a shallow brook. It is the man who is ambitious and determined to get on, and who has taken an oath to himself that he is going to get up in the world, stand for something, be somebody and achieve something, that does great things.

Yes, ambition is not only a real force, but it is real and powerful just in proportion to its intensity and persistency. Ambition is something more than idle dreaming; it is the substance of things expected. There is a divinity, a reality, a prophecy in our desires and longings.

Because there is no limit to human growth there is no satisfying human ambition—man's highest aspiration. When we reach the height which looks so attractive from below, we find our new position as unsatisfying as the old, and a perpetual call to go higher still rings in our ears. That mysterious urge within us never allows us to rest but is always disturbing, prodding us for our good. No matter how high we may climb in our achievement, there is something which seems to call down from a still higher eminence, "Excelsior! Excelsior!" "Come up higher."

It is true that if a man persistently, year in and year out, refuses to work out his high destiny, insists upon being a nobody, a shirk, the urge of ambition becomes less and less insistent and its voice finally grows too faint to make itself heard. On every hand we see young men who started out with brilliant prospects when they left college;

their friends predicted great things for them, but somehow or other, the enthusiasm of their school or college days has oozed out. The continual suggestion of possibility which came to them from their school environment, the contagion from the ambitious spirit all about them, seemed then to multiply their prospects, to magnify their ability and to stir up their ambition until they really thought they were going to amount to something in the world, were going to accomplish something; but after they got away from the battery charging institutions they gradually lost their enthusiasm ; their ambition dwindled and they began to doubt whether they could realize the dreams which haunted them in their college days. And so, little by little, their ambitious dreams faded, and they resigned themselves to mediocrity or hopeless failure.

No matter how high our youthful ambition, it is very easy to let it wane, to allow our standards to drop. The moment we cease to brace ourselves up, to watch ourselves, we begin to deteriorate, just as a child does when its mother ceases to pay strict attention to it, lets it have its own way. The tendency of the majority at every stage of existence is to go along the line of least resistance, to take the easiest way.

The race instinct to climb is continually at war with the lower nature which would drag it down. Even the noblest beings are not free from this

struggle of the higher with the lower which goes on ceaselessly throughout nature. It is the triumph over the lower that keeps the race on the ascent.

Said Professor William James, "If this life is not a real fight in which something is eternally gained for the universe, it is no better than a game of private theatricals. But it feels like a real fight, as if there were something really wild in the universe, which we with our idealities and faithfulness are needed to reform."

There is no more real fight than that which is being waged perpetually between man's higher and lower nature; we must be perpetually on our guard or the lower will win. There is a schoolmaster in each one of us, it is true, but the moment the schoolmaster gets slack we begin to deteriorate. If we are not continually on the alert our ambition begins to sag, and before we realize it we are in a rut.

We do our most effective work in our struggle to get what we are after, to arrive at the goal of our ambition. We make our greatest effort, our most strenuous endeavor, while we are climbing, not after we have arrived at our goal. This is one reason why rich men's sons rarely achieve any great personal success. They lack the climbing motive, that tremendous urge, the prodding of ambition, which drives us on to achieve what we desire. Ambition is the leader of all great achievement. It is the forerunner which goes ahead and clears a way for the other faculties. It is the prod which

urges men out of their lethargy, overcomes their inertia. It is what keeps us to our task, but for it we would quit work and lie down. But for ambition we should be a sorry lot.

Unless you are inspired by a great purpose, a resolute determination to make your life count, you will not make much of an impression upon the world about you. The difference in the quantity and quality of success is largely one of ambition and determination. If you lack these you must cultivate them vigorously, persistently, or you will be a nobody. I have never known any one to amount to much who did not have an ambition to make a place for himself in the world, and who did not keep his purpose alive by the constant struggle to reach his goal. The moment ambition sags, we lose the force that propels us; and once our propelling power is gone we drift with the tide of cir

cumstances.

ENTHUSIASM, THE MIRACLE

WORKER

He did it with all his heart and prospered.

II Chronicles.

What are hardships, ridicule, persecution, toil, sickness, to the soul throbbing with an over-mastering enthusiasm?

Every great and commanding movement in the annals of the world is a triumph of enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever achieved without it.

P

ASTEUR, the great scientist and head of the

Pasteur Institute in Paris, as he left his work one night was heard to say: "Ah, seven hours to wait before I can go back to the laboratory!"

This is the spirit that wins, the enthusiasm which takes the drudgery out of the hardest work and makes it a delight.

Some time ago I read about a colored man who was sitting in the shade of a tree while his hoe was lying idle and the weeds were thick among the vegetables. When asked if he were resting, he replied, "No; I'm not tired. I'm only waiting for the sun to go down so I can quit work."

This is the spirit that loses, the lack of energy and enthusiasm that inevitably leads to failure. It will make all the difference in the world to