counts for the incapacity of the undisciplined mind to concentrate on an idea or a piece of work. The young man who cannot keep thoughts of cricket or football, or any other distracting interest, from obtruding themselves when he is at work on figures or correspondence or any other business duty, is dissipating mental energy. No one gets far in life without concentration. Things done by halves are badly done, and often have to be done again, or revised by some one who has the power of concentration. Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing whole-heartedly. I am conscious that what I am saying is platitudinous; but first principles are always platitudes. Some one has said that even the Ten Commandments are merely platitudes; but they are the fundamentals of true human relationship. Early in his business life a young man should recognize that all necessary labor is dignified. Little duties are irksome; but if they are necessary they fall into the economy of organized life-and however trivial they may seem, they can be done without loss of dignity. I have known the editor of a great newspaper leave his desk to fit a new wire into an electric switch that had fused. The little accident had thrown a room into darkness, and at a crucial moment was delaying the work of two or three men. An electrician might have been called in, but that would have spelled half an hour's delay. So the Chief applied his knowledge of electric lighting, and, mounting a step-ladder, did the little mechanical duty himself. There are times when to serve as a messenger is not undignified work for a highly-placed senior in an office. Whatever has to be done may be done without any sacrifice of prestige, however humble the little task may be. A certain merchant-prince often stops during his daily round of his warehouse to pick up and tie together odd bits of string that might be lying about. A sense of economy made him hate the waste of even trivial oddments, and though his own time was invaluable, he felt it worth while to show his employees that he thought no work beneath him. President Roosevelt, holiday-making on a ranch, blacked the boots of every one in the family. No one thought that to do so was derogatory to his dignity, but they asked him not to do it again—“ because he had blacked the boots so badly!" Punctuality ranks among the highest of virtues in business life. A young man who is erratic in his hour of arrival is usually unreliable in his work. Punctuality in keeping appointments oils the wheels of business. Without it, time is frittered away. If you have an engagement, be on the spot a minute or two before the time. A few minutes late may upset a busy man's time-table, and waste the time of half a dozen other people who have subsequent appointments with him. Arrive punctually at business in the morning, and again after lunch. Sometimes it is not possible to be as punctual in leaving business. Do not be impatient if you are delayed a little at the end of the day. The young man whose eyes are everlastingly on the clock, and who grumbles if he cannot be off the premises before it has done striking, is generally known as a mere clock-servant; and that does not mark him out for early promotion. When Charles Lamb was admonished for arriving late at the India Office, he stuttered out his famous excuse that he made up for coming late by going away early. But Lamb was a chartered libertine, and the British India Office was a lotus-land where it was always after noon. Little carelessnesses are inexcusable in business, and a junior should be vigilant against committing them. I remember a lawyer's office being dislocated for three days by a general search for a missing copy of a document. It had been withdrawn from a parcel of deeds for inspection months before, and then, when finished with, been carelessly packed away in a wrong parcel. Nearly every parcel in the safety vault had to be opened, examined, and packed again before the document was recovered. That act of carelessness of a junior clerk caused endless work for the whole staff, and endangered a litigation case which was coming before the Courts. Shorthand, if not an essential, is eminently useful to a junior in a business house. Even though he may not have to use it in the ordinary course of his work, shorthand is handy for making notes as aids to memory, or to take down the exact terms of an instruction. So with typewriting-it is distinctly an advantage to be able to type out a letter or a memorandum. Shorthand and typewriting are now, however, specialties of which girls have proved themselves supremely capable, and have, indeed, almost established a monopoly. I have even heard it plausibly argued that too proficient a knowledge of shorthand and typing is an actual handicap to a young man entering business, as he runs the risk of being put upon this more or less mechanical work and kept at it-without much hope of promotion. Observation is an unfailing aid to business aptitude. A young man should keep his eyes open and observe all he can of the processes of business. If he is content to know only just what is done in his own department he will stay there. What he ought to do is to master all the details of his own branch, and learn, incidentally, all that he can about other departments in the business house. Opportunities for promotion come unexpectedly; and the wider the range of a young man's business knowledge, the greater are his chances of early preferment. Every business has its secrets, and every commercial house expects its employees to keep their own confidence. The affairs of a business should not be discussed outside. A junior clerk often has access to letters and papers containing information that ought not to be noised abroad. He must learn to keep silent, and to be worthy of confidence. A junior should be as economical of stationery and materials as if they were his own property. Waste of paper, string, electric light, postages and odd expenses, has to be obviated; and a young man who shows himself careful of his employer's materials earns appreciation. As a general rule, a young man who shows himself really eager to fulfil his duties has rarely to put up a serious fight for his rights. They get respected without assertion on his part. XIII PERSEVERANCE PPORTUNITY," says a Latin proverb, "has hair in front; if you seize her by the forelock, you may hold her; but if suffered to escape, not Jupiter himself can catch her up." Perseverance is the exploitation of opportunity to the uttermost. An apt and descriptive word for perseverance has been coined; it is referred to as stick-at-it-ive-ness. Reminting a word or a phrase often gives it fresh currency as verbal coinage. Dr. John Kelman, who has only recently transferred his residence from Edinburgh to New York, applied the Scriptural words, “faint, yet pursuing," to the persevering soldiers in France; but he put it into their slang, and said they were "fed up but sticking it." All history is a record of human persistency, and scarcely a single possession treasured to-day is not due to the perseverance of some distant ancestor. Every worthy achievement is the outcome of perseverance, the reward of perseverance. Our liberties were won by the perseverance of men who fought down ancient tyrannies, and the equality of opportunity towards which civilization is now sweeping steadily will be a heritage from men who refused to believe that "The rich man in his castle, The poor man in his gate, |