44 ATTAINABLE IDEALS. 



death-throes of a terrible crisis." True ; but tlien it 

 is not added at tlie same time that Abraham L'mcohi 

 was a born statesman, and that agricultural labor- 

 ers generally do not go about the world like un- 

 fledged Presidents, with the inner consciousness of 

 their glorious potentiality of swaying a great em- 

 pire as their chief encouragement while they hoe 

 potatoes. Every French soldier, we are often as- 

 sured, carries a marshal's 6(^^on hidden in his knap- 

 sack ; but most of them carry it in their knapsacks 

 till the day of their death, without ever having the 

 chance of producing it openly at a review at Long- 

 champs. If they did not do so, what would be- 

 come of the rank and file, and where would the 

 necessary pay be found for so many generals? 

 The Army of the Republic of Haiti is the only one 

 known to exist at the present moment in which 

 the number of field-officers actually exceeds the 

 number of privates ; and the Republic of Haiti is 

 not regarded even by the friends of freedom as 

 a distinguished triumph of the human intellect. 



The real ideal, we take it, which ninety-nine out 

 of a hundred of us ought soberly and honestly to 

 place before ourselves, is not the ideal of "getting 

 on " into another rank, but the ideal of doing the 

 best and highest work we can in the station in life 

 \ in which we actually find ourselves. Not that we 

 would for one moment discourage the favored few 

 who really feel that they have it in them by their 



