When I lay me down to sleep, I recommend myself to His care; when I awake, I give myself up to His direction. Amidst all the evils that threaten me, I will look up to Him for help, and question not but He will either avert them, or turn them to my advantage. Though I know neither the time nor the manner of the death I am to die, I am not at all solicitous about it; because I am sure that He knows them both, and that He will not fail to comfort and support me under them."

Reading the "Spectator" lately, I came across a quotation from "Paradise Lost," which gives an excellent example for memorising :

"Nor think, though men were none,

That heav'n would want spectators, God want praise:
Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth
Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep;
All these with ceaseless praise His works behold
Both day and night. How often from the steep
Of echoing hill or thicket have we heard
Celestial voices to the midnight air,
Sole, or responsive each to other's note,
Singing their great Creator? Oft in bands,
While they keep watch, or nightly rounding walk,
With heav'nly touch of instrumental sounds,
In full harmonic number join'd, their songs
Divide the night, and lift our thoughts to heav'n."

Now, it is essential to mind-training that you do not learn without thinking. If you are content merely to memorise the finest passages of our litera

ture you are making a lumber-room of your mind and nothing more. You must understand what you read. I would recommend you to read "Sesame and Lilies," by Ruskin, and you will understand what I mean.

So much for the theory of elementary mind culture. It is worth your while to practise it. The strengthening of your memory is the first step towards the cultivation of your mind, which will have far-reaching effects upon your will-power and upon your whole life. Your life is yours to make You have inherited a glorious gift. It is your duty to use it well, and in fulfilling that duty be sure you will gain your reward in increased capacity for getting the utmost out of all that life has to offer.

or mar.

CHAPTER II

QUALITIES THAT MAKE FOR SUCCESS

"The words of the wise are as goads."

THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.

F late years business men have taken more

OF

and more to adopting mottoes to keep always

before their minds and stimulate them to efficient work. One of the most popular to be seen hanging in a prominent place in many an office is, "Do it Now." An enterprising advertising firm adapted this as a kind of trade mark in the phrase, “Do it better." Years ago, before the practice became so general as at present, some great man, whose name is lost in obscurity, took for his motto the text, "Do the next thing"; and I know of another which was a favourite saying of a very prominent industrial magnate, now dead: "Do it at once and do it well." A business friend told me that he thought a good motto would be, "Do it yourself"; and within sensible limits the phrase is excellent, since many of us are too fond of leaving to others the things we should do ourselves.

Qualities that Make for Success 21

It is well to have some such guiding principle in life, some mental spur that will always make us produce our best. Take for your motto the words "Do your best," and you will never have cause to complain of failure in life. Whatever you have to do, do it as well as you know how. The habit of doing everything as perfectly as you can will influence your character and your whole future. It is so easy to get into slipshod methods. There is often a temptation to rush a thing in order to get it done quickly and out of the way. Why do that, when you know that one thing well done is worth a dozen half done? When you have once done a thing as well as you possibly can, it is finished with. Do it imperfectly, and if it is to be of any use at all it must be done again, and you waste your time and energies when you do it carelessly.

Have you ever realised how much success in life depends upon the choice of associates and friends? You can take it as a safe rule that the tendency is for your friends to draw you to their own level. If you mix with people who are idle you will tend to become idle. Remember the old warning about playing with fire. Do not risk being burnt. Ask yourself frankly about, people, "What shall I gain by knowing them? If you cannot gain something from intercourse with a man, it is not worth your while to know him. Life

is too short to waste time with people from whom you can gain nothing. Mix with your intellectual superiors, with the people who can call forth your knowledge and keep your mind active. Associate only with those whose minds are worth measuring your own against. Be sure that if you make friends with people who waste their time, who have no intellectual force, and no strength of character, you will dull your intellect and your powers will degenerate. If a man is noble in character, if he is industrious, if he is intellectual, if he is a thorough good sportsman, you will be all the better for knowing him. Examine yourself as to whether you will be better for knowing a man, and if you cannot answer in the affirmative, drop his acquaintance.

Personally, I have one great friend. My family tell me sometimes that I have spoken just like he does, and his family, on occasion, have said the same thing. We all get tricks of speech, thought, and action from each other. One might well say, "Show me a man's friends and I will tell you what sort of man he is." You can be sure that an intimate friend of Lord Rothschild or of Lord Kitchener would be a man of great intellectual and personal force. Such men would not associate with mediocrities.

It is a useful habit to acquire the capacity for judging oneself. No man is insensible to flattery,