itself in order that it may attain to happiness in that period of
middle-age which still gives to assured success its real flavour. Youth
is the time of hope; old age is the time for looking back on the
pleasures and achievements of the past--when success or failure may seem
matters of comparative unimportance. Successful middle-age stands
between the two. Its calm is not the result either of senility or
failure. It represents that solid success which enables a man to
adventure into fresh spheres without any perturbation. New fields call
to him--Art, or Letters, or Public Service. Success is already his, and
it will be his own fault if he does not achieve happiness as well.

Successful middle-age appears to me to be the ideal of practical men. I
have tried to indicate the method by which it can be attained by any
young man who is sufficiently resolute in his purpose. Finance,
Commerce, and Industry are, under modern conditions, spheres open to the
talent of any individual. The lack of education in the formal sense is
no bar to advancement. Every young man has his chance. But will he
practise industry, economy, and moderation, avoid arrogance and panic,
and know how to face depression with a stout heart? Even if he is a
genius, will he know how not to soar with duly restrained wings?

The secret of power is the method by which the fire of youth is
translated into the knowledge of experience. In these essays I have
suggested a short cut to that knowledge. I once had youth, and now I
have experience, and I believe that youth can do anything if its desire
for success is sufficiently strong to curb all other desires. I also
believe that a few words of experience can teach youth how to avoid the
pitfalls of finance which wait for the most audacious spirits. I write
out of the conviction of my own experience.