he learned that William who had seen so much had gone over the same ground' as Eobert, who saw LIFE IS WHAT WE MAKE IT. 299 nothing at all, he said : " So it is. One man walks through the -world with his eyes open, another with his eyes shut. I have known sailors who had been in all quarters of the world, and could tell you of nothing but the signs of the tippling-houses and the price of the liquor that was sold there. While many a silly, thoughtless youth is whirled through Europe without gaining a single idea, the observing eye and inquiring mind find matter for improvement and delight in every ramble. You, then, William, continue to use your eyes. And you, Robert, learn that eyes were given to you for use." Each of these young men had created his own little world. "'Tis ii rselves that we are thus or thus," says lago. " Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners : so that if we will plant nettles, or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme, supply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many, either to have i'. sterile with idleness, or manured with industry, why, ■ •. power and corrigible authority of this lies in oui ••^-'■i&." Whipple says that each man's levity, bigotry, igno- rance, vice, or littleness erects a wall of adamant be- tween himself and whatever is profound, comprehensive, wise, good, or great. It has been well said that from the same materials one man builds palaces, another hovels ; one warehouses, another villas ; bricks and mortar are mortar and bricks until the architect makes them something else. The block of granite which was an obstacle in the path of the weak becomes a stepping-stone in the pathway of the resolute. The difficulties which dishearten one man only stiffen the sinews of another, who looks on them as a sort of mental spring-board by which to vault across the gulf of failure on to the sure, solid ground of full success. 300 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. In every human ear, according to Corti, is a harp of 8,700 strings, varying in length from one five-hundredth to one two-hundredth of an inch. If a well-tuned vio- lin be held near a piano, when the E string is struck the E string of the violin will vibrate in unison, and give forth a distinct tone of the same pitch. Other strings evoke their corresponding tones. In like man- ner the 8,700 strings of the human harp have such a wide compass that any appreciable sound finds its cor- responding tone-string, and the sound is conveyed through the auditory nerve to the brain. Our souls are harps strung to finer harmony, their compass varying according to the wholeness or halfness of our lives, the greater or less degree of our culture. The world is full of melody. Every atom, touched by unseen fingers, is vibrant with sweetest music, yet there is only now and then a soul sensitive enough to catch the finer strains. Earely a poet or philosopher reads the " books in the running brooks, sermons in stones," or sees " God in everything." Only now and then an Agas- siz, from a single track in the old red sandstone or a single fossil bone, can reconstruct a whole skeleton — reinvesting with flesh and reanimating with life an an- imal whose very species has been extinct for centuries. There is only now and then a Hugh Miller who can trace the footprints of the Creator down through the ages, and read the records of the past imprinted in the rocks. But rarer, far rarer than these, are they who can catch responsively the higher music of sentient being, with its joys and hopes ; of earnest, aspiring, struggling souls, tolerant, serious, yet sunny ; of the glorious diar pason of the fullness of the compassion and love of God. Some people, like the bee, seem to gather honey from every flower ; while others, like the spider, carry only poison away. One person finds happiness everywhere and in every occasion, carrying his own holiday with him. Another always appears to be returning from a LIFE IS WHAT WE MAKE IT. 301 funeral. One sees beauty and harmony wherever he looks, his very tears affording him visions of resplendent rainbows as the sunbeams of Hope fall upon him. An- other is blind to beauty ; the lenses of his eyes seem to be smoked glass, draping the whole world in mourning. Though all have eyes, all do not see, yet all eyes are constructed exactly alike. The same beautiful light im- pinges upon all retinas, but how different the images presented ! While one man sees only gravel, fodder, and firewood upon Boston Common, another is ravished with its beauty. One sees in a matchless rose nothing but rose-water for sore eyes ; another penetrates its purpose, and reads in the beauty of its blended colors and its wonderful fragrance the thoughts of God. The rose be- comes a lens through which he gazes into the very heart of the Creator. " My body must walk the earth," said an ancient poet, " but I can put wings on my soul, and plumes to my hardest thought." If we would get the most out of life, we must learn not merely to look but to see. The sun is not partial to the rainbow and the rose ; he scatters his beauty every- where — the only defect is in our vision. " Though our character is formed by circumstances," said John Stuart Mill, " our own desires can do much to shape those circumstances ; and what is really inspirit- ing and ennobling in the doctrine of free will is the con- viction that we have real power over the formation of our own character ; our will, by influencing some of our circumstances, being able to modify our future habits or capacities of willing." As we may look without seeing and listen without hearing, so we may work without accomplishing any- thing. Michael Angelo was once commanded by his prince to mould a beautiful statue of snow — an illus- trious example of the fact that it is not necessary to be idle in order to throw away time. That statue, though 302 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. instinct with ideal beauty stamped upon it by an immor- tal hand, melted, and every trace of the sculptor's great- ness was washed away. Oh, what precious hours we have all wasted, writing in oblivion's book ! Wasted ? worse than wasted, for the knowledge that we were working uselessly tended to beget a habit of aimless and careless work. Who has not worked for annihilation, painting in colors that fade, carving in stone that crumbles ? Who has not built upon the sand, and written upon the water ? What we are to be really, we are now potentially. As the future oak lies folded in the acorn, so in the pres- ent lies our future. Our success will be, can be, but a natural tree, developed from the seeds of our own sow- ing : the fragrance of its blossoms and the richness of its fruitage will depend upon the nourishment absorbed from our past and present. Euskin tells us that the earth we tread beneath our feet is composed of clay and sand and soot and water ; and he tells us that, if nature has her perfect work (in these things), the clay will become porcelain, and may be painted upon and placed in the king's palace ; then, again, it may become clear and hard and white, and have the power of drawing to itself the blue and the red, the green and the purple rays of the sunlight, and be- come an opal. The sand will become very hard and white, and have the power of drawing to itself the blue 'rays of the sunlight, and become a sapphire. The soot will become the hardest and whitest substance known, and be changed into a diamond. The water in the sum- mer is a dewdrop, and in the winter crystallizes into a star. Even so the homeliest lives, by drawing to them- selves the coloring of truth, sincerity, charity, and faith, may become crystals and gems " of purest raj serene.' ' " Our acts our angels are, or good or ill, Our fatal shadows that walk by us still." LIFE IS WHAT WE MAKE IT. 303 All are architects of fate, Working in these walls of time ; Some with massive deeds and great, Some with ornaments of rhyme ; For the structure that we raise, Time is with materials filled; Our to-days and yesterdays Are the blocks with which we build. LOHGFEIXOW. CHAPTEE XIX. THE VICTOKT IN DEFEAT. 'T is said best men are moulded of their faults. Shakespeaee. They never fail who die in a great cause. Btkon. "Failures are but the pillars of success." Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. — CoNFDCius. Adversity is the diamond-dust Heaven polishes its jewels with. Leighton. Who falls for the love of God, shall rise a star. Ben Josson. Nor deem the irrevocable Past As wholly wasted, wholly vain, If, rising on its wrecks, at last To something nobler we attain. LOKGPELLOW. What is defeat ? Nothing but education ; nothing but the first steps to something better — Wendell Phillips. A great career, though balked of its end, is still a landmark of human energy. — Smiles. 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 ; Fate was not mine, nor am I Fate's ; Souls know no conquerors. Drtden. Sometimes the truest lives of all Are lived by those who fail. Myron Hanford Veon. NeaeiiT a hundred thousand Romans are assembled in the Colosseum to see the hated Christians struggle for their lives with the wild beasts of the amphitheatre. The grand spectacle is preceded by a duel between two rival gladiators, trained to fight to the death to amuse the populace. When a gladiator hit his adversary in such contests he would say " hoc habet " (he has it), and look up to see whether he should kill or spare. If ROBERT E. LEE " The world will be blind indeed if it does not reckon among its great ones heroes without laurels and conquerors without the jubilation of triumph." THE VICTORY IN DEFEAT. 305 the people held their thumbs up, the victim would be left to recover ; if down, he was to die. If he showed the least reluctance in presenting his throat for the death-blow, there would rise a scornful shout : " Eecipe ferrum " (receive the steel). Prominent persons would sometimes go into the arena and watch the death agonies of the vanquished, or taste the warm blood of some brave hero. The two rival gladiators, as they entered, had shouted to the emperor: "Ave, Caesar, morituri te salutant" (Hail, Caesar, those about to die salute thee). Then in mortal strife they fought long and desperately, their faces wet with perspiration and dark with the dust of the arena. Suddenly an aged stranger in the audience leaps over the railing, and, standing bare- headed and barefoot between the contestants, bids them stay their hands. A hissing sound comes from the vast audience, like that of steam issuing from a geyser, followed by cries of "Back, back, old man." But the gray-haired hermit stands like a statue. " Cut him down, cut him down,'' roar the spectators, and the glad- iators strike the would-be peacemaker to earth, and fight over his dead body. But what of it ? What is the life of a poor old hermit compared with the thousands who have met their deaths in that vast arena? The unknown man died, indeed, but his death brought Eome to her senses, and no more gladiatorial contests disgraced the Colosseum, while in every province of the empire the custom was utterly abolished, to be revived no more. The vast ruin stands to-day a monument to the victory in the hermit's defeat. No man fails who does his best, for if the criti(^al world ignore him, his labor is weighed in the scales of Omniscient Justice. As there is no effect without cause, no loss of energy in the world, so conscientious persistence cannot fail of its ultimate reward. 306 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. A One of the first lessons of life is to learn how to get victory out of defeat. It takes courage and stamina, when mortified and embarrassed by humiliating dis- aster, to seek in the wreck or ruins the elements of future conquest. Yet this measures the difference between those who succeed and those who fail. You cannot measure a man by his failures. You must know what use he makes of them. What did they mean to him ? What did he get out of them ? a,-- I always watch with great interest a young man's first failure. It is the index of his life, the measure of his success-power. The mere fact of his failure does not interest me much ; but how did he take his defeat ? What did he do next ? Was he discouraged ? Did he slink out of sight ? Did he conclude that he had made a mistake in his calling, and dabble in something else ? Or did he up and at it again with a determination that knows no defeat ? " I thank God I was not made a dexterous manipula- tor," said Humphry Davy, " for the most important of my discoveries have been suggested to me by failures." " God forbid that I should do this thing, and flee away from them," said Judas Maccabaeus, when, with only eight hundred faithful men, he was urged to retire before the Syrian army of twenty thousand. " If our time be come, let us die manfully for our brethren, and let us not stain our honor." " Sore was the battle," says Miss Yonge ; " as sore as that waged by the three hundred at Thermopylae, and the end was the same. Judas and his eight hun- dred were not driven from the field, but lay dead upon it. But their work was done. The moral effect of such a defeat goes further than many a victory. Those lives, sold so dearly, were the price of freedom for Judea. Judas's brothers, Jonathan and Simon, laid him in his father's tomb, and then ended the work that he had begun ; and when Simon died, the Jews, once so THE VICTORY IN DEFEAT. 307 trodden on, were the most prosperous race in the East. The temple was raised from its ruins, and the exploits of the Maccabees had nerved the whole people to do or die in defense of the holy faith of their fathers." After a long and desperate but vain struggle to free his country from the iron rule of Eome, Vercingetorix surrendered himself to Csesar on condition that his army should be allowed to return home without molestation. He was held a prisoner for six years, then dragged in chains over the cold stones of Eome to grace an impe- rial triumph, and killed in his dungeon the following night. Yet no one would think of naming any one else if asked who was the bravest and noblest among the Gallic leaders. " Be of good comfort. Master Eidley, and play the man," said Latimer, as he stood with his friend at the stake ; " we shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England as I trust shall never be put out ; " and every word had more influence than would the preaching of a hundred sermons against the intolerance of the age. So incensed did the people become that, besides Cranmer, burned two years later, very few others were sacrificed ; and of these it is said that they were secretly tried and burned at night, surrounded by sol- diers, for fear of riots by the populace enraged at such injustice and cruelty. '^There is something grand and inspiring in a young man who fails squarely after doing his level best, and then enters the contest again and again with undaunted courage and redoubled energy. I have no fears for the youth who is not disheartened at failure. ^ "It is defeat," says Henry Ward Beecher, "that turns bone to flint, and gristle to muscle, and makes men invincible, and formed those heroic natures that are now in ascendency in the world. Do not, then, be afraid of defeat. You are never so near to victory as when defeated in a good cause." 808 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. Failure becomes tlie final test of persistence and of an iron will. It either crushes a life, or solidifies it. The wounded oyster mends his shell with pearl. " Failure is, in a sense," Says Keats, " the highway to success, inasmuch -as every discovery of what is false/ leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points' out some form of error which we shall afterward carefully avoid." " We mount to heaven," says A. B. Alcott, " mostly on the ruins of our cherished schemes, finding our failures were successes." No man is a failure who is upright and true. No cause is a failure which is in the right. There is but one failure, and that is Qot to be true to the best that is in us. Of what avail would it be for a man without a king- dom, without an army, to oppose the most powerful monarch of Europe ? William the Silent was a learned philosopher, an accomplished linguist, of good family and great wealth, and a lover of peace. Yet, as a mere citizen of little Holland, on what could he rely should he attempt to wage war against overwhelming odds, except the justice of his cause and the weight of his character ? Philip II. was a nephew of the emperor of Germany, husband of the queen of England, and ruler in his own right of Spain, Holland, Belgium, and most of Italy, Oran, Tunis, the Cape Verde, Canary, and Philippine Islands, the Antilles, Mexico, and Peru. While his neighbors were weakened by quarrels, his resources were unrivaled. His cause was supported by the arms, wealth, glory, genius, and religion of Europe. Philip determined to establish the Inquisition in the Netherlands, and William resolved to consecrate him- self to the defense of the liberties of his country. The struggle was prodigious. At last William died, but Philip was not a victor. Holland, indeed, was THE VICTORY IN DEFEAT. 309 without a leader, but the vast Spanish monarchy was tottering to its fall. From the beginning of the contest, " the figure of the king becomes smaller and smaller until it finally disappears, while that of the Prince of Orange grows and grows, until it becomes the most glorious figure of the century.'' Proscribed, impover- ished, calumniated, surrounded by assassins, often a fugitive, and finally a lifeless lump of clay, William had maintained throughout a . solidity of character against which beat in vain the waves of corrupt wealth and injustice. Character is power. Ealeigh failed, but he left a name ever to be linked with brave effort and noble character. Kossuth did not succeed, but his lofty career, his burning words, and his ideal fidelity will move men for good as long as time shall last. O'Connell did not win his cause, but he did achieve enduring fame as an orator, patriot, and apostle of liberty. Viewed in this light, the retreat of Xenophon's Ten Thousand outshines the conquests of Alexander ; and the retreat of Sir John Moore to Corunna was as great as the victories of Wellington. " Gentlemen, apply to my young friend, Mr. Whit- ney, he can make anything," said the widow of General Greene, when some officers who had served under her husband in the Eevolution said it was impossible to extend the culture of cotton, on account of the trouble and expense of separating the seed from the fibre. Eli Whitney had gone from his Massachusetts home, in 1792, to teach in Georgia. Mrs. Greene, at whose house he was visiting, introduced Mr. Whitney to the officers aud some planter guests, and recommended him as a young man of great integrity and ingenuity. The young teacher said that he had never seen cotton or cotton-seed, but promised to see what he could do. He found a little in Savannah, and shut himself up in a basement to experiment. He 310 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. had to make his own tools, and even draw his wire, as none could then be bought in Savannah. He hammered and tinkered all winter, but at last his machine was successful. Mr. Miller, who had recently married Mrs. Grreene, offered to become an equal partner with Mr. Whitney, furnishing funds for perfecting, patenting, and making the machines. People came to see the wonderful de- vice, but Mr. Miller refused, to show it, as it was not yet patented. Some of the visitors broke open the building by night and carried off the gin. Soon the partners found that machines that infringed upon theirs were upon the market. Mr. Whitney established a manufactory ia New Haven, but was hampered greatly by a long sick- ness, while suits to defend the patent swallowed all the money of the partners. Again Whitney was sick, and had but just recovered when his manufactory burned with all his machines and papers, leaving him bank- rupts Just then came the news that British manufac- turers rejected cotton cleaned by his machine, saying that the process was injurious. He went to Eng- land and at last overcame this prejudice, when his cotton-gin was again in demand. A suit against an infringer was decided against him by a Georgia jury, although the judge charged in his favor. The market was flooded with infringements. Not until 1807, the last year of his patent, was a suit decided in his favor, Judge Johnson saying : — "The whole interior of the Southern States was languishing and its inhabitants emigrating for want of some object to engage their attention and employ their industry, when the invention of this machine at once opened views to them which set the whole country in active motion. From childhood to age, it has presented to us a lucrative employment. Individuals who were depressed with poverty and sunk in idleness have sud- THE VICTORY IN DEFEAT. 311 denly risen to wealth and respectability. Our debts have been paid off. Our capitals have increased, and our lands have trebled themselves in value." Whitney was obliged to engage in another kind of business to gain a livelihood, on account of the injustice of his fellow countrymen, yet one of the world's greatest victories grew out of his apparent defeat. Instead of a pound of cleaned cotton as the result of a day's work of an able-bodied man, he had made it possible for him to clean hundreds of pounds. His invention increased the production of cotton in the South more than a thousand fold, and was worth, according to conservative men, more than a thousand millions of dollars to the United States. What an inspiration there is in this career for discouraged souls in life's great battles ! " No language," says E. P. Whipple, " can fitly express the meanness, the baseness, the brutality, with which the world has ever treated its victims of one age and boasts of them in the next. Dante is worshiped at that grave to which he was hurried by persecution. Milton in his own day was 'Mr. Milton, the blind adder, that spit his venom on the king's person ; ' and soon after, 'the mighty orb of song.' These absurd transitions from hatred to apotheosis, this recognition just at the moment when it becomes a mockery, sadden all intellectual history." " Even in this world," says Mrs. Stowe, " they will have their judgment-day ; and their names, which went down in the dust like a gallant banner trodden in the mire, shall rise again all glorious in the sight of nations." What cared Garrison or Phillips for the rotten eggs, the jeers and hisses in Eaneuil Hall ? What did Demos- thenes, Curran, or Disraeli care for the taunts and hisses that drove them from the rostrum ? They felt within the power of greatness, and knew that the time would come when they would be heard. Mortified by 312 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. tumiliation and roused by defea,t, they were spurred into a grander eloquence. Those apparent defeats which would have silenced forever men of ordinary mould, only excited in these men a determination which, like the waters of the Hellespont, " ne'er felt retiring ebb." Who can estimate the world's debt to weak, deformed, and apparently defeated men, whose desperate struggles to redeem themselves from perpetual scorn have made them immortal ? It was Byron's club-foot and shyness which caused him to pour forth his soul in song. It was to Bedford jail that we owe the finest allegory in the world. Bunyan wrote nothing of note before or after his twelve years' imprisonment. Death wins no victory over such men. Eegulus might be destroyed bodily by cruel torture, but his spirit animated Rome to blot Carthage from the face of the earth. Winkelried did indeed fall beneath the Austrian spears, but Switzerland is free. Wallace was quartered : Scotland never. Lincoln became the victim of an assas- sin, but none the less his work went forward. Never was martyr yet whose death did not advance the cause he advocated tenfold more than could possibly have been accomplished by his voice or pen. He who never failed has never half succeeded. • The defeat at Bull Eun was really the greatest victory of the Civil War, for it sent the cowards to the rear and the politicians home. It was the lightning-flash in the dark night of our nation's peril which gave us glimpses of the weak places in our army. It was the mirror which showed us the faces of the political aspirants. / " The angel of martyrdom is brother to the angel of victory." What cared Savonarola though the pope excommunicated him because he could not bribe him ? What cared he for the live coals on his feet ? He would still tell the Italian people of their terrible sins, and he knew that though they should burn him at the stake, his ashes would plead for him and speak louder than THE VICTORY IN DEFEAT. 313 his tongue had ever done. He shrank not from telling the dying Lorenzo to restore liberty to Florence and re- turn what he had stolen from the people, before he would grant him absolution. Though the prince turned his face to the wall, rather than purchase forgiveness on such terms, Savonarola was inflexible, and the mon- arch died unabsolved. On the way to the scaffold, the bishop said, " I separate thee from the Church militant and triumphant." Savonarola corrected him, saying, " N^ot triumphant, that is not yours to do." '^"Heaven is probably a place for those who have failed on earth./^ The world will be blind indeed if it does not reckon among its great ones such martyrs as miss the palms but not the pains of martyrdom, heroes without laurels and conquerors without the jubilations of triumph."^ Uninterrupted successes at the beginning of a career are dangerous. Beware of the first great triumph. It may prove a failure. Many a man has been ruined by over-confidence born of his first victory. The mountain oak, tossed and swayed in the tempest until its proud top sweeps the earth, is all the stronger for its hundred battles with the elements if it only straighten up again. The danger is not in a fall, but in failing to rise. All the great work of the world has been accomplished by courage, and the world's greatest victories have been born of defeat. Every blessing that we enjoy — per- sonal security, individual liberty, and constitutional freedom — has been obtained through long apprentice- ships of evil. The right of existing as a nation has only been accomplished through ages of wars and horrors. It required four centuries of martyrdom to establish Christianity, and a century of civil wars to introduce the Reformation.^' "There are some whom the lightning of fortune blasts, only to render holy," says Bulwer. "Amidst all that humbles and scathes — amidst all that shatters 314 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. from their life its verdure, smites to the dust the pomp and summit of their pride, and in the very heart of ex- istence writeth a sudden and strange defeature, they stand erect, — riven, not uprooted, a monument less of pity than of awe ! There are some who pass through the lazar-house of misery with a step more august than a Caesar's in his hall. The very things which, seen alone, are despicable and vile, associated with them be- come almost venerable and divine ; and one ray, how- ever dim and feeble, of that intense holiness which, in the infant God, shed majesty over the manger and the straw, not denied to those who, in the depth of af- fliction, cherished his patient image, flings over the meanest localities of earth an emanation from the glory of Heaven ! " Even from the dreary waste and desolation of his be- reavement at Tordham, the stricken soul of Edgar A. Poe blossomed in those matchless flowers of funeral song, the delicately ethereal dirges, " Ulalume " and "Annabel Lee," which alone would immortalize their author. To know how to wring victory from defeat, and make sfepping-stones of our stumbling-blocks, is the secret of success.,1- What matters it — "If what shone afar so grand Turned to ashes in the hand ? On again, the virtue lies In the struggle, not the prize." Eaphael died at thirty-seven, in the very flush of young manhood, before he had finished his " Transfigu- ration.'' Yet he had produced the finest picture in the world, and it was carried in his funeral procession, while all Rome mourned their great loss. Even the defeat of death found victorious voice in the unequaled requiem of Mozart. There is something sublime in the resolute, fixed THE VICTORY IN DEFEAT. 