"All fame is foreign, but of true desert; Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart; One self-approving hour whole years outweighs Of stupid starers, and of loud huzzas; And more true joy Marcellus exiled feels Than Caesar with a senate at his heels."

- Pope.

"Two things are invariably necessary to successful work, no matter what its line may be: first, the love thereof; second, confidence in the success thereof. Only as we love can we work beautifully, harmonically, courageously. Courage comes with love; it is love alone that makes tasks easy and fingers fly fast."

- W. J. COLVILLE.

Very few people care to question the desirability of success in life, and yet many doubtless differ as to what constitutes real success. Some view success from the standpoint of the accumulation of material wealth; others see success in political or social preferment; still others in public recognition of literary or artistic ability. One person might attain to all these varying possibilities of life and yet not be really successful. Real success must be measured by a standard other than by the possession of any or all the things previously mentioned. A truly successful life carries with it something more than the possession of riches or any worldly recognition.

The elements of success are inherent in every individual. The possibility of greatness is latent in every soul, and greatness may take on one phase or another, resulting in one or manifold expressions. That few people do really become great or attain to real success in life is not because they are lacking in possibilities, but because they refuse to follow the highest dictates of their own conscience, or because they are too lazy, either mentally or physically. It is hard to make some people realize that success must be attained through their own efforts; they think that luck or chance is going to bring about a condition whereby they will profit.

Now, the way of life is a strait and narrow one, and the man or woman who refuses to recognize it as such can not hope to attain to any real or lasting success, because success in life has for its foundation the development of character. If there is lack of character, there can be no permanent success. People without character have sometimes the shadow, that is, certain external evidences of success, but if you could look behind the masks of life you would find that they were deficient in the substance. All is not gold that glitters. All is not success that seems to be success.

If young men starting out in life with a business or a professional career ahead of them could rightly discern some of the real requirements of life, and turn their minds to the accomplishment of certain definite action whereby they would develop their latent power and mental faculties wherewith to use that power, the true way of success would then lie open to them.

Let us consider some of the elements which make for success: First of all, the development of the love-nature which results in kindness of thought, of word, and deed. It is just as easy to be kind, to think kindly and to act kindly as to think unkindly or act disagreeably, and the effect on one's own mind, as well as on the minds of others, is far more beneficial. It makes life easier to live and more worth the living. Sometimes we forget this one great essential of character and become impatient and fault-finding with others. When we do this we are placing an obstruction in the way of success.

Besides kindness there is another element: faith; faith in the people we have to deal with, faith in human nature. If we do not have faith and trust in people, we are making it harder for them to have faith and trust in us. The thought we have in mind concerning them is what, sooner or later, they must feel, and it must result in an action in their minds which will call out the doubt and lack of faith we had in them, making them faithless to us as well as to others. How can a man have faith in himself and faith in his fellow man if his interests are centered wholly in himself? We want to think of people always as we would have them be; in order to inspire them with faith we must have faith in them. We must believe in them and show them by our words and actions that we do believe in them. This will call out the best side of their natures, and will help them in a true way.

Having once started to do a thing, faith in one's own power and ability to accomplish the desired end is a necessary qualification to success. Hope, too, is an inspiring element tending to keep the mind cheerful and bright, impressing other minds and making everything easier of accomplishment. Much depends on clearness of mental vision - the faculty of perceiving things in their true relations and of judging them according to their value.

Many people, with the very best intentions, make the mistake of seeing things as they would have them to be, taking no account of the difficulties which lie in the way, and when confronted by them lose hope and courage and are turned back. The result of this is that they lose faith in themselves, and other people lose faith in them, thereby making the second undertaking harder because of failure in the first.

In all success there must be integrity of thought. This will find expression in just deeds. Integrity of thought is that quality in the life of man which seeks to know and understand things as they are, putting aside prejudice and bigotry, that the vision may not be dimmed, that the mind may see clearly, and so, through clear vision, can act rightly. Integrity of thought and of purpose causes man to adjust himself to his environment, and thus establish true relations between himself and his fellow man, for a man's influence is determined by the clearness and integrity of his thought and the directness and energy of his action. As the mind thinks clearly, it is better able to act with decision, as clear thought finds its effective conclusion in what one accomplishes in the outer world.