fidelity, who shall prevent you? If you wish not to be restrained or compelled, who shall compel you to desires contrary to your principles; to aversions contrary to your opinion? The judge, perhaps, will pass a sentence against you which he thinks formidable; but can he likewise make you receive it with shrinking? Since, then, desire and aversion are in your own power, for what have you to be anxious? Let this be your introduction; this your narration; this your proof; this your conclusion; this your victory; and this your applause. Thus said Socrates to one who put him in mind to prepare himself for his trial: "Do you not think I have been preparing myself for this very thing my whole life long?" By what kind of preparation? "I have attended to my own work." What mean you? "I have done nothing unjust, either in public or in private life." But if you wish to retain possession of outward things too --your body, your estate, your dignity—I advise you immediately to prepare yourself by every possible preparation; and besides, to consider the disposition of your judge and of your adversary. In that case, if it be necessary to embrace his knees, do so; if to weep, weep; if to groan, groan. For when you have once made yourself a slave to externals, be a slave wholly; do not struggle, and be alternately willing and unwilling, but be simply and thoroughly the one or the other-free or a slave; instructed or ignorant; a gamecock or a craven; either bear to be beaten till you die, or give out at once; and do not be soundly beaten first, and then give out at last. CHARACTER-BUILDING How Intellectual Power is Acquired By ROBERT WATERS [Robert Waters, author and educator, was born at Thurso, Scotland, in May 1835. At the age of eight he came to America. Early in life he worked in printing offices in Montreal and New York, meanwhile studying English branches, together with modern languages. In 1861 he went to London and the next year crossed to France, where he taught English and German at St. Quentin, Picardy. In 1863 he began teaching English in the Commercial School, Offenbach-on-theMain, Hesse-Darmstadt. In 1867 he returned to America and taught in the German-American schools in New York. In 1868 he went to teach in the Hoboken Academy, a position he resigned in 1883 to become principal of the West Hoboken public schools, which post he still holds. He is the author of "Intellectual Pursuits," "Life of William Cobbett," "Cobbett's Grammar," "Shakespeare, as Portrayed by Himself," "John Selden and his Table-talk,' 'Flashes of Wit and Humor,' and "Culture by Conversation," and has translated "Magical Experiments, or Science in Play."] I KNOW no finer example of the difference between a youth of genius and an ordinary youth than that presented by Thomas Holcroft. He was born in London in 1745 and died in that city in 1809. While still a mere child he had to undergo the most extreme suffering as a peddler and hawker, being obliged to tramp with his father and mother around the country, driving loaded asses from place to place, animals that were as hard-worked and tired as himself. In this occupation he endured hunger, exposure, nakedness, fatigue, and all the humiliations of poverty. Happening, in his twelfth year, to witness the races at Nottingham, and to get a sight of the stable boys who took care of the horses, he was so strongly impressed by the contrast between his own wretched and ragged condition and that of these well-fed and handsomely dressed boys, that he resolved to try and become one of them. Accordingly he made application to several of the turfmen for a position, but was repeatedly refused. After many rude rebuffs he succeeded at last, and secured a position under a kind master at Newmarket. He was not long in this service before he began to distinguish himself as a rider, and his master was well pleased with him. He now enjoyed what he never knew before, good food, comfortable lodging, and handsome clothes. "I fed voluptuously," he says, “and not a prince on earth had half the appetite or a tenth of the relish I had for my meals. I was warmly clad, nay, gorgeously; for I had a handsome new livery, of which I was extremely proud, and never suspected there was disgrace in it. Instead of being obliged to drag through the dirt after the most sluggish, obstinate and despised of all our animals, I was mounted on the noblest animal that the earth. contains, had him under my control, and was borne by him over hill and dale with the swiftness of the wind. Was not this a change such as might excite reflection even in the mind of a boy?" With most boys this change would have excited elation, but little reflection. Now mark the difference between him and the other stable boys who were his companions. In his leisure hours he read everything he could lay his hands on, and tried to learn all he could. He studied arithmetic, music, history, anything that offered a chance of improving his mind. After two years of this easy, luxurious jockey life, he determined to quit it, for he had grown beyond it, and felt that he was capable of better things. "I finally became disgusted," he says, "with a life which offered none but material attractions, and determined to change it. I began to despise my companions for the grossness of their ideas, and for their total neglect of every pursuit in which the mind had any share; and they began to despise me for the oddness of my pursuits and the little interest I took in theirs. My attempts to acquire some small portion of knowledge they regarded with sneers of contempt; and not one of them offered me any encouragement, either as prompter or rival." Like many others, he had to "come out from among them," and walk his own way. Having grown beyond them, he could |