How many lives are blurs for want of concentration and steadfastness of purpose!" Fowell Buxton attributed his success to ordinary means and extraordinary application, and being a whole man to one thing at a time.

It is ever the unwavering pursuit of a single aim that wins.
"_Non multa, sed multum_"-- not many things, but much, was Coke's motto.
It is the almost invisible point of a needle, the keen, slender edge of a razor or an ax, that opens the way for the bulk that follows.
Without point or edge the bulk would be useless.

It is the man of one line of work, the sharp-edged man, who cuts his way through obstacles and achieves brilliant success.

While we should shun that narrow devotion to one idea which prevents the harmonious development of our powers, we should avoid on the other hand the extreme versatility of one of whom W.M.Praed says:-- His talk is like a stream which runs With rapid change from rocks to roses, It slips from politics to puns, It glides from Mahomet to Moses: Beginning with the laws that keep The planets in their radiant courses, And ending with some precept deep For skinning eels or shoeing horses.
If you can get a child learning to walk to fix his eyes on any object, he will generally navigate to that point without capsizing, but distract his attention and down he goes.
The young man seeking a position to-day is not asked what college he came from or who his ancestors were.

"_What can you do ?_" is the great question.