he doing of one thing, one thing, one
thing, long after it ceases to be amusing; and it is this "one
thing I do" that gathers me together from my chaos, that
concentrates me from possibilities to powers, and turns powers into
achievements. "One thing I do," said Paul, and, apart from what his
one thing was, in that phrase he gave the watchword of salvation.
That whole long string of habits--attention, method, patience,
self-control, and the others--can be rolled up and balled, as it
were, in the word "concentration." We will halt a moment at the
word:

"I give you the end of a golden string:
Only wind it into a ball,--
It will lead you in at Heaven's gate,
Built in Jerusalem's wall."

Men may be divided into two classes,--those who have a "one thing,"
and those who have no "one thing," to do; those with aim, and those
without aim, in their lives: and practically it turns out that
almost all of the success, and, therefore, the greater part of the
happiness, go to the first class. The aim in life is what the
backbone is in the body: without it we are invertebrate, belong to
some lower order of being not yet man. No wonder that the great
question, therefore, with a young man is, What am I to be? and that
the future looks rather gloomy until the life-path opens. The lot
of many a girl, especially of many a girl with a rich father, is a
tragedy of aimlessness. Social standards, and her lack of true
ideals and of real education, have condemned her to be frittered:
from twelve years old she is a cripple to be pitied, and by thirty
she comes to know it. With the brothers the blame is more their
own. The boys we used to play our school games with have found
their places; they are winning homes and influence and money, their
natures are growing strong and shapely, and their days are filling
with the happy sense of accomplishment,--while _we_ do not yet know
what we are. We have no meaning on the earth. Lose us, and the
earth has lost nothing; no niche is empty, no force has ceased to
play, for we have got no aim, and therefore we are still--nobody.
_Get your meaning_ first of all! Ask the question until it is
answered past question, What am I? What do I stand for? What name
do I bear in the register of forces? In our national