Give a youth resolution and the alphabet, and who shall place
limits to his career?

IV. POSSIBILITIES IN SPARE MOMENTS

63

If a genius like Gladstone carries through life a book in his
pocket, lest an unexpected spare moment slip from his grasp,
what should we of common abilities not resort to, to save the pre-
cious moments from oblivion ?

74

V. ROUND BOYS IN SQUARE HOLES .

Man is doomed to perpetual inferiority and disappointment if
out of his place, and gets his living by his weakness instead of by
his strength.

Your talent is your call. "What can you do?" is the interro-
gation of the century. Better adorn your own than seek another's
place.

VII. CONCENTRATED ENERGY.

106

One unwavering aim. Don't dally with your purpose. Not
many things indifferently, but one thing supremely.
VIII. "ON TIME," OR THE TRIUMPH OF PROMPTNESS

121

Don't brood over the past or dream of the future; but seize
the instant, and get your lesson from the hour.

You must take joy with you, or you will not find it even in
heaven.

The good-mannered can do without riches: all doors fly open
to them, and they enter everywhere without money and without
price.

XI. THE TRIUMPHS OF ENTHUSIASM

170

"What are hardships, ridicule, persecution, toil, sickness, to a
soul throbbing with an overmastering enthusiasm ?"

Talent is no match for tact; we see its failure everywhere. In
the race of life, common sense has the right of way.

XIII

XIV.

SELF-RESPECT AND SELF-CONFIDENCE

We stamp our own value upon ourselves, and cannot expect
to pass for more.

GREATER THAN WEALTH

A man may make millions and be a failure still. He is the
richest man who enriches mankind most.

THE PRICE OF SUCCESS

202

XV.

232

-

"Work or starve" is Nature's motto, it is written on the
stars and the sod alike, starve mentally, starve morally,
starve physically.

-

XVI.

CHARACTER IS POWER

250

Beside the character of a Washington the millions of many
an American look contemptible. Character is success, and there
is no other.

XVII. ENAMORED OF ACCURACY.

Twenty things half done do not make one thing well done.
There is a great difference between going just right and a little
wrong.

273

We get out of life just what we put into it. The world has
for us just what we have for it.

304

XIX. THE VICTORY IN DEFEAT.

XX.

To know how to wring victory from our defeats, and make
stepping-stones of our stumbling-blocks, is the secret of success.
NERVE-GRIT, GRIP, PLUCK..

There is something grand and inspiring in a young man who
fails squarely after doing his level best, and then enters the con-
test a second and a third time with undaunted courage and re-
doubled energy.

XXI.

THE REWARD OF PERSISTENCE

337

"Mere genius darts, flutters, and tires; but perseverance
wears and wins."

XXII.

A LONG LIFE, AND HOW TO REACH IT

356

The first requisite to success is to be a first-class animal.
Even the greatest industry cannot amount to much, if a feeble
body does not respond to the ambition.

"A man cannot aspire if he looks down." Look upward, live
upward.

XXV.

THE ARMY OF THE RESERVE

389

We never can tell what is in a man until an emergency calls
out his reserve, and he cannot call out an ounce more than has
been stored up.

LIST OF PORTRAITS.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. From an original unretouched negative,
made in 1864, at the time the President commissioned Ulysses
S. Grant lieutenant-general and commander of all the armies
of the republic. It is said that this negative, with one of
General Grant, was made in commemoration of that event.
Frontispiece.

NAPOLEON. After Painting by Charles de Chatillon
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. After Painting by Désnoyers.
BISMARCK. After the Lenbach Portrait

54

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. After an English Engraving by R. Young, from an original portrait taken about the time that "Uncle Tom's Cabin " was published .

62

JAMES WATT. After an English Engraving

74

FRANCIS PARKMAN. After Photograph

106

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. After Painting by Healy in Corcoran
Gallery, Washington, D. C.

120

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. After Photograph

132

MADAME DE STAËL. After Painting by Baron François Gérard
SIR HUMPHRY DAVY. After Painting by Sir Thomas Law-

146

PROFESSOR S. F. B. MORSE. After Photograph
GEORGE WASHINGTON. After the Stuart Painting in Museum
Fine Arts, Boston.

232

250

GALILEO GALILEI. After Painting by Sustermans in the Ufizzi
Palace, Florence

272

HENRY WARD BEECHER.

After Etching by Rajon

292

GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE. After Photograph.

GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT. After Photograph.

CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN. After an Etching by Rajon

WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. After Photograph
DAVID GLASGOW FARRAGUT.

Most of these portraits are from original sources, and have never been used before.

PUSHING TO THE FRONT.

CHAPTER I.

THE MAN AND THE OPPORTUNITY.

No man is born into this world whose work is not born with him.LOWELL.

No royal permission is requisite to launch forth on the broad sea of discovery that surrounds us—most full of novelty where most explored. — EDWARD EVERETT.

Things don't turn up in this world until somebody turns them up. GARFIELD.

We live in a new and exceptional age. America is another name for Opportunity. Our whole history appears like a last effort of the Divine Providence in behalf of the human race. - EMERSON.

Vigilance in watching opportunity; tact and daring in seizing upon opportunity; force and persistence in crowding opportunity to its utmost of possible achievement these are the martial virtues which must command - AUSTIN PHELPS.

success.

"I will find a way or make one."

There never was a day that did not bring its own opportunity for doing good, that never could have been done before, and never can be again. — W. H. BURLEIGH.

"Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute;

What you can do, or dream you can, begin it.”

"IF we succeed, what will the world say?" asked Captain Berry in delight, when Nelson had explained his carefully formed plan before the battle of the Nile.

"There is no if in the case,” replied Nelson. "That we shall succeed is certain. Who may live to tell the tale is a very different question." Then, as his captains rose from the council to go to their respective ships, he added: "Before this time to-morrow I shall have gained a peerage or Westminster Abbey." quick eye and daring spirit saw an opportunity of glo rious victory where others saw only probable defeat.

His