315 purpose of suffering without complaining, which makes disappointment often better than success. Constant success shows us only one side of the world; for as it surrounds us with friends who tell us only of our merits, so it silences those enemies from whom only we can learn our defects. Columbus was carried home in chains, on his third voyage, from the world he had discovered. Although the indignant people remonstrated, and his friend the queen had him set free, persecution followed him when he again crossed the Atlantic westward. At the age of seventy, after the " long wandering woe " of this fourth and final voyage, he was glad to reach Spain at last. He hoped for some reward — at least enough to keep soul and body together. But his appeals were fruitless. He lived for a few months after his return, poor, lonely, and stricken with a mortal disease. Even towards his death he was a scarcely tolerated beggar. He had to complain that his frock had been taken and sold, that he had not a roof of his own, and lacked wherewithal to pay his tavern bill. It was then that, with failing breath, he uttered the words, sublime in their touching simplicity, "I, a native of Genoa, discovered in the distant West, the continent and isles of India." He expired at Valladolid, May 20, 1606, his last words being, "Lord, I deliver my soul into thy hands." Thus Columbus died a neglected beggar, while a pickle-dealer of Seville, whose highest position was that of second mate of a vessel, gave his name to the greatest conti- nent on the globe. But was the Genoese mariner a failure ? Ask more than a hundred millions of people who inhabit the world he found a wilderness. Ask the grandest republic the sun ever shone upon if Columbus was a failure. Joan of Arc was burned alive at Rouen, without even a remonstrance from Charles VII., who owed her his crown. Was the life of Joan of Arc a failure ? Ask a 316 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. nation besprinkled with, her bronze and marble statues if the memory of tlie Maid of Orleans is not enshrined in every Frenchman's heart. "A heroic Wallace, quartered upon the scaffold," said Carlyle, " cannot hinder that his Scotland become, one day, a part of England ; but he does hinder that it become, on tyrannous, unfair terms, a part of it ; com- mands still, as with a god's voice, from his old Valhalla and Temple of the brave, that there be a just, real union as of brother and brother, not a false and merely semblant one as of slave and master." Leonidas and his three hundred may perish after de- fending a little mountain-pass against the vast Persian army for three days in hand to hand conflict ; but then- defeat shall prove a nation's victory, and they shall live in song and story when Xerxes and his vast horde will be remembered only because they were repulsed at Ther- mopylae and vanquished at Salamis and Platsea. When the troop-laden English ship Birkenhead was found to be foundering in stress of weather, the officer in charge of the battalion ordered his men to stand at "parade rest" while the boats rowed away with the women and children. They kept their places as the water swashed higher and higher around their feet, and, when it reached their waists, unstrapped their belts and held aloft their cartridge-boxes until with a wild lurch the wreck went down. Think you there was no victory in this apparent defeat ? Character is power and triumphs over physical weakness. " A man, true to man's grave religion," says Bulwer, " can no more despise a life wrecked in all else, while a hallowing affection stands out sublime through the rents and chinks of fortune, than he can profane with rude mockery a temple in ruins — if still left there the altar." r The exertion of all your strength of mind or body may result in nothing but failure in the eyes of a crit- THE VICTORY IN DEFEAT. 317 ical world, but what you have done is already weighed in the scales of Omniscient Justice, and can in no way avoid its legitimate reward. Your deed is registered — "In the rolls of Heaven, where it will live, A theme for angels when they celebrate The high-souled virtues which forgetful earth , Has witnessed." CHAPTER XX. , NEKVB — GRIT, GRIP, PLFCK. ■When you get into a tight place, and everj'thing goes against yon, till it seems as if you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that's just the place and time that the tide '11 turn. — Hakribt Beecher Stowe. I find nothing so singular in life as this, that everything opposlng.ap- pears to lose its substance the moment one actually grapples with it. — Hawthorne. " Never give up : for the wisest is boldest. Knowing that Providence mingles the cup; And of all maxims, the best, as the oldest. Is the stern watchword of 'Never give up! ' " Be firm ; one constant element of luck Is genuine, solid, old Teutonic pluck. Stick to your aim; the mongrel's hold will slip, But only crowbars loose the bull-dog's grip; ■■'Small though he looks, the jaw that never yields Drags down the bellowing monarch of the fields !' Holmes. "Let it split," said a professor, ■vsrhen told that his principles, if carried out, would split the world to pieces ; "there are enough more planets." " Soldiers, you are Frenchmen," said Napoleon, coolly walking among, his disaffected generals when th'ey threatened his life in the Egyptian campaign ; "you are too many to assassinate, and too few to intimidate me." " How brave he is ! " exclaimed the ringleader, as he' withdrew, completely cowed. ■ " General Taylor never surrenders," said old " Eough and Ready " at Buena Vista, when Santa Anna with 20,000 men offered him a chance to save his 4,000 sol- diers by capitulation. The battle was long and desper- ate, but at length the Mexicans were glad to avoid ULYSSES S. GRANT " I know no such unquestionable badge and ensign of a sovereign mind aa that tenacity of purpose which, through all changes of companions, or parties, or fortunes, changes never, bates no jot of heart or hope, but wearies out opposition and arrives at its port." NERVE— GRIT, GRIP, PLUCK. 319 further defeat by flight. When Lincoln was asked how- Grant impressed him as a general, he replied, "The greatest thing about him is cool persistency of purpose. He has the grip of a bulldog ; when he once gets his teeth in, nothing can shake him off. It was "On to Eichmond," and " I shall fight it out on this line if it takes all summer," that settled the fate of the Eebel- lion. When Caesar was captured by pirates, they offered to release him for twenty talents. " It is too little," said the Eoman, "you shall have fifty. But when I am free I will crucify every one of you." He kept his word. " Oh ! if the duke has said that, of course t' other fellow must give way," said Sydney Smith, just before the battle of Waterloo, when told that Wellington had decided to keep his position at all events. " Go it, William ! " an old boxer was overheard say- ing to himself in the midst of a fight ; " at him again ! — never say ' die ' ! " When Philip threatened to prohibit the enjoyment of all their privileges, the Lacedaemonians asked whether he would also prohibit their dying. " My sword is too short," said a Spartan youth to his father. " Add a step to it, then," was the only reply. It is said that the snapping-turtle will not release his grip, even after his head is cut off. He is resolved, if he dies, to die hard. It is just such grit that enables many a man to succeed, for what men call luck is gen- erally the prerogative of valiant souls. It is the final effort that brings victory. It is the last pull of the oar, with clenched teeth and knit muscles, that shows what Oxford boatmen call "the beefiness of the fellow." Chauncey Depew said to a class of young men : " After choosing your profession, put up this motto over your door, ' Stick, dig, save.' " As late as 1861 Grant wrote to a friend, telling his satisfaction at an increase of salary in the leather busi- 320 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. ness at Galena, 111., from f 600 to $800 a year. He expressed a hope of reaching what then seemed his highest ambition, a partnership in the firm. In May, 1861, he communicated -with the general in command at Washington, asking to be assigned to military duty not for one, three, or six months, but until the close, of the ■war, in such capacity as might offer. No notice was ever taken of this request. At forty he was an obscure citizen of Galena. At forty-two he was known as one of the greatest generals in history. Speaking of Shiloh he once said: "I thought I was going to fail, but I kept right on." It is this keeping right on that wins in the battle of life. After his defeat at the first battle of Shiloh, nearly every newspaper of both parties in the North, almost every member of Congress, and public sentiment every- where demanded his removal. Friends of the Presi- dent pleaded with him to give the command to some one else, for his own sake as well as for the good of the country. Lincoln listened for hours one night, speak- ing only at rare intervals to tell a pithy story, until the clock struck one. Then, after a long silence, he said: " I can't spare this man. He fights." It was Lincoln's marvelous insight and sagacity that saved Grant from the storm of popular passion, and gave us the greatest hero of the Civil War. When Fort Henry was taken, Halleck advised Grant to defend his position. Instead, he at once marched against Fort Donelson, whose commander after four days of hard fighting sent a flag of truce to ascertain on what terms a capitulation could be arranged. " Uncon- ditional and immediate surrender," was the reply ; " I propose to move immediately upon your works ; " but when night fell, he visited Buckner in the prisoner's tent, and said, "You must have lost everything; take my purse." Grant never looked backward. Once, after several NER VE — GRIT, GRIP, PL UCK 321 days of hard fighting without definite result, he called a council of war. One general described the route by which he would retreat, another thought it better to retire by a different road, and general after general told how he would withdraw, or fall back, or seek a more favorable position in the rear. At length all eyes were turned upon Gfrant, who had been a silent listener for hours. He rose, took a bundle of papers from an inside pocket, handed one to each general, and said : " Gentle- men, at dawn you will execute those orders." Every paper gave definite directions for an advance, and with the morning sun the army moved forward to vic- tory. Astonished at a command to storm an important but strongly defended position, an officer rode back and said : " General, if I understand your order aright, it may involve the sacrifice of every man in my com- mand." " I am glad, sir, that you understand my order aright," replied the silent general. For thirty days he rained sledge-hammer blows upon Lee in the Wilderness, fighting by day, advancing by night. The country shuddered at such unheard-of car- nage, and demanded his removal ; but ever to his inquiring officers came the cool command, " By the left flank, forward," while he electrified the nation by the homeward dispatch, " I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer." When, with the Confed- eracy at his feet, the storm of vengeance seemed about to burst, his magnanimous words, "Let us have peace," fell like a benediction upon the hearts of victors and vanquished alike. When Cannse was lost, and Hannibal was gathering in measures the rings of the Eoman knights who had perished in the strife, the senate of Eome voted thanks to the defeated general. Consul Terentius Varro, for not having despaired of the republic. Pellisier, the Crimean chief of zouaves, became angry 322 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. with a sub-ofBcer of cavalry, and struck him across th& face with a whip. The man drew a pistol and pulled the trigger, but it missed fire. "Fellow," said the grim chief coolly, " I order you a three days' arrest for not having your arms in hatter order." Massena's army of 18,000 men in Genoa had been re- duced by fighting and famine to 8,000. They had killed and captured more than 16,000 Austrians, but their provisions were completely exhausted ; starvation stared them in the face ; the enemy outnumbered them four to one, and they seemed at the mercy of their opponents. General Ott demanded a discretionary surrender, but Massena replied : " My soldiers must be allowed to march out with colors flying, and arms and baggage ; not as prisoners of war, but free to fight when and where we please. If you do not grant this, I will sally forth from Genoa sword in hand. With eight thousand famished men I will attack your camp, and I will fight till I cut my way through it." Ott knew the temper of the great soldier, and agreed to accept the terms if he would surrender himself, or if he would depart by sea so as not to be quickly joined by reinforcements. Massena's only reply was : " Take my terms, or I will cut my way through your army." Ott at last agreed, when Massena said: "I give you notice that ere fifteen days are passed I shall be once more in Genoa," and he kept his word. Napoleon said of this man, who was orphaned in tofancy and cast upon the world to make his own way in life : " When defeated, Massena was always ready ' to fight a battle over again, as though he had been the conqueror." " The battle is completely lost," said Dessaix, looking at his watch, when consulted by Napoleon at Marengo ; " but it is only two o'clock, and we shall have time to gain another." He then made his famous cavalry charge, and won the field, although a few minutes NERVE — GRIT, GRIP, PLUCK. 323 before the French soldiers all along the line were mo- mentarily expecting an order to retreat. At the magazine of the Mare Island ISTavy Yard, California, sailors from the U. S. S. Boston were fill- ing shells when suddenly the whole building went up in fire and smoke. All present were killed instantly. About a quarter of a mile distant a young girl was driving in a pony-cart, when the explosion occurred, and almost immediately afterward a doctor rushed from the naval hospital towards the scene of the disaster. Eealizing the sitiiation, she asked the doctor to jump into the cart, and galloped to the ruins. Other maga- zine buildings, in which shells were exploding every moment, had caught fire. Explosives were stored in those buildings in quantities suflELcient to blow up Pike's Peak. Yet the doctor and the girl entered the pall of smoke amid the mangled dead. Collins, the watchman, half blinded and bewildered by a blow from a fragment of timber, was groping his way from building to build- ing, to prevent further disaster by shutting the iron doors and shutters. The girl coolly wrapped a ban- dage round his injured head, and then looked for other wounded until more help arrived. Por this deed of Bessie McDougal, a general order of the Secretary of the Navy was read from the quarterdeck of every ves- sel in our service, tendering the thanks of the nation. About sunset, July 6, 1881, a tempest burst with terrible fury in Iowa. In an hour every creek had overflowed its banks, and the Des Moines River had risen six feet ; while every stream bore buildings, lum- ber, logs, and other debris madly towards the Missis- sippi. Kate Shelley, a girl of eighteen, stood at a window listening to the wild tumult without, when she happened to glance in the direction of Honey Creek railroad bridge. Through the deep darkness she saw the bright headlight of a locomotive move steadily along for a moment, and drop suddenly. Only her 326 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. but the next morning Eothschild appeared with his nine clerks and several drays to carry away the gold, remarking, " These gentlemen refuse to pay my bills ; I have sworn not to keep theirs. They can pay at their leisure, only I notify them that I have enough to em- ploy them for two months." The smiles faded from the features of the bank of&cials, as they thought of a draft of $55,000,000 in gold which they did not hold. Kext morning notice was given in the newspapers that the Bank of England would pay Rothschild's bills as well as its own. Three hundred thousand men had fought with sullen fury all day, but the Freuch had been steadily repulsed until Macdonald was sent with 16,000 infantry to pierce the Austrian centre. The archduke at once doubled his lines, brought up his reserve cavalry, and wheeled two hundred cannon in front of the threatened point. Straight towards such overwhelming odds, for about two miles, Macdonald led his melting ranks, before the astonished gaze of both armies, which seemed to have ceased fighting elsewhere to watch the march of such a forlorn hope ; then, amid the concentrated fire of 100,- 000 Austrians, he halted a moment to reform his shat- tered columns. His eye fell upon only 1,500 living Frenchmen in his battalions, behind which trailed a long black line of the dead and dying, in which lay ten out of every eleven with whom he had set out. Men of steel might well shrink from that fire of hell which blazed at their breasts, but Macdonald's watch- word was ever duty, and his soldiers had caught the spirit of their chief. Only one look does he give to that windrow of death; and then, glancing from his falling heroes to the dense mass of foemen in front, the single word '-'forward" rings like a clarion call above the horrid din. Cheerily as at a holiday parade drums beat and trumpets peal ; with elastic bound the remaining few leap over the smoking cannon, rush NER VE — GRIT, GRIP, PL UCR. 327 through charging squadrons of cavalry, and plunge into the serried columns of infantry beyond, which seem fairly pulverized at the moral shock of such an onset. Into the breach thus opened sweep the cuirassiers of the Old Guard, sent by Napoleon to support the brave Macdonald. The Austrians are wildly routed, Wagram is won, and the fate of Europe is sealed for four years. The powder of the garrison of Port Henry was ex- hausted, on that summer day of 1777, and the Indians were pressing closer and closer, emboldened by the silence of the guns. Ebenezer Zane suddenly remem- bered that there was a keg in his house, some two hun- dred feet away, and so informed Colonel Shepard, in command. A volunteer was called for to attempt the forlorn task of going for it, exposed to close fire from the savages. Every man offered and contended eagerly for the honor, but Elizabeth Zane insisted upon going, saying that her life was less valuable for defense than that of a man. She was just graduated from a school in Philadelphia, and, with other young ladies, had been aiding the soldiers by casting bullets, making car- tridges, and loading rifles. Consent was given reluct- antly, and she passed quickly to her brother's house, the Indians watching in silent wonder. But when she was seen running back with the powder, a volley of bul- lets followed her, but withovit effect. The powder saved the fort, where now is Wheeling, West Virginia. Amid difficulties and dangers before unknown, with hordes of savages around him, and winter at hand, La Salle, while exploring the Mississippi, brooded not " on the redoubled ruin that had befallen him — the de^ sponding friends, the exulting foes, the wasted energies, the crushing load of debt, the stormy past, the dark and lowering future. His mind was of a different temper. He had no thought but to grapple with adversity, and out of the fabric of his ruin to rear the fabric of tri- umphant success." 328 PUSHING TO THE FBONT. "Hard pounding, gentlemen," said Wellington at Waterloo to his officers, "but we will see who can pound the longest." " It is very kind of them to ' sand ' our letters for us," said young Junot coolly, as an Austrian shell scat- tered earth over the dispatch he was writing at the dictation of his commander-in-chief. The remark at- tracted Napoleon's attention and led to the promotion of the scrivener. Erskine, the great advocate, was a hero at the bar; but when he entered the House of Commons, there was something in the fixed imperiousness and scorn of Pitt which made him feel inwardly weak and fluttered. Erskine had flashes of heroism; Pitt had consistent and persistent grit. A Swedish boy fell out of a window and was badly hurt, but with clenched lips he kept back the cry of pain. The king, Grustavus Adolphus, who saw him fall, prophesied that the boy would make a man for an emergency. And so he did, for he became the famous General Bauer. The Spartan boy was dishonest enough to steal a fox, but proud enough to let the beast eat out his vitals rather than risk detection. " There is room enough tip higher," said Webster to a young man hesitating to study law because the pro- fession was so crowded. This is true in every depart- ment of activity. The young man of to-day who would succeed must hold his ground and push hard. Who- ever attempts to pass through the door to success wiU find it labeled in large letters, " Push." After a severe two hours' lesson from her father, Taglioni, the great danseuse, would fall exhausted. Attendants would then resuscitate her by sponging and friction, when, after a few hours' rest, she would be ready for an evening performance. " I have often had occasion," says Washington Irv- NERVE —GRIT, GRIP, PLUCK. 329 ing, " to remark the fortitude with which women sustain the most overwhelming reverses of fortune. Those disasters which break down the spirit of a man, and prostrate him in the dust, seem to call forth all the en- ergies of the softer sex, and give such intrepidity and elevation to their character that at times it approaches to sublimity." The historian Aquetil refused to bend his knee to Bonaparte. He chose rather the direst poverty, and was reduced to three sous a day. " I have still," said he, " two sous a day left for the conqueror of Marengo and Austerlitz. I do not need the emperor's help to die." For hours John B. Gough tried to speak on temper- ance to the students at Oxford, amid shouting, hooting, cat-calls, derisive yells, impertinent and insulting ques- tions, and every conceivable annoyance, not except- ing personal violence. But he would not give up, and finally captured the good will of the young men by ap- pealing to their sense of fair play in the novel proposi- tion that speaker and audience should divide the time equally between them. " You shall conduct things ac- cording to your ideas for twenty minutes while I listen, and then I will talk for twenty minutes while jovl lis- ten." He soon charmed them so much with his won- derful oratory that they were eager to give him their share of time. The perfection of grit is the power of saying " No," with emphasis that cannot be mistaken. Learn to meet hard times with a harder will, and more determined pluck. The nature which is all pine and straw is of no use in times of trial, we must have some oak and iron in us. The goddess of fame or of fortune has been won by many a poor boy who had no friends, no backing, or anything but pure grit and invincible purpose to com- mend him. A sun-browned country youth called on Bishop Simp- 330 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. sou, then president of Asbury University. His plain clothes led the bishop to ask what he had to depend upon. " My two hands, sir," replied the boy who after- ward became a United States Senator. The barriers are not yet erected which shall shut out aspiring talent. Give a boy health and the alphabet, and it rests with him what his future shall be. Those who wait for luck and legacies never amount to much. Who ever knew of a man becoming wise or good by luck ? Those who have failed in life usually believe in luck, fate, or destiny. They will cite numerous exam- ples of men who have made " lucky hits," or who have been " lucky dogs." " The chapter of accidents is the bible of the fool." Emerson says : " Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances : it was somebody's name, or he hap- pened to be there at the time, or it was so then, and another day it would have been otherwise. Strong men believe in cause and effect. All successful men have agreed in one thing, — they were causationists. They believed that things went not by luck but by law ; that there was not a weak or a cracked link in the chain that joins the first and last of things." Goethe says that industry is nine tenths of genius, and adds : " It never occurs to fools that merit and good fortune are closely united." " Diligence is the mother of good luck," said Frank- lin. " I may here impart the secret of what is called good and bad luck," said Addison. "There are men who, supposing Providence to have an implacable spite against them, bemoan in the poverty of old age the mis- fortunes of their lives. Luck forever runs against them, and for others. One with a good profession lost Lis luck in the river, where he idled away his time a-fishing. Another with a good trade perpetually burnt up his luck by his hot temper, which provoked all his NERVE— GRIT, GRIP, PLUCK. 331 employees to leave him. Another with a lucrative business lost his luck by amazing diligence at every- thing but his own business. Another who steadily fol- lowed his trade, as steadily followed the bottle. An- other who was honest and constant to his work, erred by his perpetual misjudgment, — he lacked discretion. Hundreds lose their luck by indorsing, by sanguine ex- pectations, by trusting fraudulent men, and by dishonest gains. A man never has good luck who has a bad wife. I never knew an early-rising, hard-working, prudent man, careful of his earnings and strictly honest, who complained of his bad luck. A good character, good habits, and iron industry are impregnable to the as- saults of the ill luck that fools are dreaming of. But when I see a tatterdemalion creeping out of a grocery late in the forenoon with his hands stuck into his pockets, the rim of his hat turned up, and the crown knocked in, I know he has had bad luck, — for the worst of all luck is to be a sluggard, a knave, or a tip- pler." There is no luck, for all practical purposes, to him who is not striving, and whose senses are not all eagerly attent. What are called accidental discoveries are al- most invariably made by those who are looking for some- thing. A man incurs about as much risk of being struck by lightning as by accidental luck. There is, perhaps, an element of luck in the amount of success which crowns the efforts of different men; but even here it will usually be found that the sagacity with which the efforts are directed and the energy with which they are prosecuted measure pretty accurately the luck contained in the results achieved. Apparent exceptions will be found to relate almost wholly to single undertakings, while in the long run the rule will hold good. Two pearl-divers, equally expert, dive together and work with equal energy. One brings up a pearl, while the other returns empty-handed. But let both persevere and 332 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. at the end of five, ten, or twenty years it will be found that they succeeded almost in exact proportion to their skill and industry. " With the aid or under the influence of pluck," says the London " Lancet," " it is possible not only to sur- mount what appear to be insuperable obstructions, but to defy and repel the ennuities of climate, adverse circum- stances, and even disease. Many a life has been saved by the moral courage of a sufferer. It is not alone in bearing the pain of operations or the misery of confine- ment in a sick-room, this self-help becomes of vital mo- ment, but in the monotonous tracking of a weary path, and the vigorous discharge of ordinary duty. How many a victim of incurable disease has lived on through years of suifering, patiently and resolutely hoping against hope, or, what is better, living down despair, until the virulence of a threatening malady has died out) and it has ceased to be destructive, although its physical characteristics remained ! " Some patients ab- solutely refuse to die. What can a doctor do with such cases but let them live ? Even his pills will not kill them. " The ruin which overtakes so many mereh,ants," says Whipple, " is due not so much to their lack of business talent as to their lack of business nerve. How many lovable persons we see in trade, endowed with brilliant capacities, but cursed with yielding dispositions, — who are resolute in no business habits and fixed in no busi- ness principles, — who are prone to follow the instincts of a weak good nature against the ominous hints of a clear intelligence, now obliging this friend by indorsing an unsafe note, and then pleasing that neighbor by shar- ing his risk in a hopeless speculation, — and who, after all the capital they have earned by their industry and sagacity has been sunk in benevolent attempts to assist blundering or plundering incapacity, are doomed, in their bankruptcy, to be the mark of bitter taunts from NERVE — GRIT, GRIP, PLUCK. 