spoil us. Look at the wild
cat and then look at the tabby cat. The wild cat supports itself and
the tabby cat has its million. So the tabby cat has to be doctored by
specialists.

If the burden were lifted from most of us we would go to wreck.
Necessity is the ballast in our life voyage.

When you hear the orator speak and you note the ease and power of his
work, do you think of the years of struggle he spent in preparing? Do
you ever think of the times that orator tried to speak when he failed
and went back to his room in disgrace, mortified and broken-hearted?
Thru it all there came the discipline, experience and grim resolve that
made him succeed.

When you hear the musician and note the ease and grace of the
performance, do you think of the years of struggle and overcoming
necessary to produce that finish and grace? That is the story of the
actor, the author and every other one of attainment.

Do you note that the tropics, the countries with the balmiest climates,
produce the weakest peoples? Do you note that the conquering races are
those that struggle with both heat and cold? The tropics are the
geographical Gussielands.

Do you note that people grow more in lean years than in fat years? Crop
failures and business stringencies are not calamities, but blessings in
disguise. People go to the devil with full pockets; they turn to God
when hunger hits them. "Is not this Babylon that I have builded?" says
the Belshazzar of material prosperity as he drinks to his gods. Then
must come the Needful and Needless Knocks handwriting upon the wall to
save him.

You have to shoot many men's eyes out before they can see. You have to
crack their heads before they can think, knock them down before they
can stand, break their hearts before they can sing, and bankrupt them
before they can be rich.

Do you remember that they had to lock John Bunyan in Bedford jail
before he would write his immortal "Pilgrim's Progress"? It may be that
some of us will have to go to jail to do our best work.

Do you remember that one musician became deaf before he wrote music the
world will always hear? Do you remember that one author became blind
before writing "Paradise Lost" the world will always read?

Do you remember that Saul of Tarsus would have never been remembered
had he lived the life of luxury planned for him? He had to be blinded
before he could see the way to real success. He had to be scourged and
fettered to become the Apos