sixteenth year.
Thomas Lawrence and Benjamin West drew likenesses almost as soon as
they could walk. Liszt played in public at twelve. Canova made models
in clay while a mere child. Bacon exposed the defects of Aristotle's
philosophy when but sixteen. Napoleon was at the head of armies when
throwing snowballs at Brienne.

All these showed their bent while young, and followed it in active
life. But precocity is not common, and, except in rare cases, we must
discover the bias in our natures, and not wait for the proclivity to
make itself manifest. When found, it is worth more to us than a vein
of gold.

"_I_ do not forbid you to preach," said a Bishop to a young clergyman,
"but nature does."

Lowell said: "It is the vain endeavor to make ourselves what we are not
that has strewn history with so many broken purposes, and lives left in
the rough."

You have not found your place until all your faculties are roused, and
your whole nature consents and approves of the work you are doing; not
until you are so enthusiastic in it that you take it to bed with you.
You may be forced to drudge at uncongenial toil for a time, but
emancipate yourself as soon as possible. Carey, the "Consecrated
Cobbler," before he went as a missionary said: "My business is to
preach the gospel. I cobble shoes to pay expenses."

If your vocation be only a humble one, elevate it with more manhood
than others put into it. Put into it brains and heart and energy and
economy. Broaden it by originality of methods. Extend it by
enterprise and industry. Study it as you would a profession. Learn
everything that is to be known about it. Concentrate your faculties
upon it, for the greatest achievements are reserved for the man of
single aim, in whom no rival powers divide the empire of the soul.
_Better adorn your own than seek another's place_.

Go to the bottom of your business if you would climb to the top.
Nothing is small which concerns your business. Master every detail.
This was the secret of A. T. Stewart's and of John Jacob Astor's great
success. They knew everything about their business.

As love is the only excuse for marriage, and the only thing which will
carry one safely through the troubles and vexations of married life, so
love for an occupation is the only thing which will carry one safely
and surely through the troubles which overwhelm ninety-five out of
every one hundred who choose the life of a merchant, and very many