333 growling creditors and insolent pity from a gossiping public." " A somewhat varied experience of men has led me, the longer I live," says Huxley, "to set less value on mere cleverness ; to attach more and more importance to industry and physical endurance. Indeed, I am much disposed to think that endurance is the most valuable quality of all ; for industry, as the desire to work hard, does not come to much if a feeble frame is unable to re- spond to the desire. No life is wasted unless it ends in sloth, disho'nesty, or cowardice. No success is worthy of the name unless it is won by honest industry and brave breasting of the waves of fortune." Has God abdicated ? Is the universe an infinite chaos, in which order has no throne ? Is law a fable ? Is life a Babel ? Is the world a Pandemonium ? Then is there such a game of chance as men call luck. But as long as the smallest atom or the largest sun, the in- visible animalcule or the most glorious archangel, the soul soaring from its tenement of clay or the sparrow falling to the earth, acknowledge equally His ruling power, Nature will play no blindman's-buff. If ten deaf, dumb, and blind men were placed in line in a ten- acre lot, and left to wander until all who lived long enough were in line once more, the thing would be ac- complished only at the death of the ninth man. Has luck ever made a fool speak words of wisdom ; an igno- ramus utter lectures on science ; a dolt write an Odys- sey, an iEneid, a Paradise Lost, or a Hamlet ; a loafer become a Girard or Astor, a Kothschild, Stewart, Vander- bilt, Field, Gould, or Eockefeller ; a coward win at York- town, Wagram, Waterloo, or Richmond ; a careless stone- cutter carve an Apollo, a Minerva, a Venus de Medici, or a Greek Slave ? Does luck raise rich crops on the land of the sluggard, weeds and brambles on that of the industrious farmer ? Does luck make the drunkard sleek and attractive, and his home cheerful, while the 334 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. temperate man looks haggard and suffers want and misery? Does luck starve honest labor, and pamper idleness ? Does luck put common sense at a discount, folly at a premium ? Does it cast intelligence into the gutter, and raise ignorance to the skies ?==dBoesiL im- prison virtue, and laud vice ? Did luck give "Watt his engine, Franklin his captive lightning, Whitney his cot- ton-gin, Fulton his steamboat, Morse his telegraph, Blanchard his lathe, Howe his sewing-machine, Good- year his rubber. Bell his telephone, Edison his phono- graph ? If you are told of the man who, worn out by a pain- ful disorder, tried to commit suicide, but only opened an internal tumor, effecting a cure ; of the Persian con- demned to lose his tongue, on whom a bungling operar tion merely removed an impediment of speech ; of a painter who produced an effect long desired by throwing his brush at a picture in rage and despair ; of a musician who, after repeated failures in trying to imitate a storm at sea, obtained the result desired by angrily running his hands together from the extremities of the key- board, — bear in mind that even this " luck " came to men as the result of action, not inaction. One merchant lost his store, his only property, in the Chicago fire. A competitor just across the street occu- pied a store which was saved. In consequence of the great demand for business blocks after the fire and the enormous increase of biisiness, the latter became wealthy. Here, indeed, circumstances seemed to govern the relar tive success and failure of these two men ; but they were circumstances over which neither had control. The one might have provided for the contingency of such loss by insuring his store and goods ; but even in so doing he was liable to select companies that would be ruined by the enormous demand upon them, and so made unable to pay the insurance. The good fortune of the other seemed inevitable. Such a calamity as be- NERVE — GRIT, GRIP, PLUCK. 335 fell the first, and such an opportunity as was afforded the second, independently of their volition in both instances, comes to not more than one man in ten thousand. As Juvenal says, " A lucky man is rarer than a white crow." Eealizing that " unlucky people " are usually shiftless and lazy. Baron Eothschild and P. T. Barnum would have no business relations with them, for philosophical reasons. A. T. Stewart had a similar aversion, but was somewhat superstitious in his belief that it did not pav him to trade with them in any way. He said that if the first person to whom he sold goods from a newly opened lot was unlucky, he would lose on the entire lot. An old woman who sold apples in front of his little down- town store as a pretense to cover her real business of begging, so impressed him with the idea that she was his guardian angel that he personally moved her things in front of his new store, so anxious was he to have her there. Grover Cleveland also believed in luck. During his first candidacy for the oflS.ce of President of the United States, he said : " I am certain to be elected : it 's just my luck." " Luck is ever waiting for something to turn up," says Cobden ; " labor, with keen eyes and strong will, will turn up something. Luck lies in bed, and wishes the postman would bring him the news of a legacy ; labor turns out at six o'clock, and with busy pen or ringing hammer lays the foundation of a competence. Luck whines ; labor whistles. Luck relies on chance ; labor, on character." Stick to the thing and carry it through. Believe you were made for the place you fill, and that no one else can fill it as well. Put forth your whole energies. Be awake, electrify yourself ; go forth to the task. Only once learn to carry a thing through in all its complete- ness and proportion, and you will become a hero. You will think better of yourself ; others will think better of 336 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. you. The world in its very heart admires the stem, determined doer. " I like the man who faces what he must With step triumphant and a heart of cheer ; Who fights the daily battle without fear ; Sees his hopes fail, yet keeps unfaltering trust That God is God ; that somehow, true and just, His plans work out for mortals ; not a tear Is shed when fortune, which the world holds dear, Falls from his grasp ; better, with lore, a crust Than living in dishonor ; envies not, Nor loses faith in man ; but does his best, Nor even murmurs at his humbler lot ; But with a smile and words of hope, gives zest To every toiler ; he alone is great, Who by a life heroic conquers fate." CHAPTEE XXI. THE EEWAKD OP PERSISTENCE. Every noble work is at first impossible. — Caelyle. The falling drops at last will wear the stone. — Lucretius. Victory belongs to the most persevering. — Napoleon. Success in most things depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed. — MOMTESQUIEU. Perpetual pushing and assurance put a difficulty out of countenance, and make a seeming impossibility give way. — Jekemy Collier. I hate inconstancy — I loathe, detest. Abhor, condemn, abjure the mortal made Of such quicksilver clay that in his breast No permanent foundation can be laid. Byron. An enterprise, when fairly once begun. Should not be left till all that ought is won. Shakespeare. "Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel." The nerve that never relaxes, the eye that never blenches, the thought that never wanders, — these are the masters of victory. — Burke. In the lexicon of j'outh, which fate reserves for a bright manhood, there is no such word as fail. — Bulwer. " The pit rose at me ! " exclaimed Edmund Kean in a wUd tumult of emotion, as he rushed home to his trem- bling wife. " Mary, you shall ride in your carriage yet, and Charles shall go to Eton ! " He had been so terribly in earnest with the study of his profession that he had at length made a mark on his generation. He was a little dark man with a voice naturally harsh, but he determined, when young, to play the character of Sir Giles Overreach, in Massinger's drama, as no other man had ever played it. By a persistency that nothing seemed able to daunt, he so trained himself to play the 338 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. character that his success, when it did come, was over- whelming, and all London was at his feet. " I am sorry to say that I don't think this is in your line," said Woodfall the reporter, after Sheridan had made his first speech in Parliament. " You had better have stuck to your former pursuits." With head on his hand Sheridan mused for a time, then looked up and said, " It is in me, and it shall come out of me." From the same man came that harangue against Warren Hastings which the orator Pox called the best speech ever made in the House of Commons. "I had no other books than heaven and earth, which are open to all," said Bernard Palissy, who left his home in the south of Trance in 1828, at the age of eighteen. Though only a glass-painter, he had the soul of an artist, and the sight of an elegant Italian cup dis- turbed his whole existence; and from that moment the determination to discover the enamel with which it was glazed possessed him like a passion. For months and years he tried all kinds of experinients to learn the materials of which the enamel was compounded. He built a furnace, which was a failure, and then a second, burning so much wood, spoiling so many drugs and pots of common earthenware, and losing so much time, that poverty stared him in the face, and he was forced to try his experiments in a common furnace, from lack of abil- ity to buy fuel. Flat failure was the result, but he de- cided on the spot to begin all over again, and soon had three hundred pieces baking, one of which came out covered with beautiful enamel. To perfect his inven- tion he next built a glass-furnace, carrying the bricks on his back. At last the time came for a trial ; but, though he kept the heat up six days, his enamel would not melt. His money was aU gone, but he borrowed some, and bought more pots and wood, and tried to get a better flux. When next he lighted his fire, he attained no result until his fuel was gone. Tearing off the pal- CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN " 'Tis dogged that does it." *' The very reputation of being strong-willed, plucky, and indefatigable, is of priceless value. It cows enemies, and dispels opposition to our under- takings." THE REWARD OF PERSISTENCE. 339 ings of his garden fence, he fed them to the flames, but in vain. His furniture followed to no purpose. The shelves of his pantry were then broken up and thrown into the furnace ; and the great burst of heat melted the enamel. The grand secret was learned. Persistence had triumphed again. " For me, too," said Mendelssohn, " the hour of rest will come ; do the next thing." "If yon work hard two weeks without selling a book," wrote a publisher to an agent, " you will make a success of it." " Know thy work and do it," said Carlyle ; " and work at it like a Hercules. One monster there is in the world — an idle man." " Whoever is resolved to excel in painting, or, indeed, in any other art," said Eeynolds, " must bring all his mind to bear upon that one object from the moment that he rises till he goes to bed." " Those who are resolved to excel must go to their work, willing or unwilling, morning, noon, and night," said Eeynolds ; "they will find it no play, but very hard labor." "I have no secret but hard work," said Turner the painter. " Young gentlemen," said Francis Wayland, " remem- ber that nothing can stand days' work." " My sons," said a dying farmer to his three indolent boys, " a great treasure lies hid in the estate which I am about to leave to you." " Where is it hid ? " asked the eager sons in chorus. "I am about to tell you," gasped the sick man ; " you will have to dig for it " — but here his spirit departed. The sons turned over every sod upon the estate, without finding any buried gold; but they learned to work, and when the fields were sown, an enormous harvest repaid their thorough digging. "The man who is perpetually hesitating which of 340 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. two things he will do first," said William Wirt, " will do neither. The man who resolves, but suffers his re- solution to be changed by the first counter-suggestion of a friend — who fluctuates from opinion to opinion, from plan to plan, and veers like a weather-cock to every point of the compass, with every breath of caprice that blows, can never accomplish anything great or useful. Instead of being progressive in anything, he will be at best stationary, and, more probably, retrograde in all. "Who first consults wisely, then resolves firmly, and then executes his purpose with inflexible persever- ance, undismayed by those petty diflBculties which daunt a weaker spirit — that man can advance to emi- nence in any line." We are told that perseverance built the pyramids on Egypt's plains, erected the gorgeous temple at Jerusa- lem, inclosed in adamant the Chinese Empire, scaled' the stormy, cloud-capped Alps, opened a highway through the watery wilderness of the Atlantic, leveled the forests of the new world, and reared in its stead a community of states and nations. Perseverance has wrought from the marble block the exquisite creations of genius, painted on canvas the gorgeous mimicry of nature, and engraved on a metallic surface the viewless substance of the shadow. Perseverance has put in mo- tion millions of spindles, winged as many flying shuttles, harnessed thousands of iron steeds to as many freighted cars, and set them flying from town to town and nation to nation, tunneled mountains of granite, and annihilated space with the lightning's speed. Perse- verance has whitened the waters of the world with the sails of a hundred nations, navigated every sea and explored every land. Perseverance has reduced nature in her thousand forms to as many sciences, taught her laws, prophesied her future movements, measured her untrodden spaces, counted her myriad hosts of worlds, THE REWARD OP PERSISTENCE. 341 and computed their distances, dimensions, and veloci- ties. Lofty mountains are wearing down by slow degrees. The ocean is gradually but slowly tilling up, by de- posits from its thousand rivers. The Niagara Falls have worn back seven miles through the hard lime- stone, over which they pour their thundering columns of water, and will by and by drain the great lake which feeds the boiling chasm. The Eed Sea and whole regions of the Pacific Ocean are gradually filling up by the labors of a little insect, so small as to be almost invisible to the naked eye. The slow penny is surer than the quick dollar. The slow trotter will out-travel the fleet racer. Genius darts, flutters, and tires ; but perseverance wears and wins. The all-day horse wins the race. The afternoon-man wears off the laurels. The last blow drives home the nail. " Are your discoveries often briUiant intuitions ? " asked a reporter of Thomas A. Edison. " Do they come to you while you are lying awake nights ? " " I never did anything worth doing by accident," was the reply, " nor did any of my inventions come in- directly through accident, except the phonograph. No, when I have fully decided that a result is worth getting I go ahead on it and make trial after trial until it comes. I have always kept strictly within the lines of commercially useful inventions. I have never had any time to put on electrical wonders, valuable simply as novelties to catch the popular fancy. / like it," con- tinued the great inventor. "I don't know any other reason. You know some people like to collect stamps. Anything I have begun is always on my mind, and I am not easy while away from it until it is finished." A man who thus gives himself wholly to his work is certain to accomplish something ; and if he have ability and common sense, his success will be great. 342 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. " Acting does not, like Dogberry's reading and writ- ing, ' come by nature,' " said the elder Kean ; " with, all the high qualities which go to the formation of a great exponent of the book of life (for so the stage may justly be called), it is impossible, totally impossible, to leap at once to fame. ' What wound did ever heal but by slow degrees ? ' says our immortal author ; and what man, say I, ever became an ' actor ' without a long and sedu- lous apprenticeship ? I know that many think to step from behind a counter or jujnp from the high stool of an of&ce to the boards, and take the town by storm in Eichard or Othello, is as ' easy as lying.' Oh, the born idiots ! they remind me of the halfpenny candles stuck in the windows on illumination-nights ; they flicker and flutter their brief minute, and go out unheeded. Barn-storming, my lads, barn-storming, — that 's the touchstone ; by that I won my spurs ; so did Garrick, Henderson, and Kemble; and so, on the other side of the water, did my almost namesake Lekain and Talma." How Bulwer wrestled with the fates to change his apparent destiny ! His first novel was a failure ; his early poems were failures ; and his youthful speeches provoked the ridicule of his opponents. But he fought his way to eminence through ridicule and defeat. Gibbon worked twenty years on his "Decline and Fall of the Eomau Empire." Xoah Webster spent thirty-six years on his dictionary. What a sublime patience he showed in devoting a life to the collec- tion and definition of words. George Bancroft spent twenty-six years on his " History of the United States." Newton rewrote his " Chronology of Ancient Nations " fifteen times. Titian wrote to Charles V. : " I send your majesty the Last Supper, after working on it almost daily for seven years." He worked on his Pietro Martyn eight years. George Stephenson was fifteen years perfecting his locomotive; Watt, twenty THE REWARD OF PERSISTENCE. 343 years on his condensing-engine. Harvey labored eight long years before he published his discovery of the circulation of the blood. He was then called a crack- brained impostor by his fellow physicians. Amid abuse and ridicule he waited twenty-five years before his great discovery was recognized by the profession. Newton discovered the law of gravitation before he was twenty-one, but one slight error in a measurement of the earth's circumference interfered with a demon- stration of the correctness of his theory. Twenty years later he corrected the error, and showed that the planets roll in their orbits as a result of the same law which brings an apple to the ground. Missionaries preached ten years in Madagascar be- fore they obtained a convert. Dr. Judson labored five years in Burmah, and Dr. Morrison seven in China, be- fore one native became a Christian. For fifteen years in Tahiti, and seventeen in Bengal, the work seemed all in vain. An Italian music-teacher once told a pupil who wished to know what could be hoped for with study : " If you will study a year I will teach you to sing well ; if two years, you may excel. If you will practice the scale constantly for three years, I will make you the best tenor in Italy ; if for four years, you may have the world at your feet." Sothern, the great actor, said that the early part of his theatrical career was spent in getting dismissed for incompetency. "The only merit to which I lay claim," said Hugh Miller, "is that of patient research — a merit in which whoever wills may rival or surpass me ; and this hum- ble faculty of patience when rightly developed may lead to more extraordinary development of ideas than even genius itself." "Never depend upon your genius," said John Eus- kin, in the words of Joshua Eeynolds; "if you have 344 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. talent, industry will improve it ; if you have none, in- dustry will supply the deficiency." Patience is the guardian of faith, the preserver of peace, the cherisher of love, the teacher of humility. Patience governs the flesh, strengthens the spirit, sweetens the temper, stifles anger, extinguishes envy, subdues pride; she bridles the tongue, restrains the hand, tramples upon temptations, endures persecutions. Patience is the courage of virtue, enabling us to lessen pain of mind or body ; it does not so much add to the number of our joys as it tends to diminish the number of our sufferings. Labor is still, and ever will be, the inevitable price set upon everything which is valuable. Savages believe that, when they conquer an enemy, his spirit enters into them, and fights for them ever afterwards. So the spirit of our conquests enters us, and helps us to win the next victory. Bliicher may have been routed at Ligny yesterday, but to-day you hear the thunder of his guns at Waterloo hurling dismay and death among his former conquer- ors. Opposing circumstances create strength. Opposition gives us greater power of resistance. To overcome one barrier gives us greater ability to overcome the next. Who will not befriend the persevering, energetic youth, the fearless man of industry ? Be sure that your trade, your profession, your call- ing in life is a good one — one that God and goodness sanction ; then be true as steel to it. Think for it, plan for it, work for it, live for it ; throw your mind, might, strength, heart, and soul into your actions for it, and success will crown you her favored child. No mat- ter whether your object be great or small, whether it be the planting of a nation or a batch of potatoes, the same perseverance is necessary. Everybody admires an iron determination, and comes to the aid of him who directs it for good. THE REWARD OF PERSISTENCE. 345 Don't damp fires and cool off boilers while but twa thirds across the Atlantic ; keep up the heat. C. C. Coffin says that in February, 1492, a poor, gray- haired man, his head bowed with discouragement almost to the back of his mule, rode slowly out through the beautiful gateway of the Alhambra. From boyhood he had been haunted with the idea that the earth is round. He believed that the piece of carved wood picked up four hundred miles at sea, and the bodies of two men unlike any other human beings known, found on the shores of Portugal, had drifted from unknown lands in the west. But his last hope of obtaining aid for a voy- age of discovery had failed. King John of Portugal, while pretending to think of helping him, had sent out secretly an expedition of his own. He had begged bread, drawn maps and charts to keep him from starving; he had lost his wife; his friends had called him crazy, and forsaken him. The council of wise men, called by Perdinand and Isabella, ridi- culed his theory of reaching the east by sailing west. "But the sun and moon are round," said Columbus, "why not the earth ? " "If the earth is a ball, what holds it up ? " asked the wise men. "What holds the sun and moon up?" inquired Co- lumbus. "But how can men walk with their heads hanging down, and their feet up, like flies on a ceiling ? " asked a learned doctor ; "how can trees grow with their roots in the air ? " "The water would run out of the ponds and we should fall off," said another- philosopher. " This doctrine is contrary to the Bible, which says, ' The heavens are stretched out like a tent : ' — -of course it is flat ; it is rank heresy to say it is round," said a priest. He left the Alhambra in despair, intending to offer 346 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. his services to Charles VII., but he heard a voice call- ing his name. An old friend had told Isabella that it would add great renown to her reign at a trifling expense if what the sailor believed should prove true. "It shall be done," said Isabella, "I will pledge my jewels to raise the money. Call him back.'- Columbus turned and with him turned the world. ISTot a sailor would go voluntarily; so the king and queen compelled them. Three days out in his vessels scarcely larger than fishing-schooners, the Pinta floated a signal of distress for a broken rudder. Terror seized the sailors, but Columbus calmed their fears with pic- tures of gold and precious stones from India. Two hundred miles west of the Canaries, the compass ceased to point to the North Star. The sailors are ready to mutiny, but he tells them the North Star is not ex- actly north. Twenty-three hundred miles from home, though he tells them it is but seventeen hundred, a bush with berries floats by, land birds fly near, and they pick up a piece of wood curiously carved. On October 12, Columbus raised the banner of Castile over the western world. . What is difficulty for but to teach us the necessity of redoubled exertion ? danger but to give us fresh courage ? impossibilities but to inspire us to the en- forcement of victory ? Longfellow has well illustrated this tenacity of purpose : — *'The divine insanity of noble minds, Tliat never falters nor abates. But labors, and endures, and waits Till all that it foresees it finds, Or what it cannot find, creates." " How hard I worked at that tremendous shorthand, and all improvement appertaining to it,'' said Dickens. " I will only add to what I have already written of my perseverance at this time of my life, and of a patient and continuous energy which then began to be matured THE REWARD OF PERSISTENCE. 347 within me, and which I know to be the strong point of my character, if it have any strength at all, that there, on looking back, I find the source of my success." Cyrus W. Field had retired from business with a large fortune when he became possessed with the idea that by means of a cable laid upon the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, telegraphic communication could be established between Europe and America. He plunged into the undertaking with all the force of his being. The pre- liminary work included the construction of a telegraph line one thousand miles long, from New York to St. John's, !N"ewfoundland. Through four hundred miles of almost unbroken forest they had to build a road as well as a telegraph line across Newfoundland. Another stretch of one hundred and forty miles across the island of Cape Breton involved a great deal of labor, as did the laying of a cable across the St. Lawrence. By hard work he secured aid for his company from the British government, but in Congress he encountered such bitter opposition from a powerful lobby that his measure only had a majority of one in the Senate. The cable was loaded upon the Agamemnon, the iiagship of the British fleet at Sebastopol, and upon the Niagara, a magnificent new frigate of the United States Navy; but, when five miles of cable had been paid out, it caught in the machinery and parted. On the second trial, when two hundred miles at sea, the electric current was suddenly lost, and men paced the decks nervously and sadly, as if in the presence of death. Just as Mr. Field was about to give the order to cut the cable, the current returned as quickly and mysteriously as it had disappeared. The following night, when the ship was moving but four miles an hour and the cable running out at the rate of six miles, the brakes were applied too suddenly just as the steamer gave a heavy lurch, breaking the cable. Field was not the man to give up. Seven hundred 348 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. miles more of cable were ordered, and a man of great skill was set to work to devise a better maebine for paying out the long line. American and British inven- tors united in making a machine. At length in mid- ocean the two halves of the cable were spliced and the steamers began to separate, the one headed for Ireland, the other for Newfoundland, each running out the pre- cious thread, which, it was hoped, would bind two con- tinents together. Before the vessels were three miles apart, the cable parted. Again it was spliced, but when the ships were eighty miles apart, the current was lost. A third time the cable was spliced and about two hun- dred miles paid out, when it parted some twenty feet from the Agamemnon, and the vessels returned > to the coast of Ireland. Directors were disheartened, the public skeptical, capitalists were shy, and but for the indomitable energy and persuasiveness of Mr. Field, who worked day and night almost without food or sleep, the whole project would have been abandoned. Finally a third attempt was made, with such success that the whole cable was laid without a break, and several messages were flashed through nearly seven hundred leagues of ocean, when suddenly the current ceased. Faith now seemed dead except in the breast of Cyrus W. Field, and one or two friends, yet with such persist- ence did they work that they persuaded men to furnish capital for another trial even against what seemed their better judgment. A new and superior cable was loaded upon the Great Eastern, which steamed slowly out to sea, paying out as she advanced. Everything worked to a charm iintil within six hundred miles of Newf oimd- land, when the cable snapped and sank. After several fruitless attempts to raise it, the enterprise was aban- doned for a year. Not discouraged by all these difficulties, Mr. Field went to work with a will, organized a new company, THE REWARD OF PERSISTENCE. 