CHAPTER X.
TO BE GREAT, CONCENTRATE.
Let every one ascertain his special business and calling, and then stick to it.
-- FRANKLIN.
"He who follows two hares is sure to catch neither." None sends his arrow to the mark in view, Whose hand is feeble, or his aim untrue.
-- COWPER.
He who wishes to fulfill his mission must be a man of one idea, that is, of one great overmastering purpose, overshadowing all his aims, and guiding and controlling his entire life.
-- BATE.
The shortest way to do anything is to do only one thing at a time.
-- CECIL.
The power of concentration is one of the most valuable of intellectual attainments.
-- HORACE MANN.
The power of a man increases steadily by continuance in one direction.
-- EMERSON.
Careful attention to one thing often proves superior to genius and art.
-- CICERO.
"It puffed like a locomotive," said a boy of the donkey engine; "it whistled like the steam-cars, but it didn't go anywhere." The world is full of donkey-engines, of people who can whistle and puff and pull, but they don't go anywhere, they have no definite aim, no controlling purpose.
The great secret of Napoleon's power lay in his marvelous ability to concentrate his forces upon a single point.

After finding the weak place in the enemy's ranks he would mass his men and hurl them upon the enemy like an avalanche until he made a breach.

What a lesson of the power of concentration there is in that man's life! He was such a master of himself that he could concentrate his powers upon the smallest detail as well as upon an empire.
When Napoleon had anything to say he always went straight to his mark.
He had a purpose in everything he did; there was no dilly-dallying nor shilly-shallying; he knew what he wanted to say, and said it.

It was the same with all his plans; what he wanted to do, he did.

He always hit the bull's eye.