An aim in life is the only fortune worth the finding; and it is not to be found in foreign lands, but in the heart itself.--R. L. Stevenson.

The man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder; a waif, a nothing, a no-man. Have a purpose in life ... and having it, throw such strength of mind and muscle into thy work as has been given thee.--Carlyle.

It is better to be worn out with work in a thronged community than to perish of inaction in a stagnant solitude.--Mrs. Gaskell.

The advantage of leisure is mainly that we have the power of choosing our own work; not certainly that it confers any privilege of idleness.--Lord Avebury.

Suffering becomes beautiful, when any one bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility, but through greatness of mind.--Aristotle.

Character is a perfectly educated will.--Novalis.

One of the most ma.s.sive and enduring gratifications is the feeling of personal worth, ever afresh, brought into consciousness by effectual action; and an idle life is balked of its hopes partly because it lacks this.--Herbert Spencer.

Truth is always consistent with itself, and needs nothing to help it out.--Tillotson.

He that is choice of his time will be choice of his company and choice of his actions.--Jeremy Taylor.

Our character is our will; for what we will we are.--Archbishop Manning.

He overcomes a stout enemy that overcomes his own anger.--Chilo.

Good company and good conversation are the sinews of virtue.

--Stephen Allen.

If you have great talents, industry will improve them; if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiency. Nothing is denied to well directed labor; nothing is to be obtained without it.

--Joshua Reynolds.

If you are doing any real good you cannot escape the reward of your service.--Patrick Flynn.

Simplicity and plainness are the soul of elegance.--d.i.c.kens.

Happiness is one of the virtues which the people of all nationalities and every pursuit appreciate.--Joe Mitch.e.l.l Chapple.

CHAPTER II

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

I am sure that every girl wishes to become accomplished, and I am quite as certain that every girl can become so if she will.

My dictionary defines an accomplishment as an "acquirement or attainment that tends to perfect or equip in character, manners, or person."

Surely every girl can do something, or has acquired some special line of knowledge, that is covered by this broad definition.

It means that every girl who can sweep a room; read French or German or English as it should be read; bake a loaf of bread; play tennis; darn a stocking; play the violin or pianoforte; give the names of flowers and birds and b.u.t.terflies; write a neat, well-composed letter, either in longhand or shorthand; draw or paint pictures; make a bed or do one or more of a thousand and one other things is accomplished. The more things she can do and the greater the number of subjects on which she is informed, the more highly is she accomplished.

It is understood, as a matter of course, that thoroughness in one's accomplishments is the true measure of his worth. One who knows a few subjects very well is no doubt more accomplished than one who has only a superficial "smatter" of knowledge concerning many.

We can all readily understand how much more pleasing it is to hear a true virtuoso play the violin or pianoforte than it is to listen to a beginner who can perform indifferently on a number of instruments.

"A little diamond is worth a mountain of gla.s.s."

Quality is the thing that counts.

The desire and disposition to do a thing well, coupled with a firm determination, are pretty sure to bring the ability necessary for achieving the wished-for end. The will is lacking more often than is the way.

It is a matter of frequent comment that we usually expect too much of the average young and attractive girl in the way of accomplishments.

Because she is pleasing in her general appearance we are apt to feel a sense of disappointment if we find that her qualities of mind do not equal her outward charms.

Charles Lamb says: "I know that sweet children are the sweetest things in nature," and adds, "but the prettier the kind of a thing is, the more desirable it is that it should be pretty of its kind." And so it is with girls who are bright and blithe and beautiful; the world would give them every charming quality of mind and heart to match the grace of face and figure.

Hence we find that the girl who is most fondly wanted, by the members of her own family, by her schoolmates, and by all with whom she shall form an acquaintance, is the one who is as pleasing in her manners as she is beautiful in her physical features.

Of all the accomplishments it is possible for a girl to possess, that of being pleasant and gracious to those about her is the greatest and most desirable. "There is no beautifier of the complexion, or form, or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us," says Emerson.

It is possible for persons to acquire a great deal of information and to become skillful in many things and still be unloved by those with whom they are a.s.sociated.

The heart needs to be educated even more than the mind, for it is the heart that dominates and colors and gives character and meaning to the whole of life. Even the kindest of words have little meaning unless there is a kind heart to make them stand for something that will live.

"You will find as you look back upon your life," says Drummond, "that the moments that stand out, the moments when you have really lived, are the moments when you have done things in a spirit of love. As memory scans the past, above and beyond all the transitory pleasures of life, there leap forward those supreme hours when you have been enabled to do unnoticed kindnesses to those round about you, things too trifling to speak about, but which you feel have entered into your eternal life ... Everything else in our lives is transitory. Every other good is visionary. But the acts of love which no man knows about, or can ever know about--they never fail."

It is the ability to do the many little acts of kindness, and to make the most of all the opportunities for gladding the lives of others, that const.i.tute the finest accomplishment any girl can acquire.

It often happens that the thought of the great kindnesses we should like to do, and which we mean to do, "sometime" in the days to come, keeps us from seeing the many little favors we could, if we would, grant to those just about us at the present time. Yet we all know that it is not the things we are going to do that really count. It is the thing that we do do that is worth while.

No doubt we should all be much more thoughtful of our many present opportunities and make better use of them were we frequently to ask ourselves,

WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO-DAY?

We shall do so much in the years to come, But what have we done to-day?

We shall give our gold in a princely sum, But what did we give to-day?

We shall lift the heart and dry the tear, We shall plant a hope in the place of fear, We shall speak the words of love and cheer; But what did we speak to-day?

We shall be so kind in the after while, But what have we been to-day?

We shall bring each lonely life a smile, But what have we brought to-day?

We shall give to truth a grander birth, And to steadfast faith a deeper worth, We shall feed the hungering souls of earth; But whom have we fed to-day?

We shall reap such joys in the by and by, But what have we sown to-day?

We shall build us mansions in the sky, But what have we built to-day?

'T is sweet in idle dreams to bask, But here and now do we do our task?

Yes, this is the thing our souls must ask, "What have we done to-day?"

Among the every-day accomplishments which everyone should wish to possess is a knowledge of the fine art of smiling. To know how and when to smile, not too much and not too little, is a fine mental and social possession.