" But the landlord
goes on renting his store-room, and thanking his stars that the fools
are not all dead yet. Do not desire a position two grades ahead of you.
The one that is next to you is your proper goal. Over the shoulder of
the companion who holds it you can get many a glance long before your
chance comes to do the work, and, even then, what looked so very easy to
you before it came your turn to do it, will now "shoot light horrors
through you." In a large measure people are bought at their own prices.
If they are worth those figures, their fortune is made. A celebrated
painter was once asked how he mixed his colors. He replied that
HE "MIXED THEM WITH BRAINS."
Mix brains with your business. Like the opium or chloral slave you will
be able to endure a larger quantity each day, and the effect will not
be darkness and death, but light and life. Simply because you think you
can do a thing is no great sign you can do it. You must have brains and
probabilities in your favor. You must absolutely have done something
very nearly like it. I never saw a more signal instance of the general
self-conceit of the race than in the experience of a young man who once
sold a little rubber reed which he laid on his tongue, and with which
HE MOCKED ALL KINDS OF BIRDS.
Pages:
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139