Opp] AND SYMBOLS. 251 



getting into a scrape in connection with the same transaction. 

 Officious intermeddlers are generally not very thin-skinned, so 

 that we are able sometimes to see them get out of their scrape 

 without real injury; "but sometimes they get terribly hurt and, 

 it may be, ruined. In that case, unlike the honey-guides, they 

 put all blame for their calamity upon our shoulders, and, with- 

 out referring to their own selfishness, or to the fact that they 

 make us their cat's-paw, protest that their ruin has come upon 

 them by reason of their good-nature in doing us a good turn. 

 A man who has self-respect, and who is sensitive to the suffer- 

 ings of others, had better always avoid officious intermeddlers. 

 If the honey of life cannot be obtained without their aid, it is 

 best to leave it alone. RE. 



The Power of Opportunity. 



The opportunity often makes the man. No personal praise is 

 due to some men for having vigorous and well-developed minds, 

 and in other cases no personal blame is due to those who are 

 feeble and inapt. The question is, what is the opportunity 

 which the individual has had 1 ? Now there are many minds 

 which have been dwarfed and stunted by circumstances, though 

 possessing in themselves splendid powers which only needed 

 proper opportunity to develop. So also there are minds which 

 have expanded to surprising proportions in consequence almost 

 entirely of the opportune influences by which they have been 

 surrounded. The opportunity is to the man what the climate 

 is to the vegetable. For example : In the forests of Brazil vege- 

 tation remains in a state of continual activity because excited 

 by the ceaseless action of the two agents, humidity and heat. 

 Hence certain vegetable forms, which assume in England very 

 humble proportions, present themselves with a floral pomp 

 unknown in temperate climes : some Borraginacese become 

 shrubs, many Euphorbias assume the proportions of majestic 

 trees, offering an agreeable shelter under their thick umbrageous 

 foliage. And whilst we are thus noticing this powerful effect 

 of opportunity, in formation and development, the observation 

 naturally occurs that, as regards mankind, we are obviously 

 unable to form any adequate conception of man's potentialities 



