the working model that God sends into one's life for
that full expression which alone is at once his best service and truest
success. It is the common daily work of fulfilling duties add meeting
claims. "Not by the exceptional," says Maeterlinck, "shall the last word
ever be spoken; and, indeed, what we call the sublime should be only a
clearer, profounder insight into all that is perfectly normal." It is of
service, often, to watch those on the peaks who do battle; but it is
well, too, not to forget those in the valley below who fight not at all.
As we see all that happens to these whose life knows no struggle; as we
realize how much must be conquered in us before we can rightly
distinguish their narrower joys from the joy known to them who are
striving on high, then, perhaps does the struggle itself appear to
become less important; but, for all that, we love it the more. This
normal fulfilment of the due claims of ordinary life leads to that order
of success which is a beautiful and desirable one, and which is almost a
universal aim and purpose. Aspirations and energy are its factors, and
these are of all various and varying degrees of excellence according to
the specific aim in view. Success itself, therefore, is merely a
representative term, and may be used regarding almost every variety of
achievement, from the triumphant winning of a game of football, the
making of a great fortune, the attainment of professional or political
rank, the production of great art, the acquirement of world-wide fame,
or the achievement of character that is potent for fine and ennobling
influence. All these are typical of myriad forms of the thing the world
calls success, and while it involves a vast amount of competition, of
selfishness, of greed, of injustice, it is yet a matter of the progress
of humanity that each individual should strive after the highest form
of attainment that he is capable of conceiving. In the long run, and as
a general principle, this is advantageous and desirable. It involves and
indeed develops many of the lower and baser qualities; but these are the
tares among the wheat, and the wheat is essential. The great enterprise
that builds a railway across the continent, tunneling under mountains,
or climbing the precipitous inclines; that inaugurates a new steamer
line, or that exerts itself for the founding of institutions for culture
or technical instruction; that concerns itself with municipal reforms
and improve