rious expenditure of vitality, with only
doubtful results. He works all his life against perpetual friction,
because no one had the foresight or insight to discern that this was the
flaw in his machinery.

"Another fatal point is in the choice of a vocation. Having drifted
through an education, he next drifts into his business or profession. He
rarely stops to take an inventory of his capital, or, at best, he takes
a very partial one. Chance or circumstance decides him. His grandfather
sits on the judge's bench. He thinks the judge's bench a desirable
place, so he takes to the law. He puts on his grandfather's coat without
the slightest reference to whether it will fit or not. Perhaps he
intends to grow to _it_, but a willow sapling cannot grow into an oak.
It may grow into a very respectable willow, but if it aspires to the
higher dignity, it will most likely get crushed or blown over. It may be
that he has a grand vision of commercial splendor, and plunges into
business life with a very good idea of Sophocles and Horace and no idea
whatever of trade; with a very good talent for theories, but none
whatever for facts; with some insight into metaphysics, but none at all
into people. Instead of trying his strength in shallow waters, he starts
to cross the Atlantic in a very small skiff. By the time he has reached
mid-ocean he discovers his error, but it is too late to turn back; so he
is buffeted about by winds and waves until he, too, goes down and counts
among the failures.

"Another of the few points upon which life hinges is marriage, and
people drift into that as they do into everything else. It is one of the
things to be done in order to complete the circle of human experience. A
man is caught by a pretty face and a winning smile. He takes no thought
of the new element he is adding to his life, either with reference to
his outward career or his inward needs. Caprice governs his choice, or
perhaps a hard form of self-interest. Having committed one or two of
the grand errors of life, he settles down to its serious business, and
speedily discovers that he has a dead weight to carry. He has mistaken
his vocation, whatever it may be.

"He is conscious now that it is too late to change; that he might have
attained supreme excellence in some other calling. He toils with heavy
heart and sinking spirit at the plodding pace of dull mediocrity. His
work is drudgery and wearies him body and soul. Those who once smiled
upon h