olmes, as graceful as Curtis; he is as
calm as Seward, as keen as Phillips, as stalwart as Beecher; be is
Garibaldi, he is Kit Carson, he is Blondin; he is as complete as the
steamboat Metropolis, as Steers's yacht, as Singer's sewing-machine, as
Colt's revolver, as the steam-plough, as Civilization." You wish to be so
ranked among the people and things that lead the age;--consider the
qualities you must have, and while you consider, keep your eye on Richard
Wade, for he has them all in perfection.

First,--of your physical qualities. You must have lungs, not bellows; and
an active heart, not an assortment of sluggish auricles and ventricles.
You must have legs, not shanks. Their shape is unimportant, except that
they must not interfere at the knee. You must have muscles, not
flabbiness; sinews like wire; nerves like sunbeams; and a thin layer of
flesh to cushion the gable-ends, where you will strike, if you
tumble,--which, once for all be it said, you must never do. You must be
all _momentum_, and no _inertia_. You must be one part grace, one force,
one agility, and the rest caoutchouc, Manila hemp, and watch-spring. Your
machine, your body, must be thoroughly obedient. It must go just so far
and no farther. You have got to be as unerring as a planet holding its
own, emphatically, between forces centripetal and centrifugal. Your
_aplomb_ must be as absolute as the pounce of a falcon.

So much for a few of the physical qualities necessary to be a Great Artist
in Skating. See Wade, how be shows them!

Now for the moral and intellectual. Pluck is the first;--it always is the
first quality. Then enthusiasm. Then patience. Then pertinacity. Then a
fine aesthetic faculty,--in short, good taste. Then an orderly and
submissive mind, that can consent to act in accordance with the laws of
Art. Circumstances, too, must have been reasonably favorable. That
well-known skeptic, the King of tropical Bantam, could not skate, because
he had never seen ice and doubted even the existence of solid water.
Widdrington, after the Battle of Chevy Chace, could not have skated,
because he had no legs,--poor fellow!

But granted the ice and the legs, then if you begin in the elastic days of
youth, when cold does not sting, tumbles do not bruise, and duckings do
not wet; if you have pluck and ardor enough to try everything; if you work
slowly ahead and stick to it; if you have good taste and a lively
invention; if you are a man, and not a lubb