"It yet shall tread its starlit paths,

By highest angels trod,

And pause but at the farthest world
In the universe of God.

""Tis said that Persia's baffled king,

In mad, tyrannic pride, Cast fetters on the Hellespont To curb its stormy tide;

"But freedom's own true spirit heaves
The bosom of the main-

It tossed those fetters to the skies,
And bounded on again!

"The scorn of each succeeding age
On Xerxes' head was hurled,
And o'er that foolish deed has pealed
The long laugh of a world.

"Thus, thus defeat, and scorn, and shame, Be his who strives to bind

The restless leaping waves of thought,

The free tide of the mind!"

PART THIRD:

BUSINESS OR PROFESSIONAL LIFE.

181

Still common minds with us in common trade,
Have gained more wealth than ever student made;
And yet a merchant, when he gives his son
His college training, thinks his duty done;

A way to wealth he leaves his boy to find,

Just when he's made for the discovery blind.—CRABBE.

I hold every man a debtor to his professions; from the which as men of course do seek to receive countenance and profit, so ought they of duty to endeavor themselves by way or amends to be a help and ornament thereunto.-BACON.

You need hope for no really good thing without labor. Nothing for nothing is a law which applies to all parts of our lives: do not try to evade it, for you cannot. Neither knowledge nor good fortune, neither right living nor enjoyment, nothing worth having comes easily, or without persistent labor and self-denial. There are no exceptions to this law; there is no such thing as good luck. The unlucky man has lacked persistence, or tact, or concentration of purpose: but no one has these qualities without having laboriously acquired and strengthened them.

-CHARLES NORDHOFF.

132

BUSINESS OR PROFESSIONAL LIFE.

"WHA

CHOOSING A VOCATION.

HAT shall I do?" is a question propounded by perhaps a million of young people in this country every year. They arrive at that age of life when they must make a shift for themselves, and very naturally they cast about for a calling in which they can find both pleasure and profit for a whole lifetime. Sometimes they make a happy choice, and enter at once upon a career of joyous and successful labor. More often, may be, they find themselves mistaken in their aspirations and decisions, and are compelled to revolutionize all their plans and purposes.

It is better to trust reasonably in Providence in deciding so important a matter as your sphere in life. "Do you wish to know your calling?" asks Zion's Herald. "Look both within and without. See what you want and what other people want of you. Neither is a complete guide; both together are next to infallible. You are to begin within. The natural and gracious tastes with which you are furnished, and the aspirations kindled in your soul, are presumably on the line of Providence. You need to be sure it is a real and permanent interest-not a temporary flame; that you have a genuine love for that line of work, and that it grows upon you with increased familiarity. With this inner fitness and aspiration there may come no immediate outward opening. No public may be prepared for the new prophet, especially if your calling be in an exceptional line on which the people themselves are to be prepared. But ordinarily the inward movement will find a response in the outer world; Providence will answer to the cry of the heart, and what you earnestly desire to do will become possible to you in the unfolding of life's scroll. Intense desire to travel a certain road will never