to have exhausted the possibilities of electricity. In like manner the discovery of the phonograph, and the application of its principles in the aërophone, by which the volume of sound is so amplified and intensified as to be made audible at a distance of several miles, seem to have stretched the laws of sound to their utmost limit. We are inclined to regard him as one of the wonders of the world. While Huxley, Tyndall, Spencer, and other theorists talk and speculate, he quietly produces accomplished facts, and, with his marvelous inventions, is pushing the whole world ahead in its march to the highest civilization, making life more and more enjoyable."

When Edison had labored two years in his own laboratory, he said, "Two years of experience proves, beyond a doubt, that the electric light, for household purposes, can be produced and sold," for which he was severely criticised, and even ridiculed. But long since he fulfilled his own prophecy, as the increased convenience and comfort of families bear faithful witness.

Edison's remarkable achievements in electrical science are represented by the excellent illustration,-a fine tribute of art to the genius and spirit of the great inventor, whose perseverance, industry, patience, and power of endurance, are almost without a parallel. He ordered a pile of chemical books from New York, London, and Paris. "In six weeks he had gone through the books," writes a co-laborer, "written a volume of abstracts, made two thousand experiments on the formulas, and had produced a solution, the only one in the world that would do the very thing he wanted done, namely, record over two hundred words a minute on a wire two hundred and fifty miles long. He has since succeeded in recording thirty-one hundred words in a minute."

Charles Goodyear purchased an India rubber life-preserver as a curiosity. He was told that rubber would be of great value for a thousand things, if cold did not make it hard as stone, and heat reduce it to liquid. "I can remedy that," he said to himself, after turning the matter over in his mind for a time. The more he pondered, the more confident he was that he could do it. Experiment after experiment failed. The money he put into the research was sunk. His last dollar was spent. His family suffered for the necessaries of life.

His best efforts were baffled, and his best friends forsook him because they thought he was partially insane. A gentleman inquired after him, and he was told, "If you see a man with an India rubber cap, an India rubber coat, India rubber shoes, and an India rubber purse in his pocket, with not a cent in it,— that is Charles Goodyear." But Goodyear was not a lunatic. It was faith in his ability to do that caused him to pursue the idea of vulcanized rubber with such persistency. For five years he battled with obstacles that would have disheartened men of less determination, counting poverty, hardship, and the ridicule of friends nothing, if he could only accomplish his purpose; and this he expected to do, as really as he expected to live. Finally his efforts were crowned with success. Faith did it. It was a practicable thing; he believed in it, and he believed in himself also; and so he bent his noblest efforts to the enterprise, and won.

Columbus believed that there was a new world beyond the untraversed sea, and that he himself was able to find it. Year after year he sought in vain the patronage that would make his project possible. Though opposed, thwarted, ridiculed, and even persecuted, he pressed his suit over and over. Adverse circumstances seemed to strengthen his purpose, and make him invincible. In the darkest hour he never lost heart. Faith in himself and his great enterprise finally triumphed.

Franklin believed that lightning and electricity were identical. More famous scientific men than himself believed otherwise, but this fact did not modify his own opinion. His conviction deepened as he pondered the matter. He proceeded to prove what he believed, by the aid of a kite. He disclosed his purpose only to his son, lest he should be made the butt of ridicule. But he succeeded. Faith in himself overcame obstacles, adverse opinions, and current theories, and he won immortal fame. The same has been true of great statesmen, explorers, discoverers, inventors, and the world's best workers generally. Faith in their own ability and purpose made them persistent, and finally victorious. Our own land is a fruitful illustration of this truth, from the time the Pilgrims sought freedom to worship God on these shores. The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is a good record of facts. By faith the Pilgrim Fathers, warned of God of things not seen as yet, prepared the Mayflower to the saving of their house

