THE STATESMAN AND THE WATCH.

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watch was wrong, the great American remarked, "Then you must get another watch, or I another secretary.' The rulers of the world allow of no delay in the execution of their orders; they know how much depends upon strict punctuality, and that a few minutes make all the difference between victory and defeat. It is on record that Colonel Rahl, the Hessian commander, who in the American Revolution lost honour and liberty at Trenton, threw away the battle through this cause. Absorbed in a game of cards, he neglected to read a letter which had reached him informing him of Washington's intention to cross the Delaware. Thus he missed his opportunity of baffling the schemes of the American commander, and of securing, perhaps, a different result to the War of Independence.

One American anecdote recalls another. The celebrated John Quincey Adams, who belonged to the older and better race of Republican statesmen, was so remarkable for his punctuality that men took their time from him as from an electric clock. On one occasion, in the House of Representatives at Washington, of which he was a member, it was proposed to call over the House and begin proceedings; but to this proposition it was objected that Mr. Adams was not in his seat. Inquiry proved that the clock was three minutes too fast; and before the three minutes had elapsed, Mr. Adams walked in and took his place with his customary exactness.

Punctuality, Prudence, Perseverance, or the three P's, we hereby recommend to the assiduous attention of our readers.

CHAPTER V.

66

BUSINESS HABITS.

Depend upon it, a lucky guess is never merely luck; there is always some talent in it."-Miss Austen, in "Emma."

“There is nothing more desirable than good sense and justness of mind; all other qualities of mind are of limited use, but exactness of judgment is of general utility in every part, and in all employments of life."-Arnauld, "Port-Royal Logic."

"What should a man desire to leave?

A flawless work, a noble life,

Some music harmonised from strife,

Some finished thing, ere the slack hands at eve
Drop, should be his to leave.

"Or, in life's homeliest, meanest spot,

With temperate step from year to year
To move within his little sphere,

Leaving a pure name to be known, or not,
This is a true man's lot."

-F. T. Palgrave, "Lyrical Poems.'

"No man can end with being superior who will not begin with being inferior."-Sydney Smith.

CHAPTER V.

N fighting the battle of life, we must take care, if we would escape without a wound as wide as a churchdoor, to preserve our self-control. The warrior who loses that gives the chances to his enemy, and to an enemy who is always on the watch to profit by his mistakes. The warrior who loses it not, has the best of all possible auxiliaries on his side. Self-control implies command of temper, command of feeling, coolness of judgment, and the power to restrain the imagination and curb the will. It means such thorough mastery over self as Robert Ainsworth, the lexicographer, possessed, who, when his wife, in a fit of passion, committed his voluminous MS. to the flames, calmly turned to his desk and recommenced his labours. A similar misfortune befell Thomas Carlyle, and was similarly conquered. A friend to whom he had lent the manuscript of the first volume of his great prose epic, the "French Revolution," for perusal, carelessly left it lying on the parlour floor, and a servant, regarding it as a valueless bundle of waste paper, utilised it in kindling her fires. The original composition of a book is in most cases a labour of love, but to rewrite it from memory is a cruelly unwelcome task. Carlyle, however, without uttering a word of complaint or reproach, addressed himself to it courageously, and at last completed the book in the form in which it now delights the understanding reader.

Self-control avoids haste. It is always in time, but never before its time; and in this respect it is allied to patience, or patience may be considered, perhaps, as a constituent part of it. Not, however, the patience which toils on unremittingly, but the patience which bides its opportunity. Some men have lost fame and fortune through their hurried efforts to snatch