iting lessons for young and old in this Essay or Lecture,
which closes with the spirited ballad of "George Nidiver," written "by a
lady to whom all the particulars of the fact are exactly known."

Men will read any essay or listen to any lecture which has for its
subject, like the one now before me, "Success." Emerson complains of the
same things in America which Carlyle groaned over in England:--

"We countenance each other in this life of show, puffing
advertisement, and manufacture of public opinion; and excellence is
lost sight of in the hunger for sudden performance and praise.--

"Now, though I am by no means sure that the reader will assent to
all my propositions, yet I think we shall agree in my first rule for
success,--that we shall drop the brag and the advertisement and take
Michael Angelo's course, 'to confide in one's self and be something
of worth and value.'"

Reading about "Success" is after all very much like reading in old books
of alchemy. "How not to do it," is the lesson of all the books and
treatises. Geber and Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon and Raymond Lully, and
the whole crew of "pauperes alcumistae," all give the most elaborate
directions showing their student how to fail in transmuting Saturn into
Luna and Sol and making a billionaire of himself. "Success" in its
vulgar sense,--the gaining of money and position,--is not to be reached
by following the rules of an instructor. Our "self-made men," who govern
the country by their wealth and influence, have found their place by
adapting themselves to the particular circumstances in which they were
placed, and not by studying the broad maxims of "Poor Richard," or any
other moralist or economist.--For such as these is meant the cheap
cynical saying quoted by Emerson, "_Rien ne reussit mieux que le
succes_."

But this is not the aim and end of Emerson's teaching:--

"I fear the popular notion of success stands in direct opposition
in all points to the real and wholesome success. One adores public
opinion, the other private opinion; one fame, the other desert; one
feats, the other humility; one lucre, the other love; one monopoly,
and the other hospitality of mind."

And so, though there is no alchemy in this Lecture, it is profitable
reading, assigning its true value to the sterling gold of character,
the gaining of which is true success, as against the brazen idol of the
market-place.

The E