eat things of the world.
How many young men falter, faint, and dally with their purpose because
they have no capital to start with, and wait and wait for some good
luck to give them a lift. But success is the child of drudgery and
perseverance. It cannot be coaxed or bribed; pay the price and it is
yours. Where is the boy to-day who has less chance to rise in the
world than Elihu Burritt, apprenticed to a blacksmith, in whose shop he
had to work at the forge all the daylight, and often by candle-light?
Yet, he managed, by studying with a book before him at his meals,
carrying it in his pocket that he might utilize every spare moment, and
studying nights and holidays, to pick up an excellent education in the
odds and ends of time which most boys throw away. While the rich boy
and the idler were yawning and stretching and getting their eyes open,
young Burritt had seized the opportunity and improved it. At thirty
years of age he was master of every important language in Europe and
was studying those of Asia.

What chance had such a boy for distinction? Probably not a single
youth will read this book who has not a better opportunity for success.
Yet he had a thirst for knowledge, and a desire for self-improvement,
which overcame every obstacle in his pathway. A wealthy gentleman
offered to pay his expenses at Harvard; but no, he said he could get
his education himself, even though he had to work twelve or fourteen
hours a day at the forge. Here was a determined boy. He snatched
every spare moment at the anvil and forge as though it were gold. He
believed, with Gladstone, that thrift of time would repay him in after
years with usury, and that waste of it would make him dwindle. Think
of a boy working nearly all the daylight in a blacksmith's shop, and
yet finding time to study seven languages in a single year!

If the youth of America who are struggling against cruel circumstances,
to do something and be somebody in the world, could only understand
that ninety per cent. of what is called genius is merely the result of
persistent, determined industry, is in most cases downright hard work,
that it is the slavery to a single idea which has given to many a
mediocre talent the reputation of being a genius, they would be
inspired with new hope. It is interesting to note that the men who
talk most about genius are the men who like to work the least. The
lazier the man, the more he will have to say about great things