a soul, and then we have opportunity made real by the process of a
creative force.

We are apt to regard this quality in our existence as a somewhat
superhuman term, an abstraction beyond the realm of common life, or at
most an asset within the reach of a favored few; whereas it is a common
attribute playing a potential part in our every-day activities. In its
very nature opportunity is democratic and goes, like a wayfarer, knocking
at the gates of every man's life.

This messenger of fate, however, will not knock at the door of that man
who is unable to meet the demands it would make upon him. It ever
recognizes the eternal fitness of things, since it looks to its own
promotion as well as the promotion of him who seeks to embrace it.
Opportunity, then, is not opportunity at all if a man is not equal to it.
When the steam engine lay in its elementary state in the great laboratory
of nature, it was an opportunity for James Watt; and by his accepting it,
opportunity realized its own fulfillment, became its own blessing and a
blessing to all mankind. The unskilled laborer who dug out the ore could
not claim this opportunity because he was not equal to its requirements.

Moreover, every man is himself an opportunity of infinite greatness. And
he who depends upon the world alone to furnish him opportunities is
destined to meet with failure. Self-reliance is the passport to
success. The man who is continually bemoaning a lack of opportunity
acknowledges his own lack of resources--is wanting in creative force.
Every golden moment is an opportunity for him to step out from the
shadows into the sunshine. Optimism sees opportunity in the ordinary
jog-trot of daily duty.