ioo Character and Success 



like Lincoln, had no chance to go to college, but did 

 have such indomitable tenacity and such keen ap 

 preciation of the value of wisdom that they set to 

 work and learned for themselves far more than they 

 could have been taught in any academy. On the 

 other hand, boys of weak fibre, who go to high 

 school or college instead of going to work after 

 getting through the primary schools, may be se 

 riously damaged instead of benefited. But, as a 

 rule, if the boy has in him the right stuff, it is a 

 great advantage to him should his circumstances 

 be so fortunate as to enable him to get the years 

 of additional mental training. The trouble with 

 the two rich men whose views are above quoted was 

 that, owing largely perhaps to their own defects in 

 early training, they did not know what success really 

 was. Their speeches merely betrayed their own 

 limitations, and did not furnish any argument 

 against education. Success must always include, 

 as its first element, earning a competence for the 

 support of the man himself, and for the bringing 

 up of those dependent upon him. In the vast ma 

 jority of cases it ought to include financially rather 

 more than this. But the acquisition of wealth is 

 not in the least the only test of success. After a 

 certain amount of wealth has been accumulated, the 

 accumulation of more is of very little consequence 

 indeed from the standpoint of success, as success 