349 and made a new cable far superior to anything before used, and on July 13, 1866, was begun the trial which ended with the following message sent to New York : " Heaet's Content, July 27. "We arrived here at nine o'clock this morning. All well. Thank God ! the cable is laid and is in perfect working order. Cyrus W. Field." The old cable was picked up, spliced, and continued to Newfoundland, and the two are still working, with good prospects for usefulness for many years. In Eevelation we read : " He that overcometh, I will give him to sit down with me on my throne." Successful men, it is said, owe more to their perse- verance than to their natural powers, their friends, or the favorable circumstances around them. Genius will falter by the side of labor, great powers will yield to great industry. Talent is desirable, but perseverance is more so. " How long did it take you to learn to play ? " asked a young man of Geradini. " Twelve hours a day for twenty years," replied the great violinist. Lyman Beecher's father, when asked how long it took him to write his celebrated sermon on the " Government of God," replied, " About forty years." A Chinese student, discouraged by repeated failures, had thrown away his book in despair, when he saw a poor woman rubbing an iron bar on a stone to make a needle. This example of patience sent him back to his studies with a new determination, and he became one of the three greatest scholars of China. " Generally speaking," said Sydney Smith, " the life of all truly great men has been a life of intense and in- cessant labor. They have commonly passed the first half of life in the gross darkness of indigent humility, — overlooked, mistaken, condemned by weaker men, — ■ thinking while others slept, reading while others rioted. 350 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. feeling something within them that told them they should not always be kept down among the dregs of the world. And then, when their time has come, and some little accident has given them their first occasion, they have burst out into the light and glory of public life, rich with the spoils of time, and mighty in all the labors and struggles of the mind." Malibran said : " If I neglect my practice a day, I see the difference in my execution; if for two days, my friends see it ; and if for a week, all the world knows my failure." Constant, persistent struggle she found to be the price of her marvelous power. When an East India boy is learning archery, he is compelled to practice three months drawing the string to, his ear before he is allowed to touch an arrow. " If I am building a mountain," said Confucius, " and stop before the last basketful of earth is placed on the summit, I have failed." Lady Franklin labored incessantly for twelve long years to rescue her husband from the polar seas. Nothing could daunt her or induce her to abandon the hopeless search until she had proven that he died after traversing before unknown seas seeking a northwest passage. Benjamin Franklin had this tenacity of purpose in a wonderful degree. When he started in the printing business in Philadelphia, he carried his material through the streets on a wheelbarrow. He hired one room for his ofB.ce, work-room, and sleeping-room. He found a formidable rival in the city and invited him to his room. Pointing to a piece of bread from which he had just eaten his dinner, he said : " Unless you can live cheaper than I can you cannot starve me out." All are familiar with the misfortune of Carlyle while writing his " History of the French Revolution." Aftei the first volume was ready for the press, he loaned the manuscript to a neighbor who left it lying on the floor, THE REWARD OF PERSISTENCE. 351 and the servant girl took it to kindle the fire. It was a bitter disappointment, but Carlyle was not the man to give up. After many months of poring over hundreds of volumes of authorities and scores of manuscripts, he reproduced that which had burned in a few minutes. Audubon, the naturalist, had spent two years with his gun and note-book in the forests of America, making drawings of birds. He nailed them all up securely in a box and went off on a vacation. When he returned he opened the box only to find a nest of Norwegian rats in his beautiful drawings. Every one was ruined. It was a terrible disappointment, but Audubon took his gun and note-book and started for the forest. He repro- duced his drawings even better than those he had before. Eobert Ainsworth worked many years on a Latin dic- tionary. His wife became angry because he robbed her of his time, and burned all his manuscript. He rewrote it, but never forgave his wife. A merchant went to a sculptor and wanted to hire him by the day to carve a statue. " Wretch," was the reply, " I have been twenty -five years learning how to make that statue in twenty-five days." When Dickens was asked to read one of his selec- tions in public he replied that he had not time, for he was in the habit of reading the same piece every daj'- for six months before reading it in public. " My own invention," he says, " such as it is, I assure you, would never have served me as it has but for the habit of commonplace, humble, patient, toiling attention." Addison amassed three volumes of manuscript before he began the " Spectator." Every one admires a determined, persistent man. Marcus Morton ran sixteen times for governor of Mas- sachusetts. At last his opponents voted for him from admiration of his pluck, and he was elected by one ma- jority. Lord Eldon copied the whole of Coke upon Littleton twice over because too poor to buy books. 352 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. Gibbon wrote his memoirs over nine times. Such per- sistence always triumphs. A teacher was drilling some boys on the hard verses in the third chapter of Daniel. When they read the chapter the third time an easily discouraged scholar came to the names Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, stopped short, and in a most discouraged voice said, '1 Teacher, there 's them three fellers again." We all know plenty of men who seem to get along pretty well until they come to "them three fellers again," when they stop and will go no further until the obstruction is removed. Webster declared to the teachers at Phillips Acad- emy that he never could declaim before the school. He said he committed piece after piece and rehearsed them in his room, but when he heard his name called in the academy and all eyes turned towards him the room became dark and everything he ever knew fled from his brain ; but Webster became the great orator of America. Indeed, it is doubtful whether Demos- thenes himself surpassed Webster's great reply to Hayne in the United States Senate. Webster's tenar city was illustrated by a circumstance which occurred in the academy. The principal punished him for shooting pigeons by compelling him to commit one hundred lines of Vergil. He knew the principal was to take a certain train that afternoon, so he went to his room and committed seven hundred lines. He went to recite them to the principal just before train time. After re- peating the hundred lines he kept right on until he had recited two hundred. The principal kept looking at his watch and grew nervous, but Webster kept right on. The principal finally stopped him and asked him how many more he had learned. " About five hundred more," said Webster, and kept on. " You can have the rest of the day for pigeon-shoot- ing," said the principal. THE REWARD OF PERSISTENCE. 353 Great writers have ever been noted for their tenacity of purpose. Their works have not been flung off from minds aglow with genius, but have been elaborated and elaborated into grace and beauty, until every trace of their efforts has been obliterated. Bishop Butler worked twenty years incessantly on his " Analogy," and even then was so dissatisfied that he wanted to burn it. Eousseau says he obtained the ease and grace of his style only by ceaseless inquietude, by endless blotches and erasures. Vergil worked eleven years on the .^Eneid. The note-books of great men like Hawthorne and Em- erson are tell-tales of the enormous drudgery, of the years put into a book which may be read in an hour. Montesquieu was twenty-five years writing his " Esprit de Louis," yet you can read it in sixty minutes. Adam Smith spent ten years on his " Wealth of Nations." A rival playwright once laughed at Euripides for spend- ing three days on three lines, when he had written five hundred lines. " But your five hundred lines in three days will be dead and forgotten, while my three lines will live forever," he replied. Ariosto wrote his "Description of a Tempest" sixteen different ways. He spent ten years on his "Orlando Furioso," and only sold one hundred copies at fifteen pence each. The proof of Burke's " Letters to a Noble Lord" (one of the sublimest things in all literature) went back to the publisher so changed and blotted with corrections that the printer absolutely refused to cor- rect it, and it was entirely reset. Adam Tucker spent eighteen years on the "Light of Nature." A great naturalist spent eight years on the " Anatomy of the Day Ely." Thoreau's New England pastoral, " A Week on the Concord and Merrimac Elvers," was an entire failure. Seven hundred of the one thousand copies printed were returned from the publishers. Thoreau wrote in his diary: "I have some nine hundred vol- umes in my library, seven hundred of which I wrote 354 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. myself." Yet lie says lie took up his pen with as much determination as ever. The rolling stone gathers no moss. The persistent tortoise outruns the swift but fickle hare. An hour a day for twelve years more than equals the time given to study in a four years' course at a high school. The reading and re-reading of a single volume has been the making of many a man. " Patience," says Bulwer, " is the courage of the conqueror ; it is the virtue par excel- lence, of Man against Destiny — of the One against the World, and of the Soul against Matter. Therefore, this is the courage of the Gospel ; and its importance in a social view — its importance to races and institutions — cannot be too earnestly inculcated." Want of constancy is the cause of many a failure, making the millionaire of to-day a beggar to-morrow. Show me a really great triumph that is not the reward of persistence. One of the paintings which made Titian famous was on his easel eight years ; another, seven. How came popular writers famous ? By writing for years without any pay at all ; by writing hundreds of pages as mere practice-work ; by working like galley- slaves at literature for half a lifetime with no other compensation than — fame. "Never despair," says Burke ; " but if you do, work on in despair." " He who has put forth his total strength in fit actions," says Emerson, " has the richest return of wisdom." " There is also another class," says a moralist, " chiefly among the fair sex, who are incapable of mak- ing up their minds, even with the help of others ; who change and change and repent again, and return to their first resolution, and then regret that they have done so when too late. They hesitate between a walk and a drive, between going in one direction or another, and fifty other things equally immaterial ; and always end the matter by doing what they fancy, at any rate, is the least agreeable and eligible of the two. Of course THE REWARD OF PERSISTENCE. 355 this disposition, shown in these trifles, will be shown in more important matters ; and a most distressing and unfortunate disposition it is, both for themselves and those around them. Now, the only remedy for such a turn of mind is resolutely to keep to the first decision, whatever it may be, without dwelling on its advantages or disadvantages, and allowing any useless regrets after the thing is done ; and even if a mistake is often made at the outset, from want of the habit of ready and un- wavering judgment, it will be far less mischievous than weak and wretched indecision." Success is not measured by what a man accomplishes, but by the opposition he has encountered, and the cour- age with which he has maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds, as Alexander learned by defeat the art of war. The head of the god Hercules is represented as cov- ered with a lion's skin with claws joined under the chin, to show that when we have conquered our misfortunes, they become our helpers. Oh, the glory of an uncon- querable will ! Yet nerve thy spirit to tlie proof, And blencli not at thy chosen lot ; The timid good may stand aloof, The sage may frown, — yet faint thou not : Nor heed the shaft too surelj- cast. The foul and hissing bolt of scorn ; For with thy side shall dwell at last, The victory of endurance born, Bryant. The heights bj' great men reached and kept Were not attained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept. Were toiling upward in the night. We have not wings, we cannot soar ; But we have feet to scale and climb. By slow degrees, by more and more, The cloudy summit of our time. ' LOKGFKLLOW. CHAPTEE XXII. A LONG LIFE, ANT) HOW TO BEACH IT. Not in the world of light alone, Where God has built His blazing throne, Nor yet alone on earth below, With belted seas that come and go, -And endless isles of sunlit green, Is all the Maker's glory seen — Look in upon thy wondrous frame, Eternal wisdom still the same. Holmes. Pile luxury as high as you will, health is better. — Julia Ward Howe. O blessed health ! thou art above all gold and treasure ; 't is thou who enlargest the soul, and openest all its powers to receive instruction and to relish viilue. He that has thee has little more to wish for ; and he that is so wretched as to want thee, wants everything without thee. — Sterne. No chronic tortures racked his aged limb. For luxury and sloth had nourished none for him. Bkvast, The Old Man's Funeral. *' Health and cheerfulness make beauty." The nearer men live to each other, the shorter their lives are. — Db. Paeb. Some men dig their graves with their teeth. — Sydhey Smith. " Nor love, nor honor, wealth, nor power,. Can give the heart a cheerful hour When health is lost." The stomach begs and clamors, and listens to no precepts. And yet it is not an obdurate creditor ; for it is dismissed with small payment if you only give it what you owe, and not as much as you can. — Seneca. Shut the door to the sun and you will open it to the doctor. Italian Peovekb. Joy, temperance, and repose. Slam the door on the Doctor's nose. Lokgfellow. 'Tis the sublime of man. Our noontide majesty, — to know ourselves. Part and proportion of a wondrous whole. Coleridge. The greatest artist the world has known painted, a picture, the most beautiful ever seen. Day by day, for WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE " Don't let your heart grow cokl, and you shall carry youth with you into the teens of your second century." A LONG LIFE, AND HOW TO REACH IT. 367 years, he wrought upon this masterpiece, developing it from a mere sketch until it became a picture which all who saw delighted to look upon. But notwithstanding his wonderful power, the artist could never attain in this work the perfection sought. His colors seemed to change in the night. The rosy flush imparted to cheek and lip were lost as often as they were renewed. The flashing eyes grew dull and leaden, and seemed to sink into the canvas. The beautiful flesh lost its rose-leaf tint, and became sallow and unnatural. The painter's art was bafELed, and he knew not why. Yet his hand had not lost its cunning, his colors were not impure, his conception was not at fault. His work was well done, but it was spoiled in the night by an enemy, a rival painter whom none praised and whose work no one admired. Jealous of the fame his rival had won by joyous, glorious pictures, while his own sombre works were shunned, he crept by night to the studio of the other, and with palette spread with shadow tints, wrought ruin with the work he could not imitate. Thus the painting whicih should have excelled all others never attained perfection, and was ruined at last beyond all hope of restoration. Again and again the two painters have repeated their efforts upon other canvas, with similar results, as a rule. Their names are Health and Disease, and they paint upon human canvas. The first rises and retires early, and works as much as possible in the open air, in the blessed sunlight, where keen winds blow in winter and zephyrs in spring and summer, where golden harvests wave and fruit-laden trees sway in the autumn breezes, where fountains murmur and rivulets sing, where men work and romping children play, where cattle are afield, and birds and bees on the wing. The other sleeps through the early hours, but comes forth when Nature is asleep ; and under the flickering street- lights or the light of the silent stars, or in dark nooks 358 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. and corners sometimes by day, his withering touch falls upon the fairest work of his rival, injuring it all and utterly ruining much of it. Only a very few paintings are kept almost wholly out of the reach of Disease, yet how wonderful are they in their comparative perfection ! A vase of exquisite beauty, found in a marble sar- cophagus near Rome during the sixteenth century, was bought by the Duchess of Portland for ten thousand dollars and loaned to the British Museum. The visitor is powerfully impressed with its- matchless symmetry; but, on examining it closely, he sees that the surface is seamed with cracks, and that in some places holes have been closed by a kind of cement. He is told that a madman once struck this beautiful vase with his cane, and broke it into a hundred pieces. The fragments were put together again at great cost and trouble ; yet the vase is practically a wreck. The world is full of men and women like this vase — marred, scarred, broken, patched, mere shadows of their former selves. They look fairly well, but their consti- tutions have been broken by dissipation, by exposure, by overwork, by ignorance, by violation in some way of the laws of nature. Many of them have patched the pieces together by drugs, physicians, climate, or travel ; but, like the vase, they can withstand no strain. Mocked by an ambition for success, but with no strength to attain it, they drag out a miserable existence. " I am certain," says Horace Mann, " I could have performed twice the labor, both better and with greater ease to myself, had I known as much of the laws of health and life at twenty-one as I do now. In college I was taught all about the motions of the planets, as carefully as though they would have been in danger of getting off the track if I had not known how to trace their orbits ; but about my own organization, and the conditions indispensable to the healthful functions of my own body, I was left in profound ignorance. No- A LONG LIFE, AND HOW TO BEACH IT. 359 thing could be more preposterous. I ought to have begun at home, and taken the stars when it should have become their turn. The consequence was, I broke down at the beginning of my second college year, and have never had a well day since. Whatever labor I have since been able to do, I have done it all on credit instead of capital — a most ruinous way, either in re- gard to health or money. For the last twenty-five years, so far as it regards health, I have been put, from day to day, upon my good behavior ; and during the whole of this period, as an Hibernian would say, if I had lived as other folks do for a month, I should have died in a fortnight." The age of sawdust puddings and plank beds is past. Pascal's doctrine that disease is the natural condition of Christians, and that the body is the natural enemy of the soul, is exploded. Muscular Christianity is the de- mand of the hour. The body is no longer looked upon as the devil chained to the soul, to be mortified and starved to keep the passions down. Pale, emaciated, spiritual shadows are no longer in demand in the pul- pit. A diet of bread and water is no longer regarded as conducive to real piety. Tallness is no longer the only sign of virtue, nor do width and -ftreight any longer indicate a tendency to crime ; nor is muscle associated with rowdyism. The hero of the ancients had the strength of ten men, and his servant, could eat granite rock. The Cid had such power of resistance that he could sleep with a leper and not contract the disease. The Eomans despised physical weakness and deformity. The great and wise Cato conceived the plan of banish- ing all the decrepit, deaf, and helpless to the island of Esculapius in the Tiber, where they perished of hunger and exposure. This was the reward of a slave for a life of menial servitude. The Greeks also banished their weak and deformed when they could no longer serve the state. A magnificent physique was the great 360 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. object of their games, contests, and festivities. They dei- fied health in the young and beautiful goddess Hygeia. Compare the pale, chestless, calfless, attenuated young men of to-day with the stalwart youths of Greece and Eome. What a magnificent physical perfection distin- guishes the l^orth American Indians. When the painter West was taken by prominent Italians to see the treasures of the Vatican, he was first shown the celebrated statue of Apollo. " Oh ! " he exclaimed, " a Mohawk Indian ! " They are born with good phy- siques, and their training all tends in the same direc- tion ; and the average Indian boy of fifteen can with- stand more fatigue than athletes among the white men. Smallpox and bullets are about the only things that can kill them. Compare these with the thousands of haggard students in our American colleges, muscle- starved, book-crammed, and " sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought." What a sad commentary it is upon the institutions whose avowed object is to help young men in making their way in a hard, practical world, that so many break down utterly and are com- pelled to spend the rest of their lives hunting for health. The first requisite to success is to be a first- class animal. The brain gets a great deal of credit that belongs to the stomach. With rare exceptions, the great prizes of life fall to those of stalwart, robust physique. If you have a bodily weakness, such as lack of vigor or physical stamina, the effect will show itself in everything you do, and cripple youx whole lifework. Every one who knows you reads your weakness and lack of tone in your unsteady eye and hesitating step. It appears in every letter you write, in every speech you make, in everything you do ; you cannot disguise it, and you will fall as far below success as you fall below the health- line. Every faculty of the mind sympathizes with every defect and weakness of the body. A LONG LIFE, AND HOW TO REACH IT. 361 The -world is full of half-done, botched work, the re- sult of weak and sickly lives. The tendency of civili- zation has been to deteriorate bodily stamina. Cities are the graves of the physiques of our race. Long res- idence in cities lowers the type of physical manhood. If towns were not constantly recruited from the country, the constitutions and intellects of their inhabi- tants would rapidly decline in vigor. Most of the stal- wart men of our large centres were born in the country, but each succeeding generation of their descendants becomes weaker. How quickly we Americans exhaust life. With what panting haste we pursue everything. Every American you meet seems to be late for a train. Hurry is stamped in the wrinkles of the American face. We pride ourselves upon being practical men, men who strike sledge-hammer blows in our business, men who make business of recreation, even. We are men of action, we die without it ; nay, we go faster and faster as the years go by, speed our machinery to the utmost, stretch the silver cord of life until it snaps. We have not even leisure to die a natural death, we go at high pressure until the boiler bursts. We have actually changed the type of our diseases, to suit our changed constitution. Instead of the lingering maladies of our fathers, we drop down and die of heart disease or apoplexy, now so common, formerly so rare. Even death has adopted our terrible gait. Nature is a great economist. She makes the most of every opportunity, she works up all odds and ends. After you are wrecked and useless she leaves the wreck upon the rocks or reef on which you were stranded, and hoists her signal of danger, as a warning to others. You lose your life, but nature wants to use you for a warning. You lose your health, but the tell-tales are left in your face to show the world how it went. If by drink, nature hangs out as her sign a red flag of dis- 362 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. tress, it may be, on your nose, in front of your eyes, where you can't escape it, and where everybody you meet reads the terrible warning. Though your life is a failure, and you have become useless, nature can still afford to keep you as an object-lesson to warn your fellows. Nature is no sentimentalist. A bullet will not swerve a hair's breadth from its course, though a Lincoln or a Garfield stand in its way. A drop of prussic acid will kill a king as quickly as his meanest vassal. Water will drown you, even though you are saving your own child from death. Mre will burn you to a cinder, even while you are trying to snatch your dear ones from the flames. Every atom in the universe has immutable law stamped upon it. The rose blooms in your garden to- day under the same laws that unfolded the petals of the first flower in Eden. In all the sidereal ages the stars have returned from their vast journeys through track- less space, with the same unvarying accuracy as when they began to roll on the morning of creation. They have never once lost their way in their wild path through space, nor varied a second in a century. Not one whit less are we subject to the immutable laws of God. We sometimes hear a clergyman consoling a mother, distracted over the death of her darling child, by telling her that a mysterious Providence has taken it from her for wise reasons, and tha* she must find comfort in her bereavement. What! has God snatched from loving parents a beautiful child just blooming into youth ? Does the Creator of harmony produce discord ? Does the Author of health and beauty smite his noblest work ere it is finished — a work into which He has breathed his own image, and which He has endowed with aspirations and possibilities as high as heaven itself ? It is a libel upon Him who fashioned the human body, so wonderfully and fearfully wrought, A LONG LIFE, AND HOW TO REACH IT. 363 that it may witlistand the ravages of time for a cen- tury. Away with such sickly sentimentalism and blasphemy ! God does not murder nor torture his children. He rather tries in a thousand ways to induce them to keep the laws of health, which, if obeyed, would carry them into the teens of their second century. He has shielded us on every hand by kindly hints. He coaxes us by pleasure, and drives us by pain. He tries in every way to prolong life after we have forfeited every right to it, and have become useless drones. The faithful heart often beats the funeral march some time after death, and is the last servant to leave the body, lest some spark of life yet remain, which it might fan into a liv- ing flame. When alcohol goads on the drunkard's heart faster and faster, and robs it of a part of its