of destiny strikes Now!
MARY A. TOWNSEND.

Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side.
LOWELL.

What is opportunity to a man who can't use it? An unfecundated egg,
which the waves of time wash away into nonentity.--GEORGE ELIOT.

A thousand years a poor man watched
Before the gate of Paradise:
But while one little nap he snatched,
It oped and shut. Ah! was he wise?
W. B. ALGER.

Our grand business is, not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to
do what lies clearly at hand.--CARLYLE.

A man's best things are nearest him,
Lie close about his feet.
R. M. MILNES.

The secret of success in life is for a man _to be ready for his
opportunity_ when it comes.--DISRAELI.

"There are no longer any good chances for young men," complained a law
student to Daniel Webster. "There is always room at the top," replied
the great lawyer.

* * * * * *

[Illustration: THOMAS JEFFERSON]

"The world is all gates, all opportunities to him who can use them.'

"'T is never offered twice, seize then the hour
When fortune smiles and duty points the way."

* * * * * *

No chance, no opportunities, in a land where many poor boys become rich
men, where newsboys go to Congress, and where those born in the lowest
stations attain the highest positions? The world is all gates, all
opportunities to him who will use them. But, like Bunyan's Pilgrim in
the dungeon of Giant Despair's castle, who had the key of deliverance
all the time with him but had forgotten it, we fail to rely wholly upon
the ability to advance all that is good for us which has been given to
the weakest as well as the strongest. We depend too much upon outside
assistance.

"We look too high
For things close by."

A Baltimore lady lost a valuable diamond bracelet at a ball, and
supposed that it was stolen from the pocket of her cloak. Years
afterward she washed the steps of the Peabody Institute, pondering how
to get money to buy food. She cut up an old, worn-out, ragged cloak to
make a hood, when lo! in the lining of the cloak she discovered the
diamond bracelet. During all her poverty she was worth $3500, but did
not know it.

Many of us who think we are poor are rich in opportunities, if we could
only see them, in possibilities all about us, in