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DO EVERY THING WELL.

It is better to accomplish perfectly a very small amount of work, than to half-do ten times as much. "That will do," is a phrase of modern invention. The ancients knew of no such expression, or the Egyptians would never have raised the pyramids.. nor the Greeks and Romans displayed that love of the beautiful which led them to impart a poetic grace even to the meanest utensils for household use, as the remains of Pompeii fully testify. "That will do," is the self-dispensation given by the lazy painter, who glosses over the want of anatomical correctness by a showy colouring, "That will do," is the besetting sin of architects who lay their shortcomings to the want of a favourable site or an Italian climate. "That will do," is the precept held in veneration by most servants. "That will do," makes your sloven and your slattern. A man who adopts this motto with regard to dress does not mind being seen with a dirty shirt and a beard of two days' growth, while the same fatal saying allows a woman to go about the house with curl papers, and slipshod. "That will do," applied to household matters is equally bad, and more annoying to friends than when applied to dress. You may expect ill-cooked dinners in any house where the heads adopt this maxim, to say nothing of shabby carpets, faded paint, dirty muslin curtains, etc. "That will do," has conjured up a host of inefficient teachers, and a still larger proportion of imperfect scholars. "That will do," has sunk many a ship, caused the downfall of scaffolding holding hundreds of human beings, occasions at least half the fires that take place, and is at the bottom of most railway disasters. "That will do," is the enemy to all excellence, and would sap the conscience of the most virtuous man alive, if he hearkened to its dictates. The only persons to whom we recommend it are drunkards, gamblers, and spendthrifts, who may very properly. exclaim, "That will do!" All should bear in mind that nothing will "do" but the very best in point of excellence.

A friend called on Michael Angelo, who was finishing a statue;

some time afterwards he called again: the sculptor was still at his work. His friend, looking at the figure, exclaimed, "You have been idle since I saw you last." "By no means,” replied the sculptor; "I have retouched this part, and polished that; I have softened this feature, and brought out this muscle; I have given more expression to this lip, and more energy to this limb." "Well, well," said his friend, "but all these are trifles." "It may be so," replied Angelo; "but recollect that trifles make perfection, and that perfection is no trifle." Longfellow says

"Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate!
Still achieving, still pursuing,

Learn to labour and to wait."

PROCRASTINATION.

PROCRASTINATORS are rarely successful in life.

The proverb well says, "Procrastination is the thief of time”; and the Spanish proverb tells us that, "By the road of By-and-by one arrives at the town of Never." Shakespeare says :

"The flighty purpose never is o'ertook,

Unless the deed go with it.

There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries."

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"Now," is the constant syllable ticking from the clock of time. "Now," is the watchword of the wise. Now," is on the banner of the prudent. Let us keep this little word always in our mind; and whenever anything presents itself to us in the shape of work, whether mental or physical, we should do it with all our might, remembering that "Now" is the only time for us. It is, indeed, a sorry way to get through the world, by putting off till to-morrow,

Never defer till to-morrow what can be done at the present time. If you have a lesson to learn, begin at once; by constant repetition you will accomplish it. If you wish to acquire any particular branch of education, you must be studious; by practice you will surmount many difficulties. Should you have an important duty to perform, never defer it; by so doing you may bring life-long trouble upon others. Be prompt in your actions; whatever you undertake try and fulfil. Never promise what you cannot perform. Learn punctuality and self-reliance; then there will be no occasion to rely on another's ability for help.

When you have decided upon doing a thing, do it. Begin. Do not delay. Everything must have a commencement. The first weed pulled up in the garden, the first seed put into the ground, the first shilling into the savings bank, and the first mile travelled on a journey, are all very important things; they make a beginning, and thereby a hope, a promise, a pledge, an assurance, that you are in earnest with what you have undertaken. How many a poor, idle, hesitating, erring outcast is now creeping through the world, who might have held up his head and prospered, if, instead of putting off his resolutions of amendment and industry, he had made a beginning. A beginning, a good beginning, too, is necessary:

"Had not the base been laid by builders wise,
The pyramids had never reached the skies."

PATIENCE.

EVERY man must patiently bide his time. He must wait, not in listless idleness, not in useless pastime, not in querulous dejection, but in constant, steady, and cheerful endeavour, always willing,

fulfilling and accomplishing his task, that, when the occasion comes, he may be equal to the occasion. The chief secret of

success is nothing more than doing what you can do well, without a thought of fame. If it comes at all, it will come because it is deserved, not because it is sought after. It is very indiscreet and troublesome ambition which cares so much about fame, about what the world says of us, to be always looking in the face of others for approval, to be always anxious about the effect of what we do or say, to be always shouting to hear the echoes of our own voices. Richter says-I hold the constant regard we pay in all our actions to the judgment of others as the poisoner of our peace, our reason, and our virtue. Upon this slaves' chain I have long filed, but scarcely ever hope to break it.

Cherish patience as your favourite virtue. Always keep it about you. You will find use for it oftener than for all the rest. Being patient is the hardest work we have to do through life.

You can do anything if you will only have patience: water may be carried in a sieve, if you can only wait till it freezes.

ENERGY.

A MAN with knowledge but without energy, is a house furnished but not inhabited; a man with energy but no knowledge, a house dwelt in but unfurnished. A man of talent is lost, if he do not join to talent energy of character.

Without decision of character no man is ever worth a button, nor ever can be. Without it a man becomes at once a good natured nobody: the poverty-stricken possessor of but one solitary principle, that of obliging everybody under the sun, merely for the asking.

Sir Fowell Buxton says:-The longer I live, the more I am certain that the great difference between men, between the feeble and the powerful, the great and the insignificant, is energyinvincible determination—a purpose once fixed, and then, death or victory. That quality, so largely possessed by Mr. Gladstone, the present prime minister, will accomplish most things that can

be done in this world, and no talents, no circumstances, no opportunities, will make a two-legged creature a man without it.

Our success in life generally bears a direct proportion to the exertions we make; and if we aim at nothing, we shall certainly achieve nothing. By the remission of labour and energy it often happens that poverty and contempt, disaster and defeat, steal a march upon prosperity and honour, and overwhelm us with reverses and shame. The greater the difficulty, the more glory is there in surmounting it.

To-day I found myself compelled to do something which was very disagreeable to me, and which I had long deferred; I was obliged to resort to my "grand expedient," in order to conquer my aversion. You will laugh when I tell you what this is; but I find it a powerful aid in great things as well as small. The truth is, there are few men who are not sometimes capricious, and yet oftener vacillating. Finding that I am not better than others in this respect, I invented a remedy of my own, a sort of artificial resolution respecting things which are difficult of performancea means of securing that firmness in myself which I might otherwise want, and which man is generally obliged to sustain by some external prop. My device, then, is this :-I give my word of honour most solemnly to myself to do, or to leave undone, this or that. I am, of course, exceedingly cautious and discreet in the use of this expedient, and exercise great deliberation before I resolve upon it; but when once it is done, even if I afterwards think I have been precipitate or mistaken, I hold it to be perfectly irrevocable, whatever inconveniences I foresee likely to result. And I feel great satisfaction and tranquillity in being subject to such an immutable law. If I were capable of breaking it after such mature consideration, I should lose all respect for myself—and what man of sense would not prefer death to such an alternative ?

WORK.

It creeps

LAZINESS begins in cobwebs and ends in iron chains. over a man so slowly and imperceptibly, that he is bound tight