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SUCCESS IN LIFE.

CHAPTER I.

PERSEVERANCE.

"There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at its height, leads on to fortune."

THERE is a strong tendency in the minds of many men to envy the success of the fortunate few, and to repine at Fortune, by whose partial distribution of favours the objects of their envy are assumed to have attained to coveted honours and rewards. We will all blame any cause sooner than our own imprudence, or neglect of the proper means, when we see ourselves outstripped in the race. Yet we own, abstractly, the good old maxims which promise health and wealth to the industrious; fortune to those who rise early and work late; an abundant harvest to the farmer who ploughs the deepest, and casts the richest seed into his furrows; and, in a word, under all its many forms, that "the hand of the diligent maketh rich." Doubtless, all the virtuous are not fortunate, nor all the vicious, unfortunate and poor. There are those who fail in life by no fault of their own, and those, also, who prosper by dishonest and unworthy means. Yet is the maxim a sound one, and confirmed by experience-"He becometh poor that dealeth

The boy, in the perusal of a book suited to his taste and talents, betrays, by his sparkling eye and glowing cheek, that the impulse is given which will bear him on triumphantly to successful achievement. Nor must it be overlooked, that one most essential means of success lies in the choice of a profession. Since it is indispensable that he devote his whole undivided energies to it, he must see that it is not one so unsuited to his taste, or so peculiar in its requirements, as to render these difficult or impossible.

Books oftentimes develope talent and energy which otherwise would lie wholly dormant, or they give direction and concentration to both, by fixing the choice on a worthy object of pursuit for life.

It is in the hope that a work devoted to illustrate honourable and useful pursuits may prove of such avail to many readers, that the following chapters have been written, in illustration of success in life. But, above all, this book is designed to show, that the elevated principles of Christian integrity are indispensable to those who aim at successsuch success as can alone be a fit object of our desire. Dr. Chalmers has thus pictured the man who, with all that is right in mercantile principle, and all that is open and unimpeachable in the habit of his mercantile transactions, lives in a state of utter estrangement from the concerns of immortality:

“He has an attribute of character which is in itself pure, and lovely, and honourable, and of good report. He has a natural principle of integrity; and under its impulse he

Parried forward to such fine exhibitions of himself, Thy of all admiration. It is very noble, when the ance of his word carries as much security along

with it, as if he had accompanied that utterance by the signatures, and the securities, and the legal obligations, which are required of other men. It might tempt one to be proud of his species when he looks at the faith that is put in him by a distant correspondent, who, without one other hold of him than his honour, consigns to him the wealth of a whole flotilla, and sleeps in the confidence that it is safe. It is indeed an animating thought, amid the gloom of this world's depravity, when we behold the credit which one man puts in another, though separated by oceans and by continents; when he fixes the anchor of a sure and steady dependence on the reported honesty of one whom he never saw; when, with all his fears for the treachery of the varied elements, through which his property has to pass, he knows, that should it only arrive at the door of its destined agent, all his fears and all his suspicions may be at an end. We know nothing finer than such an act of homage from one human being to another, when perhaps the diameter of the globe is between them; nor do we think that either the renown of her victories, or the wisdom of her counsels, so signalizes the country in which we live, as does the honourable dealing of her merchants; that all the glories of British policy, and British valour, are far eclipsed by the moral splendour which British faith has thrown over the name and the character of our nation; nor has she gathered so proud a distinction from all the tributaries of her power, as she has done from the awarded confidence of those men of all tribes, and colours, and languages, who look to our agency for the most faithful of all management, and to our keeping for the most unviolable of all custody.

"There is no denying, then, the very extended prevalence

with a slack hand; but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. He that gathereth in summer is a wise son; but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame." Nor is it less surely established by experience—“When a wicked man dieth, his expectations shall perish; and the hope of unjust men perisheth."

It is a maxim which we can have no hesitation in setting forth as the result of experience, that success in life is equally certain in any and every career to him that uses the right means. Energy and concentration of power are of far more real practical value even than talent. It is no uncommon thing, indeed, to see the man of some considerable talent, surpassed in commercial life by one apparently greatly his inferior, from no other reason than this, that while the one devotes his whole energy and his undivided thoughts to the object of his life, the other is diverted by many irreconcileable tastes, and grudgingly gives but half his mind to the business on which depends all his worldly prospects. Yet he, too, covets success, and chides at fortune for her capricious favours, while in reality his reward has been rendered him according to his diligence. There is sound truth in Esop's old fable of "Jupiter and the Waggoner," where a waggoner, whose wheel has got fast in the mud, is pictured by the Greek moralist as shouting to Jupiter for aid; upon which the king of the gods, looking down from his Olympian throne, bids the indolent clown cease his supplications and put his own shoulder to the wheel. In how many cases, in human life, does success really depend on our putting our own shoulder to the wheel! Success! How the heart bounds at the exulting word! Man aims at it from the moment he places his tiny

foot upon the floor till he lays his head in the grave. Success is the exciting motive to all endeavour, and its crowning glory.

During the reign of superstition over Christendom, men consulted astrologers, who wrested from the "stars in their courses" omens of success. At a later period they inquired, in the same curious spirit, of the fortune-teller, or, with the aid of childish omens, sought to be their own diviners. In our brighter days,

"Man is his own star."

He needs no conjurer to cast his horoscope. Courage, industry, perseverence, honesty, courtesy, faith, hope, combined with talents and upright principles, make up the moral horoscope. Some, indeed, are born great-" some achieve greatness”—all in our free country may do it; and "some have greatness thrust upon them; but all have within their reach the rewards of honest industry.

For the benefit of the young, we are about to trace "footprints" left by the truly wise and good "on the sands of time"-footprints that mark the road to success.

The farmer who ploughs deepest, and commits his seed to the well manured furrow, is not certain of a harvest. He trusts to the genial ministry of Heaven-the sun, and the rain, and the dew-the good providence of God. Drought, and flood, and cold, may blight his hopes, for thus it seemeth good to the all-wise Disposer; yet success is considered so sure, as the result of these means, that no wise husbandman neglects to employ them.

Success in life is equally certain, in any and every career, to him who uses the right means.

The child is father to the man."

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