July 28, 2015

A Treasury of English Famous Essays

英美散文菁華

陳榮吉 編譯

12. The Man and the Opportunity人與機會

       Orison Sweet Marden, 1906 - , American lawyer

       The lack of opportunity is ever the excuse of a weak, vacillating mind. Opportunities! Every life is full of them.

       Every lesson in school or college is an opportunity. Every examination is a chance in life. Every business transaction is an opportunity – an opportunity to be polite, an opportunity to be manly, an opportunity to be honest, and opportunity to make friends. Every proof of confidence in you is a great opportunity. Every responsibility thrust upon your strength and your honor is priceless. Existence is the privilege of effort, and when that privilege is met like a man, opportunities to succeed along the line of your aptitude will come faster than you can use them.

       Young men and women, why do you stand here all the day idle? Was the land all occupied before you were born? Has the earth ceased to yield its increase? Are the seats all taken? The positions all filled? The chances all gone? Are the resources of your country fully developed? Are the secrets of nature all mastered? Is there no way in which you can utilize these passing moments to improve yourself or benefit another?

       Don’t wait for your opportunity. Make it, make it as Napoleon made his in a hundred “impossible” situations. Make it, as all leaders of men, in war and in peace, have made their chances of success. Make it, as every man must, who would accomplish anything worth the effort. Golden opportunities are nothing to laziness, but industry makes the commonest chances golden.