There is something sublime in the youth who possesses the spirit of boldness and fearlessness, who has proper confidence in his ability to do and dare.

The world takes us at our own valuation.  It believes in the man who believes in himself, but it has little use for the timid man, the one who is never certain of himself; who cannot rely on his own judgment, who craves advice from others, and is afraid to go ahead on his own account.

It is the man with a positive nature, the man who believes that he is equal to the emergency, who believes he can do the thing he attempts, who wins the confidence of his fellow-man.  He is beloved because he is brave and self-sufficient.

Those who have accomplished great things in the world have been, as a rule, bold, aggressive, and self-confident.  They dared to step out from the crowd, and act in an original way.  They were not afraid to be generals.

There is little room in this crowding, competing age for the timid, vacillating youth.  He who would succeed to-day must not only be brave, but must also dare to take chances.  He who waits for certainty never wins.

     “The law of the soul is eternal endeavor,
     That bears the man onward and upward forever.”

“A man can be too confiding in others, but never too confident in himself.”

Never admit defeat or poverty.  Stoutly assert your divine right to hold your head up and look the world in the face; step bravely to the front whatever opposes, and the world will make way for you.  No one will insist upon your rights while you yourself doubt that you have any.  Believe you were made for the place you fill.  Put forth your whole energies.  Be awake, electrify yourself; go forth to the task.  A young man once said to his employer, “Don’t give me an easy job.  I want to handle heavy boxes, shoulder great loads.  I would like to lift a big mountain and throw it into the sea,”—­and he stretched out two brawny arms, while his honest eyes danced and his whole being glowed with conscious strength.

[Illustration:  Charles Robert Darwin, English Naturalist. b.  Shrewsbury, 1809; d.  Down, 1882.]

The world in its heart admires the stern, determined doer.  “The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows whither he is going.”  “It is wonderful how even the apparent casualties of life seem to bow to a spirit that will not bow to them, and yield to assist a design, after having in vain attempted to frustrate it.”

“The man who succeeds,” says Prentice Mulford, “must always in mind or imagination live, move, think, and act as if he gained that success, or he never will gain it.”

“We go forth,” said Emerson, “austere, dedicated, believing in the iron links of Destiny, and will not turn on our heels to save our lives.  A book, a bust, or only the sound of a name shoots a spark through the nerves, and we suddenly believe in will.  We cannot hear of personal vigor of any kind, great power of performance, without fresh resolution.”