One is a private tutor.
(75)
AMBASSADOR, THE MINISTER AS AN
The minister must be something as well as do something. He must consistently make an impression upon everybody he approaches that he is in something unlike the ordinary run of men. I do not mean that he should be sanctimonious, for that repels; it must be something in his own consciousness. My father was a clergyman. One of the most impressive incidents of my youth occurs to me. He was in a party of gentlemen, when one of them used a profane word unthinkingly. With a start he turned to my father, and said, “I beg your pardon, Dr. Wilson.” My father said, very simply and gently, “Oh, sir, you have not offended me.” The emphasis he laid upon that word “me” brought with it a tremendous impression. All present felt that my father regarded himself as an ambassador of someone higher; their realization of it showed in their faces.—Woodrow Wilson, The Churchman.
(76)
Ambidexterity Favored—See [Asymmetry].
AMBITION
When William the Conqueror was born his first exploit was to grasp a handful of straw, and to hold it so tenaciously in his little fist that the nurse could scarcely take it away. This infantile prowess was considered an omen, and the nurse predicted that the babe would some day signalize himself by seizing and holding great possessions. And he did.
But what, after all, were many of the possessions seized by the Norman Conqueror but a handful of straw. And so are not a few of the conquests of earthly ambition, no matter how tenaciously held as well as ardently won. Over many a pile of wealth and massed achievement might be written: “A handful of straw in a baby fist!”
(77)