cutter in the
shop of Pisano. Some may not have heard how the boy Antonio took
advantage of this first great opportunity; but all know of Canova, one
of the greatest sculptors of all time.

_Weak men wait for opportunities, strong men make them_.

"The best men," says E. H. Chapin, "are not those who have waited for
chances but who have taken them; besieged the chance; conquered the
chance; and made chance the servitor."

There may not be one chance in a million that you will ever receive
unusual aid; but opportunities are often presented which you can
improve to good advantage, if you will only _act_.

The lack of opportunity is ever the excuse of a weak, vacillating mind.
Opportunities! Every life is full of them. Every lesson in school or
college is an opportunity. Every examination is a chance in life.
Every patient is an opportunity. Every newspaper article is an
opportunity. Every client is an opportunity. Every sermon is an
opportunity. Every business transaction is an opportunity,--an
opportunity to be polite,--an opportunity to be manly,--an opportunity
to be honest,--an opportunity to make friends. Every proof of
confidence in you is a great opportunity. Every responsibility thrust
upon your strength and your honor is priceless. Existence is the
privilege of effort, and when that privilege is met like a man,
opportunities to succeed along the line of your aptitude will come
faster than you can use them. If a slave like Fred Douglass, who did
not even own his body, can elevate himself into an orator, editor,
statesman, what ought the poorest white boy to do, who is rich in
opportunities compared with Douglass?

It is the idle man, not the great worker, who is always complaining
that he has no time or opportunity. Some young men will make more out
of the odds and ends of opportunities which many carelessly throw away
than other will get out of a whole life-time. Like bees, they extract
honey from every flower. Every person they meet, every circumstance of
the day, adds something to their store of useful knowledge or personal
power.

"There is nobody whom Fortune does not visit once in his life," says a
cardinal; "but when she finds he is not ready to receive her, she goes
in at the door and out at the window."

Cornelius Vanderbilt saw his opportunity in the steamboat, and
determined to identify himself with steam navigation. To the surprise
of all his friends, he abandoned his prosperou