Hidden Treasures

Hidden Treasures, by Harry A.
Lewis

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Title: Hidden Treasures Why Some Succeed While Others Fail
Author: Harry A. Lewis

Release Date: December 20, 2006 [eBook #20151]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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TREASURES***
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HIDDEN TREASURES
Or,
Why Some Succeed While Others Fail.
by
H. A. LEWIS.
Finely Illustrated.

"Not Failure, but low aim is crime."
Sold by Subscription Only. Cleveland, Ohio: Moses, Lewis & Co. 1888.
Copyright, 1887. by Wright, Moses & Lewis. All rights reserved.

PREFACE.
Some succeed while others fail. This is a recognized fact; yet history

tells us that seven-tenths of our most successful men began life poor.
As our title indicates, we shall endeavor to show "why some succeed
while others fail." Knowing that everybody desires success, and
recognizing the old adage, "Example is the best of teachers," we have
selected representative characters from the multitude of successful men
who have climbed the ladder of success, beginning at the bottom round.
These we have followed from childhood to manhood, dwelling at
length on the traits of character that have made them so rich and
successful, believing that a careful study will convince all that the
proverbial "luck" had little to do with it. On the contrary, one is taught
those lessons of self-helpfulness and self-reliance which are so essential
to success in life's struggles. It is fearful to think how many of our
young people are drifting without an aim in life, and do not
comprehend that they owe mankind their best efforts. We are all
familiar with the parable of the slothful servant who buried his
talent--all may profit by his example. To those who would succeed, we
respectfully present this volume.
Every young man is now a sower of seed on the field of life. The bright
days of youth are the seed-time. Every thought of your intellect, every
emotion of your heart, every word of your tongue, every principle you
adopt, every act you perform, is a seed, whose good or evil fruit will
prove bliss or bane of your after life.--WISE.

INTRODUCTION.
Dear reader, it is a grave undertaking to write a book, especially is it so
in writing a treatise on success and failure, as we have attempted to do
in the work we hereby present you. It is a solemn thing to give advice.
Experience teaches that no one thing will please everybody; that men's
censures are as various as their palates; that some are as deeply in love
with vice as others are with virtue. Shall I then make myself the subject
of every opinion, wise or weak? Yes, I would rather hazard the censure
of some than hinder the good of others.
There need neither reasons to be given nor apologies to be made where

the benefit of our fellow-men is our aim. Henry Clay Trumbull says:
"At no time in the world's history, probably, has there been so general
an interest in biography as that which has been shown of late. Just here
lies a weighty obligation upon these who write, and those who read, of
the lives of men who have done something in the world. It is not
enough for us to know WHAT they have done; it belongs to us to
discover the WHY of their works and ways, and to gain some personal
benefit from the analysis of their successes and failures. Why was this
man great? What general intentions--what special traits led him to
success? What ideal stood before him, and by what means did he seek
to attain it? Or, on the other hand, what unworthy purpose, what lack of
conscience and religious sense, what unsettled method and feeble
endeavor stood in the way of the 'man of genius' and his possible
achievements?" In this volume one sees the barefoot boy rise to the
eminent statesman, the great millionaire, the honored inventor. How
was this accomplished? We believe that a careful