ay, even yet to-day--he is getting his bearings, he is
setting forces anew into operation; and these very forces are of more
value to him than the half million dollars of his neighbor who has
suffered from the same disaster. We speak of a man's failing in
business, little thinking that the real failure came long before, and
that the final crash is but the culmination, the outward visible
manifestation, of the real failure that occurred within possibly long
ago. _A man carries his success or his failure with him: it is not
dependent upon outside conditions._

Will is the steady directing power: it is concentration. It is the pilot
which, after the vessel is started by the mighty force within, puts it
on its right course and keeps it true to that course, the pilot under
whose control the rudder is which brings the great ocean liner, even
through storms and gales, to an exact spot in the Liverpool port within
a few minutes of its scheduled time, and at times even upon the very
minute. Will is the sun-glass which so concentrates and so focuses the
sun's rays that they quickly burn a hole through the paper that is held
before it. The same rays, not thus concentrated, not thus focused, would
fall upon the paper for days without any effect whatever. Will is the
means for the directing, the concentrating, the focusing, of the
thought-forces. Thought under wise direction,--this it is that does the
work, that brings results, that makes the successful career. One object
in mind which we never lose sight of; an ideal steadily held before the
mind, never lost sight of, never lowered, never swerved from,--this,
with persistence, determines all. Nothing can resist the power of
thought, when thus directed by will.

May not this power, then, be used for base as well as for good purposes,
for selfish as well as for unselfish ends? The same with this
modification,--the more highly thought is spiritualized, the more subtle
and powerful it becomes; and the more highly spiritualized the life, the
farther is it removed from base, ignoble, selfish ends. But, even if it
can be thus used, let him who would so use it be careful, let him never
forget that that mighty, searching, omnipotent law of the right, of
truth, of justice, that runs through all the universe and that can
never be annulled or even for a moment set aside, will drive him to the
wall, will crush him with a terrific force if he so use it.

Let him never forget that whatever he m