nine hours of rest, which it should have every day, and which it must snatch between the beats. Nature even thickens its walls, in order to enable it to do the additional work imposed upon it, which is equivalent to raising fifteen tons one foot each day. It matters not that the poor wretch has forfeited every right to live, by violating every law of health ; Nature helps him just the same. Our nerves are sentinels placed thickest where there is the most danger. Pain has a use and purpose beyond those of happiness or pleasure. It tends to restrict the hurtful practices of life. Nature thus compels us to recognize her established order, or laws. The very sen- sitiveness and delicacy of our nerves, which give exqui- site pleasure when used aright, give intense suffering when they are abused. A cinder might ruin the eye if the pain did not compel its prompt removal. Gazing at the sun would destroy the child's sight, were it not for the sensitiveness of the nerves, which compels the clos- ing of the lids. Pain is the great monitor of our lives, ever reminding us of approaching danger. Pew chil- 364 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. dren would grow up without being disfigured and muti- lated, were they not constantly warned by sensitive nerves. A paralytic was once advised by his physician to take a warm foot-bath ; and, because of the loss of the sensitiveness of the nerves in that foot, he actually scalded his skin without knowing that the water was hot. In the alleys and by-ways of our cities we often see the sign, " Dangerous Passing." The Creator has put up such signs all along the pathway of life. We read them over every street and alley that leads to vice and degradation. We read over the doors that lead to the gambling dens, the saloon, the dens of infamy, "All hope abandon, ye who enter here.'' Dangerous Pass- ing ! We read it in the deformed and crippled lives of those who have disregarded its warning, in the botched, half -finished work of the weak and inefB.cient. We read it in the ruined lives, the lost opportunities, the blighted hopes of those who heed it not ; we read it in the prematurely old. All who have violated Na- ture's laws carry about in their bodies the unmistar kable signs which the world may read as a terrible warning. "It is continued temperance which sustains the body for the longest period of time, and which most surely preserves it free from sickness," writes Hum- boldt, when asked the secret of his success. No em- ployer will keep in his ofB.ce a drunkard, a gambler, or a profligate, for the very good reason that these vices not only debase the body, but also glut the mind with thoughts of which business has no part. Drink has become the curse of the world. Whole battal- ions of splendid young men who started in life with glowing hopes have been swept away by whiskey and rum. The pen is not made nor the hand formed that has the power to adequately describe the horror and the A LONG LIFE, AND HOW TO REACH IT. 365 power of this curse. The very instinct of self-preserva- tion should keep a man from a saloon, as it does from a pesthouse. Dr. Richardson, a high authority, says that alcohol is the most insidious destroyer of health, happi- ness, and life. "My recipe for self-preservation is exercise," said David Dudley Field. "I am a very temperate man, and have always been so. I have taken care of myself, and as I have a good constitution I suppose that is the reason I am so well." Exercise is indeed a great life- preserver. When the pores of the body are kept open by regular exercise, the pores of the imagination are apt to be closed against tainted subjects. Sana mens in sano cor- pora, is a well-understood maxim. Says Frederick W. Eobertson, England's most spiritual preacher : " It is wonderful how views of life depend upon exercise and right management of the physical constitution." Healthy thou.ghts and healthy doctrines must come from healthy minds, and healthy minds cannot exist apart from healthy bodies. The Sultan once consulted his physician in regard to a troublesome malady. Believing that only fresh air and exercise were needed, and knowing how little the world values plain, simple things, the doctor said: "Here is a ball which I have stuffed with rare and precious herbs. Your Highness must take this bat and beat this ball until you perspire freely; you must do this every day." The Sultan followed these directions, and was cured of his disease without realizing that he was only taking exercise. When asked if he got any exercise, the great French- man La Harpe replied : " When my head gets fatigued I put it out of the window for a while." The Arabs say that Allah does not count from the allotted years of our lives the days spent in the chase. An English manufacturer stated before a committee of the House 366 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. of Commons that he had removed the means of venti- lation from his factory, as he noticed that the men ate a great deal more when they breathed pure air, and he could not afford it. "Youth will never live to age," says Sidney, "unless they keep themselves in health with exercise, and in heart with joyfulness." But work conduces to longevity in a greater degree than even cheerfulness or mere exercise. Dr. Abernethy's advice to a lazy rich man, full of gout and idle humors, unhappy and without appetite, trou- bled with over-indulgence, and pampered with soft beds and rich food, was to " live upon sixpence a day, and earn it : " a golden sentence, a Spartan maxim which would save half the ill temper, the quarrels, the bickerings, and wranglings of the poor rich people, and would rub the rust off many a fine mind, which is now ugly and disfigured from want of use. " I always find something to keep me busy," said Peter Cooper, when asked how he had preserved so well his strength of body and mind ; " and to be doing some- thing is the best medicine one can take. I run up and down stairs here almost as easily as I did years ago, when I never expected that my term would run into the nineties." Life is a struggle at best. We scarcely begin to live ere we commence to die. Life and death strive in us for mastery, and we are but too confident of how the struggle will end. The enemies of human life are thick on every side. A thousand diseases dog our footsteps from the cradle to the grave. They lurk in the food we eat, in the water we drink, in the air we breathe. They watch at the door of every cold, exposure, neglect, or imprudence, seeking entrance to the citadel of life. The plague has ever followed hard on the heels of famine and of financial depression. The germs of dis- ease which have lurked in the system for years, per- A LONG LIFE, AND HOW TO REACH IT. 367 haps, while the body was vigorous and strong, suddenly spring into activity the moment the system is depressed below the health-line, and its wonted power of resist- ance gone. There is then no overplus of vitality to resist their development. Kernels of wheat which had been in a mummy's hand four thousand years sprang into life when planted. They only awaited moisture, heat, sun- light, and air to develop them. The cholera once spread all over Europe from the germs in a sailor's clothes, found in an old chest on shipboard, after lying there fifty years. They waited half a century for the proper conditions for development. We should take care never to let our systems run down below the health-line. Germs of a hundred diseases lurk just below this line, waiting for some indiscretion, some weakness, some opportunity to gain a foothold. So in the field of hu- man society, corruption first attacks those who are physically feeble. How many are wicked only because they are physically weak ! Many a youth becomes mor- ally depraved simply because he has been a stranger to fresh air, cold water, and exercise. Nature is ever merciful, and tries to bring compensar tion for the loss of any function. If you become deaf and dumb and blind. Nature develops an exquisite sense of touch. Laura Bridgman could even detect the pres- ence of a good, or of a bad person in a room, by an agreeable or disagreeable sensation. An electric eel cannot give shocks all the time. An overstrained bow will soon lose its tension. But who shall dare to enter God's temple to repair any mischief ? The wisdom of the wisest is of no avail to rebreathe the departed breath into the lifeless clay. All the chemists in the universe cannot manufacture one drop of blood, nor can physician's skill rouse the tired heart which has once stood still. No doctor can lay his clumsy hand on the delicate brain and bid it think again. But the 368 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. necessary ounce of prevention is at one's command. He must not live too intensely, if he would live long in years. "No thinking person hearing Malibran sing/' said Poe, "could have doubted that she would die in the spring of her days. She crowded ages into hours. She left the world at twenty-five, having existed her thousands of years." Eaphael, according to E. P. Whipple the greatest painter of moral beauty, and Titian, the greatest painter of sensuous beauty, were both almost equally young, though Eaphael died at thirty-seven, while Titian was prematurely cut off by the plague when he was only a hundred. Byron died, worn-out and old, at thirty-six; Burke was young at sixty-six. Dr. Eichardson says that the natural life of animals is six times the period required to become fully grown. According to this, man should live about one hundred and fi.fty years. That such longevity is attainable is shown by Eussian statistics. In 1891 there were re- ported in that country eight hundred fifty-eight deaths of people between the ages of one hundred and one hun- dred and five years, one hiindred thirty between one hundred fifteen and one hundred twenty, while three were reported to be one hundred fifty years of age, or more. But in Eussia, as indeed in all European coun- tries, the thing which surprises an American is the delib- erateness with which everything is done. Everybody seems to have time enough. In Austria the wholesale stores and the banks close between noon and two o'clock. Europeans realize that rest should follow intense appli- cation, and that long-continued labor should be per- formed with deliberation. " I would keep better hours if I were a boy again," said James T. Fields ; " that is, I would go to bed earlier than most boys do." jSfothing gives more mental and A LONG LIFE, AND HOW TO REACH IT. 369 bodily vigor than sound rest when properly applied. Sleep is our replenisher. "In all my political life," said Gladstone, "I have never been kept awake five minutes by any debate in Parliament." Horace Greeley refused to sit up at night sessions of Congress, abruptly leaving when his hour for retiring arrived. " I can do nothing," said Grant, " without nine hours' sleep." Late hours are shadows from the grave. For the evils resulting from late hours, improper diet, lack of exercise, and other forms of intemperance, men have been accustomed to seek relief in drugs, but they are beginning to realize that the aid a physician can render is almost wholly limited to cheering and en- couraging his patients, and helping them to follow ordi- nary hygienic laws. Very many of our diseases exist only in the imagination and consciousness of the patient. Moliere said that physicians pour medicine about which they know little into bodies of which they know less, in order to cure disease about which they know nothing at all. " We talk together," said Moliere of his doctor ; " he prescribes, I never take his physic, and consequently I get well." At another time he said that a doctor is a man whom people pay to relate trifles in the sick-room, until either nature has cured the patient, or physic has killed him. Employ three physicians : First, Doctor Quiet ; then. Doctor Merryman ; and then, Doctor Diet. Our beliefs are built upon models, and an ideal body can never be built upon a deformed and sick model. The model in the mind must be perfect, if we would obtain perfection of the body. The very fact that we are conscious that the physical 370 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. manhood of our race should be lifted out of its bondage to a higher level, and that the Great Teacher com- manded us not only to be perfect, but " perfect even as our Father in Heaven is perfect," is proof that such perfection is possible. God has not given the bird an instinct for the South in winter, without a South to match it ; nor has he mocked us with ideals, longings, and aspirations which we have no . power to attain. The very consciousness that we are capable of perform- ing infinitely more than we ever do accomplish, is an indication that such perfection is possible, and that we shall have time and opportunity somewhere to develop into that perfect model. Man has an ideal in his soul, of the physical man, as well as of the moral man, and He who gave this ideal will give the opportunity for its realization. Although we cannot defy death, it is now well known that we can greatly delay it by carefully observing the laws of health, especially in regard to diet. The chief characteristics of old age are found to be deposits of a gelatinous and fibrinous character in the human sys- tem, producing gradual ossification. Man begins life in a gelatinous condition, and ends it in an osseous or bony one — soft in infancy, hard in old age. This pro- cess is desirable in childhood ; but, as we grow older, it is thought we may retard it more and more by swal- lowiug less and less of the carbonates and phosphates of lime, the principal agents by which the transfor- mation is effected. For this purpose the best drink is distilled water, while fruits, fish, poultry, veal, and lamb are much better than beef, bread, or salt meat of any kind. In this, as in other things, the best way to conquer Nature is to learn and obey her laws. The body has its claims, — it is a good servant; treat it well, and it will do your work; attend to its wants and requirements, listen kindly and patiently to its hints, occasionally forestall its necessities by a little indul- gence, and your consideration will be repaid with interest. But task it, and pine it, and suffocate it, make it a slave instead of a servant, it may not A LONG LIFE, AND HOW TO REACH IT. 371 complain much, but, like the weary camel in the desert, it will lie down and die. Charles Elam. Father, grant Thy love divine. To make these mystic temples Thine. When wasting age and wearying strife Have sapped the leaning walls of life ; When darkness gathers over all, And the last tottering pillars fall, Take the poor dust Thy mercy warms, And mould it into heavenly forms. HoiiMES. CHAPTER XXIII. BE BKIEF. I saw one excellency was wilMn my reach — it was brevity, and I determined to obtain it. — Jay. Brevity is the best recommendation of speech, whether in a senator or an orator. — Cicero. Words are like leaves, and where they most abound. Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found. Pope. The fewer the words, the better the prayer. — Ldthek. Be comprehensive in all you say or write. — Johk Neal. Brevity is very good When we are, or are not, understood. BUTLEK. Concentration alone conquers. — Chas. Buxtom. Be brief, let us say with Sargent. Come to the point. Begin very near where you mean to leave off. Brevity is the soul of wisdom as well as of wit. Gems are not reckoned by gross weight. The common air we beat aside with our breath, compressed, has the force of gunpowder, and will rend the solid rock. A gentle stream of persuasiveness may flow through the mind, and leave no sediment : let it come at a blow, as a cata- ract, and it sweeps all before it. Mere words are cheap and plenty enough ; but ideas that rouse, and set multi- tudes thinking, come as gold from the mine. The leaden bullet is more fatal than when multiplied into shot. If you want to do substantial work, concen- trate ; and if you wish to give others the benefit of your work, condense. Eufus Choate would express in a minute's conversation what his contemporaries would require an hour to state clearly. One of the firm of Baring Brothers once called Stephea BE BRIEF. 873 Girard from a hay-loft, and said: "I came to inform you that your ship, the Voltaire, has arrived safely." "I knew that she would reach port safely," replied Girard; "my ships always arrive safe. She is a good ship. Mr. Baring, you must excuse me, I am much engaged in my haying." And he returned to his work. While Horace Greeley would devote a column of the 'New York Tribune" to an article, Thurlow Weed would treat the same subject in a few words in the " Albany Evening Journal," and put the argument into such shape as to carry far more conviction. "Be brief," Cyrus W. Field would say to callers; "time is very valuable. Punctuality, honesty, and brevity are the watchwords of life. Never write a long letter. A business man has not time to read it. If you have anything to say, be brief. There is no busi- ness so important that it can't be told on one sheet of paper. Years ago, when I was laying the Atlantic cable, I had occasion to send a very important letter to England. I knew it would have to be read by the prime minister and by the queen. I wrote out what I had to say ; it covered several sheets of paper ; then I went over it twenty times, eliminating words here and there, making sentences briefer, until finally I got all I had to say on one sheet of paper. Then I mailed it. In due time I received the answer. It was a satisfactory one too ; but do you think I would have fared so well if my letter had covered half a dozen sheets ? No, indeed. Brevity is a rare gift, and punctuality has made many a man's fortune. If you make an appointment, be sure and keep it, and be on time ; no man of business can afford to lose a moment in these busy times." " Call upon a business man in business hours. State your business in a business way ; and, when done with business matters, go about your business, and leave the business man to attend to his business." A. T. Stewart regarded his time as his capital. No 374 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. one was admitted to his private office until he had stated his business to a sentinel at an outer door, and then to another near the ofiB.ce. If the visitor pleaded private business, the sentinel would say, " Mr. Stewart has no private business." When admittance was gained one had to be brief. The business of Stewart's great es- tablishment was dispatched with a system and promp- titude which surprised rival merchants. There was no dawdling or dallying or fooling, but " business " was the watchword from morning until night. He refused to be drawn into friendly conversation during business hours. He had not a moment to waste. " Genuine good taste," says Fenelon, " consists in saying much in a few words, in choosing among our thoughts, in having order and arrangement in what we say, and in speaking with composure." " If you would be pungent," says Southey, " be brief ; for it is with words as with sunbeams — the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn." " When one has no design but to speak plain truth," says Steele, " he may say a great deal in a very narrow compass." The fame of the Seven Wise Men of Greece rested largely upon a single sentence by each, of only two or three words. " The wisdom of nations lies in their proverbs." "Have something to say," says Tryon Edwards; " say it, and stop when you 've done." CHAPTER XXIV. ASPIRATION. Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what is heaven for '! EOBEET BrOWHING. Too low they build who build beneath the stars. — Youhg. A prayer, in its simplest definition, is simply a wish turned heavenward. — Phillips Brooks. From the lowest depth there is a path to the loftiest height. — Caklyle. Our only greatness is that we aspire. — Jean Ingelow. Did you ever hear of a man who had striven all his life faithfully and singly towards an object, and in no measure obtained it ? If a man con- stantly aspires, is he not elevated ? Did ever a man try heroism, magna- nimity, truth, sincerity, and find that there was no advantage in them — that it was a vain endeavor ? — Thokeau. " The mission of genius on earth: to uplift, Purif}'' and redeem by its own gracious gift The world, in spite of the world's dull endeavor To drag down and degrade and oppose it forever. The mission of genius : to watch and to wait. To renew, to redeem, and to regenerate." Whoever is satisfied with what he does, has reached his culminating point — he will progress no more. Man's destiny' is to be not dissatisfied, but forever unsatisfied. — F. W. Eobekxson. "Endeavor to be first in thy calling, whatever it may be ; neither let anyone go before thee in well doing." " He is gone, then ! The good old man is gone. We shall never see his snowy locks again, nor his placid countenance, nor his old horse and gig jogging by. Peter Cooper is dead ! " Parton says that these words of a neighbor expressed the feelings of all the people of Kew York, City and State. Plags were placed at half- mast from the Hudson to the Great Lakes, and from the St. Lawrence to the AUeghanies. Why was such honor paid on that April day in eighteen hundred and eighty-three to a plain citizen born ninety-two years before ? 876 PUSHING TO THE FRONT His father was a hatter in New York in Peter's earliest youth, and the boy learned to make good beaver hats of skins bought of John Jacob Astor. Peter per- suaded his father to let him learn a trade in New York. " Have you any room for an apprentice ? " he asked of a carriage-maker. "Do you know anything about the business ? " " No, sir." " Have you been brought up to work ? " " Yes, sir." " If I take you, will you stay and work out your time ? " Peter promised, and for four years he worked hard for twenty-five dollars a year and his board. He made a machine for mortising hubs, which proved very profitable to his employer. Having been denied the ordinary school privileges of children, he tried to find some evening-school in which he could obtain help in his studies while working at his trade by day. There were no such schools then, but the young man said to himself : " If ever I prosper in business so as to acquire more property than I need, I will try to found an institutiou in the city of New York, wherein apprentice boys and young mechanics shall have a chance to get knowledge in the evening." The War of 1812 spoiled the carriage business just as he finished his apprenticeship, but soon there was a sharp demand for cloth and for machinery for its man- ufacture. Peter invented a machine for cutting the nap on cloth, and could not make enough to supply the de- mand. He married Sarah Bedel, who proved to him throughout life a jewel of great price. Peace followed ; foreign goods poured in, and the de- mand for Peter's machines ceased. He next tried cabi- net-making, but was not successful. He bought a grocery-store and was prospering a year later, when an old friend said : " I have been building a glue factory for my son ; but I don't think that either he or I can make it pay. But you are the very man to do it." " I '11 go and see it," said Mr. Cooper. The price was two thousand dollars. Peter Cooper *j '^r*' .V.r,i DAVID GLASGOW FARRAGUT "The viking of our western clime who made his mast a tlirone." *' The youth who does not look up will look down ; and the spirit that does not soar is destined perliaps to grovel." ASPIRATION. 377 had just that amount. He kne-w nothing of making glue, and only understood that the American article was almost worthless compared with that imported from Eussia. But he made the business yield him thirty thousand dollars a year, acting for twenty years without clerk, bookkeeper, salesman, or agent. When his men came to work at seven, they always found the fires burning, lighted by the master's hand. He gave close personal attention to the boiling of his glue all the fore- noon ; at noon he started around the city to sell glue and isinglass ; and in the evening he posted books and read to his wife and children. In 1828 he bought three thousand acres of land in Baltimore for one hundred and five thousand dollars. The Baltimore and Ohio Eailroad was then building ; hut on account of the many curves made necessary to avoid points of rocks, the expense was so greatly in- creased that the stockholders talked of abandoning the project, as it was not believed that a locomotive could run on so crooked a road. Mr. Cooper urged them not to give it up, and built a locomotive which was a suc- cess, thus saving the company from bankruptcy. When sixty years old he found that he had seven hundred thousand dollars above the capital in his vari- ous enterprises. Evening-schools had by that time been established in every ward ; and he was in doubt what to do until he heard of the Polytechnic School of Paris, when his plan was formed at once. Cooper Union was built as a free gift to the city, on the site of his old grocery-store, at a cost of seven hundred thousand dol- lars, and has since been endowed by Mr. Cooper until his total benefaction amounts to two million dollars. When the doors were opened, two thousand young people applied for admission ; and since that day, many thousand have been fitted therein for lives of useful- ness. Well might a State mourn the loss of such a man! 378 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. The story of Peter Cooper's life is only another illus- tration of the value of an ideal and of the necessity of enthusiasm to accomplish it. No aspiration is too high ; the very grandeur of it is a promise of strength for its fulfillment. " When will they come ? " asked a thousand voices again and again, as the people waited outside St. Andrew's Church, to see if the spirit of the Covenanter still lived in Scotland. The government had asserted jurisdiction over the Scottish clergy, which the latter could not conscientiously yield. " They will not come," was the confident reply of those who had no faith in the power of principle, on that 18th day of May, 1843. Within, the house had been called to order in the presence of the royal commissioner. The prayer was followed by silence. Moderator Welsh, " his pure and glowing spirit shining through his fragile body like a lamp through a vase of alabaster," protested against the attempt at jurisdiction, laid his protest upon the table, bowed to the commissioner, and walked towards the door. Those who would follow must abandon their charges and incomes, to become poor and houseless. The aged Chalmers, with "massive frame and lion port," follows, and then another and another until all the noblest of Scotland's clergy have left the church, four hundred ministers and as many elders. Four thousand voices unite with theirs in singing : — " God is ouv refuge and our strength, In straits a present aid ; Therefore, although the earth remove, We will not be afraid." " Our yearnings," says Beecher, " are homesicknesses for heaven. Our sighings are sighings for G-od, just as children cry themselves asleep away from home, and sob in their slumber, not knowing that they sob for their parents. The soul's inarticulate meanings are the ASPIRATION. 