Wealth of soul is incomparably better than all that can be obtained from
pomp and luxury. Charlemagne is said to have worn in his crown a nail
taken from the cross on which the Savior was crucified. He wore it among
the jewels of his diadem as a reminder that there existed a tenderer
relation in life than kingdoms and material splendor. Thus in the crown of
our success, if we would make it truly great, we must place the sublimer
elements of our being. As the ivy softens the roughness of the mountain
side and the unsightly ruin, so will the aesthetic mellow and subdue the
intense commercialism with which we are surrounded. Without this quality
our success becomes like the fabled apples on the brink of the Dead
Sea--fair without, but ashes within.

If the avenue to success lay in one direction only--that of accumulating a
fortune, little incentive would be felt by those in the lower walks of
life. Moreover, if it were possible for all men to become millionaires,
the very organization of human society would become disrupted; for who
then would till the soil, run the factories, clean the streets? Nature has
been wise in the distribution of her talents. Anticipating the havoc of
endowing all mankind with equal powers, she established a wide diversity
in the range of human ability. To one she has given the gift of sagacity
to achieve success in the world of trade; to another mechanical skill to
create the ideals of inventive genius into reality; to another the highly
artistic sense, and withholding these higher attributes from still others,
she has chosen to endow them with a wealth of muscular force that the
physical requirements of organized human effort might be made effective.
So that any way we choose to look at this question we must concede that
temporal wealth does not constitute the broadest idea of success, nor is
capable in itself of producing it.

Even failure may be an element of a glorious success. The volcano that