behold other men, endowed with high powers, expending their lives upon mere self-culture; sedulously aiming to improve their taste, augment their stores of knowledge, render their intellectual perceptions more apt and accurate; living for the beautiful in art, or science, or song, till they die. Such facts will speak to us more loudly than words. We shall feel, while meditating upon them, the wretchedness of those who have laid up treasure for themselves, and are not rich towards God. But apart from these instances, the contemplation of earthly success will touch us with a sense of its nothingness as a final good for man.

As the eye glances from peak to peak of this moral alp, dazzled at every transition by the rainbow colours with which the sunbeams mock the coldness of eternal snows, we shall ascend from the highest pinnacle into the blue heavens above, with an instinctive feeling that there lies the incorruptible inheritance of man; and the sentiment of the poet will be imprinted ineffaceably on the heart, that, however high the pile of grandeur may be raised,

"He builds too low who builds beneath the skies.”

SUCCESSFUL MERCHANTS, TRADESMEN, ETC. 17

CHAPTER II.

SUCCESSFUL MERCHANTS, TRADESMEN, AND MANUFAC

TURERS.

Different qualities necessary to success in the departments of trade and manufacture-Jacob Astor-Thomas CaddickSir Robert Peel-Samuel Budget.

WHETHER We consider the number of persons engaged in them, or their importance to the well-being of society, manufactures and trade unquestionably hold the first place among the industrial occupations of mankind. Others may contribute in a higher degree to mere elegance and refinement; science may instruct, and poetry elevate the mind: this, however, is the mere gilding of the structure; the solid materials of which it is composed are furnished by very different pursuits. If the world were reduced to such an alternative, it could much more easily part with its painters, its sculptors, its poets, its professors, however important these may be in their place, than it could with the workmen of the forge, the plough, and the loom, and those who, by means of exchange, disperse and equalize the various products of human labour.

Let us survey for a moment this twofold

department of enterprise-manufactures and commerce, production and exchange, making and selling-with a view to ascertain the qualities required for success therein. In the minor branches of handicraft little is required beyond hard work; when once a seven years' apprenticeship has been served, and knowledge duly obtained in their respective 66 arts and mysteries," then success lies in putting the latter into practice with as much energy as possible. In the staple manufactures of cotton, wool, flax, silk, etc., a greater demand is made on the intellectual capacities. An eye must then be kept upon the market to observe the state of prices, the kind of goods in demand, and probable changes of fashion. The probable scarcity or abundance of the raw material calls for caution and sagacity; the fickleness of taste, and the appearance from time to time of successful rivals, require boldness and ingenuity in striking out new paths, while the scale on which operations are carried on offers a premium upon economy and invention. Still, in manufacturing pursuits, when a path has once been entered upon, the chief requisites are energy and perseverance. Trade is a totally different thing; its essence lies in buying and selling. To the trader, the articles of commerce resemble the characters of algebra; he is concerned with the process merely, and they are considered only so far as they bear upon it. To make what is termed "a clever bargain" requires no small amount of judgment and

decision; the power of rapidly taking in the various conditions of the case; weighing calmly and dispassionately all that can bear upon it, and forming an opinion which subsequent reflection will only confirm; this is as intellectual a feat as the solution of a mathematical problem. But even this gives us a very inadequate view of the sphere which business comprehends, and the mental qualities which its successful prosecution requires. The merchant must be a geographer, an economist, a politician, and even genius may be pronounced requisite to the attainment of the highest degree of success.

The commercial progress of the United States of America, since the period of their separation from Great Britain, will be regarded hereafter as one of the most astonishing facts of history. To account for this forms no part of our present design; but the following narrative, while it is selected for the purpose of illustrating the remarks just made, will also afford a clue to the cause of that remarkable development which we witness with so much pleasure among our kindred on the other side of the Atlantic. About seventy years ago, in the quiet village of Waldorf, near the famous city of Heidelberg, a youth might have been seen reclining under the shade of a linden tree, apparently immersed in deep thought. One might have judged from his changing countenance, that some enterprise of no ordinary importance was being revolved within his breast,

perhaps some phantasy peculiar to the bright morning of life, fascinating his imagination by its brilliant form and colouring. JOHN JACOB ASTOR was then about to leave his father's house, the humble, yet loved abode of his ancestors; his eye was surveying in silence the blue waves of a distant ocean, and pursuing the outline of a strange shore. A new position often has the power of impressing important lessons on the mind, and rousing the will to high resolves. It was so with him. About to

bid farewell for ever to his fatherland, and to enter upon a sphere where everything would depend, under God, on his own exertions, he solemnly resolved to be honest and industrious, and never to swerve from the path of duty. Happy would it be if every emigrant, in setting out from his native shores, carried with him a similar determination! Let us see how it fared with Astor.

He was twenty years of age when he found himself in London on his way to the American settlements of Great Britain, then about obtaining from this country a ratification of their independence. He had a brother in the metropolis, a music seller in an humble way, who gave him as his capital a few musical instruments. In November, 1783, he embarked at London, and after being detained three months by the ice in Chesapeak Bay, landed at Baltimore in March. At the commencement of his emigrant life, he furnishes us with another

* Hunt's American Merchant's Magazine.