"There are no longer any good chances for young men,"complained a youthful law student toDaniel Webster.(63)"There is always room at the top,"replied the great statesman and jurist.
No chance,no opportunities,in a land where thousands of poor boys become rich men, where newsboys go to Congress,and where those bom in the lowest stations attain the highest positions?(64) The world is all gates.all opportunities to him who will use them. But,like Bunyan's pilgrim in dungeon of the castle,who had the key of deliverance all the time with him but had forgotten it,(65) we fail to rely wholly upon the ability to advance all that is good for us which has been given to the weakest as well as the strongest. We depend too much upon outside assistance.
"We look too high
For things close by."
(66) A Baltimore lady lost a valuable diamond bracelet at a ball.and supposed that it was stolen from the pocket of her cloak. Years afterward she washed the steps of the Peabody Institute, pondering how to get money to buy food, she cut up an old, worn-out, ragged cloak to make a hood, when looking in the lining of the cloak she discovered the diamond bracelet. (67) During all her poverty she was worth $3,500,but did not know it.
(From Opportunities Where You Are)