--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Ingalls, John collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 14 number: 6 published: 1911-04 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'John Ingalls, "Opportunity," *Improvement Era* 14, no. 6 (April 1911): 494.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1406unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1406unse start_page: 494 end_page: 494 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1911-04) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1406unse publication_year: 1911 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1911, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Opportunity (nr books, we are reminded of the trees which have given us the word. And, then, the word academy causes us to think of the trees, for it points us back to that celebrated school which Plato, the Greek philosopher, taught in the grove of Academus. It was a school among the trees. It was as he walked with his pupils under the branches of the trees that he taught those lessons of wisdom which have been the delight of scholars down to our own time. Fitly, then, are the pupils in our schools invited to take part in the observance of Arbor day, and if there is any spot peculiarly appropriate for the planting of trees on such an occasion, it is that where children assemble fcr instruction, that thereby they may have around them the beauty and pleasantness which trees afford, and every school place may become another "grove of Academe."— U. S. Department of Agriculture. Opportunity. Master of human destinies am I! Fame, love and fortune on my footsteps wait, Cities and fields I walk: I penetrate Deserts and seas remote, and passing by Hovel and mart and palace, soon or late I knock unbidden once at every gate; If feasting, rise; if sleeping wake, before I turn away. It is the hour of fate, And they who follow me reach every state Mortals desire, and conquer every foe Save death. But those who doubt or hesitate, Condemned to failure, penury or woe, Seek me in vain, and ceaselessly implore; I answer not, and I return— no more. John J. Ingalls, Kansas. But, young man, do not rest too securely on the idea that opportu- nity knocks but once; rather believe the song which breathes the