DOING THINGS ONCE.

When Henry Ward Beecher was asked how it was that he could accomplish so
much more than other men, he replied:

"I don't do more, but less, than other people. They do all their work
three times over: once in anticipation, once in actuality, once in
rumination. I do mine in actuality alone, doing it once instead of three
times."

This was by the intelligent exercise of Mr. Beecher's will-power in
concentrating his mind upon what he was doing at a given moment, and
then turning to something else. Any one who has observed business men
closely, has noticed this characteristic. One of the secrets of a
successful life is to be able to hold all of our energies upon one
point, to focus all of the scattered rays of the mind upon one place or
thing.


CENTRALIZING FORCE.

The mental reservoir of most people is like a leaky dam which we
sometimes see in the country, where the greater part of the water flows
out without going over the wheel and doing the work of the mill. The
habit of mind-wandering, of worrying about this and that,

"Genius, that power which dazzles mortal eyes,
Is oft but Perseverance in disguise."