WILLIAM TITE, F.R.S., F.G.S., ARCHITECT

From an engraving by Thomas Highams, after a drawing by G. B. Moore

so few think for themselves? Why must one learn to think, and why cannot a philosophy be conceived which makes thinking as natural as seeing?

The human animal is a most superb piece of machinery, and the mind is the most wonderful part of that machine; but man has allowed it to become clogged with old worn-out threads of prejudice, of hypocrisy, of cant, of inefficiency, of dullness, of snobbery, with the dust of a hundred undesirable things that mar the pattern of the fabric which this machine is trying to weave. The world wants another flood,-a great mental torrent to wash away the accumulations of false ideas, the obstacles, the traps, which trip and hold fast against progress.

Oh! for a mental giant who can brush away this wall of limitations and give us new ideas of life!

And in all phases of life we find this want. Just as the foolish superstitious person surrounds himself with childish notions and distresses himself because he sees the moon over the wrong shoulder, or spills salt, or travels on a Friday-so in all phases and undertakings of life we are raising unnecessary obstacles which prevent our running the race well and swiftly.

Even in Commerce, which, as we have ventured to suggest, enters into the very life and soul of the nation, these littlenesses are too apparent. Why cannot business be conducted with the same sportsmanlike manliness as a game of football? Business does not always mean getting the better of someone else. Business does not stand for trickiness, for chicanery. Though business too often thrives when such practices are adopted, its thriving is in spite of these rather than by their aid. One may feed a strong ox with a certain amount of undesirable food, and it will continue to be strong; but when that proportion is raised to a point beyond its ability to ignore, the animal suffers and finally dies. So a business may often seem to accept the false policy of its heads and still survive, but a poor policy cannot help in the upbuilding of a lasting fabric.

Honesty always pays. Honesty alone will never build a business, any more than good well-burnt bricks alone will build a house. But the policy of honesty, of scrupulous integrity, will, other things being reasonably equal, always win in the race for success.

Let us take as an example the question of advertisement. We need a new philosophy here. Why should a statement be subject to question? Is it not infinitely wiser to make every statement dependable beyond the chance of question? Why pay for space and then fill it with matter which must quickly be discovered to be false? Why thus reduce the value of every future statement? And yet this is exactly what is continually being done in many parts of the world.

This inconsistent action is due to the fact that men who have adopted Commerce as their medium of activity are working on the played-out philosophy of trade which sprang up after the sturdy old merchant-adventurers ceased to exist; that false philosophy which thought it was clever to be too shrewd; that it was good business always to try to get the better of the other; that it was impossible to be honest in business; that exaggeration, spoken or written, was not only necessary but clever that nearly everyone was a fool, and fools could best be handled by knaves; that a trick which meant a cheat was something to applaud; that nothing must be given which could be charged for; that no one must be paid more than could be helped; that the stronger was quite right in oppressing the weak; that might was always right when dealing with employés; that loyalty, if desirable, was to be obtained through fear rather than through justice or affection; that competition involved personal antagonism; that a large outlay or production was usually foolish, and that hoarding was the only way to wealth; and so on until one is nauseated with the littlenesses which crowded out the broader philosophy.

These were some of the things which discredited trade; these were the thistles which were allowed to

grow up and choke the beautiful wide road of Commerce. No wonder that the word "trade" became the synonym for disrespect, almost for contempt. No wonder this great field of endeavour was avoided by the young man who was ambitious to hew out for himself a place in the world; and that he rather sought opportunity in the overcrowded field of the law, which, more often than not, fails to provide its disciples even with a decent living, or in some other profession whose results are always problematical.

These old fallacies provoked the sneer, and the extraordinary thing is they maintained themselves in their falsity as long as they did.

But trade, with its broader, safer road to financial success, is coming into its own. The old must give way to the new, and the philosophy of the leaders in the world's Commerce is diametrically opposed to all those old unprincipled principles.

It is not clever to be too "shrewd." It is not good to get the better of another by hook or crook, by deception or falsehood. It is not only possible to be honest in business, but it is the height of unwisdom to be other than honest. Exaggerated statements of any kind are dangerous, and no people are easier to compete against than those who use exaggeration. The world is not made up of fools, but of extremely worldly-wise people who recognize a knave with little difficulty. The trick is no longer the object of applause but of condemnation, and a trickster soon finds himself very much alone in business. It is wise to be very liberal with the public, and to give something which could be charged for is no longer a business error but quite the reverse. desperately silly to hold wages down to the breaking point; for there is so much more to the employé than two arms and two legs. There is the spirit of enthusiasm and earnestness and "I will," which means more to the employer than ten pairs of arms and legs. And loyalty is a quality to be earned by the employer from the

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