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our own merits) others take, in a great measure, their opinion of us on trust. It is taken for granted, in an age like the present, that every man pretends to the utmost he can do, and he who pretends to little is apt to be thought capable of nothing. In short, lowliness and "unobtrusive worth are very pretty in theory, and pleasant to read of in moral disquisitions but he who relies on them; who is always crouching in a corner, and cannot ask for his due; or who goes about, as Robert Hall said, "with an air of perpetual apology for the unpar donable presumption of being in the world;" who never puts himself forward, or, if he does, does so with the forlorn hope with which Snug, the joiner, begs the audience to take him for a lion; who cannot say that he wants anything, or cannot say it with sufficient loudness and pertinacity; who cannot make himself prominent at the right time, though he knows it to be the right time, may be a beautiful object of creation, very lovable, and very much to be admired, but must expect to be not only outstripped, but knocked, crushed, and trampled underfoot, in the rush and roar of this nineteenth century.

It is a common trick of persons who have failed to get on in the world to put on an air of injured innocence, and to complain of the world's injustice in conferring its honors and patronage on merely pushing men, while they, whose claims are solid, are neglected. Indeed, no old saw is oftener repeated than the threadbare one about modest merit being neglected, while pretentious demerit is loaded with riches and applause. Of this stereotyped talk Washington Irving justly says that "it is too often a cant by which indolent and irresolute men seek to lay their want of success at the door of the public. Modest merit, however, is too apt to be inactive or negligent or uninstructed merit. Well-matured and well-disciplined talent is always sure of a market, provided it exerts itself; but it must not cower at home and expect to be sought for. There is a good deal of cant, too, about the success of forward and impudent men, while men of retiring worth are

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passed over with neglect.

But it usually happens that those

forward men have that valuable quality of promptness and activity without which worth is a mere inoperative property. A barking dog is often more useful than a sleeping lion."

The last sentence contains the whole truth in a nutshell. Wisely did Pythagoras enjoin his pupil to "reverence himself." To think meanly of one's self, it has been truly said, "is to sink in one's own estimation as well as in that of others. As the thoughts are, so will the acts be. Man cannot aspire, if he look down; if he will rise, he must look up." The poor Scotch weaver was therefore not very far out of the way, in praying daily that he might have a better opinion of himself. The sum of the whole matter is, self-confidence makes ability available. More than this, it frequently leads to the very possession of the qualities only at first assumed. A man of the most ordinary powers, inspired and strengthened by this principle, will often perform a giant's labors, while without it the noblest intellect will expend itself in the triflings of a dwarf, and be eclipsed by inferior talent, endowed with little merit beyond that of mere assurance. Do not, then, expect the world's attention or patronage while you sit in solemn dignity, with folded arms, in the chimney-corner. As well might you wait, like the rustic, for the stream to run by. In the closet you should undoubtedly act on the assumption that your intellectual attainments fall far short of what is required by the necessities of your station. But in the world's busy hum, an unshaken confidence in your own resources should be the firm conviction of the understanding, and the genuine feeling of the heart. Put yourself forward, then, if you would be known. Blow some kind of a trumpet, or a least a penny whistle, to draw the world's eye upon you; but be sure that you are what you pretend to be, before you blow; then, having entered the arena, if you fail in the athletic games, - if, to use Webster's language to Hayne, "the vigor and spirit of the attack fall short of the lofty and sounding phrase of the manifesto " woe be unto you! But if you triumph, your fortune is made.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE WILL AND THE WAY.

"There are men whose cant is simply can't."

Nous avons plus de force que de volonté ; et c'est souvent pour nous excuser à nous-mêmes que nous nous imaginons que les choses sont impossibles. ROCHEFOUCAULD.

Success in most things depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed. MONTESQUIEU.

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. CONFUCIUS.

Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul. He that falls obstinate in his courage, si succederit de genu pugnat; if his legs fail him, fights upon his knees. - MONTAIGNE.

