METHOD NEEDED

The present need is for some uniform, readily applicable, inexpensive, and
comprehensive method of analysis. The advantages of such a method are
immediately apparent. First, its uniformity would permit the making of
records for comparison, covering a very wide range of subjects,
environment, and vocations. Second, even the simplest classifications,
which are readily learned and easily applied by the inexpert, would yield
tangible and measurable results and would be far better than the present
unstandardized and wholly unscientific methods. Third, were such a uniform
method adopted and made a part of the vocational work of our institutions;
were uniform records to be made and wisely used, we should soon have a
body of useful knowledge on this subject. Fourth, as the result of the
application of such a uniform method, text books and charts could be
prepared which would form the basis of popular education in vocational
guidance.

But this book will find its way into the hands of many whose own
vocational problems cry out for solution. Such need first to know
themselves, to know their aptitudes and talents, whether developed or
undeveloped. They need to study vocations--to know everything about the
kinds of work they might do, from their requirements to their
possibilities twenty, thirty, or forty years in the future. Finally, they
need the courage, self-confidence, industry, progressiveness, and ambition
to throw off the shackles of circumstance and, in the light of scientific
truth, to press forward to the achievement, success, fulness of life, and
happiness possible through development and use of all their powers.

CHAPTER II

ELEMENTS OF FITNESS

In our study are two small pieces of clear white marble. Each of them is
decorated with a beautifully designed little flower in natural color. This
flower is depicted by the skillful inlaying of semi-precious stones. These
marbles came from Agra, India. They are samples of the handiwork which
makes the Taj Mahal one of the most beautiful structures in the world. In
the fitting of this inlay work the stones--some of them almost as hard as
diamonds--are cut and polished to nearly mathematical accuracy of size and
shape. But the more carefully and exactly these are made, the more badly
they fit and the worse failure is the whole design, unless the spaces
intended for them in the marble are likewise cut and prepared with nicety
and accuracy. In the sele