g with a book before him at his meals,
carrying it in his pocket that he might utilize every spare moment, and
studying at night and holidays, to pick up an excellent education in
the odds and ends of time which most boys throw away. While the rich
boy and the idler were yawning and stretching and getting their eyes
open, young Burritt had seized the opportunity and improved it. At
thirty years of age he was master of every important language in Europe
and was studying those of Asia. What chance had such a boy for
distinction?

Probably not a single youth will read this book who has not a better
opportunity for success. Yet he had a thirst for knowledge and a
desire for self-improvement, which overcame every obstacle in his
pathway.

If the youth of America who are struggling against cruel circumstances
to do something and be somebody in the world could only understand that
ninety per cent. of what is called genius is merely the result of
persistent, determined industry, in most cases of down-right hard work,
that it is the slavery to a single idea which has given to many a
mediocre talent the reputation of being a genius, they would be
inspired with new hope. It is interesting to note that the men who
talk most about genius are the men who like to work the least. The
lazier the man, the more he will have to say about great things being
done by genius.

The greatest geniuses have been the greatest workers. Sheridan was
considered a genius, but it was found that the "brilliants" and
"off-hand sayings" with which he used to dazzle the House of Commons
were elaborated, polished and repolished, and put down in his
memorandum book ready for any emergency.

Genius has been well defined as the infinite capacity for taking pains.
If men who have done great things could only reveal to the struggling
youth of to-day how much of their reputations was due to downright hard
digging and plodding, what an uplift of inspiration and encouragement
they would give! How often I have wished that the discouraged,
struggling youth could know of the heartaches, the headaches, the
nerve-aches, the disheartening trials, the discouraged hours, the fears
and despair involved in works which have gained the admiration of the
world, but which have taxed the utmost powers of their authors. You
can read in a few minutes or a few hours a poem or a book with only
pleasure and delight, but the days and months of weary plodding over
details