The teachers of the Christian religion are continually urging upon mankind the virtues of self-sacrifice and abnegation, and the great wickedness of self-seeking and ambition. Avarice, greed, envy and covetousness are the motives frequently ascribed to those who endeavor to succeed in life. Is it too much to say that very many men desire to possess wealth and influence in order that they may be enabled to benefit others, rather than to minister to their own selfish desires and pleasures? Whether it be to ensure the comfort of their families, to do honor to the family name, or to be in a position to confer benefits on those who stand in need of assistance, such motives most frequently are the real incentives to labor and industry on the part of men who already have achieved

some amount of success.

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It must be borne in mind that in the race of life, unless a man knows how to keep in the running, there are thousands pressing him hard, only too ready to thrust him aside, and if he fall, to trample upon him without compunction or remorse. Self-assertion is indispensable; it is necessary in self-defence. A man who is conscious of and has confidence in his abilities, and who neglects to assert himself, commits a fraud upon those who are dependent upon him. But self-assertion unaccompanied by genuine merit becomes ludicrous, and is correctly described by the vulgar word "cheek." But even pure downright cheek" is frequently the means of obtaining a large amount of success, because it may secure for one a position of importance, the duties of which, by the exercise of discretion alone, may be satisfactorily discharged by surrounding one's self with those whose brains, energy, discretion and address provide the qualities which are needed to maintain the position and fulfil its obligations. "Cheek" may, indeed, do more; it has sometimes obtained for a man a reputation for talents and attainments which he does not possess, or for having greater special knowl edge than he does possess. Having secured a reputation beyond his merits, his only care need be to prevent the world from being undeceived. This should not be very often a matter of difficulty; the world has always shown a ready disposition to assess a man's abilities at his own valuation, or at a reputed valuation; and as such an over-estimate frequently pro

cures the opportunity to achieve success, and as success depends so much upon having an opportunity, it follows that cheek" may be a most valuable factor in making a successful career.

Character and ability are admitted on all hands to be very important elements of success. Merit deserves success, but does not always ensure it, for the reason that its value may be neutralized by bad luck, or some of the elements of luck in a negative quantity. A youth who has sufficient natural talent for painting or sculpture to achieve great success if educated for the profession, may, through poverty, parental want of discernment, or other circumstances over which he has no control, have the misfortune to be placed in some occupation which precludes him entirely from following his favorite pursuit. Choice of profession or business by parents is a lottery; they make soldiers of effeminate cowards, parsons of rogues, and lawyers of fools. The coward might do remarkably well at something else, but bad luck has ordained it otherwise. The family living in the Church must not be lost, and the future rector is nominated from his very cradle. The fine old family business of the solicitor must not pass to strangers; the son, whatever his mental capacities, must succeed the father. Luck, however, often operates in the other direction, and the profession selected by the parent, by pure accident, may be that best suited to the talents and tastes of the youth, and a successful career is the result.

Luck plays an enormous part in forming careers. For example, in professions like the Army, the Law, the Church, or in the Civil Service, and large establishments, a very important element is the removal or retention of obstacles to promotion. Mortality among those holding high positions may give unexpected promotion to some, while others, similarly situated and whose prospects may have appeared better, continue in subordinate positions because no vacancies occur.

Another operation of chance is the age at which an individual secures his opportunity, because an opportunity invaluable to a man under middle age may be absolutely worthless to an older man.

But pure chance exerts its most powerful influence in the matter of health. Character and ability of the highest order, combined with all the other elements of o

portunity and assistance, are, alas! too often rendered nugatory by some form of ill-health, physical or mental.

When speaking of character, dishonesty was referred to as the frequent cause of ruined lives. Here, again, luck is powerful in both its positive and negative forms, in the shape of temptation. Who can tell what careers have been blighted and wrecked, families ruined, and honored names disgraced by the pure accident of strong temptation presenting itself? On the other hand, who can say what successful men have been saved by the good fortune of having been spared temptation which at certain periods of their lives they could not have resisted?

So with intemperance; a youth surrounded by bad examples and temptation at home is less likely to possess the virtue of sobriety than one brought up among abstainers. His failure in life may be the result due to the accident of chance in being tempted to do wrong. Of course, a man who is a drunkard, even under such circumstances, must be weak in character; but the same weakness of character might, in the absence of constant temptation, have proved no hindrance to success.

The opportunity to achieve success depends so much upon health, age, a congenial profession, a business in which competition is not too keen, and an absence of irresistible temptation to do serious wrong, through folly, ignorance, or weakness of will, that, on the whole, opportunity is chance. It may be said that a clever man can make his own opportunity to achieve success; he can choose his profession, for instance. True, if he has had the good fortune not to have had an unsuitable one chosen for him by others, or by himself. A man commencing the business of life frequently has more than one good opening placed before him, and much depends upon a correct decision as to which is the better, and that decision would often be made through some circumstance as purely the operation of chance as the result of tossing up a coin into the air. The advantages of one course may be carefully considered and weighed against the prospects of the other, and yet chance may be the ultimate arbiter. Many who have failed in life have bemoaned that failure was due to their having adopted a fatal course, through no want of judgment, when another was open;

many others have lived to know how at some period in their careers they paused before two turnings, and by good fortune alone avoided destruction.

Luck consists of opportunity and assistance. Opportunity is indispensable to success, but assistance is not indispensable, and success may be achieved not only without assistance, but even with that form of luck in a negative quantity. Unearned capital, influential parentage, useful friends, good personal appearance, good report, and the accident of pure chance favorable at important junctures, these are circumstances which facilitate one's endeavors to succeed in life.

The talismanic properties of money are too well known, alike to those who have it and those who have it not, to require even the briefest comment. Suffice it to say that experience seems to furnish constant examples of the fulfilment of the Scriptural paradox: Unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath."

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But

Parentage, even in the last decade of the nineteenth century, is a potent element. The influence of a father who occupies an important position in the world is, of course, of service to the son. valuable assistance is derived very often from the mere possession of a name which indicates influential connections, or kinship with an aristocratic family, even though it be an impoverished peerage or a new creation. It is undoubtedly true that the English people "dearly love a lord," and it is not untrue that even professing democrats have at times betrayed indications of a kind of sneaking reverence, not only for lords, but also for remote collateral descendants of aristocratic families, and have not unfrequently shown a preference for leaders chosen from the "classes." Parentage still influences employers in the selection of clerks and others in similar positions, although not to so large an extent as formerly. Caste influence is still so strong that the appointment of the son of a mechanic to be a clerk would, in many places of business, produce great indignation, and most probably the new-comer would be virtually boycotted by men perhaps morally and mentally his inferiors, and possessed in a less degree of the instincts and manners of gentlemen. This same caste influence is not confined to the