shows that you should abandon it. A constant ham mering on one nail will generally drive it home at last, so that it can be clinched. When a man's undivided attention is centered on one object, his mind will constantly be suggesting improvements of value, which would escape him if his brain was occupied by a dozen different subjects at once. Many a fortune has slipped through a man's fingers because he was engaging in too many occupations at a time. There is good sense in the old caution against having too many irons in the fire at once.

"At thy first entrance upon thy estate," once said a wise man, "keep a low sail, that thou mayst rise with honor; thou canst not decline without shame; he that begins where his father ends, will end where his father began." An English judge being asked what contributed most to success at the bar, replied, “Some succeed by great talent, some by the influence of friends, some by a miracle, but the majority by commencing without a shilling."

Everywhere in human experience, as frequently in nature, hardship is the vestibule of the highest success. That magnificent oak was detained twenty years in its upward growth while its roots took a great turn around a boulder by which the tree was anchored to withstand the storms of centuries.

In our intercourse with the world a cautious circumspection is of great advantage. Slowness of belief, and a proper distrust, are essential to success. The credulous and confiding are ever the dupes of knaves and imposters. Ask those who have lost their property

how it happened, and you will find in most cases it has been owing to misplaced confidence. One has lost by endorsing; another by crediting; another by false representations; all of which a little more foresight and a little more distrust would have prevented. In the affairs of this world men are not saved by faith, but by the want of it.

They who are eminently successful in business, or who achieve greatness, or even notoriety in any pur suit, must expect to make enemies. Whoever becomes distinguished is sure to be a mark for the malicious. spite of those who, not deserving success themselves, are galled by the merited triumph of the more worthy. Moreover, the opposition which originates in such despicable motives, is sure to be of the most unscrupu lous character; hesitating at no iniquity, descending to the shabbiest littleness. Opposition, if it be honest and manly, is not in itself undesirable. It is the whetstone by which a highly tempered nature is polished and sharpened. He that has never known adversity, is but half acquainted with others or with himself. Constant success shows us but one side of the world. For, as it surrounds us with friends, who will tell us only our merits, so it silences those enemies from whom alone we can learn our defects.

Industry.

OUR success in life generally bears a direct propor tion to the exertions we make, and if we aim at nothing we shall certainly achieve nothing. By the remission of labor and energy, it often happens that poverty and contempt, disaster and defeat, steal a march upon prosperity and honor, and overwhelm us with reverses and shame.

A very important principle in the business of moneygetting, is industry-persevering, indefatigable attention to business. Persevering diligence is the philosopher's stone, which turns everything to gold. Constant, regu. lar, habitual, and systematic application to business, must, in time, if properly directed, produce great results. It must lead to wealth, with the same certainty that poverty follows in the train of idleness and inattention.

It has been said that the best cure for hard times is to cheat the doctor by being temperate; the lawyer, by keeping out of debt; the demagogue, by voting for honest men; and poverty, by being industrious.

To industry, guided by reasonable intelligence and economy, every people can look with certainty as an unfailing source of temporal prosperity. Whatever is useful or beautiful in art, science, or other human attainment, has come from industry. In the humblest pursuits, industry may be accompanied by the noblest intelligence, so that respect, place and power are open to its humblest honest practicer. Let no man spurn industry as his temporal shield; it is the safest and

su, est he can buckle to his arm, and with it he may defy the want and poverty which, more than everything else, destroy the independence of man.

Honorable industry always travels the same road with enjoyment and duty; and progress is altogether impossible without it. The idle pass through life leaving as little trace of their existence as foam upon the water, or smoke upon the air; whereas the industrious stamp their character upon their age, and influence not only their own but all succeeding generations. Labor is the best test of the energies of men, and furnishes an admirable training for practical wisdom.

Practical industry, wisely and vigorously applied, never fails of success. It carries a man onward and upward, brings out his individual character, and powerfully stimulates the action of others. All may not rise equally, yet each, on the whole, very much according to his deserts. "Though all cannot live on the piazza," as the Tuscan proverb has it, "every one may feel the sun."

Industry is the heir of fortune; the companion of honesty and honor; the beauteous sister of temperance, health and ease-one of the noble virtues which links with perfection.

Industry has a physical blessing; limbs strengthened by exercise, and sinews braced by exertion; every organ performing its legitimate duty, and kept in its appointed office; the blood circulated by motion, and the joints pliant from use; disease repelled by internal vigor; appetite created by the calls of increasing strength; rest rendered welcome by previous labor;

tent.

sleep become acceptable after busy working. The habit, free from the petty ailments entailed by sluggishness, no longer falls a prey to peevishness and irritation, and time employed, not wasted in murmurs and disconThe temper, less tried by bodily infirmity and secret upbraidings, acquires equanimity. The spirits, unharrassed by petty pains and plagues, rise to cheerfulness. The faculties, unimpaired by disease, unblunted by disuse, more vigorously expand. The whole man, active, useful, and happy, is enabled to resist the approaches of infirmity, sickness, and sorrow; to enjoy a vigorous old age, and to drop after a brief struggle his mortal frame, to soar with improved powers into a state of improved being. While in idleness, the disordered frame, gradually sickening, oppresses the vital powers. The mind, weakened and stuepfied, imbibes wild or gloomy ideas; the better faculties are crushed and curbed, and the whole man at last sinks beneath the undermining mischiefs of insidious sloth.

Is this a wretched picture? Whilst we feel that though it is so, it is also a true one, let us gratefully remember, that such a state is not inevitable, but that it is one incurred from choice, and produced by voluntary permission. Reverse the picture, extirpate sloth, introduce activity, and how mighty is the difference? The wand of Harlequin could never produce a more striking change.

and in its place

In vain has nature thrown obstacles and impediments in the way of man. He surmounts every difficulty interposed between his energy and his enterprise. Over seas and mountains his course is unchecked; he directs