* * * *

In any career there are three main elements of success: talent,
education, work. Eads's life, like that of so many other self-made men,
seems to show us that education is less important than the other two.
But while it is true that he had not the formal education of an
engineer, he had a certain very broad training gained in experience,
and had read hard. Education, after all, is nothing but a summary
method of teaching the lessons of life; therefore, while less
insistent, it is often swifter than practical experience. And there is
no doubt that a man like Eads would be the first to deplore a young
man's failing to appreciate its value. When he himself was young, he
never supposed that he was a genius; but if he had thought this, he
would have striven to be the best-read and the best-equipped of
geniuses; believing that though he might be mistaken about his talent
he could make sure of his culture.

The Riverside Press

_Electrotyped and printed by H. O. Houghton & Co.._
_Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A._

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of James B. Eads, by Louis How

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAMES B. EADS ***

***** This file should be named 26052.txt or 26052.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/0/5/26052/

Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
Libraries.)

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you
do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
research. They may b