holds, and set sail for a place which they should afterwards receive for an inheritance. By faith they took up their abode in the land of promise, which was a strange country, inhabited only by savages and wild beasts, and here they laid the foundations of this great republic. By faith they endured privations and hardships, not counting their lives dear unto themselves, if they could possess a country of their own. By faith they passed through the Red Sea of difficulty, in tilling the soil, establishing a government, planting churches and schools, until, out of their weakness being made strong, they waxed valiant and mighty, turning to flight the armies of the aliens. By faith Washington led the American army and achieved independence, whereby he became known as the "Father of his Country," securing for himself and his posterity the unexampled thrift of a free nation. By faith Lincoln came to his reign in a time of great darkness and peril, when slavery threatened to destroy the government; and he broke the chains of oppression and saved the land from overthrow, whereby he became known as the "Saviour of his Country." But time would fail me to tell of all those, who, through faith, have builded a great nation, whose material, intellectual, and moral resources are without parallel. Without faith such an outcome was impossible; our secular national life is as impossible as the moral without it. Statesmen, historians, scientists, inventors, teachers, merchants, and artisans must believe that they are equal to any task before them, to make such a result certain.

Without faith in men and means, not one day of a true life can be lived. "I have no faith in editors," says a faithless citizen, as he takes up the morning paper only to lay it down again, for he cannot believe its news. "I have no faith in cooks; whole families have been poisoned by them," and he cannot eat his breakfast. "I have no faith in men," and so he declines to do business with them, lest he be cheated. "I have no faith in engineers; they are a drunken class," and he refuses to take the train for the city lest his life be sacrificed by a reckless engineer. Before nine o'clock in the morning, it is proven that a single day of real life cannot be lived without faith in men and enterprises.

As with the individual, so with communities,- difficulties develop faith, and great enterprises follow.

The winter of 1866-67 was unusually severe, so that, on some days, it was impossible to run a ferry-boat between Brooklyn and New York. On many days merchants were longer in going from their homes in Brooklyn to their desks in New York, than passengers were in traveling from New York to Albany. The public said: "This must not be; we must have a bridge!" And they built one, although fourteen years were required for the stupendous work.

Ordinary faith would stagger before such an enterprise as the Brooklyn bridge; but the discoveries, inventions, experiences, and progress of previous ages made faith that was equal to the occasion, possible. "It is not the work of any one man or any one age. It is the result of the study, of the experience, and of the knowledge of many men of many ages. It is not merely a creation, but a growth. In no previous period of the world's history could this bridge have been built." A hundred years ago there was little or no faith in such mammoth enterprises.

CHAPTER XIII.

DAVID STARR JORDAN.

ON PURPOSE-BIRTHPLACE AND PARENTAGE-YOUTHFUL CHARACTERISTICS -IN SCHOOL-LOVE OF NATURE-AT COLLEGE THE TEACHER AND INVESTIGATOR WITH AGASSIZ AT PENIKESE PRESIDENT OF INDIANA UNIVERSITY-ACCEPTS THE PRESIDENCY OF LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY IN PRIVATE LIFE- - IN THE CLASS ROOM AN IMPRESSIVE LECTURER HIS LITERARY WORK- SENSE OF HUMORAS A UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT - VIEWS ON EDUCATION PERSONALITY SCIENTIFIC WORK.

SINGLENESS OF PURPOSE.

"The youth gets together his materials," says Thoreau, "to build a bridge to the moon, or perchance a palace or tem

ple on the earth, and, at length, the middleaged man concludes to build a woodshed with them."

Now, why not plan for a woodshed at first, and save this waste of time and materials?

But this is the very good of it. The gathering of these materials will strengthen the youth. It may be the means of saving him from idleness, from vice. So long as you are at work on your bridge to the moon, you will shun the saloon, and we shall not see

you on the dry-goods box in front of the corner grocery. I know many a man who in early life planned only to build a woodshed, but who found later that he had the strength to build a temple, if he only had the materials. Many a man the world calls successful would give all life has brought him could he make up for the disadvantages of his lack of early training. It does not hurt a young man to be ambitious in some honorable direction. In the pure-minded youth, ambition is the source of all the virtues. Lack of ambition means failure from the start. The young man who is aiming at nothing and who cares not to rise, is already dead. There is no hope for him. Only the sexton and the undertaker can serve his purposes.