One of the most valuable assets which we can possess is the ability to
mold from the adverse circumstances about us our opportunities. And "a
wise man," says Bacon, "will make more opportunities than he finds." When
Michael Angelo takes the castaway rock which he finds in his path and
carves from it "The Young David;" when Herschel at the midnight hour,
after playing his violin for a living, goes out and studies the star-lit
skies, the field of his immortal conquest; when Elihu Burritt, working at
the forge, grapples with mathematics, and masters several languages; when
obstacles are overcome, and adversity yields to the invincible wills of
men, then has opportunity by this self-made principle been hewn out of
the very stumbling blocks which were in the way.

Every man is a treasury of untold wealth. He is not great merely for what
he is, but for the greatness of his possibility--that undreamed grandeur
which opportunity is ever seeking to reveal. True greatness does not
emanate from the power of genius so much as it does from the wise
discrimination which we exercise in the choice of our opportunities, and
the intelligence with which we lay hold upon them. It is a fine art in
life to know just the thing to do, and the opportune moment for doing it.
Eternal vigilance is the price we must pay, and the constant whetting of
our faculties.

Our life is a succession of opportunities. Yet however numerous they may
be, or however bright, they are not availing until placed into the
crucible of experience. Gold, silver, rubies, sapphires, and diamonds--all
the precious jewels imbedded in the treasure-house of nature, become
valuable to us only when we dig them out, polish and shape them for our
use. Likewise our opportunities enrich us only as we reach out after them
and make them an abiding element in our life.