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man spread out before us, it is not easy to 

 understand where this personal limitation 

 begins. There is no more to be said when 

 this is once understood. It is a matter of 

 personal limitation. Those kindly people who 

 continually occupy themselves with the con- 

 cerns of their neighbours, constantly go wrong 

 because they do not understand the personal 

 limitation. What we call fate is often another 

 word for limitation. Why do I not write better 

 English, and why have I not a nobler style, 

 and why cannot I become the greatest writer 

 who ever lived ? Because I cannot rise above 

 a certain level. If I am a wise man, I find 

 out that level ; I reach it, and am content 

 therewith. Why did not Jefferies make him- 

 self rich with the opportunities he had? Be- 

 cause he could not. Because to grasp an 

 opportunity and to turn it to his own material 

 interest was a thing beyond his personal limi- 

 tation. To seize Time by the forelock, though 

 he go ever so slowly, is to some men impossible. 

 For while they look on and hesitate, another 

 steps in before them ; or the world is looking 

 on and observes the situation, ready to sneer 



