er, "but I never asked anything about it. When one has
the spirit of a composer, he writes because he can't help it."

Gladstone said that what is really desired is to light up the spirit
that is within a boy. In some sense and in some degree, in some
effectual degree, there is in every boy the material of good work in
the world; in every boy, not only in those who are brilliant, not only
in those who are quick, but in those who are stolid, and even in those
who are dull, or who seem to be dull. If they have only the good will,
the dulness will day by day clear away and vanish completely under the
influence of the good will.

Gerster, an unknown Hungarian, made fame and fortune sure the first
night she appeared in opera. Her enthusiasm almost hypnotized her
auditors. In less than a week she had become popular and independent.
Her soul was smitten with a passion for growth, and all the powers of
heart and mind she possessed were enthusiastically devoted to
self-improvement.

All great works of art have been produced when the artist was
intoxicated with the passion for beauty and form which would not let
him rest until his thought was expressed in marble or on canvas.

"Well, I've worked hard enough for it," said Malibran when a critic
expressed his admiration of her D in alt, reached by running up three
octaves from low D; "I've been chasing it for a month. I pursued it
everywhere,--when I was dressing, when I was doing my hair; and at last
I found it on the toe of a shoe that I was putting on."

"Every great and commanding moment in the annals of the world," says
Emerson, "is the triumph of some enthusiasm. The victories of the
Arabs after Mahomet, who, in a few years, from a small and mean
beginning, established a larger empire than that of Rome, is an
example. They did they knew not what. The naked Derar, horsed on an
idea, was found an overmatch for a troop of cavalry. The women fought
like men and conquered the Roman men. They were miserably equipped,
miserably fed, but they were temperance troops. There was neither
brandy nor flesh needed to feed them. They conquered Asia and Africa
and Spain on barley. The Caliph Omar's walking-stick struck more
terror into those who saw it than another man's sword."

It was enthusiasm that enabled Napoleon to make a campaign in two weeks
that would have taken another a year to accomplish. "These Frenchmen
are not men, they fly," said the Austrians in constern