some subordinate character for which they are cast, and march home
because their fathers and mothers will take care of them. Well, they
had better stay there!

But whether you are rich or poor, if you would be an actor begin at
the beginning. This is the old conventional advice, and is as good
now in its old age as it was in its youth. All actors will agree in
this, and as Puff says, in the _Critic_, "When they do agree on the
stage the unanimity is wonderful." Enroll yourself as a "super" in
some first-class theatre, where there is a stock Company and likely to
be a periodical change of programme, so that even in your low degree
the practice will be varied. After having posed a month as an
innocent English rustic, you may, in the next play, have an
opportunity of being a noble Roman. Do the little you have to do as
well as you can; if you are in earnest the stage-manager will soon
notice it and your advancement will begin at once. You have now made
the plunge, the ice is broken; there is no more degradation for you;
every step you take is forward.

A great American statesman said, "There is always plenty of room at
the top." So there is, Mr. Webster, after you get there. But we must
climb, and climb slowly too, so that we can look back without any
unpleasant sensations; for if we are cast suddenly upon the giddy
height our heads will swim and down we shall go. Look also at the
difficulties that will beset you by beginning "at the top." In the
first place, no manager in his senses will permit it; and if he did,
your failure--which is almost inevitable--not only will mortify you,
but your future course for some time to come will be on the downward
path. Then, in disgust, sore and disheartened, you will retire from
the profession which perhaps your talents might have ornamented if