anatomy, the
endless names of drugs and technical terms.

Scientists tell us that there is nothing in nature so ugly and
disagreeable but intense light will make it beautiful. The complete
mastery of one profession will render even the driest details
interesting. The consciousness of thorough knowledge, the habit of
doing everything to a finish, gives a feeling of strength, of
superiority, which takes the drudgery out of an occupation. The more
completely we master a vocation the more thoroughly we enjoy it. In
fact, the man who has found his place and become master in it could
scarcely be induced, even though he be a farmer, or a carpenter, or
grocer, to exchange places with a governor or congressman. To be
successful is to _find your sphere and fill it, to get into your place
and master it_.

There is a sense of great power in a vocation after a man has reached
the point of efficiency in it, the point of productiveness, the point
where his skill begins to tell and bring in returns. Up to this point
of efficiency, while he is learning his trade, the time seems to have
been almost thrown away. But he has been storing up a vast reserve of
knowledge of detail, laying foundations, forming his acquaintances,
gaining his reputation for truthfulness, trustworthiness, and
integrity, and in establishing his credit. When he reaches this point
of efficiency, all the knowledge and skill, character, influence, and
credit thus gained come to his aid, and he soon finds that in what
seemed almost thrown away lies the secret of his prosperity. The
credit he established as a clerk, the confidence, the integrity, the
friendships formed, he finds equal to a large capital when he starts
out for himself and takes the highway to fortune; while the young man
who half learned several trades, and got discouraged and stopped just
short of the point of efficiency, just this side of success, is a
failure because he didn't go far enough; he did not press on to the
point at which his acquisition would have been profitable.

In spite of the fact that nearly all very successful men have made a
life work of one thing, we see on every hand hundreds of young men and
women flitting about from occupation to occupation, trade to trade, in
one thing to-day and another to-morrow,--just as though they could go
from one thing to another by turning a switch, as if they could run as
well on another track as on the one they have left, regardless of th