best rather than what either you or your parents _wish_ you could do
best. For it seems to me that this is getting very close to the truth
of life. The thoughtless commonplace that "every boy may be President"
has worked mischief, sown unhappiness, and robbed humanity of useful
workers.

Every boy cannot be President, and, what is more, every boy ought not
to be. Let Edison remain in his laboratory and enrich mankind with his
wizard wisdom. England would have lost her great explorer if Drake had
tried to write plays; while Shakespeare would doubtless have been
sea-sick on the decks of the Golden Hind. Let Verdi compose, and charm
the universal heart with his witcheries of sound; let Cavour keep to
his statesmanship, that a dismembered people may again be made one.
Every man to his calling. "Let the shoemaker stick to his last," said
Appelles.

Ito might have led the Japanese armies to defeat--Oyama led them to
victory. But Ito created modern Japan, wrote its constitution and
introduced those methods which made Oyama's successes possible. Each
man succeeded because he chose to do what Nature fitted him to do.

Of course you may be fitted for more than one thing. Cæsar could have
equaled if not surpassed Cicero in mere oratory had he not preferred
to find, in war and government, a fame more enduring. But, if you try
all things for which you may be equipped by Nature, you will so
scatter your energies through the delta of your aptitudes that your
very wealth and variety of gifts neutralizes them all. No. Pick out
one of the things you can do well and let the others go. A tree is
pruned on the same principle. Stick to one thing. Beware of your
versatilities.