Apelles, the great artist, traveled all over Greece for years, studying
the fairest points of beautiful women, getting here an eye, there a
forehead, and there a nose, here a grace and there a turn of beauty,
for his famous portrait of a perfect woman which enchanted the world.
It was not a portrait, not an imaginary ideal head, but a composite, a
combination from the most perfect features he could find. By combining
the perfect points, the graceful curves, the lines of beauty of many
individuals, he made his wonderful painting.
The great artist knew that all elements of beauty and perfection of
physical form could not be found in one person. He knew, too, that some
of the most perfect features and beautiful curves would be found in
women who were on the whole anything but beautiful—perhaps repulsive.
The editors of this volume have been for many years in quest of the
elements of a grand, healthy, symmetrical, successful man—the ideal
man. They knew at the beginning that it would be impossible to find
any one man who would illustrate all these points of perfection, who
would combine in perfect degree all the success qualities, but they
have found in scores of men who have achieved something worth while
qualities which, put together, would make a composite ideal man, a
man who, in the evolution of civilization, will, perhaps, sometime be
possible. Usually, in men who have risen to eminence, some one quality
or virtue shines conspicuous, often accompanied with defects, perhaps
great weakness, which, to gain the lesson, we must ignore.
The editors have found here a man illustrative of perseverance, here
one marked by undaunted ambition, there a life where grit overcame all
obstacles, and another where the quick grasping of opportunities led to
noble achievement.
They have interviewed successful men and women in the various
vocations, trying to get at the secret of their success, the reasons
for their advancement. These varied life stories will give the reader
the material for constructing the composite character—the ideal man or
woman—one that shall combine all the best virtues and qualities, whose
imitation will help to insure a useful, profitable and honored life.
This composite man will not be a one-sided specialist. He will not be
a man cursed with any great weakness. He will be a man raised to the
highest power, symmetrical, self-centered, equipoised, ever master of
himself.
It does not follow that every man whose name appears in this book is
a model in every respect. Napoleon was not a model character, and yet
he exemplifies some success qualities in his career in an almost ideal
degree.
What question, arising from individual experience, from family life, or
from daily observation within the community, is of more poignant human
interest than the query: “Why do some men succeed, while others fail?”
and the allied question: “What constitutes success in life, and how may
it be attained?”
An analysis of the ideals and achievements of these leaders in
invention, commerce and finance, in public affairs, and in literature,
the arts, and the professions, as set forth by themselves, seems
to reveal certain salient life lessons well worthy of most careful
consideration. First, it would appear that without exception every
successful man or woman at some period of his or her life, whether
early or late, has formed a life purpose, and has registered a solemn
vow to achieve something more than ordinary in the world. An exception
to this rule appears to obtain in the cases of men or women possessed
of a strong natural bent or talent, the exercise of which is an
instinctive craving that will not be denied. This determination to be
or to achieve, or this instinctive bent of thought and action, appears
to be the first indication of greatness, and the turning point in great
careers.
The next most obvious lesson to be drawn from a careful study of these
interviews seems to be, that once a determination to succeed is made,
and the first steps, however humble, have been entered upon in the
new career, the subject commences to take an _interest_ amounting to
positive pleasure in the tasks and duties incident to his chosen life
work.
The far-away goal of success, with its reward of fame, wealth, and
all that money can procure, appears to fade from the worker’s sight as
he advances toward it, and the incitement to labor for material reward
is lost in the joy of congenial labor for its own sake. The player
loses sight of the hope of victory in the mere zest of the game. This
note appears again and again in the life stories of great workers as
revealed by themselves, and accounts for the spectacle, so puzzling
to many, of the master of millions apparently grasping for more
millions in his declining years. There can be no content with present
achievement, however great, because all who have achieved great things
have discovered that the ends sought are lost in the value of the
faculties developed by the search, and they hence seek, not additional
reward of toil, but rather the pleasurable exercise of the chase. The
joy of labor will not permit men to lay down the harness and relinquish
effort this side the grave.
A determination to succeed once formed, and a congenial career
once chosen and entered upon, there commences a process of
character-building by the formation of life habits. These solidify
into personal characteristics, the varying assortment of which in
the individual constitutes what we call his personality, wherein one
man differs from another. Character, it has been wisely said, is the
resultant of choices. It appears again and again in the reminiscences
of those who have succeeded, that from time to time they have
deliberately chosen a course of action which by force of habit has
become a personal characteristic, and has earned them national, if not
world-wide, reputation. The name of “Honest” John Wanamaker stands for
a reputation having a commercial value of hundreds of thousands of
dollars. The acorn from which grew this mighty oak was a young man’s
choice of honesty as the foundation of his career.
Books and essays by the score and hundred have been written by
theorists upon the principles of success in life. Worthy as are many of
the writers, their lives often illustrate the adage of the poet, “It
were easier to tell twenty what were good to be done than to be one of
the twenty to follow mine own teachings.” Boldly contrasted with such
writings are the flesh and blood maxims herein contained, stamped with
the mint marks of great personalities, towering mountainous among their
fellows, each coined from the life habits which have hardened into
enduring character, and have left their impress upon the history of our
times.
In a drawing-room or public assemblage he would indeed be unambitious
and mean-spirited, who would not choose the company and conversation
of the greatest and the best. Carlyle says, “Great men taken up in
any way are profitable company.” What privilege could promise equal
pleasure and profit with a series of visits at the homes of the most
notable personages our land contains, to consult with each on the great
questions of success or failure, of what constitutes ideal success, and
of how it may be attained?
Such is the privilege contemplated by this volume and freely offered
to all who choose to avail themselves of it. Compared with the
inspiration, the examples and the wise counsel contained within its
covers, the cost of such a volume sinks into insignificance. Benjamin
Franklin said that the reading of one good book made him what he was.
Henry Clay testified, “to the fact that in the midst of her early
poverty my mother provided her home with a few choice books, do I owe
my success in life.” Senator Dolliver, in the present volume, regards
a chance-found book as the turning point of his career, and like
testimony is all but universal. Let the young and the guardians of
youth weigh well the thought that there are sins of omission, as well
as of commission, and that it may be hardly a less criminal negligence
to refuse fit books for the growing mind than food for the growing body.
Quite aside from considerations of profit and duty are the
considerations of pleasure offered by a volume of this character.
It is a truism that truth is stranger than fiction. The romance of
reality is the most thrilling of all romances, and there is a peculiar
fascination associated with those glimpses of the inner man which are
revealed by a speaker who sets forth his own life story, and places
his own interpretation upon it. From this view point, “Little Visits”
possesses a wealth of suggestion and of information, alike valuable and
interesting to readers of all ages and of every walk in life.
The dominant note of this book, is inspiration; its keynote,
helpfulness.
We have tried to drive home every precept and lesson with stirring and
inspiring stories of great lives which show that men and women are the
architects of their own fortunes, and which will explode the excuses of
those who think they have no chance in life. It shows that necessity
has ever been the priceless spur that has urged man to struggle with
his destiny and develop his greatest strength.
We think the reader will find in these pages the composite character,
the all-round success. We have tried to show that there is something
better than making a living, and that is making a life—that a man may
make millions and be a failure still.
We have shown that a man to succeed must be greater than his calling,
that he must overtop his vocation. We have tried to teach that the
really successful man must be greater than the book he writes, than the
patient he treats, than the goods he sells, than the cause he pleads in
the courts—that manhood is above all titles, greater than any career.