"Why hast thou double wings on each foot?"

"I fly with the wind."

"But why is thy hair over thine eye?"

"To be grasped by him who meets me."

"The back of thy head, why is it bald?"

"When once I have rushed by, with winged feet, one can never grasp me
from behind."

In its literal significance, however, opportunity means something either
"in front of the door" or "outside of the harbor." For when the word first
crept into common speech it created two pictures,--that of a ship with
sails unfurled, riding at anchor, ready to start upon her unknown voyage,
with just a moment to spare to catch her before the sails are bent; or the
picture of a veiled figure standing for an instant at the door of one's
life, knocking with sharp, swift strokes and then, if no answer comes,
passing away into the darkness, refusing to be recalled.

In all the vocabulary of human speech no other word rings with truer
eloquence, or speaks with greater triumph, than that one
word,--opportunity. Born in the primeval forest of man's first
dwelling-place, it has marked the central path of civilization and hewn
its way to the front with unerring stroke. The finger of destiny ever
points back to this factor in human life as the primal element in all
achievement, the forerunner of all success. Without it human genius