a
manager wanted an extra peasant girl, or when a waiting maid was ill.
She had joined a small troupe traveling through the bleakest and
roughest parts of the Northwest in midwinter. By and by she was fitted
to be of use in a stock company. Then, after a few more years, she
achieved what she had been striving for. She was able to take the
slighter characters in the plays of Shakespeare. No one excelled her
here. No great actress would take so small a part, and no small actress
was willing to take such pains. Her power was unique and she was
indispensable. Her name was seldom on the play-bills, but she added
something to the culture of the world by making the interpretation of
Shakespeare more complete.

Her success came first from having a definite aim, and second, from
understanding herself sufficiently to aim at something within her power;
but happily it was also the highest thing within her power. She was both
humble and aspiring. She showed her humility in shrinking from no
drudgery, and satisfied her cravings for the ideal by doing the smallest
thing in the best way possible to her. She enjoyed even her drudgery
because she put the best of herself into it, but, more than that, she
knew it was leading her exactly in the direction she wanted to go. If
the drudgery had led to nothing she would have needed all the moral
power of our little book-keeper to save her from misery. Her own happier
life required some moral power, how much it is hard to say. A woman
might do all she did and be little the better for it. It would depend on
the aim she cherished in her heart. If she had no higher aim than to be
a good actress her life did not avail much. But if her acting was only
the minor aim, then her life was thoroughly noble as well as successful.
Her choice of a minor aim makes it probable that she also had the
highest aim. Otherwise she would have been either more or less humble.
She would either have wished to be a star actress or have been contented
with any trifling parts which brought her money and admiration.

The best happiness comes from our perseverance in following the grand
aim of life. But "the kind of happiness which we all recognize as such"
is generally that which comes from the successful pursuit of our minor
aim. Herbert Spencer says that every creature is happy when he is fully
using his powers. I have known a girl with a magnificent voice who
endured great hardships for a musical education, and who final