Never was there a moment more favourable for turning talent towards opportunity and opportunity into triumph than Great Britain now presents to the man or woman whom ambition stirs to make a success of life.  The dominions of the British Empire abolished long ago the privileges which birth confers.  No bar has been set there to prevent poverty rising to the heights of wealth and power, if the man were found equal to the task.

The same development has taken place in Great Britain to-day.  Men are no longer born into Cabinets; the ladder of education is rapidly reaching a perfection which enables a man born in a cottage or a slum attaining the zenith of success and power.

There stand the three attributes to be attained—­Judgment, Industry, and Health.  Judgment can be improved, industry can be acquired, health can be attained by those who will take the trouble.  These are the three pillars on which we can build the golden pinnacle of success.

II

HAPPINESS:  THREE SECRETS

Near by the Temple of Success based on the three pillars of Health, Industry, and Judgment, stands another temple.  Behind the curtains of its doors is concealed the secret of happiness.

There are, of course, many forms of that priceless gift.  Different temperaments will interpret it differently.  Various experiences will produce variations of the blessing.  A man may make a failure in his affairs and yet remain happy.  The spiritual and inner life is a thing apart from material success.  Even a man who, like Robert Louis Stevenson, suffers from chronic ill-health can still be happy.

But we must leave out these exceptions and deal with the normal man, who lives by and for his practical work, and who desires and enjoys both success and health.  Granted that he has these two possessions, must he of necessity be happy?  Not so.  He may have access to the first temple, but the other temple may still be forbidden him.  A rampant ambition can be a torture to him.  An exaggerated selfishness can make his life miserable, or an uneasy conscience may join with the sins of pride to take their revenge on his mentality.  For the man who has attained success and health there are three great rules:  “To do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly.”  These are the three pillars of the Temple of Happiness.

Justice, which is another word for honesty in practice and in intention, is perhaps the easiest of the virtues for the successful man of affairs to acquire.  His experience has schooled him to something more profound than the acceptance of the rather crude dictum that “Honesty is the best policy”—­which is often interpreted to mean that it is a mistake to go to gaol.  But real justice must go far beyond a mere fear of the law, or even a realisation that it does not pay to indulge in sharp practice in business.  It must be a mental habit—­a fixed intention to be fair in dealing with money or politics, a natural desire to be just and to interpret all bargains and agreements in the spirit as well as in the letter.