Love, Life Work | Page 9

of the wreck, sunk the waste iron in
the river and repaired the bridge before the arrival of the
Superintendent on the spot.
"Who gave you the authority to do all this?" demanded the
Superintendent.
"Nobody," replied Tom, "I assumed the authority."
The next month Tom Potter's salary was five thousand dollars a year,
and in three years he was making ten times this, simply because he
could get other men to do things.
Why wait for an accident to discover Tom Potter? Let us set traps for
Tom Potter, and lie in wait for him. Perhaps Tom Potter is just around
the corner, across the street, in the next room, or at our elbow. Myriads
of embryonic Tom Potters await discovery and development if we but
look for them.
I know a man who roamed the woods and fields for thirty years and
never found an Indian arrow. One day he began to think "arrow," and
stepping out of his doorway he picked one up. Since then he has
collected a bushel of them.
Suppose we cease wailing about incompetence, sleepy indifference and
slipshod "help" that watches the clock. These things exist--let us

dispose of the subject by admitting it, and then emphasize the fact that
freckled farmer boys come out of the West and East and often go to the
front and do things in a masterly way. There is one name that stands
out in history like a beacon light after all these twenty-five hundred
years have passed, just because the man had the sublime genius of
discovering Ability. That man is Pericles. Pericles made Athens.
And to-day the very dust of the streets of Athens is being sifted and
searched for relics and remnants of the things made by people who
were captained by men of Ability who were discovered by Pericles.
There is very little competition in this line of discovering Ability. We
sit down and wail because Ability does not come our way. Let us think
"Ability," and possibly we can jostle Pericles there on his pedestal,
where he has stood for over a score of centuries--the man with a
supreme genius for recognizing Ability. Hail to thee, Pericles, and hail
to thee, Great Unknown, who shall be the first to successfully imitate
this captain of men.

Mental Attitude
Success is in the blood. There are men whom fate can never keep
down--they march forward in a jaunty manner, and take by divine right
the best of everything that the earth affords. But their success is not
attained by means of the Samuel Smiles-Connecticut policy. They do
not lie in wait, nor scheme, nor fawn, nor seek to adapt their sails to
catch the breeze of popular favor. Still, they are ever alert and alive to
any good that may come their way, and when it comes they simply
appropriate it, and tarrying not, move steadily on.
Good health! Whenever you go out of doors, draw the chin in, carry the
crown of the head high, and fill the lungs to the utmost; drink in the
sunshine; greet your friends with a smile, and put soul into every
hand-clasp.
Do not fear being misunderstood; and never waste a moment thinking
about your enemies. Try to fix firmly in your own mind what you
would like to do, and then without violence of direction you will move
straight to the goal.
Fear is the rock on which we split, and hate the shoal on which many a
barque is stranded. When we become fearful, the judgment is as
unreliable as the compass of a ship whose hold is full of iron ore; when

we hate, we have unshipped the rudder; and if ever we stop to meditate
on what the gossips say, we have allowed a hawser to foul the screw.
Keep your mind on the great and splendid thing you would like to do;
and then, as the days go gliding by, you will find yourself
unconsciously seizing the opportunities that are required for the
fulfillment of your desire, just as the coral insect takes from the running
tide the elements that it needs. Picture in your mind the able, earnest,
useful person you desire to be, and the thought that you hold is hourly
transforming you into that particular individual you so admire.
Thought is supreme, and to think is often better than to do.
Preserve a right mental attitude--the attitude of courage, frankness and
good cheer.
Darwin and Spencer have told us that this is the method of Creation.
Each animal has evolved the parts it needed and desired. The horse is
fleet because he wishes to be; the bird flies because it desires to; the
duck has a web foot because it wants to swim. All things come through
desire and every