e more selfish than the girl who dreams of fame, but with the
understanding that the price of fame is, and ought to be, the giving of
some blessing to the world.

I know a delightful girl who seems to think of nothing but making others
happy from the moment when she meets her maid with a cheerful
"Good-morning," till she contrives that some less attractive girl shall
have the most desirable partner in the ball-room in the evening. She
gives her money and her time and her thought to the service of other
people. This is so natural to her that no one thinks of her as making it
a conscious aim, but the result is so beautiful as to suggest that it
would be the best aim for every girl. Nevertheless she has a still
higher aim, for sometimes the happiness of other people--at least their
visible happiness--clashes with some other duty. Then she does not fail.
She gives her hard refusal in pleasant but firm words, and she tells the
truth even if it makes some one wince. She is not a genius, but, on the
whole, I hardly know another girl so full of the best life. That her
highest aim is the true one is without question, and that her minor aim
is the true one for her must also be admitted. Whether it is so for all
is not quite clear. She has the natural gift which makes all her
ministrations to others acceptable, but every one is not so endowed.

She has a cousin as unselfish as she is whose capacity is entirely
different. She is a quiet, reserved, thoughtful girl, who always speaks
slowly. She is just and good-tempered, and is ready to give her time and
money when she sees she can be of use. But her thoughts move in other
channels. She has excellent mathematical abilities, and she is always
resolving some difficult problem. She hopes some day to do some work in
astronomy. Of course she would be glad to do some great work and be
known as a benefactor to mankind, but probably she works from love of
her work more than from the hope of doing good. She, too, is charming,
but it takes a long time to know her well.

Should one of these girls try to do the work of the other? Or is one
better than the other? I think not, since both look so steadily towards
the highest star in their field of vision. The minor aim of life must
always have reference to the gifts of the individual. Even visiting the
poor would become absurd if nobody did anything else.

If we believe in an overruling Providence we cannot of course say that
anything is by c