379 affections yearning for the Infinite, and having no one to tell them what it is that ails them." An old legend tells of a king and a queen who had a fair son. Twelve fairies brought each a blessing, such as wisdom, beauty, strength, the last bearing the gift of discontent. The king was angry with the twelfth fairy, and drove her away. The prince grew with great prom- ise, but manifested no disposition to develop his talents. There was no energy, no eagerness, no ambition in his work. Tradition says that when Solomon received the gift of an emerald vase from the queen of Sheba, he filled it with an elixir which he only knew how to prepare, one drop of which would prolong life indefinitely. A dying criminal begged for a drop of the precious fluid, but Solomon refused to prolong a wicked life. When good men asked for it, they were refused, or failed to obtain it when promised, as the king would forget or prefer not to open the vase to get but a single drop. When at last the king became ill, and bade his servants bring the vase, he found that the contents had all evap- orated. So it is often with our hope, our faith, olir am- bition, our aspiration. " Ere yet we yearn for what is out of our reach," says Bulwer, "we are still in the cradle. When, wearied out with our yearnings, desire again falls asleep, we are on the death-bed." Every star in heaven, it is said, is discontented and insatiable. Gravitation and chemistry cannot content them. Ever they woo and court the eye of every be- holder. Every man who comes into the world they seek to fascinate and possess, to pass into his mind, for they desire to republish themselves in a more delicate world than that they occupy. It is not enough that they are Jove, Mars, Orion, and the North Star, in the gravita- ting firmament : they would have such poets as Newton, Herschel, and Laplace, that they may reexist and reap- 380 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. pear in the finer world of rational souls, and fill that realm with their fame. Cardinal Tarnese discovered the great genius Michael Angelo walking alone amid the ruins of the Colosseum. Expressing his surprise at finding him so occupied, the modest artist replied, " I go to school that I may con- tinue to learn." "More than once," said Peter Force to George W. Greene the historian, " did I hesitate between a barrel of flour and a rare book ; but the book always got the upper hand. Wlienever I found a little more money in my purse than I absolutely needed, I published a vol- ume of historical tracts." Although not a rich man, he accumulated a library of 22,529 bound volumes and some 40,000 pamphlets, most of them of historical value ; so much so that Mr. A. P. Spofford, Librarian of Congress, persuaded that body to purchase the collection for $100,000. Mr. Porce also wrote the "American Archives," perhaps the greatest treasury extant of our early history. " Certainly it is a glorious fever, that desire to know,'' says Bulwer. " And there are few sights in the moral world more sublime than that which many a garret might afford, if Asmodeus would bare the roofs to our survey — viz., a brave, patient, earnest human being toiling his own arduous way, athwart the iron walls of penury, into the magnificent Infinite, which is lu- minous with starry souls." "If I held Truth captive in my hand," said Male- branche, "I should open my hand and let it fly, in order that I might again pursue and capture it." " Our sense of details, our fatal habits of reasoning, paralyze us," said Heraclitus ; " we need the impulse of the pure ideal." "When the barber Ambrose Pare saw a surgical opera- tion performed with great skill, he aspired to become a surgeon, that he might relieve suffering humanity. His ASPIRATION. 381 whole-souled study and careful practice led him to rev- olutionize the art. He found it the custom to sear gun- shot wounds with red-hot irons to stop the bleeding, and then dress them with boiling oil. Amputation was performed with a red-hot knife, and anaesthetics were unknown. Pare discarded the boiling oil, the red-hot knife and irons; userl emollient applications instead, and stopped bleeding by means of ligatures above the wounds. The learned doctors ridiculed the man who was ignorant of Latin, but the French soldiers said: " Let Pare go with us, and we will march against any enemy and endure any fatigues." Who has not noticed the power of love in an awk- ward, crabbed, shiftless, lazy man ? He becomes gentle, chaste in language, enthusiastic, energetic. Love brings out the poetry in him. It is only an idea, a sentiment, and yet what magic it has wrought. Nothing we can see has touched the man, yet he is entirely transformed. So a high ambition completely transforms a human being, making him despise ease and sloth, welcome toil and hardship, and shake even kingdoms to gratify his master passion. Mere ambition has impelled many a man to a life of eminence and usefulness ; its higher manifestation, aspiration, has led him beyond the stars. If the aim be right, the life in its details cannot be far wrong. Your heart must inspire what your hands execute, or the work will be poorly done. The hand cannot reach higher than does the heart. "I, too, am a painter," said Correggio when he first looked at Raphael's Saint Cecilia. Demosthenes was so fired by the eloquence of Calistratus that he then and there resolved to be an orator, although apparently he had not the slightest qualification for such a career. His voice was weak, indistinct, and squeaky, and he had a feeble constitution. When the temperance crusade began in Ohio, in 1874, it stirred the very depths of the soul of Frances E. Wil- 382 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. lard, the first woman ever elected president of a col- lege. She resigned her large salary and advocated the temperance cause with her whole heart and soul. She and her mother soon became reduced to the verge of absolute want. One day she received an offer of the presidency of the Normal Institution of New York city, with a yearly salary of $2500.00, and another offer of the presidencj'^ of the Chicago W. C. T. U., a position entailing poverty and hardship. She chose the latter. For ten years, she worked in the cars, averaged one lecture a day, answered yearly some 20,000 letters, and traveled nearly 2000 miles a month. During these ten years she also wrote several books, and hundreds of pamphlets, tracts, and newspaper letters. An earnest aspiration is her incentive, " shrewd system, stern concentration, peace, and good cheer," her methods. John Euskin has given away most of his fortune in his efforts to teach English artisans what is beautiful. Aspiration like that of Miss Willard or Ruskin brings blessing to its possessor and those about him. The cold ambition of Louis XIII. cost France a million lives during his reign of nearly seventy-two years, while in one third of that period Napoleon's insatiate love of power caused the loss of five million lives in Europe. Man never reaches heights above his habitual thought. It is not enough now and then to mount on wings of ecstasy into the infinite. TVe must habitually dwell there. The great man is he who abides easily on heights to which others rise occasionally and with diffi- cult}'. Don't let the maxims of a low prudence daily dinned into your ears lower the tone of your high ambition or check your aspiration. Hope lifts us step by step up the mysterious ladder, the top of which no eye hath ever seen. Though we do not find what hope promised, yet we are stronger for the climbing, and we ASPIRATION. 383 get a broader outlook upon life which repays the effort. Indeed, if we do not follow where hope beckons, we gradually slide down the ladder in despair. Strive ever to be at the top of your condition. A high standard is absolutely necessary. " Show me a contented slave," says Burke, " and I will show you a degraded man." About 360 B. C, according to a Eoman apologue, the haruspiees declared that an earthquake chasm in the forum could be filled only by casting into it that which upheld the greatness of Eome. Forth from the be- wildered throng rode Marcus Curtius, clad in complete armor, and said that a brave soldier was one of the most indispensable pillars of the glory of his native land. "0 Rome! O country best beloved! Thou land in which I first drew breath ! I render back the life thou gav'st, to rescue thee from death ! Then spurring on his gallant steed, a last and brief farewell he said, And leapt within the gaping gulf, which closed above his head." " If I had read the life of ISTapoleon when I was a boy," said a great man, " my own life might have been very different. It would have filled me with an ambi- tion to make the most of myself." A man cannot aspire if he looks down. God has not created us with aspirations and longings for heights to which we cannot climb. Live upward. The unat- tained still beckons us towards the summit of life's mountains, into the atmosphere where great souls live and breathe and have their being. Even hope is but a promise of the possibility of its own fulfillment. Life should be lived in earnest. It is no idle game, no farce to amuse and be forgotten. It is a stern reality, fuller of duties than the sky of stars. You cannot have too much of that yearning which we call aspiration, for, even though you do not attain your ideal, the efforts you make will bring nothing but blessing; while he who 384 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. fails of attaining mere "v^orldly goals is too often eaten up with the canker-worm of disappointed ambition. To all will come a time when the love of glory will be seen to be but a splendid delusion, riches empty, rank vain, power dependent, and all outward advan- tages without inward peace a mere mockery of wretch- edness. The wisest men have taken care to uproot selfish ambition from their breasts. Shakespeare consid- ered it so near a vice as to need extenuating circum- stances to make it a virtue. Avoid the content of the Asiatic on the one hand, who ploughs with a stick like that used by his ancestors thousands of years ago, and is satisfied with the crooked furrows ; and on the other hand, do not be deluded with ambition beyond your power of reasonable attain- ment or tortured by wishes totally disproportioned to you^r capacity of fulfillment. You may, indeed, confi- dently hope to hecome eminent in usefulness or power, but only as you build upon a broad foundation of self- culture ; while, as a rule, specialists in ambition as in science are apt to become narrow and one-sided. Dar- win was very fond of music and poetry when young, but, after devoting his life to science, he was surprised to find Shakespeare tedious. He said that if he were to live his life again, he would read poetry and hear music every day, so as not to lose the power of appre- ciating such things. " Every life," says Julia Ward Howe, " has its actual blanks which the ideal must fill up, or which else re- main bare and profitless forever." " A man may aspire," says Beeeher, " and yet be quite content until it is time to rise ; and both flying and resting are but parts of one contentment." The ideal is the continual image that is cast upon the brain ; and these images are as various as the stars, and, 2ike them, differ one from another in magnitude. It is the quality of the aspiration that determines the true ASPIRATION. 385 success or failure of a life. A man may aspire to be tlie best billiard-player, the best jockey, the best coach- man, the be^t wardroom politician, the best gambler, or the most cunning cheat. He may rise to be eminent in his calling ; but, compared with other men, his greatest height will be below the level of the failure of him who chooses an honest profession. No jugglery of thought, no gorgeousness of trappings can make the low high — the dishonest honest — the vile pure. As is a man's ideal or aspiration, so shall his life be. Some aspire to dress better than their neighbors, and live in finer houses, and drive better teams. How many women are as frivolous as the Empress Anne of Eussia, who assembled the geniuses of her empire to build a palace of snow ! " But," says Disraeli, " the youth who does not look up will look down, and the spirit that does not soar is destined perhaps to grovel." " Every man," says Theodore Parker, " has at times in his mind the ideal of what he should be, but is not. In all men that seek to improve, it is better than the actual character. ]N"o one is so satisfied with himself that he never wishes to be wiser, better, and more holy." What a discrepancy there is between what we are, or what we appear to be, and what we long to be. " Men are possessed of great and divine ideas and sentiments," said Dewey, " and to paint them, sculpture them, build them in architecture, sing them in music, utter them in eloquent speech, write them in books, in essays, sermons, poems, dramas, fictions, philosophies, histories, — this is an irresistible impulse of human nature." " Ideality," says Horace Mann, " is only the avant- courier of the mind ; and where that in a healthy and normal state goes, I hold it to be a prophecy that reali- zation can follow." " Every really able man, if you talk sincerely with 386 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. him," says Emerson, "considers his work, however much admired, as far short of what it should be. What is this better, this flying ideal, but the perpetual prom- ise of his Creator ? " " Man can never come up to his ideal standard," says Margaret Fuller Ossoli. " It is the nature of the im- mortal spirit to raise that standard higher and higher as it goes from strength to strength, stiU upward and onward." "No true man can. live a haK life," says Phillips Brooks, " when he has genuinely learned that it is a half life. The other half, the higher half, must haimt him." "If I live," wrote Eufus Choate in his diary in September, 1844, " all blockheads which are shaken at certain mental peculiarities shall know and feel a reasoner, a lawyer, and a man of business." " 'T is not what a man does which exalts him," says Browning, " but what man would do." "It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive," says George Eliot. "There are certaiu things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them." " The flame of a common fire casts a shadow in the path of a kerosene light," says Emerson, " and this in turn casts a shadow before the electric flash. The country lad is satisfied with his surroundings until he goes to the village and sees the store, the library, the high school. This satisfies him until he goes to the city. The village lamp puts out the country light, and in turn is extinguished by Boston or New York." Our longings are the prophecies of our destinies. Life never wholly fulfills the expectations of youthful nope. The future can never pay all that the present promises. Providence holds back part of our wages, ASPIRATION. 387 lest we quit work. The prophecy of immortality is written in our yearnings. "If the certainty of future fame bore Milton re- joicing through his blindness, or cheered Galileo in his dungeon," writes Bulwer, " what stronger and holier support shall not be given to him who has loved man- kind as his brothers, and devoted his labors to their cause ? — who has not sought, but relinquished, his own renown ? — who has braved the present censures of men for their future benefit, and trampled upon glory in the energy of benevolence ? Will there not be for him something more powerful than fame to comfort his sufferings and to sustain his hopes ? " The ambition that comprehends another's welfare first, is the highest we can have. Such is the secret of Euskin's success, and of the sway that Frances Willard holds in the hearts of every good woman in America and England. Yet to have one's name on the lips of men is not a worthy ambition. Some fast horses and prize-fighters are better known than those who have high and noble ideals. Every one knows the merits of the leading contestants in international yacht-races, but only a few, perhaps only one, knows the merits of him or her who surrendered hope, or perhaps life itself, to save a home, or keep a son from the poor- house, or to reform tenement and prison methods. Of necessity the above illustrations come from the lives of those whom the world delights to honor ; but glory is rare and of secondary importance, and the lack of it implies no thought of failure in the judgment of Him who looks beneath the frame into the heart — who understands all aspiration — and who measures with honest scales the fervor which the soul expends. ! who shall lightly say that Fame Is nothing but an empty name, While in that sound there is a charm The nerves to brace, the heart to warm, 388 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. As, thinking of the mighty dead, The young from slothful couch shall start, And vow, with lifted hands outspread, Like them to act a noble part ? JOAKNA BAILLIU. "I wonder if ever a song was sung, But the singer's heart sang sweeter ! I wonder if ever a hymn was rung. But the thought surpassed the metre ! I wonder if ever a sculptor wrought, Till the cold stone echoed his ardent thought ! Or if ever a painter, with light and shade. The dream of his inmost heart portrayed ! " CHAPTEE XXV. THE AKMY OF THE RESERVE. It is the part of a wise man to keep himself to-day for to-morrow, and not to venture all his eggs in one basket. — Cekvahtes. 'T is good in every case, you know, To have two strings unto your bow. Chuschill. "In a word, learn taciturnity. Let that be your motto," Though you had the wisdom of Newton, or the wit of Swift, garrulous- ness would lower you in the eyes of your fellow creatures. — Burns. The leaves and a shell of soft wood are all that the vegetation of this summer has made, but the solid columnar stem, which lifts that bank of foliage into the air to draw the eye and to cool us with its shade, is the gift and legacy of dead and buried j'ears. — Emerson. There is no fault nor folly of my life which does not rise iip against me, and take away mj? joy and shorten my power of possession, of sight, of understanding. And every past effort of my life, every gleam of right- ness or good in it, is with me now, to help me in my grasp of this art and its vision. — Ruskin. Providence is always on the side of the last reserve. — Napoleon I. The man of grit carries in his presence a power which spares him the necessity of resenting insult. — E. P. Whipple. 0, the toils of life ! How small they seem when love's resistless tide Sweeps brightly o'er them ! Like the scattered stones "Within a mountain streamlet, they but serve To strike the hidden music from its flow, And make its sparkle visible. Anna Katherine Green. Ph(ebtts challenged the gods, saying, "Who will outshoot the far-darting Apollo ? " "I will," said Zeus. Mars shook the lots, the first falling to Apollo, who stretched his bow and shot an arrow into the farthest west. With one stride Zeus cleared the whole distance covered by his rival's arrow, and asked, " Where shall I shoot ? There is no room." He was awarded the prize by the acclamation of the gods, although he had not even drawn his bow. 390 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. We feel that Jove must have performed a wonderfjalj; feat of archery had he chosen to exert his power to the utmost. We have a similar feeling when we listen to a great orator, or witness the deeds of any person of great culture or sterling character. Such people excite in us an anticipation far in advance of their perform- ances, and convince us by what they say or do that they could do or say immeasurably greater things. Mirabeau was forty years old before he showed a sign of his vast knowledge and tact, his mighty reserve, and then suddenly became the greatest orator and states- man of his age. His public career lasted but twenty- three months, but in that time he did more work than most great men accomplish in as many years. " Had I not lived with him," said Dumont, "I should never have had any idea of what a man may do in a single day ; what business may be transacted in the course of twelve hours. A day for this man was as much as a week or a month for another." " Impossible ! " said he, jumping from his chair, when his secretary said that something was impossible, " never name to me again that blockhead's word." It is the reserve corps of an army which enables the leader to strike the decisive blow when the critical moment arrives. It is the heavy balance-wheel of an engine which distributes the power equally and in- sures that steadiness of motion which prevents destruc- tive shocks, overcoming resistance that would stop the piston unaided by the stored-up momentum. It is the knowledge, experience, and character, the mental and moral wealth which you have accumulated during your whole life, that measures your real power and influence to-day ; as you will learn, to . your satisfaction or cha- grin, when you are subjected to any severe trial. You can draw from your bank of learning or manhood just what you have stored there, not an ounce more. In any crisis you must stand or fall by your reserve power. DANIEL WEBSTER " It is said of Hercules, the god of force, that ' Whether he stood or walked, or sat, or whatever he did, ha conquered.' " THE ARMY OF THE RESERVE. 391 On a cold, rainy night in 1823, in the First Baptist Church of Boston, a young clergyman preached on the "Moral Dignity of the Missionary Enterprise." The sermon seemed to awaken no interest in the mind of any of the fifty people in the congregation, and the discouraged preacher considered it a complete failure. But a printer in the audience published the sermon on account of its earnestness, and it at once attracted wide attention and had a large sale, even in England. Eobert Hall read it with enthusiasm and predicted a great future for the preacher, then an obscure young man. Three years later he was elected President Way- land of Brown University. In the latest addresses of Beecher was still felt the momentum gained in his great speeches at Manchester, Liverpool, and London. A life of struggle, of mingled defeat and triumph, rolled its undercurrent of tone to tinge the meaning and effect of Gough's ripened utter- ances. Eorty years of conquest gave weight to the words of Webster, Choate, Disraeli, Gladstone, long after gray hairs had told of the approach of a time when their eyes should be dimmed and their natural force abated. Bismarck, out of ofB.ce, has such a re- serve power that even an attack of rheumatism in his feet startles Europe. "0 lole, how did you know that Hercules was a god ? " " Because," said lole, " I was content the mo- ment my eyes fell upon him. When I beheld Theseus, I desired that I might see him offer battle, but Her- cules did not wait for a contest : he conquered whether he stood, or walked, or sat, or whatever thing he did." " One day," said a noted rope-walker, " I signed an agreement to wheel a barrow along a rope on a given day. A day or two before I was seized with lumbago. I called in my medical man, and told him I must be cured by a certain day ; not only because I should lose what I hoped to earn, but also forfeit a large sum. 392 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. " I got no better, and the doctor forbade my getting up. I told him, ' What do I want with yqur advice ? If you cannot cure me, of what good is your advice ? ' " When I got to the place, there was the doctor pro- testing I was unfit for the exploit. I went on, though I felt like a frog with my back. I got ready my pole and my barrow, took hold of the handles and wheeled it along the rope as well as I ever did. When I got to the end I wheeled it back again, and when this was done I was a frog again. What made me that I could wheel the barrow ? It was my reserve-will." "It is marvelous. Monsieur le President," said the Paris correspondent of the London " Times," to Thiers, " how you deliver long improvised speeches about which you have not had time to reflect." "You are not pay- ing me a compliment," replied the President of the French republic ; " it is criminal in a statesman to improvise speeches on public affairs. The speeches you call improvised — why, for fifty years I have been rising at five in the morning to prepare them ! " "The preparation for my reply to Hayne," said Webster, " was made upon the occasion of Mr. Poote's resolution to sell the public lands. Some years before that, a senator from Alabama introduced a resolution into the Senate proposing to cede the public domains to the State in which they were situated. It struck me at that time as being so unfair and improper that I imme- diately prepared an article to resist it. My argument embraced the whole history of the public lands and the government's action in regard to them. Then there was another question involved in the Hayne debate. It was as to the right and practice of petition. Mr. Calhoun denied the right of petition on the subject of slavery. Calhoun's doctrine seemed to be accepted, and I made preparation to answer his proposition. It so happened that the debate did not take place. I had my notes tucked away in a pigeon-hole, and when THE ARMY OF THE RESERVE. 393 Hayne made that attack upon me and upon New Eng- land, I was already posted, and only had to take down my notes, and refresh my memory. In other words, if he had tried to make a speecli to fit my notes, he would not have hit it better. ISTo man is inspired with the oc- casion. I never was." "I should think, if you can't break that block in ten blows, you can't do it in a hundred," said Eobert Waters to a brawny-armed quarryman who had struck forty blows with a sledge on a huge piece of granite, all ap- parently in vain. " Oh, yes," said the workman, " every blow tells ; " and soon the granite fell asunder. " We marvel at the skill which enables a great artist to take a little color that lies inert upon his palette ' — a little gray and brown and white — and presently to so ' transfigure it into a living presence ' that our hearts throb faster only to look upon it, and there come upon the soul all those influences which one feels beneath the shadow of the Jungfrau or the Matterhorn, or amid the awful solitudes of Mont Blanc. But back of that ap- parent ease and skill are the years of struggle and effort and application which have conferred the envied power." " What though the fire bursts forth at length,'' said Dr. Dewey, "like volcanic fires, with spontaneous, original, native force ? It only shows the intenser action of the elements beneath. What though it breaks like lightning from the cloud ? The electric force had been collecting in the firmament through many a silent, calm, and clear day." You cannot blaze forth in action when an occasion is presented imless the fire has long been smouldering within you. It is with a feeling akin to awe that we gaze upon a huge iceberg towering aloft in solitary grandeur, regard- less alike of storm or calms, and responsive only to tne deep currents of the ocean. How majestically it sweeps along, how gently it pushes aside the bubble in its path, yet how resistlessly 394 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. it crushes the stoutest frigate, as if it were an eggshell. How it reminds us of the steady ponderous career of a great man. But remember that the iceberg is able to hold thus to its stately course only because seven eighths of its bulk is below the waves that make inefEectual tumult around it. So the weight and force of character of great men are hidden from the casual beholder. A glass-blower will not try to teach difficult pro- cesses to any one who has not been engaged in the busi- ness from childhood. He must have the reserve which years of practice give. " I treasure," says Eobert CoUyer, of Xew York, " a small drawing by Millais. It is the figure of a woman bound fast to a pillar far within tide-mark. The sea is curling its waves about her feet. A ship is passing in full sail, but not heeding her or her doom. Birds of prey are hovering about her ; but she heeds not the birds, or the ship, or the sea. Her eyes look right on, and her feet stand firm, and you see that she is looking directly into heaven, and telling her soul how the suf- ferings of this present time are not worthy to be com- pared with the glory that shall be revealed. I treasure it because, when I look at it, it seems a type of a great host of women who watch and wait, tied fast to their fate, while the tide creeps up about them, but who rise as the waves rise, and on the crest of the last and the loftiest are borne into the quiet haven, and hear the 'Well done!'" " It appears to me," said Eear-Admiral Hamilton of the British navy, referring to Farragut's prompt order for the fleet to move on in spite of the torpedoes that had just sunk the Tecumseh in Mobile Bay, "that a disastrous defeat was converted into victory by (in so unexpected a contingency) the quickness of eye and power of rapid decision Farragut possessed, which saw at a glance the only escape from the dilemma the fleet was placed in, and which can only be acquired by THE ARMY OF THE RESERVE. 