areful thought, any one will better his or her
condition. Sickness may come, they will be the better prepared. Losses
will be more easily met and discharged. No man ever succeeded by
waiting for something to turn up. The object of this work is not to make
people delude themselves by any conceited ideas, but to encourage, to
inspire, to enkindle anew the fires of energy laying dormant. The point
is, it is not a 'slumbering genius' within people that it is our desire
to stimulate, but a 'slumbering energy.' We are content that others
should take care of the 'genius'; we are satisfied that any influence,
no matter from what source it comes, that will awaken dormant energies
will do the world more good than ten times the same amount of influence
trying to prove that we are fore ordained to be somebody or nobody.

Mr. Everett was a man who fully comprehended and appreciated this fact.
All great men understand that it is the making the most of one's talents
that makes the most of our chances which absolutely tells. Rufus Choate
believed in hard work. When some one said to him that a certain fine
achievement was the result of accident, he exclaimed: "Nonsense. You
might as well drop the Greek alphabet on the ground and expect to pick
up the Illiad." Mr. Beecher has well said that every idle man has to be
supported by some industrious man. Hard labor prevents hard luck.
Fathers should teach their children that if any one will not work
neither shall he attain success. Let us magnify our calling and be
happy, but strive to progress. As before said, Mr. Everett fully
understood all this and great men innumerable could be quoted in support
of this doctrine.

The year 1794 must ever be memorable, as the year in which Mr. Everett
was ushered into the world, in which he was to figure as so prominent a
factor. We have written a long preamble, but it is hoped that the
reader has taken enough interest thus far to fully take in the points
which we have endeavored to make, and it is further hoped that such
being the case, the reader will, by the light of those ideas, read and
digest the wonderful character before us.

Undoubtedly Everett possessed one of the greatest minds America has ever
produced, but if he had rivaled Solomon in natural ability, he could not
have entered Harvard College as a student at the age of thirteen had he
not been an indefatigable worker, and will any man delude himself into
the belief that he could have gradua