I iitroiliiction xiii. 



corrigible talkers and grumblers except continuous effort 

 and persistency of purpose. They are willing to do any- 

 thing except work unceasingly day in and day out as those 

 who have secured the coveted wealth, or their forebears 

 must have done, in order to attain the position thej now 

 hold. 



Where the general public make the mistake, I believe, is 

 in only following the career of the rich man after he has 

 already made good, and, like a huge snowball, is able to 

 add to his possessions at such a rate, and with so little 

 apparent effort, as to stagger those who are watching the 

 building up of his fortunes, heedless of the immense effort 

 and unceasing thought as well as toil that he must have 

 put forth at the start to have secured so much wealth. 

 What we all want to remember is that the richest man, 

 like the smallest snowball, had to begin with nothing, and 

 I have always maintained that it is more interesting to 

 watch and much more important to learn from the men 

 who have failed than to covet and grumble at those who 

 have made good. In both cases the seeker after wealth 

 must have been a strenuous, if not always a capable, 

 worker, and it must be agreed that nervousness and lack 

 of application can seldom enter into their daily existence. 

 I am of opinion, therefore, that once we place within the 

 reach of the masses opportunities that we have not 

 enjoyed ourselves for being trained and rendered capable 

 of attracting to their pockets that wealth which we are 

 inclined to covet when it belongs to others, we should 

 find that the national wealth would be more evenly 

 divided throughout the population generally, and would 

 at the same time enormously increase the wealth of the 

 Empire. Once such a training is placed within reach of 

 all, those who continue to complain of others being more 

 wealthy than they are will only have themselves to 

 blame for not having taken advantage of the opportunities 



