Neglect not the gift that is in thee.-Paul.

"The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,

Were toiling upward in the night."

The crowning fortune of a man is to be born with a bias to some pursuit, which finds him in employment and happiness.—Emerson.

Be what nature intended you for, and you will succeed; be anything else and you will be ten thousand times worse than nothing.-Sidney Smith.

"Our ideals become a power upon us for the elevation of our life."

Don't flinch, flounder, fall nor fiddle, but grapple like a man. * * * A man who WILLS it can go anywhere and do what he determines to do.-John Todd, D. D.

To wish is of little account; to succeed you must earnestly desire; and this desire must shorten thy sleep.-Ovid.

The longer I live, the more I am certain that the great difference between men-between the feeble and the powerful, the great and the insignificant-is energy, invincible determination, a purpose once fixed, and then, death or victory.

Sir Foxwell Buxton.

"For the grandest times are before us

And the world is yet to see

The noblest work of this old world

In the men that are to be-"

CHAPTER III.

WHAT SOME YOUNG MEN HAVE DONE.

G

EORGE

WASHINGTON, whose

name will always stand first in our nation's history, sat down and wrote

out one hundred and ten maxims of civility and good behavior for his own personal use when a boy of thirteen. He was busily engaged in surveying the wilds of Virginia at eighteen, and was an adjutant-general with the rank of major at nineteen. He fired the first gun in the French and Indian War of 1754, and commanded a regiment against the French before he was twenty-two.

LA FAYETTE, the French general and patriot, was not yet twenty when he was appointed a major-general by the American Congress, and when he fought the battle of Monmouth, for which he received a national vote of thanks, he was only twenty-one. When he revisited and made a tour of the United States he was only twenty-seven.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT spent his boyhood in diligently studying under the tutorage of Aristotle and other distinguished teachers. He

won his first battle at eighteen and ascended the throne of Macedon as king at twenty. He was at the head of forty thousand well disciplined troops, and defeated Darius at twentytwo. One year later he almost annihilated the Persian army numbering six hundred thousand men.

HANNIBAL, one of the greatest military commanders of any age, swore an eternal hostility to Rome at nine years of age, and kept his vow with the strictest fidelity. He had become the commander-in-chief of the army at twenty-six, having displayed extraordinary military genius by winning several battles, and had completed the subjugation of Spain while in his twenties.

NAPOLEON began the study of military tactics at ten; was a sub-lieutenant at sixteen, and rapidly rose in military distinction. He was at the head of the army of Italy, and had defeated four of the armies of Austria at twenty-eight; he was master of France and Europe while yet in his twenties.

CHARLES V. was one of the most powerful rulers and warriors of Europe before he was twenty-five. He ascended the throne of Spain at sixteen and at once became the most powerful ruler of Europe. At twenty he was crowned Emperor of Germany.

LOUIS XIV. ascended the throne at five, declared himself of age at thirteen, and his court

was the centre of art, literature and science before he was twenty-one.

DAVID FARRAGUT, the noted American Admiral, entered the navy as a midshipman when only nine years of age, and was a lieutenant at twenty-one.

DEMOSTHENES and CICERO, the two greatest orators of ancient times, both dedicated their lives to oratory during childhood, and by indefatigable effort they both achieved a renown as immortal as human language while yet in their twenties. At twenty-five Demosthenes was the greatest orator of Greece, and Cicero at the same age was the greatest orator of Rome.

DANIEL WEBSTER, the eminent American orator and statesman, was such a sickly child that it was not thought that he would live, yet as a boy he had within him the elements of greatness. One day when he was about ten years of age, while sitting with his father on a hay-cock under an elm tree on the old New Hampshire farm, his father said to him: "Exert yourself-improve your opportunities—and when I am gone, you will not need to go through the hardships which I have undergone.' The ten year old Daniel threw himself upon his father's breast, and as he sobbed aloud, he registered a vow, deep in his heart, that he would never idle away a moment that could be devoted to study. When he went to

school he was so shy that it was impossible for him to speak pieces, yet by perseverance he conquered his timidity. He had read six books of Virgil, and entered Dartmouth College at fifteen. He delivered an oration on the Fourth of July to the people of Hanover when he was eighteen years of age, of which Henry C. Lodge, his biographer said: "The enduring work which Mr. Webster did in the world, and his meaning and influence in American history, are all summed up in that boyish speech at Hanover which preached love of country, the grandeur of American nationality, fidelity to the constitution as the bulwark of nationality, and the necessity and the nobility of the union of the States." He had won fame as a lawyer, statesman and orator while yet in his twenties, and his father lived to reap the reward of his paternal devotion.

WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, the English philanthropist and champion of freedom, began his anti-slavery efforts before he was sixteen years of age, by writing an article for a paper of York, entitled, In condemnation of the odious traffic of human flesh. He was a member of Parliament before he was twenty-one.

WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE, the "Grand Old Man" of England, was a member of the House of Commons at twenty-three, and Lord of the Treasury at twenty-six, and it was during these