. Sir
Walter Scott was called a blockhead by his teacher. When Byron
happened to get ahead of his class, the master would say: "Now, Jordie,
let me see how soon you will be at the foot again."

Young Linnaeus was called by his teachers almost a blockhead. Not
finding him fit for the church, his parents sent him to college to
study medicine. But the silent teacher within, greater and wiser than
all others, led him to the fields; and neither sickness, misfortune,
nor poverty could drive him from the study of botany, the choice of his
heart, and he became the greatest botanist of his age.

Richard B. Sheridan's mother tried in vain to teach him the most
elementary studies. The mother's death aroused slumbering talents, as
has happened in hundreds of cases, and he became one of the most
brilliant men of his age.

Samuel Drew was one of the dullest and most listless boys in his
neighborhood, yet after an accident by which he nearly lost his life,
and after the death of his brother, he became so studious and
industrious that he could not bear to lose a moment. He read at every
meal, using all the time he could get for self-improvement. He said
that Paine's "Age of Reason" made him an author, for it was by his
attempt to refute its arguments that he was first known as a strong,
vigorous writer.

It has been well said that no man ever made an ill figure who
understood his own talents, nor a good one who mistook them.

CHAPTER X

WHAT CAREER?

Brutes find out where their talents lie;
A bear will not attempt to fly,
A foundered horse will oft debate
Before he tries a five-barred gate.
A dog by instinct turns aside
Who sees the ditch too deep and wide.
But man we find the only creature
Who, led by folly, combats nature;
Who, when she loudly cries--Forbear!
With obstinacy fixes there;
And where his genius least inclines,
Absurdly bends his whole designs.
SWIFT.

The crowning fortune of a man is to be born to some pursuit which finds
him in employment and happiness, whether it be to make baskets, or
broadswords, or canals, or statues, or songs.--EMERSON.

Whatever you are by nature, keep to it; never desert your line of
talent. Be what nature intended you for, and you will succeed; be
anything else, and you will be ten thousand times worse than
nothing.--SYDNEY SMITH.

"Every man has got a Fort," said Artemus Ward. "It's some men's fort
to do one thing, and some ot