A

MONG the oft-quoted maxims in our language there is

none finer, or more replete with sterling truth, than that which often falls so lightly from men's lips: Where there is a will, there is a way. No doubt there are limits to human capability in all human affairs; in every sphere of activity men may meet with obstacles which even the utmost energy cannot overcome. Almost every man is more or less the victim of circumstances, which sometimes operate so powerfully that it is impossible to crush his way through them. But the frequency with which such occasions occur is greatly overestimated; and the fact that mountains so often dwindle into molehills when we once resolutely determine to cross them, shows that, after every allowance for extraordinary cases, the old Saxon saw is still true generally, and that he who intensely wills to do a thing will find a way. An intense desire itself transforms possibility into reality. Our wishes are but prophecies of the things we are capable of performing; while, on the other hand, the timid, feeble-willed man finds everything impossible because he believes it to be so. As Virgil says of

his boatmen, men are able because they think they are able, possunt quia posse videntur; to resolve upon attainment is often attainment itself. We are all aware of the fact that the roads which we incline not to travel are all sadly beset by specimens of the feline tribe; and, when a gentleman is asked for money by a neighbor often in need of it, he is extremely apt to have a large and exhausting payment to make at the end of the week. But when one is really determined to push his way along the road, opposing lions have usually little terror for him; and, if he is anxious to oblige his friend, he will almost certainly be able to do so without breaking any of his own engagements.

It is, indeed, wonderful, at times, to see what marvels are accomplished by men acting under the impulse of a powerful will. A remarkable example of this is furnished by the captured Texans of the Santa Fé Expedition, who, after having marched until they were nearly dead with fatigue and exhaustion, yet, being told that any who should prove unable to walk would be shot, contrived to pluck up, and set off at a round pace, which they kept up all day. So Quintin Matsys, the famous Dutch painter, in his youth, despaired of being ever able to paint, till his master told him that only by producing a picture of merit within six months could he have his daughter's hand; and then he set vigorously to work and brought forth "The Misers," a masterpiece of art, which connoisseurs have admired for ages. It is related of a young French officer that he used to walk about his apartment exclaming, "I will be marshal of France and a great general"; and his burning desire proved a presentiment of his success. Smiles, in his Self-Help, tells of an English carpenter who was observed one day planing a magistrate's bench, which he was repairing, with more than usual carefulness; and, when asked the reason, replied, "Because I wish to make it easy against the time when I come to sit upon it myself." Singularly enough, the man actually lived to sit upon that very bench as a magistrate.

Nearly all great men those who have towered high above their fellows have been remarkable above all things else for their energy of will. Of Julius Cæsar it was said by a contemporary, "Quicquid vult, valde vult"; it was his activity and giant determination, rather than his military skill, that won his victories. A glance at Hannibal's life will show that a resolute will was the leading quality of that commander, though less conspicuous, perhaps, in him than in others, because of the exact proportion in which all the military qualities were united in him, rendering him, by the common consent of soldiers as well as historians, the greatest captain the world has seen. His resolution to brave the whole power of Rome by provoking a war; the invasion of Italy by a route which was a march of discovery as much as a military operation; his passage of the Rhone and the Alps; his long continuance in Italy, though unsupported by Carthage; and, when at last defeated and driven from the country, the zeal with which he sought throughout the world to raise up enemies against Rome, at an age when time and toil would have chilled most men's ardor, are examples of the rarest determination. His stubbornness of will is only rivalled by that of his enemies, the Romans, of whom he learned, by a captive, after he had defeated every army they had sent against him, had arrived within three miles of the city, and was momentarily expecting an offer of surrender, that the very ground on which his army was encamped had just been sold in the Forum at as high a price as in times of peace.

So with the great captains of modern times; the strength of Suwarrow's character lay in his power of willing, and he "preached it up as a system." "You can only half will," he would say to persons who failed. It was one of Napoleon's principal characteristics to regard nothing as impossible. His marvellous successes were due not more to his vast military genius than to his almost superhuman strength of will. He toiled terribly, half killing his secretaries, and threw his whole force of brain and hand upon his work. Impossible," said he,

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