In any career there are three main elements of success: talent, education, work. Eads's life, like that of so many other self-made men, seems to show us that education is less important than the other two. But while it is true that he had not the formal education of an engineer, he had a certain very broad training gained in experience, and had read hard. Education, after all, is nothing but a summary method of teaching the lessons of life; therefore, while less insistent, it is often swifter than practical experience. And there is no doubt that a man like Eads would be the first to deplore a young man's failing to appreciate its value. When he himself was young, he never supposed that he was a genius; but if he had thought this, he would have striven to be the best-read and the best-equipped of geniuses; believing that though he might be mistaken about his talent he could make sure of his culture. The Riverside Press _Electrotyped and printed by H. O. Houghton & Co.._ _Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A._