Where there's a will there's a way.

Do that which is right

EVERYDAY COURAGE.

HE greater part of the courage that is needed in the world is not of a heroic kind. Courage may be displayed in everyday life as well as in historic fields of action. There needs, for example, the common courage to be honestthe courage to resist temptation-the courage to speak the truth-the courage to be what we really are, and not to pretend to be what we are not-the courage to live honestly within our own means, and not dishonestly upon the means of others.

A great deal of the unhappiness, and much of the vice, of the world is owing to weakness and indecision of purpose-in other words, to lack of courage. Men may know what is right, and yet fail to exercise the courage to do it; they may understand the duty they have to do, but will not summon up the requisite resolution to perform it. The weak and undisciplined man is at the mercy of every temptation; he cannot say "No," but falls before it. And if his companionship be bad, he will be all the easier led away by bad example into wrong-doing.

Nothing can be more certain than that the character can only be sustained and strengthened by its own energetic action. The will, which is the central

The respect of men will follow after.

Evil never came from good advice.

Strike the iron while 'tis hot.

Look before you leap.

force of character, must be trained to habits of de-
cision-otherwise it will neither be able to resist evil

nor to follow good. Decision gives the power of
standing firmly, when to yield, however slightly,
might be only the first step in a downhill course
to ruin.

Calling upon others for help in forming a decision
is worse than useless. A man must so train his
habits as to rely upon his own powers and depend
upon his own courage in moments of emergency.
Plutarch tells of a King of Macedon who, in the
midst of an action, withdrew into the adjoining town
under pretence of sacrificing to Hercules; whilst his
opponent Emilius, at the same time that he implored
the Divine aid, sought for victory sword in hand, and
won the battle. And so it ever is in the actions of
daily life.

Many are the valiant purposes formed, that end merely in words; deeds intended, that are never done; designs projected, that are never begun; and all for want of a little courageous decision. Better far the silent tongue but the eloquent deed. For in life, and in business, dispatch is better than discourse; and the shortest of all is Doing. "In matters of great concern, and which must be done," says Tillotson, "there is no surer argument of a weak mind than irresolution-to be undetermined when the case is so plain and the necessity so urgent. To be always intending to live

Better sit still than rise and fall.

A good name is easier lost than won.

Books should to one of these four ends conduce

Books are true friends,

a new life, but never to find time to set about it-
this is as if a man should put off eating and drinking
and sleeping from one day to another, until he is
starved and destroyed."

SAMUEL SMILES.

THE COMPANIONSHIP OF Books.

LITERARY taste, apart from its higher uses, is among the most pure and enduring of earthly enjoyments. It brings its possessor into ever-renewing communion with all that is highest and best in the thought and sentiment of the past. The garnered wisdom of the ancient is its daily food. Whatever is dignified or lofty in speculation, or refined or elevated in feeling, or wise, quaint, or humorous in suggestion, or soaring or tender in imagination, is accessible to the lover of books. He can command the wittiest or wisest of companions at his pleasure. He can retire and hold converse with philosophers, statesmen, and poets; he can regale himself with their richest and deepest thoughts, with their most exquisite felicities of expression. His favourite books are a world to him. He lives with their characters; he is animated by their sentiments; he is moved by their principles.

That will neither flatter nor dissemble.

Wisdom, piety, delight, or use.

No entertainment is so cheap

as

reading.

A good book is a true friend.

And when the outer world is a burden to him-when
its ambitions fret him, or its cares worry him-he
finds refuge in this calmer world of the past, and
soothes his resentment and stimulates his languor in
peaceful sympathy with it.

Especially does this love of literature rise into
enjoyment, when other and more active enjoyments
begin to fade away. When the senses lose their
freshness, and the limbs their activity, the man who
has learned to love books has a constant and ever-
growing interest. When the summit of professional
life has been attained, and wealth secured, and the
excitements of business yield to the desire for retire-
ment, such a man has a happy resource in himself;
and the taste which he cultivated at intervals, and
sometimes almost by stealth, amid the pressure of
business avocations, becomes to him at once an orna-
ment and a blessing. It is impossible to overrate the
comparative dignity, as well as enjoyment, of a life
thus well spent, which has preserved an intellectual
feeling amidst commercial ventures or sordid distrac-
tions, and brightens at last into evening of intellectual
wisdom and calm.

PRINCIPAL TULLOCH.

Reading maketh a full man.

The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright.

Good understanding getteth favour.

Too soon is easy mended.

THE UNPUNCTUAL MAN

HE unpunctual man is a general disturber of
others' peace and serenity. Everybody with
whom he has to do is thrown from time to
time into a state of fever; he is systematically
late regular only in his irregularity. He
conducts his dawdling as if upon a system;
always arrives at his appointment after time; gets to
the railway station after the train has started; and
posts his letters when the box has closed. Business
is thus thrown into confusion, and everybody con-
cerned is put out of temper. It will generally be

found that the men who are thus habitually behind.
time are as habitually behind success; and the world
generally casts them aside to swell the ranks of the
grumblers and the railers against fortune. The late
Thomas Tegg, the publisher, who rose from a very
humble position in life, once said of himself that he
"had lodged with beggars, and had the honour of
presentation to royalty," and that he attributed his
success in life mainly to three things-punctuality as
to time, self-reliance, and integrity in word and deed.
The miscalculation of time involves us in perpetual
hurry, confusion, and difficulties; and life becomes
a mere shuffle of expedients, usually followed by

Always in a hurry is ever behind.

Better late thrive than never do well.