become
so intense that the runners are treading on the heels of those before
them; and "woe to him who stops to tie his shoestring?" Do you know that
only two or three out of every hundred will ever win permanent success,
and only because they have kept everlastingly at it; and that the rest
will sooner or later fail and many die in poverty because they have
given up the struggle.

There are multitudes of men who never rely wholly upon themselves and
achieve independence. They are like summer vines, which never grow even
ligneous, but stretch out a thousand little hands to grasp the stronger
shrubs; and if they cannot reach them, they lie dishevelled in the
grass, hoof-trodden, and beaten of every storm. It will be found that
the first real movement upward will not take place until, in a spirit of
resolute self-denial, indolence, so natural to almost every one, is
mastered. Necessity is, usually, the spur that sets the sluggish
energies in motion. Poverty, therefore, is often of inestimable value as
an incentive to the best endeavors of which we are capable.

CHAPTER VII.

FOUNDATION STONES.

In all matters, before beginning, a diligent preparation should
be made.
--CICERO.

How great soever a genius may be, ... certain it is that he
will never shine in his full lustre, nor shed the full
influence he is capable of, unless to his own experience he
adds that of other men and other ages.
--BOLINGBROKE.

It is for want of the little that human means must add to the
wonderful capacity for improvement, born in man, that by far
the greatest part of the intellect, innate in our race,
perishes undeveloped and unknown.
--EDWARD EVERETT.

If any man fancies that there is some easier way of gaining a
dollar than by squarely earning it, he has lost his clue to his
way through this mortal labyrinth and must henceforth wander as
chance may dictate.
--HORACE GREELEY.

What we do upon some great occasion will probably depend on
what we already are; and what we are will be the result of
previous years of self-discipline.
--H. P. LIDDON.

Learn to labor and to wait.
--LONGFELLOW.

"What avails all this sturdiness?" asked an oak tree which had grown
solitary for two hundred years, bitterly handled by frosts and wrestled
by winds. "Why am I to stand here useless? My roots are anchored in
rifts of