395 a thorough practical knowledge in the management of fleets, and for want of which no amount of theoretical knowledge, however desirable in many respects, can make up in the moment of difficulty." The knowledge and skill and character acquired in a lifetime of faithful performance of duty constituted a reserve. fund upon which he drew heavily but not in vain when his oppor- tunity came. What star ever shone with purer light, or commanded more admiration, in the brilliant court of France, than the plain, republican, but cultivated, Benjamin Frank- lin ? Who ever rose to higher influence in the political circles of proud England than Cromwell, Eldon, Burke, Canning, and Brougham ? To what did they owe their vast influence but to great intellectual reserve power, developed by slow and toilsome cultivation ? " Where did you get that story, Mr. Webster ? " asked a man who had been deeply impressed by an anecdote related by the great orator. " I have had it laid up in my head for fourteen years, and never had a chance to use it until to-day," was the reply. When the Franco-Prussian war was declared, it is said that Yon Moltke was awakened at midnight and told of the fact. He said coolly to the official who aroused him, " Go to pigeon-hole No. — in my safe, take a paper from it, and telegraph as there directed to the different troops of the empire." He then turned over and went to sleep, and awoke at his accustomed hour in the morning. Every one else in Berlin was much excited, but Von Moltke took his morning walk as usual, and a friend who met him said : " General, you seem to be taking it very easy. Are n't you afraid of the situation ? I should think you would be busy." "Ah," replied Von Moltke, "all of my work for this time has been done long beforehand and everything that can be done now has been done." Moltke had been dil- igently storing up a vast reserve for half a century, 396 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. waiting for his opportunity, ■which did not come until his hair was gray. When Napoleon unrolls his map, the eye is com- manded by original power. When Chatham leads the debate, men may well listen, because they must listen. A man filled with the stored-up momentum acquired from years of careful preparation, is acting; and the ephemera of the moment, as they are brushed from his path, wonder at his enormous influence. Washington, even while undergoing the tortures of Valley Forge, was persecuted and maligned. Dr. Ben- jamin Eush wrote Patrick Henry that the soldiers at Valley Forge had no head. " A Gates, a Lee, or a Conway," he wrote, "would in a few weeks render them an invincible body of men. Some of the contents of this letter ought to be made public, in order to awaken, enlighten, and alarm our country." But the brave Washington bore all this abuse in dignified silence. What a mighty reserve power he possessed in his great commanding character ! Napoleon said of ilassena that he was never himself until ruin stared him in the face. Then the sight of the dead and the groans of the dying nerved him to al- most superhuman energy, and he marshaled his mighty army of the reserve to the front with a will that sent terror to the hearts of the enemy. At the very time that Luther and his followers were making such headway in Europe in opposing the Church of Eome, Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish soldier, formed the order of Jesuits for the purpose of promulgating the tenets of Catholicism. No obstacle was too great to be overcome, no land too distant to be reached, no danger too appalling to be encountered. In India, China, Japan, their zealous preaching made hosts of converts ; in Par- aguay they proselyted 200,000 natives ; and in North America they traveled from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Isthmus of Panama. The world was large THE ARMY OF THE RESERVE. 397 enough for both Luther and Loyola, and the reserve of character in each enabled him to do great work in his own way. After singing, as never before sung, the sublime music of the greatest masters to an audience of twenty thou- sand in Castle Garden, New York, the Swedish Night- ingale thought of the hi lis of her fatherland. In the low tones of deepest emotioii she breathed the words, — " 'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam," but as her voice thrilled to the souls of the listening thousands, she was suddenly silenced by a storm of applause, while tears fell like rain throughout the vast assembly. "I intend to do well by Ben Lippincott," was a frequent remark of Stephen Girard, when speaking of a favorite clerk ; so, when he was twenty-one, Ben expected to hear from the great banker. But Girard seemed\o talk of everything else, so the clerk mustered courage, and said, " I suppose I am free, sir, and I thought I would say something to you as to my course ; what do you think I would better do ? " " Yes, I know you are," said the millionaire ; " and my advice is that you go and learn the cooper's trade." This was like ice to Ben's budding expectation, but he said, " If you are in earnest, I will do so." " I am in earnest," was Girard's only reply. Seeking the best cooper in Spring Garden, Ben served his apprenticeship faithfully, and reported that he was ready to begin business. "Good," said Girard, " make me three of the best barrels you can turn out." When they were delivered, the banker pro- nounced them first-rate, and asked the price. " One dollar," said Ben, « is as low as I can live by." " Cheap enough — make out your bill." Girard settled that bill with a check for twenty thousand dollars, saying, "There, take that, and invest it in the best possible manner; and if you are unfortunate and lose it, you 898 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. have a good trade to fall back upon, wliich will afford you a good living." You wonder what is the use of this thing or that which your parents or teachers ask you to learn. Some- time you may need that very thing. It may be ten years, or twenty, before you find the right place for it ; but it will most likely be just what you will want, sooner or later. If you don't have it, you will be like the hunter who had no ball in his rifle when a bear met him, or like a captain who suddenly remembered on a lee shore that he had left his cable and anchor at home. "Twenty-five years ago my teacher made me study surveying," said a man who had lost his property, "and now I am glad of it. It is just in place. I can get a good situation and a high salary." "He who rises earlier than his competitor," said David Dudley Field, " and works more hours, within the limits of healthful endurance, will carry ofE the prize." The reserve time thus gained, if only an hour a day, will amount to nearly three years out of the threescore and ten vouchsafed to man. " When I was a freshman in Williams College," said James A. Garfield, " I looked out one night and saw in the window of my only competitor for first place in mathematics a light twinkling a few minutes longer than I was wont to keep mine burning. I then and there determined to invest a little more time in prepara- tion for the next day's recitation. I did so, and passed above my rival. I smile to-day at the old rivalry, but I am thankful for the way my attention was called to the value of a little margin of time, well employed. I have since learned that it is just such a margin, whether of time or attention or earnestness or power, that wins in every battle, great or small." Garfield always had a book at table, and would ask his boys, as they sat about him in the home at Mentor, how they pronounced certain words and what the defini- THE ARMY OF THE RESERVE. 399 tions -were. He asked them to quote from tMs and that great author, and in a sentence to serve up their opinions concerning eminent men and women. Garfield was said to be only one of a very few who kept up their literary studies while in Washington. He never did so well but it seemed he could easily do better. As Trevelyan said of his Parliamentary hero, Garfield succeeded because all the world could not have kept him. in the background, and because once in the front he played his part with an intrepidity and a com- manding ease that were but the outward symptoms of the immense reserve of energy on which it was in his power to draw. "If I hear that my opponent has worked the wrist- machine up and down three hundred and ninety-nine times," said James J. Corbett, " I try to go a few better. If he jumps the rope half an hour steadily, I try to make it an hour." This man became the pugilistic champion of the world. A statue of Silence, with finger on its lip, has a mar- velous effect upon every visitor to a library in Cincin- nati. Its power is felt as soon as the eye rests upon it. " Speech is silvern. Silence is golden ; Speech is human, Silence, divine." There is often a power in silence which no speech can equal. " Is there not something sublime," asks a newspaper, " in a hydraulic crane which lifts a Titanic engine of destruction weighing a hundred tons to a considerable height with as noiseless a calm and as much absence of apparent stress or strain as if it had been a boy soldier's pop-gun ? When we further read of the hydraulic monster holding up its terrible burden motionless in mid-air until it is photographed, and then lowering it gently and quietly on a sort of extemporized cradle without the least appearance of difficulty, one can readily understand that the mental impression produced on the bystanders must have been so solemn as to man- 400 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. ifest itself in most eloquent silence." In an English machine-sliop the power of the engine is so stored in the momentum of a ponderous balance-wheel that, directed by a huge cam, it drives a punch through one, two, or three inches of steel as if it were so much wax, without perceptible hesitation or tremor. Visitors look on in speechless awe. It is said that on the single evening Emerson spent at Craigenputtoch in 1833, Carlyle handed him a pipe, lighted one himself, and then the two sat sUent until midnight, when they parted, shaking hands and con- gratulating each other upon the pleasant evening they had passed. " The silent man is often worth listening to," says the Japanese proverb. " That is my speech ! That is my speech ! " said the sculptor Story, each time touching his statue of George Peabody, at whose unveiling in London he was asked to make an address. Every great orator feels but too conscious that he has never been able to express to his audience the rapture which fired his soul. He feels au immense loss in the translation of the divine sentiment which wrought ecstasy in his own soul. The author, too, sees visions which the pen refuses to copy or describe. In plucking the flower, the perfume is lost. To one admiring his statue, the Flemish sculptor Duquesne said, pointing to his forehead, "Ah! if you could but see the one which is here ! " Voltaire said that he never wrote anything which satisfied him, there was such a discrepancy between his ideal and what he accomplished. Vergil wished to burn the ^neid after working upon it for eleven years. The artist cannot transfer to canvas the most delicate touches of nature upon the human face. There is an indescribable something which all feel but no poet can portray. The finest part of a landscape is never delin- eated. The writer cannot draw from his brain his THE ARMY OF THE RESERVE. 401 choicest sentiments. They elude the pen and will not stay in words. They evaporate from the choicest lan- guage and will not allow themselves to be expressed. But they are suggested to us in the works of the mas- ters, and it is in this suggestive force of their produc- tions rather than in what they have really done or said * that their remarkable power lies. Tears cannot drain the deepest sorrow. Words can- not express the finest sentiments of the heart. It is roughly estimated that the steam-power of Great Britain is equal to the united strength of 1,000,- 000,000 men. The number of persons employed in her coal mines is but 200,000, and of these fully two thirds dig coal for other uses than for engines, leaving 66,666 men to mine the coal necessary to do the work of 1,000,- 000,000. The engines are made by 60,000 men, so that 126,666 men furnish the means of doing the work of 1,000,000,000, the strength of each being thus multi- plied nearly eight thousand times. This gives to each man, woman, and child of a population of 36,000,000, some thirty willing slaves, born fully grown, exempt from sickness, needing no clothes, eating only fire and water, and costing merely the work of one man in eight thousand. It is this reserve power of steam which makes certain the supremacy of Britain in the industrial contest with such countries as Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, India, Jamaica, China, and Japan. Herein lies the real reserve which reinforces her bayonets in every war she wages. Too late. Napoleon learned this at St. Helena, saying, " Great Britain conquered me not with her swords but with her spindles ; with her spindles she subsidized all Europe, and here I am." He was right, but the real power was in the steam-engines that drove those spindles, and that energy, obtained from the coal, really came from tiny sunbeams stored up ages ago in the leaves and stems of plants. Pitt, with all his lavish expenditures, \02 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. could not squander the wealth of Great Britain as fast as it was created by the genius of Watt, long since dead It is industry at home that makes legions victorious abroad. A nation with such a reservoir of capital is like a Niagara river with its chain of inland seas behind, and sweeps everything before it in the cataract of war. Only when it meets a greater reserve, like the spirit of liberty in the breasts of the American colonists, is it swept backward, even as the wiuds sometimes roll the waters of Lake Erie back upon themselves, and for a time lessen the power of Niagara. He who has occupied his leisure moments in earnest, ' faithful study, will have large stores in reserve upon which to draw in any emergency. After his answer to Hayne, Webster is reported to have said, " I felt as if everything I had ever seen or read or heard was float- ing before me in one grand panorama, and I had little • else to do than to reach up and cull a thunderbolt and hurl it at him." It was his custom in studying to de- vote all his faculties to the work before him until he felt fatigue, and then rest. In this way he acquired the power of doing in one day what would seem a hard week's work to many able lawyers. Back of the preparation for any career should lie the habit of wholeness of mind and conscience which can alone insure the highest success iu that career. Opie mixed his colors with brains. Hugh Miller said that the mason of whom he learned his trade put his whole soul into every brick that he laid. Of Francis Horner, a man of medium ability but of unequaled influence, it was said that the Ten Commandments were stamped upon his countenance. Such men of steadfast character in all trials are "like great ships upon November seas, when winds are gruff and waters in rebellion. While other men, like fishing-smacks and shallops, crank and unsteady, must watch each flaw and gust of wind lest suddenly they be caught and whehned, these spread a THE ARMY OF THE RESERVE. 403 bellying sail upon a moveless yard, and heedless of cross-currents drive onward to their home." What reserve power to bless or ban lies in the affec- tions and passions of man ! Even brutes show the might of love and gratitude or their opposites. Androcles hid himself in a cave, where he saw a lion which seemed very lame. Walking up to the beast, he gently lifted his paw, and took ont a splinter. The animal seemed very grateful. Later, Androcles was captured and de- livered to wild beasts in the arena of the Colosseum. A lion let loose to devour him sprang forward with a ■ hollow roar, but recognized Androcles as one who had relieved his suffering, and fawned at his feet. " Gentlemen," said one of three ladies, rudely bantered by one hundred and fifty young men while all were wait- ing the tardy arrival of the lecturer at a medical clinic, " I have been for eighteen years a missionary in China. The Chinese have no medical science, and superstitious rites are chiefly relied on in the treatment of disease. All the people are in need of medical aid, but the women are the neediest. A Chinese woman would un- der no circumstances go to a male physician for the treatment of any disease peculiar to her sex. She would be prevented by her womanly delicacy, and by all the notions of modesty held by those around her. She would suffer lifelong agony rather than violate her sense of propriety. Her father, her brothers, and her husband would even let her die rather than allow her to be treated by a male physician. Full of sorrow for the sufferings of these women, I have been looking to Christian America to see what hope of help for them might be there. I have been glad to find that, in some of our great medical schools, earnest and self-sacrificing women are fitting themselves for a work of mercy in Asia and other lands. Unless such women learn to do such work well there is no physical salvation for those aflicted ones. And in behalf of those women, who have 404 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. no medical care while they so sorely need it, I ask from you the courtesy of gentlemen toward ladies who are studying medicine in Philadelphia." A cheer from the young men followed the remarks, and one student as- sured the ladies that they should be annoyed no more. The native manliness of the youths was a corps in reserve which, when called upon, conquered aU their coarseness and vulgarity. There is a reserve in every man greater than anything he ever exhibits. There is a hero in the biggest coward which an emergency great and critical enough would call forth. Heroic acts are just what every man in- tends to perform. The memory of misspent years should not hang like a millstone about your neck ; so long as you have a de- sire for better things, you still have in reserve, greater or less in proportion to the earnestness of your aspira- tion, the very power you need in attaining what you seek. Thousands of bad boys have changed their course radically and become good and useful men. The ablest cardinal and statesman of France in his day was known as the incorrigible boy Richelieu. Mazarin, when young, was a reckless gambler. Dumas was a worthless, idle boy. St. Augustine was called a reprobate when a boy. Whitefield, the great preacher, was a thief when young, and his mother kept a public-house. President Thiers was the worst pupil in school; he would strike his teacher when angry, and no punishment awed him. All at once he changed his course, and determined to become President of France, although he was very poor. Great men are but common men more fully developed and ripened. He who does his best will find himself aided at an un- expected moment by another self in reserve, the reflex action of the brain. Many a mathematician, falling asleep in a vain effort to solve some intricate problem, has awakened to find the solution at his tongue's end. THE ARMY OF THE RESERVE. 405 On the plains of Ephesus, Chersiphoron had placed the solid jambs on either side of the door to the temple of Artemis, and had exhausted every expedient trying to place thereon the ponderous lintel, when, in sleep, the goddess told him his work was done, and he awoke to find it so. From the grave of every martyr emanates an in- fluence greater far than he ever exerted in life. " The cause thou lightest for," says Carlyle, "so far as it is true, no further, yet precisely so far, is very sure of victory. The falsehood alone of it will be conquered, will be abolished, as it ought to be ; but the truth of it is part of Nature's own laws, cooperates with the world's eternal tendencies, and cannot be conquered." Nature works continually by utilizing reserves. Nothing is ever lost in the material or spiritual world. Our fires to-day give back in heat and light the exact amount absorbed by tree or plant from the sun ages ago. The present generation is fed by the decomposi- tion of the preceding. The best of every man's work is above and beyond himself, and is accomplished in the struggle to attain a lofty ideal. The artist stands aside and points through his work to a glimpse of the universal art. In his in- spired moments the individuality of the orator is melted and fused into the all-pervading fire of eloquence. The gods will help us, but we must go their way. We must move along the line of absolute truth or they will leave us to our own devices. Amid the alternating high and low barometer, gloom and gayety, enthusiasm and discouragement, freshness and fatigue of our physical and mental environment, we cannot always be at our best. " But tasks in hours of sunshine willed May be through hours of gloom fulfilled." "How Strange it seems," said W. J. Tilley, "that some of the most wonderful and most useful inventions 406 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. in the world to-day were apparently lying in ambush beside the very pathway where thousands of human feet have trod, and remained, for yearsj all undiscovered and unknown." They waited but for an eye that could see nature's vast reserves. Men have groped in physical darkness for ages while walking above untold barrels of petroleum, and have crossed oceans to carry messages which a slender wire would have delivered in a minute. Muscle has been hewing wood and drawing water, while coal and electri- city have tried in vain to tell us that they were destined to emancipate man from the world's drudgery and allow him to develop his higher powers. We call a man like Shakespeare a genius, not because he makes new discoveries, but because he shows us to ourselves ; shows us the great reserve in us which, like the oU-fields, awaited a discoverer ; because he says that which we had thought or felt, but could not express. Genius merely holds the glass up to nature. We can never see in the world what we do not first have in our- selves. The hemisphere of our vision is really the dome enshrining our minds, and is greater or less according to the sweep of our thought, even as without or within any circumference other circumferences may be drawn without change' of centre. Man is the whole of which aH the things he sees without are but parts, — segments of a curve which circle themselves in his own soul. We see but the shadow of which we are the sub- stance. Emerson says that the god of a cannibal wUl be a cannibal, of the crusader a crusader, and of the merchant a merchant. Beneath its apparent levity there is a vital truth in Andrew Jackson Davis's saying that an honest God is the noblest work of man ; for oui ideals show what we are. Not least among our forces in reserve are those which come from that "facility and inclination, acquired by repetition," which we call habit. Any occupation is THE ARMY OF THE RESERVE. 407 easiest to him who has familiarized himself with its processes by repeated practice, and he who has become most familiar with those processes is most likely to succeed therein. As men acquire greater and greater skill in the various trades or professions, it becomes more and more di£B.cult for one to do many kinds of work in a satisfactory manner, in competition with others. Jacks-of -all-trades are becoming scarcer as we advance in civilization. We must concentrate our energies to definite purposes J.n proportion as we wish to excel. " I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided," said Patrick Henry, " and that is the lamp of experience." Even the most refined civilization would be impos- sible but for the reserves of rugged men of ruder man- ners from which to constantly recruit its ever wasting forces. In 1806, it is said, every legitimate monarch in Europe was imbecile. The city would have died out, rotted, and exploded long ago, but that it was reinforced from the fields. It is only country that came to town day before yesterday that is city and court to-day. The country is the great reserve of civilization. Not what men do, but what their lives promise and prophesy, gives hope to the race. To keep us from dis- couragement, Nature now and then sends us a Washing- ton, a Lincoln, a Kossuth, a Gladstone, towering above Ms fellows, to show us she has not lost her ideal. We enter upon life with a physical reserve called the vital force, a mental reserve known as enterprise, and, above all, a moral reserve of conscience, from con, '"with," and soio, "I know;" literally, what we know with God. " Endeavor to keep alive in your breast," said Washington, "that spark of heavenly fire called Bonscience." This inward monitor is akin to that in- stinct which prompts the bird to seek .the South as a refuge from the winter that would kill it ; which per- 408 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. suades the squirrel to bury nuts and the bee to store honey to keep them alive when trees are bare and flowers are dead. Whatever our creed, we feel that no good deed can by any possibility go unrewarded, no evil deed unpunished. Every one is conscious that there are little demons in the background of his life which only wait an opportunity to come forward and disgrace him ; such as fault-finding, envy, hatred, slander, irritar bility, sarcasm, back-biting, and revenge. These are microbes or germs which lie dormant in the character until the moral health-line is so reduced that they de- velop in the filth and miasma of a degraded soul. On the other hand, the consciousness of the grand reserve of a noble past gives confidence and strength to-day. The memory of the good we have done inspires and en- courages us to worthy endeavor. The whole creation thunders the Ten Command- ments. The very atoms seem to have been dipped in a moral solution. There is a moral tendency in the nature of things. It looks out of the flowers, it shines from the stars. It grows in the forest, it waves in the grass, it laughs in the harvest. Each form of existence brings from the unseen its own little lesson of wisdom, goodness, power, design, and points to something higher than itself, the great Author of its magnificence. But while we see this moral tendency in the works of nar ture, we find this great moral reserve strongly empha- sized in man, who has a sort of instinctive faith that somehow, somewhere, nature will rid herself of the last crime, and restore the lost Paradise of Eden. " These rules were writ in human hearts, By Him who built the day, The columns of the universe No firmer based than thej'." Man finds himself on a limitless ocean with no know- ledge of whence he came or whither he shall go. All he knows is, that a Hand he has never seen has traced the THE ARMY OF THE RESERVE. 409 Golden Eule upon Lis heart, hung a chart in his soul, and placed a compass in his hand. He is also conscious of a pilot at the helm, never seen but always there ; an angel commissioned at his birth to pilot his frail bark across the uncertain waters of life, and that conscious- ness is his reserve power. We may try to stifle the voice of the mysterious angel within, but it always says " Yes " to right ac- tions, and "No" to wrong ones. ISTo matter whether we heed it or not, no power can change its decision one iota. Through health, through disease, through pros- perity and adversity, beyond the reach of bribery or influence, this faithful servant stands behind us in the shadow of ourselves, never intruding, but weighing every act we perform, every word we utter, pronouncing the verdict " right " or " wrong." "Virtue has resources buried in itself, which we know not," says Bulwer, " till the invading hour calls them from their retreats. Surrounded by hosts with- out, and when Nature itself, turned traitor, is its most deadly enemy within, it assumes a new and a super- human power which is greater than Nature itself. Whatever be its creed — whatever be its sect — from whatever segment of the globe its visions arise. Virtue is God's empire, and from this throne of thrones He will defend it. Though cast into the distant earth, and struggling on- the dim arena of a human heart, all things above are spectators of its conflict, or enlisted in its cause. The angels have their charge over it — the banners of archangels are on its side, and from sphere to sphere, through the illimitable ether, and round the impenetrable darkness at the feet of God, its triumph is hymned by harps which are strung to the glories of the Creator ! " In London, June, 1801, Benedict Arnold sits dying. In response to a feeble request, the attendant aids him to don a faded Continental uniform. The shadow of 410 PUSHING TO THE FRONT. death hovers above the execrated traitor, and mortal pangs rack his emaciated frame ; but no sigh or groan comes from his bloodless lips, for his glazing eyes are fixed . upon those treasured garments and his mind is busy with the past. Shoulder to shoulder he stands with Allen at Ticonderoga. Through the trackless northern wilderness he leads his determined band, and his haughty voice summons astonished Quebec to sur- render. The woods of Valcour Island reverberate with the thunders of his cannon, and from his strategy at Fort Schuyler the dusky hosts of St. Leger scatter like dry leaves before the hurricane. At StiUwater, in September, his spirit animates the army which Horatio Gates commands; and up Bemis Heights in October his coal-black steed leads to glorious victory over the far-famed legionaries of Burgoyiie. Treason and dis- grace are forgotten, neglect and injury forgiven ; hon- ored and respected he stands once more a giant among his brother officers in the cause of liberty ; and thus, while reenacting bygone scenes, his spirit passes from earth. Oh, the reserve power of noble thoughts — of noble deeds ! Not subsequent misery nor crime, not degra- dation, not death itself, can rob them of their influence upon us ; and through the long future of eternity what- ever is ours of ecstasy will be augmented, whatever is ours of agony will be diminished, by their recollection and their reward. INDEX. Accuracy, enamored of, 273. Acts, " our angels are," 303. Adams, J. Q., his punctuality, 69, 130. Addison on luck, 330. .