o never had a chance to show
himself until he started the _Tribune_, into which he poured his whole
individuality, life and soul.

Emerson lost the first years of his life trying to be somebody else. He
finally came to himself and said: "If a single man plant himself
indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the whole world will come
round to him in the end." "Though we travel the world over to find the
beautiful we must carry it with us or we find it not." "The man that
stands by himself the universe stands by him also." "Take Michael
Angelo's course, 'to confide in one's self and be something of worth and
value.'" "None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or
commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him
alone."

Many unknown writers would make fame and fortune if, like Bunyan and
Milton and Dickens and George Eliot and Scott and Emerson, they would
write their own lives in their MSS., if they would write about things
they have seen, that they have felt, that they have known. It is life
thoughts that stir and convince, that move and persuade, that carry
their very iron particles into the blood. The real heaven has never been
outdone by the ideal.

Neither poverty nor misfortune could keep Linnaeus from his botany.

The English and Austrian armies called Napoleon the
one-hundred-thousand-man. His presence was considered equal to that
force in battle.

The lesson he teaches is that which vigor always teaches--that there is
always room for it. To what heaps of cowardly doubts is not that man's
life an answer.

CHAPTER X.

TO BE GREAT, CONCENTRATE.

Let every one ascertain his special business and calling, and
then stick to it.
--FRANKLIN.

"He who follows two hares is sure to catch neither."

None sends his arrow to the mark in view,
Whose hand is feeble, or his aim untrue.
--COWPER.

He who wishes to fulfill his mission must be a man of one idea,
that is, of one great overmastering purpose, overshadowing all
his aims, and guiding and controlling his entire life.
--BATE.

The shortest way to do anything is to do only one thing at a
time.
--CECIL.

The power of concentration is one of the most valuable of
intellectual attainments.
--HORACE MANN.

The power of a man increases steadily by continuance in one
direction.
--EMERSON.

Careful attention t