Of ten men who fail in life, nine men fail for want of zeal, earnestness, courage, where one man fails for want of ability. This half-heartedness, this lack of zeal, this timidity, this shrinking from duty and hard tasks is seen on all sides and among all classes. But I tell you, boys and girls, that the least enviable people in all the world are those who think that nothing is particularly worth while, that it does not matter much how a thing is done if it is only done with; who dwaddle along in a shabby sort of a way, considering only their own ease, with little sense of responsibility, and with no shame in being shirks. Every boy should make up his mind to live a round, full, earnest, intense life. Every girl should do the same. Don’t be satisfied, boys and girls, to be jellyfishes, with only a capacity for drawing in nourishment and lingering on until your time comes to die. Be vertebrates, people of backbone, purpose, aim, enthusiasm, earnestness. At a public dinner President Roosevelt asked Governor Odell of New York if he knew anything worth doing that was not hard in the doing, and the governor could think of nothing. As a rule perhaps there is nothing, and yet things once hard in the doing become easy as skill is gained by repetition. Be in earnest, be faithful and resolute, and it will act like a tonic, giving light to the eyes, springiness to the step, and buoyancy to the heart. [Illustration: BEING IN EARNEST.] Don’t be overcome by your circumstances. No matter how distracting a man’s surroundings may be, he may yet be able to focus his powers completely and to marshal them with certainty if he makes up his mind to do it. If things go hard with the self-mastered man or boy, he will be able to trample upon difficulties and to use his stumbling-blocks as stepping-stones. If a great misfortune overtake him he will simply use it as a starting point for a new departure, a turning point for more determined effort. He may be weighed down with sorrow and suffering, but he always starts anew with redoubled determination to do the thing he has set his heart upon doing. He will not be discouraged; he will not give up; he will fight it out to the end. Put him in prison, and he will write the “Pilgrim’s Progress.” Deprive him of his eyesight and he will write the “Paradise Lost.” It was the spirit of earnestness which fired the soul of Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms, who, after being urged to recant, said: “Here I stand; I can do no other; God help me!” It was this spirit which characterized William Lloyd Garrison, the champion of the abolition of slavery, who, when he was urged to stop fighting slavery, exclaimed: “I will not equivocate, I will not retract, I will not be moved one inch, and I will be heard.” So be in earnest, boys and girls, at home, at school, at work and at play. It will help you a thousand-fold. YOUNG PEOPLE AND LIFE INSURANCE.