"Sacrifice and self-devotion hallow earth and fill the skies, "You will be invincible if you engage in no strife where you are not sure that it is in your power to conquer."-Epictetus, "Enchiridion." "Blessed is he who hath not trod the ways -Aubrey de Vere. 66 Self-schooled, self-scanned, self-honoured, self-serene." M CHAPTER VIII. R. SMILES, in his well-known volume, has covered the ground indicated by the title given to this chapter, and we have no intention of endeavouring to reap where an abundant harvest has already been gathered by so laborious and able a hand. Yet from a book which purports to set before its readers the Secret of Success, and to lead them so to live this life as to make the best of it, it would be impossible to omit all reference to the important subject of Self-Help. So many lives have been wrecked by the fatal policy of waiting upon others! So many fortunes lie shattered in the mire because men call upon Jupiter for assistance instead of putting their own shoulders to the wheel! No "good luck," as the world calls it, ever comes to the young man who sits by the wayside, wringing his hands, and looking for it to drop from heaven. The gods long ago ceased to send down golden images of Pallas to the help of suffering humanity. No doubt many are still born in the purple, nursed in the lap of luxury, and bred up in the arms of wealth; but even they, if they would be "true men," must learn to trust to their own strength. We are what we choose to be. The great law of life is a commonplace: man is his own star; he makes or mars himself. Shelley once said that the Almighty had given men arms long enough to reach the skies, if they would only put them out. Men do not want to reach the skies, would not be the better for reaching them; but they ought to put out their arms. It is useless to grasp at the Unattainable, but it is a good thing to employ actively the vis animi that is in us, and not to depend upon that of others. The lesson of self-help is the first that the young adventurer should learn, and take to heart. We do not mean that he is to despise the counsel or 276 MEANING TO GET ON. refuse the sympathy of friends, if such be offered, but he is not to expect it. He is to enter the battle determined "to fight for his own hand," though willing enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with loyal comrades, or to obey the orders of a competent general, if such should prove to be his duty. The cheering words, "Heaven helps those who help themselves," must prove the guiding maxim of his career. It has been said that a man engages in the struggle of life with a tacit understanding with himself that he is to rise. We do not think that the majority of men entertain so hopeful a resolution; it is one that will be welcome only to brave hearts and sound minds. However this may be, the rise must be step by step. Obstacles must be cleared out of the way, difficulties must be overcome. Probably at the outset neither you nor I have any distinct aim. "It is only in books that the young man resolves from the first dawning of ambition to become owner of such an estate or bishop of such a see. But he means to get on, and devotes all his powers to that end. He fixes his thoughts beyond immediate self-indulgence, chooses his friends as they will help the main design, falls in love on the same principle, and, habitually deferring to a vague but glowing future, learns to work towards it, and for its sake to be self-denying and long-sighted. His instincts quicken; he puts forth feelers which men who take their pleasure from hand to mouth have no use for; he lives in habitual caution, with an eye always to the main chance. Thus he refines and enhances that natural discretion which doubles the weight and value of every other gift, and yet keeps them on an unobtrusive level, being itself the most notable quality, till he is universally pronounced the man made to get on by people who do not know that it is a steady will that has made and kept him what he is." Here, in a few words, lies the whole philosophy of self-help. The fact is, that the man who would achieve even a respectable measure of prosperity, or do his life-work with a moderate degree of honesty, must rely upon himself and not upon others. Favouritism may place a marshal's baton in the hand of an incompetent man, but it cannot ensure him against defeat. The emperor, says St. Gregory the Great, can make an ape be called a lion, but he cannot make him become one. The Emperor Sigismund replied to a courtier who begged that he would ennoble him, "I can give you privileges and SELF-HELP AND OVER-HELP. 277 fiefs, but I cannot make you noble." No; it is in ourselves that we are thus and thus. Self-help is the condition of healthful progress. Dr. Wolcott having observed the skill of the lad Opie in drawing likenesses, took him into his service as a postboy, carried him to London, and advanced him as a prodigy. But it was the boy's own industry and perseverance that had taught him to paint, and it was not until he threw off the patronage of Wolcott that he did himself justice, studying patiently, and confiding in his own resources. It is certain that many promising careers are ruined by over-help. A mind that is constantly held in leading-strings never learns to walk. Benjamin West might have developed into a great painter had he had no friends. It is recorded of Michael Angelo that he devoted sixteen hours out of the twenty-four to the study and practice of his art; that he often rose at midnight to continue the labours of the day, the light by which he handled his chisel proceeding from a bit of candle fixed to the top of his cap of pasteboard. It is these self-helpful, laborious Michael Angelos, and not the pampered and patronised Benjamin Wests, who attain to immortality. Many men have owed their success in life to their utter friendlessness. Had "influence" procured for Lord Tenterden, when a singer in Canterbury Cathedral, the chorister's place he coveted, he would never have risen to the "curule chair. Be it observed that we are here speaking of "friends" in the sense of "patrons." True friendship is the bliss of life, but patronage is its misery. The mention of Lord Tenterden reminds us that his career supplies a text from which it is possible to preach a sermon of some significance. His father kept a barber's shop opposite the grand west front of Canterbury Cathedral. Mr. Abbott is described as a tall, upright, old-fashioned man, with a thick pigtail, whose only ambition was to shave his customers at a penny, and to cut their hair at twopence a head. He had a son named Charles, "a decent, grave, pensive-looking youth," who was educated for a small sum at the King's School, and attracted the notice of his master by his conduct and cleverness, and his skilfulness in composing Latin verses. When he was fourteen his parents thought he was old enough to earn his own living, and put him forward as a candidate for a chorister's place which was then vacant. The hairdresser was |