ll hang by one arm to a street lamp,
and hold his book with the other, like a certain Glasgow boy. He will
study between anvil blows, like Elihu Burritt; he will do some of the
thousand things that other noble strugglers have done to fight against
circumstances that would deprive them of what they hunger for.

"The five conditions of failure," said H. H. Vreeland, president of the
Metropolitan Street Railway Company of New York, "may be roughly
classified thus: first, laziness, and particularly mental laziness;
second, lack of faith in the efficiency of work; third, reliance on the
saving grace of luck; fourth, lack of courage, initiative and
persistence: fifth, the belief that the young man's job affects his
standing, instead of the young man's affecting the standing of his job."

Look where you will, ask of whom you will, and you will find that not
circumstances, but personal qualities, defects and deficiencies, cause
failures. This is strongly expressed by a wealthy manufacturer who
said: "Nothing else influences a man's career in life so much as his
disposition. He may have capacity, knowledge, social position, or
money to back him at the start; but it is his disposition that will
decide his place in the world at the end. Show me a man who is,
according to popular prejudice, a victim of bad luck, and I will show
you one who has some unfortunate, crooked twist of temperament that
invites disaster, He is ill-tempered, or conceited, or trifling, or
lacks enthusiasm."

There are some men whose failure to succeed in life is a problem to
others, as well as to themselves. They are industrious, prudent, and
economical; yet after a long life of striving, old age finds them still
poor. They complain of ill luck, they say fate is against them. But
the real truth is that their projects miscarry, because they mistake
mere activity for energy. Confounding two things essentially
different, they suppose that if they are always busy, they must of
necessity be advancing their fortunes; forgetting that labor
misdirected is but a waste of activity.

The worst of all foes to success is sheer, downright laziness. There
is no polite synonym for laziness. Too many young men are afraid to
work. They are lazy. They aim to find genteel occupations, so that
they can dress well, and not soil their clothes, and handle things with
the tips of their fingers. They do not like to get their shoulders
under the wheel, and they prefer