ing else but expedients to make luxury consistent with health. The apothecary is perpetually employed in countermining the cook and the vintner. It is said of Diogenes, that, meeting a young man who was going to a feast, he took him up in the street and carried him home to his friends, as one who was running into imminent danger had he not prevented him! What would that philosopher have said had he been present at the gluttony of many a modern meal? Would not he have thought the master of a family mad, and have begged his servants to tie down his hands, had he seen him devour fish, fowl, and flesh; swallow oil and vinegar, wines and spices; throw down salads of twenty different herbs, sauces of a hundred ingredients, confections and fruits of a hundred different flavours? What unnatural motions and counter-ferments must such a medley of intemperance produce in the body! For my part, when I behold a fashionable table set out in all its magnificence, I fancy I see gouts and dropsies, fevers and lethargies, with other innumerable distempers, lying in ambuscade among the dishes." Addison quotes an eminent physician, and commends his rules as the best suitable to our climate and way of living: "Make your whole repast out of one dish. If you indulge in a second, avoid drinking anything strong till you have finished your meal; at the same time abstain from all sauces, or at least such as are not the most plain and simple."

This may be taken as the wise conclusion of a careful study of the rules of health, that a vigorous and

persevering method of inuring ourselves to the unavoidable difficulties and diversified accidents of life is of greater importance to the preservation of health than any dietetical rules whatever. Man is capable of undergoing all the vicissitudes and inconveniences of air, weather, and climate; he can digest any articles of food if his stomach has not been wantonly indulged; he can sustain the severest bodily exercise and labour, without paying too much attention to time or regularity, when employment or duty renders exertion necessary. But he who from his infancy has been treated with extreme tenderness, or who, having previously been accustomed to a hardy mode of life, is seized with the whim of bestowing too much care on his health, will suffer from the most trivial hardships, and catch cold at every change of the air, any heavy or high-seasoned dish will be oppressive, and the smallest deviation of rules will indispose him. Yet experience proves—and this is the experience of all healthy persons-that the great secret of health is the art of moderating desires and enjoyments. Rules of health suitable to all constitutions and conditions have not yet been discovered; this general precept, however, may be accepted-that every one should study his own constitution, and regulate his conduct and life accordingly, making experience his guide in whatever he finds most suitable for the conservation of his health and the prolongation of his life.

S

VII.

Success in Business.

"Be earnest, energetic, resolute;

There's no enigma in the word Success.
Honour thy hand-that strange omnipotent:
Try is the true magician; thou wilt find
Endeavour no bad word to conjure with,
And there is no abracadabra, after all,
Potent as effort. Summon all the man
Within thee; hoist desire's full sail,
But ne'er neglect the oar of industry."

The

UCCESS in business is generally thought to be all that is implied in success in life. To be a successful man is to be a successful business man; and without business, life cannot be a success. A modern writer asks: "What is the end and purpose of business ?-Happiness. acquisition of property is subordinate to this end. Money is valueless except as it will satisfy wants. Business is a source of happiness in several ways. Its pursuit engages, invigorates, and enlarges the mind; its usefulness promotes self-respect; its results, if successful, increase the power of doing what the head conceives and the heart desires." Life cannot be a success in securing happiness unless work of some nature is undertaken, and there is some end in view. Dr. James

Hamilton, in addressing a number of young men, said: "Those of you who are familiar with the shore may have seen attached to the inundated reef a creaturewhether a plant or an animal you could scarcely tell— rooted to the rock as a plant might be, and twirling its long tentacula as an animal would do. This plantanimal's life is somewhat monotonous; for it has nothing to do but grow and twirl its feelers, float in the tide, or fold itself up on its foot-stalk when that tide has receded, for months and years together. Now, would it not be very dismal to be transformed into a zoophyte? Would it not be an awful punishment to be anchored to a rock, able to do nothing but spin about your arms and fold them up again? But what better life is the life you are spontaneously leading? What greater variety marks your existence than chequers the life of the sea-anemone? Does not one day float over you after another, just as the tide floats over it, and find you much the same, and leave you vegetating still?"

But all are not so circumstanced that they can either work or play. The majority have no choice-they must either work, engage in business, or not eat. Fortunately for the industrious, the determined, and persevering, there are opportunities in trade and commerce of securing the desired success—a pleasant and pleasurable life, and of making an ample provision for old age. But this can only be achieved by a faithful attention to rules, to laws, and conditions. Success in business is not the result of "luck," so much as the result

of conduct.

Shakespeare, however, declares no half

truth when he says,

"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."

But the tide must not only be "taken at the flood," but used and made subservient to success. P. T. Barnum, the American exhibitor, would no doubt be credited with "luck" in the purchase of the American Museum in New York, when he was not worth five shillings. But he had character, which enabled him to obtain security for the purchase-money. He worked hard and economized to the utmost. "My treasure of a wife (and such a wife is a treasure)," he said, "gladly assented to the arrangement, and expressed her willingness to cut the expenses down to thirty shillings per week, if necessary." Six months after the purchase of the Museum, a friend found him in his ticket-office eating his dinner, which consisted of a few slices of corned beef and bread that he had brought from home in the morning. "Is this the way you eat your dinner?" he inquired. Barnum replied, “I have not eaten a warm dinner since I bought the Museum, except on the Sabbath; and I intend never to eat another on week-days until I get out of debt." His friend slapped him on the back and said, "Ah, you are safe, and will pay for the Museum before the year is out." The prophecy was true-before the expiration of the year from that day the Museum was Barnum's exclusive property!