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stars from the sky as bring the ocean to the wall of Leyden for your relief," was the derisive shout of the Spanish soldiers when told that the Dutch fleet would raise that terrible four months' siege of 1574. But from the parched lips of William, tossing on his bed of fever at Rotterdam, had issued the command: "Break down the dikes: give Hol land back to the ocean," and the people had replied: "Better a drowned land than a lost land." They began to demolish dike after dike of the strong lines, ranged one within another for fifteen miles to their city of the interior. It was an enormous task; the garrison was starving; and the besiegers laughed in scorn at the slow progress of the puny insects who sought to rule the waves of the sea. But ever, as of old, heaven aids those who help themselves. On the first and second of October a violent equinoctial gale rolled the ocean inland, and swept the fleet on the rising waters almost to the camp of the Spaniards. The next morning the garrison sallied out to attack their enemies, but the besiegers had fled in terror under cover of the darkness. The next day the wind changed, and a counter tempest brushed the water, with the fleet upon it, from the surface of Holland. The outer dikes were replaced at once, leaving the North Sea within its old bounds. When the flowers bloomed the following spring, a joyous procession marched through the streets to found the University of Leyden, in com

memoration of the wonderful deliverance of the city.

Who can keep a determined man from success and how can it be done? Place stumbling-blocks in his way and he takes them for stepping-stones, and climbs to greatness. Take his money away, and he makes spurs of his poverty to urge him on. Cripple him, and he writes the Waverly Novels. Lock him up in prison, and he writes the "Pilgrim's Progress"; leave him in a cradle in a log cabin in the wilderness, and in a few years, you find him in the White House.

"All the performances of human art, at which we look with praise and wonder," says Johnson, "are instances of the resistless force of perseverance."

Adverse circumstances spur a determined man

to success.

The degree in which a man sees insurmountable obstacles and impossible situations in his path will measure his success ability. To some people the way ahead of them is so full of obstacles, so full of difficulties and impossible situations that they never get anywhere, while another man feels so much bigger than the things which try to hinder him, so much stronger than the obstacles which try to down him, the stumbling-blocks which try to trip him, that he does not even notice them.

We are all familiar with men who are continually up against something that they think is im

possible, they are sure cannot be done, and yet there is generally somebody near them who manages to do this very impossible thing.

I have in mind a young man who has such a habit of thinking that things cannot be done that almost any kind of a difficulty downs him. Unless he can see the road clear to his destination he is afraid to move a foot forward. If he sees any obstruction ahead he loses courage, even to undertake what he longs to do. If you ask him to do anything which is at all difficult he will say, "Well, now, I don't believe I can do it. In fact, it simply can not be done." The result is he makes no progress in any direction and he never will.

If our ambition is merely a weak desire to obtain a certain thing provided it does not cost much effort, if we would merely "like to have" a certain thing, there is no magnetism in such a milk-andwater purpose. The ambition must be backed by the willingness and the determination to do anything that is within human power to accomplish the aim. This is the mental attitude that wins.

The habit of being a quitter before the battle begins is fatal to all distinctiveness. It is the deathblow to the development of originality and strength of character; and without these no man can be a leader. He must remain a trailer always; he must follow some one else's lead.

If you are trying to get a start in the world but don't feel able to remove the many barriers that

block your way, do not get discouraged. The obstacles that look so formidable at a distance will grow smaller and smaller as you approach. Have courage and confidence in yourself and the road will clear before you as you advance. Read the life stories of great men who from the start have cleared their pathway of obstructions which make yours look puny. Magnify your faith in yourself and you will minimize the obstacles in your way.

The whole science of efficiency and success in life consists in the vigorous, persistent affirmation of our determination and our ability to do the thing we have set our heart on. It consists in setting our face like a flint toward our goal, turning neither to the right nor the left, though a Paradise tempt us, or failure and disaster threaten us.

If your determination is easily deflected, if any persuasion can separate you from your life resolve, you may be pretty sure that you are on the wrong track.

Ill health or personal deformity may sometimes hold one back—though there are numerous instances of success in spite of them—but in the vast majority of cases where young people fail in getting a good start in life or in ultimately reaching their goal it is because there is no energy in their resolution, no grit in their determination. They peter out after a few rebuffs. Two or three setbacks take the edge off their determination. They do not realize that success in anything worth

while is the result of tremendous resolution, vigorous self-faith, and work, work, work—steady, conscientious, whole-hearted, unremitting work. Light resolve, half-hearted efforts, indifferent, intermittent work have never yet accomplished anything and never will.

"Mere wishes and desires but engender a sort of green sickness in young minds, unless they are promptly embodied in act and deed," says Samuel Smiles. "It will not avail merely to wait, as so many do, 'until Blucher comes up,' but they must struggle on and persevere in the meantime, as Wellington did. The good purpose once formed must be carried out with alacrity and without swerving. He who allows his application to falter, or shirks his work on frivolous pretexts, is on the sure road to ultimate failure."

Get busy, then, and work with all your might. There is no such thing as failure for the willing, ambitious worker.

Work, which many have called a curse, is really the salvation of the race. It is the greatest educator. There is no other way of developing power, calling out the resources, building stamina and breadth of character. Work is the great saviour of the race. Without it we should be a backboneless and staminaless, characterless race.

Emerson says: "Men talk of victory as of some thing fortunate. Work is victory. Wherever work is done victory is obtained.”

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