The ability to command a high grade of compensation for labor of any kind depends largely upon a man's own confidence in his skill, and his ability to perform work rapidly, as well as skillfully. A factory which can turn out double the quantity of work of its competitor, will secure the best contracts and give the greatest satisfaction. In the same way, a man who can do double the quantity of work done by a fellow-workman will, if his labor be equally skillful, be regarded as worth three or four times as much as his slower competitor. The pride and dignity attached to superior accomplishments doubles the value of the service. The best man in any department of work commands his own price, and people are willing to give him the full margin of profits. The _best_ surgeon is always demanded when human life is at stake; the best lawyer when property of great value is involved in litigation. And when a man knows that he is the best in his department of work, whatever it may be, he has that confidence in himself which will enable him to exact good wages. As long as a man realizes that he is inferior, his work is at a discount and he himself deficient in dignity and self-confidence. An old darkey, who was famed for his skill as a butcher, was employed by a stranger to slaughter a hog. The service being well performed, Pompey demanded five dollars in payment. "Five dollars!" gasped the astonished owner of the pork, "for slaughtering one hog! outrageous!" "No, sah," said Pompey with dignity, "I'se only charged you one dollar for de work, sah. De balance am for de _know how_." It is absolutely essential, in order that one may rise to eminence in a profession, trade or occupation, that he should select one where he can use his best faculties; because he will be rated as a successful man, a man of mediocre talents, or a complete failure, according to the amount of sense displayed by the faculties he uses in his business. If a young man has an excellent talent for music, an ordinary degree of ability in mathematics, and none in regard to art, he will be a success in the orchestra; he may make a precarious living as a book-keeper; but if he starts a photograph gallery, he will disgust his customers and prove a dismal failure. In the first, he will be respected and admired; in the second, tolerated; in the third, despised. In my professional experience I have met thousands of men who were admired and respected as master-minds, because they were using strong faculties, the best they had, and the world gave them more than their dues, because they were ranked in mentality at the grade of their strongest faculties, and their weaknesses were overlooked, hidden in fact by the brightness of the few talents they did possess and use to advantage.