Nothing succeeds so well as success.--Talleyrand.
[Illustration T] The man Talleyrand, who made the above mocking
assertion, was one of the closest observers of human nature who have
ever lived. And yet what he said in a spirit of uncommon hatred of his
fellow-beings is really another way of saying the exact truth--that
success comes only after so many trials and disappointments that the
world, considering it a safe rule, admires the result, and feels that
the reflected credit for a great result belongs to him upon whom it
falls. Beside you toils a young man of your own age. He does not seem to
care to rise. He dislikes the few duties of the present, and would be
inclined to shrink from further responsibilities. It may be that he is
the happier as compared with you, but men must not consult simply their
own individual happiness. Sooner or later all men take on a broader
burden than merely their own support. Try early in life to get the start
which the experience of others furnishes you. You are lucky that you
were born in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Men before you
have, by ambition and energy, made the affair of living easier for you.
Right here in youth is the time to begin the battle. You are now a
private.