“The first requisite of success is to know what you desire. Misty, uncertain hopes and changing wishes bring uncertain results. The reason we hear so much of luck and chance in life is on account of the absence of clear ideals. You must work out in your own mind what you wish to achieve. Are you a clerk in a big store, and see yourself in the future always as a clerk, you will always be one. Suppose, on the other hand, you see yourself in imagination as the head of the establishment, and hold this constantly in mind as you work away in your lowly position day after day. This very thought is bringing you toward your ideal. You will have an alertness for business, a desire to please, and the welfare of the establishment will be constantly before you. You will always be on time, and when there is extra work you will remain a little later and never think of asking if you are to be paid for over time. “This cheerful and attentive disposition is sure to bring you promotion, and even over the heads of older employees. When a foreman is wanted for the head of a department you will be the one selected--no mistake, it cannot be otherwise. The ideal you hold in your mind is coming toward you sure. The whirligig of time, which is ever sifting, assorting, and bringing to the top the best, is a spiritual law as strong as fate--in fact, it is fate--and you will be the head of this establishment, and a rich man. “We do not say that to be the head of a big business and to be rich are the chief ends for which to work, but as far as you prize these things, you can only secure them in the way I have mentioned. “If you are a country school-teacher, on a small salary, and never expect to be invited to teach in a higher school, you never will. But if your ambition is to be principal in a college, you can attain this position. You will read the educational journals, and will know all of the great teachers who now live, and all of those who have gone before. Their names and lives will be familiar to you. You will dwell in thought on the virtues of Roger Ascham, and Arnold of Rugby will be your friend. You will attend the Teachers’ Institutes and take part, too, and encourage the leader by your sympathy. You will attract to your side all the good teachers in the neighborhood, and will soon be in communication with the chief educators in the country, and your promotion is sure as sunrise. As soon as you are made worthy by holding fast to the ideal, you will be called up higher. But suppose you seek to attain promotion by connivance and wire-pulling, your defeat is certain. The thing to do is to be worthy and be ready to accept the invitation promptly, and it will come. “The necessity of this clearness of ideal which brings a calm certainty of manner is more marked perhaps in the professions of law and healing than elsewhere.