f a delicate woman.

[Sidenote: _How to Exalt the Personality_]

Yet there are some ideas to which all men in varying degrees seem
alike to respond. How often in battle have the failing spirits of an
army been revived by the appearance of the leader shouting his
battle-cry and waving his shining sword! How often have men been
roused to heights of heroic achievement by the strains of martial
music! How often have troops spent with exhaustion responded to the
call of such simple phrases as "The Flag," "Our Country," "Liberty,"
or such songs as "The Marseillaise," "God Save the King," "Dixie"!
These phrases are but the signs of ideas, yet the sounding of these
phrases has summoned these ideas into consciousness, and the summoning
of these ideas into consciousness has placed undreamed-of and
immeasurable foot-pounds of energy on the hair-trigger of action.

[Sidenote: _"Good Starters" and "Strong Finishers"_]

And so it is with you. Down deep in the inmost chambers of your soul
are untouched stores of energy that properly applied will exalt your
personality and illumine your career.

But to find and claim these hidden riches you must persevere. You must
endure.

In a Marathon race it is endurance that wins. The graceful sprinter
who is off with a leap at the bark of the pistol soon falls by the
wayside.

Life is a Marathon in which persistence triumphs.

There are many "good starters," but few "strong finishers." That is
why the failures so outnumber the successes.

[Sidenote: _Steps in Self-Development_]

The man who travels fastest does more than he is told to do. To merely
comply with a fixed routine is to fall short of one's duty. The
progressive man adds to the work of today his preparation for the work
of tomorrow. He delights in attempting more and more difficult tasks,
because in every task he sets himself he sees a step forward in the
development of his own abilities. He loves his work more than he loves
his pay, and he delves deeper than the exigencies of the moment
require, because he craves the power to do more.

Most men start with enthusiasm. No hours are too long, no task too
difficult. But soon they tire. And lacking will-power to persist, they
succumb to the lure of distracting interests. They become disheartened
and indifferent. And so they fail.

[Sidenote: _Saving a Thousand a Year_]

A young man married. He was proprietor of a flourishing "general"
store in Princeton, Indiana. He and hi