han an unsuccessful or incompetent lawyer,
physician, or engineer. For every man there is some work which he is
better fitted to do than anything else, and which he can do with
reasonable success. His happiness in life will largely depend upon his
finding this work. Much time and effort are wasted in our schools in
the endeavor to fit men for spheres for which they are not adapted.

Finally, the student should be again urged to realize the importance of
not becoming discouraged. Many an earnest student, after repeated
failures, assumes a sort of hopeless, discouraged attitude of mind,
which naturally leads him into the habit of trying to learn his lessons
by memorizing in the hope of being able to pass, if only by scraping
through, and into other bad habits which have been referred to in the
foregoing pages. Such an attitude of mind should be resolutely
opposed, and the teacher, even when severely correcting a student,
should encourage him to see the possibilities that are within his reach
if he will exercise his will and put forth his utmost powers in a
proper manner. Success in the work of the world depends much more upon
will than upon brains; but all faculties, {64} whether mental or moral,
can be cultivated and developed to an almost unlimited extent. A study
of the biographies of men who have succeeded should be urged upon the
student, and such a study will show how often success has been attained
only after repeated failures. It is scarcely too much to say to a
student that he can attain anything he desires, if he desires it with
sufficient intensity; that is to say, if he possesses sufficient will
power, and if he will train himself to direct his efforts properly.
Experience with students, however, will often show that a student is on
the wrong track, or trying to do work for which he is not well adapted.
If this can be demonstrated with reasonable certainty, the student
should be the person most eager to take advantage of it, and should
alter his course of study or his aim in life, in such a manner that he
may train himself to do that work which he is best qualified to do. To
put the right man in the right place should be one of the chief aims of
education; but for a student to find that he is on the wrong track and
that he had better change to another, is very different from becoming
discouraged. The opportunities in the world are without number, and it
is within the power of every man to be a success