"I am satisfied they have served me well three score years." Such maxims as these are worthy to be remembered, not only by business men, but by all young persons entering on life in any walk or calling. RULES OF LIFE. Mr. Grigg was the founder of the publishing house of Grigg, Elliott, and Company. He began life as an orphan farmer boy, and accumulated a large fortune. These are his rules: 1. Be industrious and economical. Waste neither time nor money in small and useless pleasures and indulgences. If the young can be induced to begin to save the moment they enter on the paths of life, the way will ever become easier before them, and they will not fail to attain a competency, and that without denying themselves any of the real necessaries and comforts of life. Our people are certainly among the most improvident and extravagant on the face of the earth. It is enough to make the merchant of the old school who looks back and thinks what economy, prudence, and discretion he had to bring to bear on his own business (and which are in fact the bases of all successful enterprise), start back in astonishment to look at the ruthless waste and extravagance of the age and people. The highest test of respectability is honest industry. Well-directed industry makes men happy. The really noble class-the class that was noble when "Adam delved and Eve spun," and have preserved their patent to this day untarnished-is the laborious and industrious. Until men have learned industry, economy, and self-control, they cannot be safely intrusted with wealth. 2. To industry and economy add self-reliance. Do not take too much advice. The business man must keep at the helm and steer his own ship. In early life every one should be taught to think for himself. A man's talents are never brought out until he is thrown to some extent upon his own resources. If in every difficulty he has only to run to his principal, and then implicitly obey the directions he may receive, he will never acquire that aptitude of perception, and that promptness of decision, and that firmness of purpose which are absolutely necessary to those who hold important stations. A certain degree of independent feeling is essential to the full development of the intellectual character. 3. Remember that punctuality is the mother of confidence. It is not enough that the merchant fulfils his engagements, he must do what he undertakes precisely at the time, as well as in the way he agreed to. The mutual dependence of merchants is so great that their engagements, like a chain which, according to the law of *Physics, is never stronger than its weakest link, are oftener broken through the weakness of others than their own. But a prompt fulfilment of engagements is not only of the utmost importance, because it enables others to meet their own engagements promptly. It is also the best evidence that the merchant has his affairs well ordered-his means at command, his forces marshalled, and "everything ready for action" -in short that he knows his own strength. This it is which inspires confidence, as much perhaps as the meeting of the engagement. 4. Attend to the minutiae of the business, small things as well as great. See that the shop is opened early, goods brushed up, twine and nails picked up and all ready for action. A young man should consider capital, if he have it or as he may acquire it, merely as tools with which he is to work, not as a substitute for the necessity of labour. It is often the case that diligence in employments of less consequence is the most successful introduction to great enterprises. Those make the best officers who have served in the ranks. We may say of labour, as *Coleridge said of poetry, it is its own sweetest reward. It is the best of physic. 5. Let the young merchant remember that selfishness is the meanest of vices, and it is the parent of a thousand more. It not only interferes both with the means and with the end of acquisition-not only makes money more difficult to get, and not worth having when it is got, but it is narrowing to the mind and to the heart. Selfishness "keeps a shilling so close to the eye that it cannot see a dollar beyond." Never be narrow and contracted in your views. Life abounds in instances of the brilliant results of a generous policy. 6. Be frank. Say what you mean. Do what you say. So shall your friends know and take it for granted that you mean to do what is just and right. 7. Accustom yourself to think vigorously. Mental capital, like pecuniary, to be worth anything must be well invested-must be rightly adjusted and applied, and to this end careful, deep, and intense thought is necessary if great results are looked for. 8. Marry early. The man of business should marry as soon as possible after twenty-two or three years of age. A good woman will conform to the necessities of the day of small beginnings, and in choosing a wife a man should look at 1st, the heart; 2nd, the mind; 3rd, the person. 9. Everything, however remote, that has a bearing upon success must be taken advantage of. The business man should be continually on the watch for information, and ideas that will throw light upon his path, and he should be an attentive reader of all practical books, especially those relating to business, trade, etc., as well as useful and ennobling literature. 10. Never forget a favour, for ingratitude is the basest trait of man's heart. Rothschild. A rich merchant born at Frankfort in 1750. He died in 1836. He was of the Jewish faith. His family inherit his wealth and his good name. New Orleans. The capital of Louisiana, North America. Boston. A city in the United States of America; built about 1627. Mentor. A friend who keeps one right; a second conscience. Physics. The science which treats of the nature and properties of things around us. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. An English poet and writer, a friend of Wordsworth. He was born in 1772, and died in 1834. TYPICAL MEN WHO HAVE BEEN THRIFTY. brawling, making a noise. deeds of conveyance, lawyers' pasturage, meadow land. covetousness, envying, longing It seems perhaps that a clergyman is about the least likely man to add to his income or to set an example of industry outside his sacred calling. There are many instances of the clergy living honestly and respectably on very small means, and many are known to set an example to their people of good management and thrift. There is the good village pastor immortalised by the poet *Goldsmith, who was "passing rich on forty pounds a year.' And in the life of *Wordsworth, the English poet, who lived amidst the beautiful scenery in the north of England, and loved to write about it, we find an account of a village clergyman who formed one of the most remarkable illustrations of Thrift ever written of. His name was the Rev. Robert Walker, and his frugality and good management were such that even to this day he is recollected and spoken of in *Cumberland as the "wonderful Walker." The lovely district where he dwelt is thus described : |