THE HIGHEST SUCCESS. 69 sumed all his web-making material for weaving snares. In this way a great number of people act; they dance first to one thing and then to another, do a little piece of this and a little piece of that, but never finishing anything. If you wish to be successful, learn to do one thing at a time. "After all, the getting on in life, the being successful in the things of this world, is not by any means the highest good; there is another life to look forward to after this is ended, a longer and more important life than ever this can be; and very often success in this means failure in that. Better be poor here and rich there, than rich here and poor there; better fail here and be successful there, than successful here and fail there. "This life has such important issues that we need be careful how we act, that when the day of reckoning comes we may not be found wanting. It is natural and right that you should wish to be successful in this world, that each one should wish and strive to get on. But, while it is so, always remember that there are higher successes than that of mere moneymaking, which are open for all to compete for, and which all must strive after, or incur the possibility of a fearful peril." "He who gropes in the gutter will dirty his fingers." "He that falls in the dirt, the longer he lies the dirtier he is." "Without pains no gains." "Stars do not lie on the ground." "Look up, for the heavens are over all." "The higher you climb the more you can see." CHAPTER V. WHAT LAME FELIX SAID CONCERNING LOOKING-UP. S TEPHEN REEK had made his farewells, and, staff in hand, had started on his long walk to London to make his fortune. Lame Felix's talk concerning money-getting seemed to agree with him about as much as vinegar would with an infant, and I expect very few of the proverbs and precepts lingered in his mind by the time he reached London. But Felix himself seemed much concerned to know that a mere lad, as Stephen was, should be blessed with none of the higher, nobler, and more generous impulses of youth,-which is its charm and glory, and gives to it that beauty which after years destroy;—and on the following evening, while seated on the bench outside his cottage door with several boys round him, his mind seemed still full of the lad, and what his probable fate would likely be. |