n facial expression. I
emphasize this veracity of character because it is elemental. You may
have all the gifts and graces but if you have not this essential you
are bankrupt. Be honest to the bone. Be clean of blood as well as of
tongue.

Never try to create a deeper impression than Nature creates for you,
and that means never attempt to create any impression at all. For
example, never try to look wise. Many a front of gravity and weight
conceals an intellectual desolation. In Moscow you will find the exact
external counterpart of Tolstoi. It is said that it is difficult to
distinguish the philosopher from his double. Yet this duplicate in
appearance of the greatest of living writers is a cab driver without
even the brightness of the jehu.

Be what you are, therefore, and no more; yes, and no less--which is
equally important. In a word, start right. Be honest with yourself,
too. If you have started wrong, go back and start over again. But
don't change more than once. Some men never finish because they are
always beginning. Be careful how you choose and then stick to your
second choice. A poor claim steadily worked may be better than a good
one half developed. The man who makes too many starts seldom makes
anything else.

But don't pretend that you have a thousand dollars in bank when you
hold in your hands the statement of your overdraft. Face your account
with Nature like a man. For Nature is a generous, though remorseless,
financier, delivering you your just due and exacting the uttermost of
your debt. Also Nature renders you a daily accounting.

And, at the very beginning, Nature writes upon the tablet of your
inner consciousness an inventory of your strengths and of your
weaknesses, and lists there those tasks which you are best fitted to
perform--those tasks which Nature _meant_ you to perform. For Nature
put you here to _do something_; you were not born to be an ornament.

First, then, learn your limitations. Take time enough to think out
just what you _cannot_ do. This process of elimination will soon
reduce life's possibilities for you to a few things. Of these things
select the one which is nearest you, and, having selected it, put all
other loves from you.

It is a business maxim in my profession that "law is a jealous
mistress." It is very true, but it is not more true than it is that
every other calling in life is a jealous mistress. To every man _his_
task is the hardest, _his_ situation the most d