ms that hang around young life, but by presenting to
his imagination pictures of future bliss and greatness which will haunt
his dreams until he resolves to make them real. As a mother teaches her
babe to walk, by holding up a toy at a distance, not that the child may
reach the toy, but that it may develop its muscles and strength,
compared with which the toys are mere baubles; so Nature goes before us
through life, tempting us with higher and higher toys, but ever with one
object in view--the development of the man.

In every great painting of the masters there is one idea or figure which
stands out boldly beyond everything else. Every other idea or figure on
the canvas is subordinate to this idea or figure, and finds its real
significance not in itself, but, pointing to the central idea, finds its
true expression there. So in the vast universe of God, every object of
creation is but a guide-board with an index finger pointing to the
central figure of the created universe--Man. Nature writes this thought
upon every leaf; she thunders it in every creation; it exhales from
every flower; it twinkles in every star.

Open thy bosom, set thy wishes wide,
And let in manhood--let in happiness;
Admit the boundless theatre of thought
From nothing up to God ... which makes a man!
--YOUNG.

CHAPTER II.

SEIZE YOUR OPPORTUNITY.

"The blowing winds are but our servants
When we hoist a sail."

You must come to know that each admirable genius is but a
successful diver in that sea whose floor of pearls is all your
own.
--EMERSON.

Who waits until the wind shall silent keep,
Who never finds the ready hour to sow,
Who watcheth clouds, will have no time to reap.
--HELEN HUNT JACKSON.

The secret of success in life is for a man _to be ready for his
opportunity_ when it comes.
--DISRAELI.

Do the best you can where you are; and, when that is
accomplished, God will open a door for you, and a voice will
call, "Come up hither into a higher sphere."
--BEECHER.

Our grand business is, not to see what lies dimly at a
distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.
--CARLYLE.

"When I was a boy," said General Grant, "my mother one morning found
herself without butter for breakfast, and sent me to borrow some from a
neighbor. Going into the house without knocking, I overheard a letter
read from t