increase of the material and moral capacities which the great Creator has bestowed

upon us? He who worked with the five talents, and spent the greater effort, won double his capital; he who traded with the two talents won their equal; and punishment fell upon him who held back from striving — pessimistic about his morrow, fearful of his future, imputing harshness and injustice to his master — and who buried the talent deep in the earth, so that when the appointed day came he gave it back to its owner with hands through which ran the shiver of dread and fear, and looks overcast with hesitation and torpor. By my life! What was our friend waiting for? Was he watch-ing for luck to go crying through the market, "Follow me and I will lead you to the mines of gold"? Or was it sloth that held him down and paralyzed his movements?...

Searching has a powerful effect in the literary and moral field: reading is among the factors that shape our luck, for an advertisement in a newspaper opens the ways of livelihood to many, and in an article in the corner of a sometimes neglected library we find the reflec-tion of our own thoughts stripped of illusions, and it unties a difficult knot or resolves a deadly crisis. Watching plays performed, and the display of life in moving pictures, has the strongest effect upon individuals and groups; a book that means nothing to us changes the course of another man's life, and brings out of him a new element the nation needs. And I have read of a lady who saved her married life from the hell in which she was living with her husband, after seeing a play that reflected to her the truth of her own character and acted out her deeds before the eye of her waking soul, guiding her to the path by which she might travel to a life of right guidance and peace of mind!

Some may grumble, and others object, claiming that many people struggle all their lives while luck thwarts them at every step, whereas there are others who

possess neither the same gifts nor any trace of enthusiasm and drive in their souls, yet who leap over whole stages of success. Is it luck that backs them? Or chance, which brings miracles the human mind falls short of tracing? Is luck one of the marvels beyond nature?

No, my dear reader! Our merging into society, our positive welcome

of life with all its hidden stores of gladness and grief, the ability to seize opportunities when they come, and the facing of hardships with a smile — all this is what will make of us, in the end, lucky people who climb the ladder of life toward advancement... toward a better life... toward an ampler, happier luck!...