^sop, monument erected to, 28. Agasaiz, Louis, too great to make money, 219 ; power of observation, 284. Age, how to retard it, 370 ; its enthusi- asm, 184. Alcohol, Dr. Richardson on, 364. Andersen, Hans Christian, 26. Andrew, John A., his promptness, 122. Androcles and the lion, 403. AngelO, Michael, 80 ; his industry, 234, 242, 380 ; his study of anatomy, 284 ; his statue of snow, 302. An iron will, 55. Anne, Empress of Russia, and her snow palace, 385. Annihilation, working for, 303. Anxiety, a disease, 141 , 143. Apelles, his goddess of beauty, 155. AquetU and Bonaparte, 329. Arjosto and his persistence, 353. Aristocracy, nature's, 247. ' Arkwright, Richard, 79 ; his industry, 244. Armour, Philip, his career, 14. Arnold, Benedict, his dying vision, 409. Art and corruption, 226. Arthur, Chester A., his politeness, 151. Aspiration, 375. Astor, J. J., a failure, 79, 99, 200, 226. Audubon, his persistency, 245, 351. Bancroft, his perseverance, 342. Bankruptcy, 248. Bamum, P. T., 51; and the American Museum, 324. Barrows, Isaac, 87. Basle, the Monk, his great politeness, 148. Bauer, General, 328. Baxter, Richard, on saving time, 69. Be brief, 372. Beecher, H. W., and "the dew-drop," 292 ; on defeat, 307 ; his cheerfulness, 138 ; his tact, 197 ; determination, 242 ; on aspiration, 378, 384. Beethoven, 179, 283. Bennett, James Gordon, his struggles, 31. Bentham, Jeremy, 71. Berry, Captain, 5. BirkenhejMi, the English ship, 316. Bismarck, 160. BlUcher, General, 130 ; his determina- | tion, 244. I Boy slavery, 78. Boys, round, in square holes, 74. Boys with no chance, 25. Bright, John, 42. Brooks, Phillips, on occupation, 98 ; true greatness, 231 ; on aspiration, 386. Brougham, Lord, 71, 130 ; lack of con- centration, 115. Brown, John, 48. Bryant on patience, 355. Budgett, Samuel, 70. Bunyan, 182. Burke, Edmund, his power, 254 ; on patience, 354. Burr, Aaron, his politeness, 56 ; 148. Burritt, Elihu, 36, 65. Butler, Bishop, and his persistency, 353. Butler, General, and his colored soldiers. 258. Buxton, Fowell, on one unwavering aim, Byron, 87 ; on Dante, 268 : on thirst for gold, 218. GffiSAB, 8, 70, 122 ; and the pirates, 319 ; self-confidence, 205 ; influence of, over Romans, 263. Calhoun, John C, his self-confidence, 205. Calling, be greater than, 104. Calvin, John, his dyspepsia, 144. Campbell, Lord, 239, " must work harder than others." Canova, Antonio, 10. Carelessness, 287. Carlyle, Thomas, his courage, 244; on persistence, 339 ; on one aim, 108 ; his gruffness, 152. Carlyle and Emerson, their silence, 400 ; on truth, 405. Catharine of Russia, her rules of eti- quette, 153. Cato, his three regrets, 72. Cavanaugh, A. M., M. P., his charming manner, 150. Chapel, Sistine, 243. Character is power, 250, 263 ; is success, 226, 250, 316 ; is protection, 256 ; the poor man's capital, 272 ; always known, 272. Chateaubriand on "Washington, 267. Chatham, Lord, 262. Cheerfulness and longevity, 133. Chesterfield, Lord, 156. Chickering, Jonas, his precision, 289. Childs, George W., 32; his character, 229. 412 INDEX, Chitty, 241. Choate, Rufas, his irreEostible manner, 59, 150 ; power of concentration, 114, 118 ; his carefulness, 282 ; his brevity, 372,386. Christ, his cheerful, sunny reUgion, 145. Cicero, his economy of time, 70 ; true nobility, 210 ; on disagreeable occupa- tions, 237. Cid, the, physical power of, 359. Cincinnatus, Quintius, 256. Clark, Alvan, his accuracy, 281. Clay, Henry, 45 ; his graceful manner, 150 ; his concentration, 171 ; hia ora- tory, 235. Cleveland, Grover, on luck, 335. Clive, Robert, 87. Cobbett, William, '■'■ always ready," 33, 124. Cobden, Richard, 42 ; on luck, 335 ; his determination, 242. CoflSn, C. C, on Columbus, 346. Colbert, '*the greatness of a country depends on the character of its peo- ple," 267. Coleridge, his lack of concentration and purpose, 112. Collyer, Robert, 394. Colonna, Yittoria, 265. Columbus, 18 ; his tact with the In- dians, 192 ; his victory, 315 ; in chains, 315 ; his death, 315. Commandments, Ten, in nature, 408. Common sense and books, 191. Compensation, 369. Confucius on persistence, 350. Conscience, 407. Cook, Joseph, his great industry, 65. Cooper, Astley, 16. Cooper, Peter, 375. Corti's harp, 300. Course, 313. Courtesy, among the upper classes, 155. Cowper, William, his shyness, 84 ; 244. Creon, the Greek slave artist, 26. Crittenden, C. N., his missions, 229. Cromwell, Oliver, 84. Gunard, Samuel, 48. - Curran, his self-respect, 208 ; his deter- mination, 242. Curtius, Marcus, his leap to death, 383. Cushman, Charlotte, 47 ; enthusiasm, 172. Daiton, Dr., 72. Dante, "the man who had been in hell," 283. Darling Grace, 9. Darwin, Charles, his persistence, 61, 71, 384. Da Vinci, Leonardo, 283. Davy, Sir Humphry, 35, 70. Death has adopted the American gait, 361. Decision, 8. De Foe, Daniel, 81. De Genlis, Madame, 66. Demosthenes, his perseverance, 242, 381. Depew, Chauncey, on "grit, grip, and pluck," 319. De Quincey, his discouragements, 243. De Stael, Madame, her precocity, OT; her fascinating manners, 154, 179. Dessaix, at Marengo, 322. Devil, the, " does he lie ? " 281. Dickens, Charles, on close attention, 111 ; great politeness, 150 ; his enthu- siasm, 171 ; on perseverance, 346, 351. Dickinson, Anna, her courage, 242. Disraeli, Benjamin, his courage, 242. Dissipation, 270. Dixey, Henry, 51. Douglas, Stephen A., his courtesy, 151, Douglass, Fred, 50. Dress, importance of, 167. Drew, David, his industry, 88. Drew, SamuEJ, his perseverance, 241. Dumas, Alexander, 45. Dunces, noted, 86, 87. Duty, 105. Edison, Thomas A., 38 ; on persever- ance, 341. Edward, Thomas, and his menagerie, 75. Eldon, Lord, 49 ; lus industry, 241. Eliot, George, on what to do, 98 ; on as- piration, 386. Emerson, Ralph Waldo, on what to do, 103 ; on gentleness, 158, 159 ; enthu- siasm, 173 ; on work, 228 ; on luck, 330 ; 386 ; perseverance, 354 ; every man his own God, 406. Energy, concentrated, 106. Enthusiasm, triumphs of, 170. Erskine, Lord, 82 ; his flashes of hero- ism, 328. Etiquette, origin of, 153. Euler, the mathematician, 58. Evarts, W. M., 59. Everett, Edward, his charming manner, 151. Exaggeration, in America, 281. Failuke, the only one possible, 283 ; be- ware of the first, 306 j the test of per- sistence, 308. Fairies, the twelve, and discontent, 379. Fame, 387. Faraday, Michael, 43, 67. Farragut, Admiral, reserve power of, 394. Fate recedes before knowledge, 293 ; all are architects of, 303. Fei^son, 24. Field, Cyrus W,, 246; on brevity, 373; his perseverance, 347. Field, David Dudley, reserve power of, 398. Financiering, slip-shod, 291. Fluctuating men never succeed, 340. Force, Peter, his poverty, 380. Franklin, Benjamin, on promptness, 129 ; his integrity, 254 ; on diligence, 244, 330 ; his perseverance, 18, 69, 92 350. INDEX. 413 FranMin, Lady, her perseverance, 350. Frederick the Great, 79. Fremont, J. C, talent for effacing him- self , 204. Frost, Charles G., his industry, 68. Fry, Elizabeth, and the prisons, 15. Fuller, Margaret, on the ideal, 386. Galileo Galilei, 17, 46, 67, 80; his perseverance, 245. Gai^eld, James A., 52, 85; his reserve power, 398. Garrison, "William Lloyd, 39, 60, 138, 162. Geradini, his persistence, 349. Germans, three who mastered English, 286. Genevieve, patron SEunt of Paris, 260. Gerater, her enthusiasm, 172. Gibbon, Edward, his painstaking, 284 ; his perseverance, 342. Gilpin, John, 244. Girard, Stephen, and his drayman, 11, 50, 397 ; his sixpence, 246 ; his brevity, 372 ; his precision, 285. Girls, satisfied with mediocrity, 101. Gladstone, William E., 67; on "Wash- ington, 224. God does not murder nor torture his children, 363 ; surrounds us by kindly hints, 363. Goethe, 70, 97 ; fascinating manner, 150 ; price of success, 243 ; industry, 330. Gold a death-blow to art, 220. Goldsmith on cheerfulness, 134. Goodyear, Charles, his industry, 245. Gough, John B., 20 ; at Oxford, 329 ; 278. Gould, his wealth, 211. Graham, George, the watchmaker, 273. Grant, U. S., in business, 320 ; at Shiloh and Fort Donelson, 320 ; his courage, 321 ; in the "Wilderne^, 321 ; his nine hours' sleep, 369 ; at Chattanooga, 7 ; 60 ; his promptness, 131 ; tact, IBS ; poUteness, 151. Grattan and the red tape, 288; self- respect, 205. Greater than wealth, 210. Greatness, 271. Greeley, Horace, early struggles, 30 ; concentration, 113; his punctuality, 130. Grit, the perfection of in saying " No," 329. Grote, George, the historian, 70. Hancock, John, his integrity, 221. Handel and his harpsichord, 81, 246. Harland, Marion, her great industry, 66. Harrison, John, and his chronometer, 275. Harvey, his persistence, 342. Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 16, 69. Heaven, a place for those who fail on earth, 313. Henry, Patrick, 60, Henry, Professor Joseph, 277. Hercules, his reserve power, 391. Hermit, the, and the Colosseum, 305. Heroism in Memphis and Savannah, 215. Herschel, 46. Hill, David B., 39. Hogarth, his power of observation, 113. Homer, Francis, his character, 402. Howe, Eliaa, 245. Howe, Julia Ward, on health, 356. Hugo, Victor, on method, 288. Humboldt, Alexander von, his industry, 67 ; on his success, 364. Humphrey, President Amherst College, his politeness, 163. Hunt, Helen, on fretting, 139. Hunter, John, 68 ; self-confidence, 204. Hurry a disease. Huxley on industry and endurance, 333. Ideal, the, 385. Ingersoll, on greatness, 228. Inventions, useful, 405. Irving, Washington, self-respect, 204 ; on fortitude of woman, 329. Italian teacher on persistence, 343. Jacks-at-all-teades, 111. Jackson, Andrew, his politeness, 161. Jackson, Richard, his integrity, 252. Jefferson, Thomas, his politeness, 15S, 160. Jerrold, Douglas, his will power, 56. Jews, their politeness, 159 ; their tact, 201. Joan of Arc, 174, 315. Johnson, Andrew, 51 ; " from a tailor up," 282. Johnson, Samuel, 71 ; his gruffness, 157. Josephine, her fascinating manner, 153, 160. Judson, Dr. A., his perseverance, 343. Junot and Napoleon, 328. Juvenal on alucky man, 335. Kban, his precocity, 97 ; his persistence, 337, 342. Kepler, his self-confidence, 45. King Cleomenes and his daughter Gorgo, 251. Kingsley, Charles, on concentration, 111. Kitto, Dr., 26 ; his perseverance, 241. Kossuth, his character, 264. Labor, the curse of, 236 ; the school master of the race, 238. Lafayette on Washington, 225. Lamb, Charles, on grumbling, 143. "Lancet," London, on pluck of the sick, 332. Lanman, Charles, 190. La Salle on the Mississippi, 327. Latimer, Ridley, and Cranmer, 307. Laughter, its power, 137. Lawrence, Amos, liis promptness, 130 ; and " the odd cent," 270. Lawyers who can't get a living, 24S. Learning, real road to, 241. Lee, Gideon, 51. 414 INDEX. Leonidas, 252 ; Tictoiy in his defeat, 316. Leasing, his absent-mindedness, 191. Lewis, Edmonia, 50. Levis, Ida, 9. Liberty, love of, 176. Life is what we make it, 292 ; along one, and how to reach it, 356 ; exhausted by Americans, 361 ; a struggle, 366. laghthouse ou ijincoln Heath, 293. Lincoln, Abraham, 52, 72, 225 ; his hu- mor, 138 ; character of, 263, 265 ; his politeness, 160, 203 ; desire for learn- ing, 241 ; on Grant, 319. Lind, Jenny, 279. Longfellow, Henry "W., 16 ; on perse- verance, 355. Louis XIV., his self-conceit, 204. Love, power of, 381. Lowell, James K. , his politeness, 98 ; 161. Loyola, Ignatius, 396. Lubbock, Sir John, 69. Luck, none for him who is not striving, 331,334. Lundy, Benjamin, 25, 39. Luther, Martin, 283. LyttOD, E. Bulwer, on industry, 112, 316, 354 ; perseverance, 342. MacattIiAY, his accuracy, 286. McCormick and his reaper, 245. McDonald, bravery, at Wi^ara, 327. McDougal, Bessie, her courage, 323. Maintenon, Madame, her wonderful manner, 149. Malibran, her enthusiasm, 172 ; her persistence, 350 ; intense life of, 367. Manhood, nature is after, 237, 251. Mann, Horace, on health, 358. Manners, a fortune in, 146 ; in high places, 152 ; recipe for, 169. Manning, Daniel, 38. Marlborough, Duke of, his politeness, 148. Marshall, John, his infallibility, 118. l^ryj Queen of Scots, her politeness, 158. Massena, 6 ; at Genoa, 322 ; and Napo- leon, 322 ; reserve power, 396. Masters of the situation, 57. Matsys, Quentin, 59. Maydole and his hammer, 275. Melancholy of our ancestors, 141. Mendelssohn, his persistency, 339. Method, 288. Midas, King, his golden wish, 219. Mill, John Stuart, 66 ; on circumstances, 301. Mill, the magical, for restoring youth, 295. Miller, Hugh, 66, 80, 241 ; his pluck, 343 ; 300 ; character, 264. Milton, John, 66, 69. Miner, Rena L on occupation for girls, 101. Mirabeau, his wonderful manners, 164 ; his reserve power, 390. Mirth, God's medicine, 140. Moli^re on physicians, 369. Moltke, Von, reserve power of, 395. Montaigne, his character, 255. Montesquieu, his accuracy, 284; hia pluck, 353. Moods, our, nature reflects, 297 . Moore, his perseverance, 244. Morrison, Dr., his courage, 343. Morse, Professor S. F. B., his stn^les with the telegraph, 245. Morton, Governor Marcus^ ois persist- ency, 246. Mottoes of great men, 233, 234. Mowry, William A., on concentration, 110. Mozart, 314. Kapoueon I. crossing the Alps, 6 ; will power, 55, 60, 97; the nick of time, 123 ; on promptness, 129 ; enthusiasm, 173 ; perseverance, 244 ; his couri^e, 250 ; his power over the army, 2m ; his accuracy, 283, 286; and bis gen- erals, 318. Nature a great economist, 361. Nature's motto, "work or starve," 235. Nelson, Lord, 5; on promptness, 129; enthusiasm, 174. Nerve— Grit, Grip, Pluck, 318. Nerves, our, are sentinels, 363. Newton, Sir Isaac, 79 ; persistence, 244, 342, 343, 284. Nightingale, Florence, her character, 265. Nilsson, Christine, 37. Nobility, true, 215. Observation, 281 ; a keen, 299. Obstacles, 5S ; necessary to success, 240, 241 ; make men, 311. Occupation a doubtful one, 97; don't choose for money, 235 : honorable, 237. On time, or the triumphs of promptness, 121. Opportunity, the Man and the, 5, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13 ; making it, 23 ; preparation for, 212. Owen, Robert, 12. Palaces or hovels, 300. Palisy, his pluck and grit, 245, 338. Paradise Lost, 243. Parfe, Ambrose, 380. Parker, Theodore, on Socrates' charac- ter, 36, 255. Parkman, Francis, his struggles, 182. Pascal, 80. Passions are contagious, 271. Peabody, George, his generosity, 222. Pellisier, the Crimean chief, 321. Perfection of body, 369. Perry, Commodore, 8. Perseverance, triumphs of, 340. Persistence, its reward, 337. Peter the Great an early riser, 127. Petrarch, character of, 264. Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart, 108. INDEX. 415 Philip and the Lacedsemonians, 319. Philippe, Louis, 191. Phillips, Wendell, 41 ; his inimitable manner, 150 ; tact, 193 ; courage, 2^ ; his love of perfection, 290. Pierre and Malibran, 211. Pilgrim's Progress, 243. Pitt, William, 61 ; his power of concen- tration, 115 ; his self-confidence, 204 ; his grit, 328. Plague, the, follows famine, 366. Poe, Edgar A., his poverty, 243, 314. Possibilities in spare moments, 63. Poverty, 246. Principle, 223. Punctuality the soul of business, 130 ; gives confidence and credit, 131. Purpose, an invincible, 5S, 104. Putnam, General, his promptness, 122. QuALXTT greater than leadership or gen- eralship, 267. Quincy, President, his courtesy, 162. Kahl, Colonel, his fatal delay, 122. Raleigh, Sir Walter, could toil terribly, 117, 125. Baphael, 70 ; his masterpiece, 314. B^camier, Madame, her fascinating man- ner, 149. Reserve, army of the, 389. Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 80 ; on persist- ency, 339. Richardson, Dr., on longevity, 368. Robert, Duke of Normandy, and the poi- soned arrow, 214. Rockefeller, John D., 15. Rome, her motto, 236. Rothschild, Nathan M., on concentra- tion, 106 ; his poverty, 226 ; and the Bank of England, 325. Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 33 ; on man- hood, 94. Ruskin, John, his clay, sand, soot, and water, 303 ; on persistence, 343, 382. Sage, Russell, 103. St. Bernard, his personal power, 254. Savonarola, his industry, ^t2 ; his inflex- ibility, 312. " Scatteration," 109. Schiller, his tnals, 81. Scotch boy, Sandie, and his matches, 213. Scott, John (Lord Eldon), energy of, 241. Scott, Walter, his will power, 56 ; his punctuality, 127 ; his kindness, 140. S^-confidence and self-respect, 202 ; give power, 208. Seneca, his will power, 56. Shakespeare, William, 17 ; tact, 199 ; 243. Sharpies, James, his struggles, 45. Shelley, Kate, the bravery of, 323. Sheridan, General, at Winchester, 8 ; his courage, 257, 286. Sheridan, R. B., his pluck, 242; might have ruled the world, 263 ; first speech, 338. Sherman, General, 8. Siddons, Mrs. Scott, 279. Sidney, Sir Philip, and the cup of water, 261. Silence, statue of, 399. Smeaton, John, 82. Smiles, Samuel, 85. Smith, Sydney, on concentration. 111, 123; on labor, 349. Solomon and his elixir of life, 379. Sothem, his courage, 343. Spartan, the, boy and the fox, 328. Spectacles, the glorious, 298. Spencer, P. R,, Spencerian system, 33. Spurgeon, no time to make mone^ 220. Steam, the power of, in Great Britain, 401. Stephenson, George, 24, 46, 70, S6 ; his persistency, 244, 342 ; Gladstone on, 368 ; Horace Greeley on, 369. Stewart, A. T., 82, 99 ; his honesty, 222 ; method, 2SS ; on lucky people, 335. Story, the sculptor, and his statue of George Peabody, 400. Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 66. Success, the child of drudgery, 246 ; price of, 232, 247 ; secret of, 314 ; con- stant, 315 ; early, dangerous, 313. Sugden, Edward, his thoroughnesB, 114. Sultan, the, and his stufted ball, 365. Sumner, no time to make money, 220. Tact, a national trait, 201 ; or common sense, 187. Talent, not shut out by barriers, 330. Taylor, General, at Buena Vista, 318. Thackeray, W. M., on dimces, 86. Thiers, President, reserve power of, 392 ; his reprobate youth, 404. Thoreau, his pluck, 353 ; and the flower in the road, 294 ; and his quarrel with God, 265. Thorwaldsen, 26. Time, killing of, 73. Titian, his perseverance, 342. To-morrow, the fool's motto, 121. " Touchiness," the new disease, 142. Tucker, Adam, his industry, 353. Turner, J. M. W., on hard work, 339; his magnanimity, 269, 289. Unlucky people usually shiftless, 335. Vahdeebilt, Coenelids, 13, 48 ; sticking to business, 235. Varro, Terentius, and Rome, 321. Vergil and his persistence, 353. Victoria, Queen, and Prince Albert, 147 ; her politeness, 152 ; her character, 264. Victory, the, in defeat, 304. Virtue, the resources of, 409. Voltaire, on great men, 221 ; on great- ness, 227. Wales, Prince of, his politeness, 152. Wallace, Carlyle on, 316. Walton, Isaac, 140, 298. Wanamaker, John, 50; his motto, 104. 416 INDEX. Ward, Artemos, 89, 200. Ward, J. Q. A., sculptor, 278. Washington, George, always prompt, 129 ; his politeness, 161 ; his charac- ter, 224 ; and the corporal, 236 ; his character, 244, 254, 255, 263 ; maligned at Valley Forge, 396. Watt, James, 71 ; his persistence, 244, 342. Wayland, Francis, on work, 339 ; mis- sionary sermon, 286, 391. Wealth, real, 222 ; greaterthan,226,210. Webster, Daniel, 190; his pluck, 242, 328, 352 ; reply to Hayne, 392, 402 ; a *' steam engine in trousers," 115 ; promptness, 130 ; politeness, 162 ; self- respect, 207 ; on Washington, 224 ; a great worker, 234 ; character and the presidency, 263. Webster, Noah, his perseverance, 342. Weed, Thurlow, 35, 38 ; great tact, 195 ; perseverance, 241 ; brevity, 373. Wellington, Duke of, 8, 69, 220 ; Sydney Smith on, 319 ; at Waterloo, 328 ; and his physician, 279. Wesley, John, 88. West, Benjamin, 81. What career, 89. Whipple on business nerve, 332. Whitefield, George, his energy, 242. White, Henry Kirke, 71. Wliiting, J. G., bis accuracy, 2r7. Whitman, Ezekiel, 167. Whitney, Eli, his struggles with the cot* ton-gin, 309. Whittier, John G., 39, 100. Wilberforce, advice of, 241. Willard, Frances, on " woman the great- est discovery of the century," 101 ; her aspiration, 381. William the Silent, his character and struggles, 308. Will power, 58. Wilson, Professor George, his will power, 56. Wilson, Henry, 29; his perseverance, 241. Winans, Koss, his courtesy, 163. Winthrop, Bobert C, on Washington, Wirt, William, on hesitating, 339. Wolfe, General, 56 ; his self-confidence, 203. Woman, her influence, 271. Woman's sphere, 100, 101, 102, 103. Wordsworth, 139. Work, mix brains with, 239 ; healthy, 366. Wren, Christopher, enthusiasm of, 174. Youth, enthusiasm of, 183. Zahe, EXiIzab: 327. at Fort Heniy, PUSHING TO THE FRONT; Or, success UNDER DIFFICULTIES. By Orison SwETT Marden. With 24 fine Portraits. Crown 8vo, ^1.50. PRESS AND PERSONAL NOTICES. No other book in the English language contains such a variety and multitude of fresh, living truths, so full of interest to all classes of readers. No book of ancient times could contain, or of modern days has embodied, half the value of biography, history, romance, tragedy even, contained in " Pushing to the Front." One might write a vol- ume in praise of the work. 1 certainly never read a book of this kind which approaches it in the intrinsic merit of its contents, or the possible good that will flow from its wide-spread reading. — Thos. W. BiCKNEi,h, Frovidence. Ex-U. S. Commissioner of Education. This is a most inspiring book — a book to be kept on the desk for daily reference — to be to the daily life what Thomas \ Kempis's " Imitation " is to that of the soul. The undeniable power of this book lies, we think, in the great success with which the author draws the personality of the reader into the reading. So actual are the experiences of the stories, as here related, that the reader perforce judges himself by them, thus learn- ing of his own powers or weaknesses. — Amherst Literary Monthly. I am delighted with " Pushing to the Front." It is the most stimulating and suggest- ive book for young men, I ever read. I gave each of my grandsons a copy and they found it as they said, " a book that meant business." It ought to have a large sale. It is not possible to read it without being stirred as by the blast of a bugle. — (Mrs.) Mary A. Livermore, Melrose, Mass. As I read " Pushing to the Front " I felt the old tingle of a quarter of a century ago running through my veins ; I forgot divers things on my table which awaited my atten- tion, and found myself really devouring the book. — Geo. Williamson Smith, Pres. Trinity College. " Pushing to the Front " seems to me adapted to do much good among the young and aspiring. It reminds me of the famous volume " Pursuit of Knowledge under Dif- ficulties," which was of great service to me in my teens, and is not yet without inspir- ing power in my case. — Joseph Cook. " Pushing to the Front " has a very high purpose, and it deals with the vital princi- ples of practical life. These principles are unfolded and enforced by a wealth of illus- tration that is truly marvelous. It is a book with a tremendous motive, and it ought to do a vast amount of good. — E. H. Capen, President Tufts College. " Pushing to the Front " is a book of unique excellence. I rejoice that it has been made a premium by so many of our first-class journals, because it will thus come into the hands of a myriad of our boys and girls in the homes concerning which the nation has most to hope. — Frances E. Willard. One of the most entertaining and instructive volumes I have read for many a day. . . . It is a great book and ought to command an enormous sale for years to come among the young and ambitious, to whom it directly appeals.— HoVfARD Paul, in American Register, Paris. " Pushing to the Front " is preeminently the best " guide to success " that has ever appeared. We have no hesitation in declaring it probably the one book of the year, possessing the most real merit, and whose popularity will stand the test of time.— Young Men's Era (Chicago). There is intense magnetism in every page of the record of success here given in a fashion that must deeply interest all readers. — Washington (D. C.) Star. I have iaicen ttmch pleasure iu reading " Pushing to the Front, or Success Under Difficulties." It is one of the most entertaining and inspiring books for a young man that I have seen. It reminds one of " Smiles " in its style, but is more popular and yields its lesson more readily. I wish that every young man might read this book. — H. S. Tareell, Suft. of Schools, Providence, R. I. I find " Pushing to the Front" is a casket of jewels. No book more useful to the young has lately come from the American press. No young man will be likely to halt before obstacles in the path of success after reading this book. You have made me rich in making me the owner of it. — Fred- erick Douglass. I have ordered several copies of " Pushing to the Front " for presents, and have made public references to it in addresses, besides recomaaending it by letter. Vou have done a most valuable service to the young life of the country. — (Bishop) John H. Vincent. It is a book of sound ideals, inspiring examples, and of good, wholesome preaching of the doctrine that the only way to conquer nature is to obey her. If anytlung more is needed to round up the measure of the book, we have it in the telling style which makes every sentence ring. — The Independent (New York). It may be unhesitatingly and emphatically declared that for the instruction and incentive of youth in the ways of knowledge, industry, and morality, this book has no superior among uninspired compositions. It is more fascinating than any romance. We wish that it might be placed in every library, every school, and every home in the land. — New York Home Journal. " Pushing to the Front " has been read and greatly enjoyed. I trust your pub- lishers will " push it to the front." The volume is excellent, incisive, dear, and in- spiring. I am recommending it to our young men. — Geo. C. Lorimer (D. D.), Pastor Tremont Temple, Boston. I have read with unusual interest your book " Pushing to the Front." It cannot but be an inspiration to every boy or girl who reads it and who is possessed of an honor- able and high ambition. — Wm. McKinley. I am delighted with " Pushing to the Front." How I wish I could have seen it fifty years ago. It cannot fail to do an immense amount of good. — Edmund H. Bennett, Dean of the Boston University Law School. It is a wonderfully varied and wonderfully sustained trumpet-call to every reader to make the most of himself. — W. F. Warren, D. D., LL. D., President of Boston University. For family use as well as school purposes, no book has ever been published which is superior to it. It is destined to be read in nearly every home in the land. — Boston Herald. " Pushing to the Front " is a modem wonder. It should be in the hands of every American boy. Don't fail to push it to the front. — Bishop Newman, Omaha, Neb. " Pushing to the Front " is a book filled with precepts and examples stimulating to noblest effort. — Hon. John Eaton, £x-U. S. Commissioner of Education. An admirable book, a timely contribution of advice and inspiration to young men. — Chauncey M. Depew. Every boy in America would be better for reading this book. — M. J. Savage, Pas- tor of the Church of the Unity, Boston. I wish every youth in America could read this wonderful book, and catch its spirit. — C. L. Goodell, Pastor First M. E. Church, Boston. " Pushing to the Front " is an ideal book for youth of all ages. — Chicago Herald. Said hy all Booksellers. Sent, postpaid, by HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO., Boston.