miliate our ambition, let
us down from the ladder of fame, will discipline us in a thousand ways,
if she can develop a little character. Everything must give way to
that.

"The hero is not fed on sweets,
Daily his own heart he eats;
Chambers of the great are jails,
And head-winds right for royal sails."

Then welcome each rebuff,
That turns earth's smoothness rough,
Each sting, that bids not sit nor stand but go.
BROWNING.

CHAPTER XXVIII

DECISION

Resolve, and thou art free.--LONGFELLOW.

The heaviest charged words in our language are those briefest ones,
"yes" and "no." One stands for the surrender of the will, the other
for denial; one stands for gratification, the other for character. A
stout "no" means a stout character, the ready "yes" a weak one, gild it
as we may.--T. T. MUNGER.

The world is a market where everything is marked at a set price, and
whatever we buy with our time, labor, or ingenuity, whether riches,
ease, fame, integrity, or knowledge, we must stand by our decision, and
not like children, when we have purchased one thing, repine that we do
not possess another we did not buy.--MATHEWS.

A man must master his undertaking and not let it master him. He must
have the power to decide instantly on which side he is going to make
his mistakes.--P. D. ARMOUR.

When Rome was besieged by the Gauls in the time of the Republic, the
Romans were so hard pressed that they consented to purchase immunity
with gold. They were in the act of weighing it, a legend tells us,
when Camillus appeared on the scene, threw his sword into the scales in
place of the ransom, and declared that the Romans should not purchase
peace, but would win it with the sword. This act of daring and prompt
decision so roused the Romans that they triumphantly swept from the
sacred soil the enemy of their peace.

In an emergency, the arrival of a prompt, decided, positive man, who
will do something, although it may be wrong, changes the face of
everything. Such a man comes upon the scene like a refreshing breeze
blown down from the mountain top. He is a tonic to the hesitating,
bewildered crowd.

When Antiochus Epiphanes invaded Egypt, which was then under the
protection of Rome, the Romans sent an ambassador who met Antiochus
near Alexandria and commanded him to withdraw. The invader gave an
evasive reply. The brave Roman swept a circle around the king with his
sword, and forbade hi