bent
on dancing in the same cotillon with him; they think he has great luck
to last through to such music! The man of success is a thoroughbred; his
sire won a Derby; all the drayhorses believe that, when this lucky
thoroughbred runs,

THE EARTH MOVES BACKWARD

beneath his feet, to help him in overcoming distance! The man of success
is a lightning calculator; the spectators all think he is a lucky fellow
to guess at the sum of a great block of figures so quickly and always
guess right; they never could do it!

"LUCK" SAYS RICHARD COBDEN,

"is ever waiting for something to turn up. Labor, with keen eyes and
strong will, will turn up something. Luck lies in bed, and wishes the
postman would bring him the news of a legacy. Labor turns out at six
o'clock, and with busy pen or ringing hammer lays the foundation of a
competence. Luck whines. Labor whistles. Luck relies on chance. Labor on
character." The man of success who owns a mill is seen in the water up
to his waist, dragging a log behind him. "Is he not lucky to get his dam
fixed so soon after the flood!" say the neighbors. The man of success
who owns a grocery has got ten barrels of flour on the sidewalk, two
casks of petroleum in the alley, and twelve barrels of sugar on his
trucks. At night the barrels are all in their places, and, so far as I
have ever seen,--in the retail business, at least,--it was not the
clerks of the man of success who did

THE HEAVY END OF THE LIFTING.

"I never" says Addison, "knew an early-rising, hard-working, prudent
man, careful of his earnings, and strictly honest, who complained of bad
luck. A good character, good habits, and iron industry are impregnable
to the assaults of all the ill-luck that fools ever dreamed of." "Strong
men believe in cause and effect," says Emerson. "There are no chances so
unlucky," says Rochefoucauld, "that people are not able to reap some
advantage from them, and none so lucky that the foolish are not able to
turn them to their own disadvantage."

WHEN WE TALK ABOUT LUCK,

we never mean that a man is lucky to be endowed with successful
qualities. So long as we do not go back to the real matter of fortune,
which lies in the character, let us, at least, be intelligent, and stop
talking about one man having any more good things happen to him than
another. There is only one sure thing about events, and that is the law
of chance. If men take to chance, they will come out even, if it be a
fair ch