utilized in a single direction will do infinitely more than
ten talents scattered. A thimbleful of powder behind a ball in a rifle
will do more execution than a carload of powder unconfined. The
rifle-barrel is the purpose that gives direct aim to the powder, which
otherwise, no matter how good it might be, would be powerless. The
poorest scholar in school or college often, in practical life, far
outstrips the class leader or senior wrangler, simply because what
little ability he has he employs for a definite object, while the
other, depending upon his general ability and brilliant prospects,
never concentrates his powers.

"A sublime self-confidence," says E. P. Whipple, "springing not from
self-conceit, but from an intense identification of the man with his
object, lifts him altogether above the fear of danger and death, and
communicates an almost superhuman audacity to his will."

* * * * * *

[Illustration: RICHARD ARKWRIGHT]

What a sublime spectacle is that of a man going straight to his goal,
cutting his way through difficulties, and surmounting obstacles which
dishearten others, as though they were stepping-stones.

* * * * * *

It is fashionable to ridicule the man of one idea, but the men who have
changed the front of the world have been men of a single aim. No man
can make his mark on this age of specialties who is not a man of one
idea, one supreme aim, one master passion. The man who would make
himself felt on this bustling planet, who would make a breach in the
compact conservatism of our civilization, must play all his guns on one
point. A wavering aim, a faltering purpose, has no place in the
nineteenth century. "Mental shiftlessness" is the cause of many a
failure. The world is full of unsuccessful men who spend their lives
letting empty buckets down into empty wells.

"Mr. A. often laughs at me," said a young American chemist, "because I
have but one idea. He talks about everything, aims to excel in many
things; but I have learned that, if I ever wish to make a breach, I
must play my guns continually upon one point." This great chemist,
when an obscure schoolmaster, used to study by the light of a pine knot
in a log cabin. Not many years later he was performing experiments in
electro-magnetism before English earls, and subsequently he was at the
head of one of the largest scientific institutes of this country. This
man wa