ce in the slums of our cities, rough,
slovenly, has slumbering within the rags possibilities which would have
developed him into a magnificent man, an ornament to the human race
instead of a foul blot and ugly scar, had he only been fortunate enough
early in life to have enjoyed the benefits of efficient and systematic
training!

Laziness begins in cobwebs and ends in iron chains. Edison described
his repeated efforts to make the phonograph reproduce an aspirated
sound, and added: "From eighteen to twenty hours a day for the last
seven months I have worked on this single word 'specia.' I said into
the phonograph 'specia, specia, specia,' but the instrument responded
'pecia, pecia, pecia.' It was enough to drive one mad. But I held
firm, and I have succeeded."

The road to distinction must be paved with years of self-denial and
hard work.

Horace Mann, the great author of the common school system of
Massachusetts, was a remarkable example of that pluck and patience
which can work and wait. His only inheritance was poverty and hard
work. But he had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and a
determination to get on in the world. He braided straw to earn money
to buy books for which his soul thirsted.

Gladstone was bound to win. Although he had spent many years of
preparation for his life work, in spite of the consciousness of
marvelous natural endowments which would have been deemed sufficient by
many young men, and notwithstanding he had gained the coveted prize of
a seat in Parliament, yet he decided to make himself master of the
situation; and amid all his public and private duties, he not only
spent eleven terms more in the study of the law, but also studied Greek
constantly and read every well-written book or paper he could obtain,
so determined was he that his life should be rounded out to its fullest
measure, and that his mind should have broad and liberal culture.

Ole Bull said: "If I practise one day, I can see the result; if I
practise two days, my friends can see it; if I practise three days, the
great public can see it."

The habit of seizing every bit of knowledge, no matter how
insignificant it may seem at the time, every opportunity, every
occasion, and grinding them all up into experience, can not be
overestimated. You will find use for all of it. Webster once repeated
with effect an anecdote which he had heard fourteen years before, and
which he had not thought of in the meantime. It e