pushed, for a young man with no will, no grip on life? The man who would
forge to the front in this competitive age must be a man of prompt and
determined decision.


A TAILOR'S NEEDLE.

It is in one of Ben Jonson's old plays: "When I once take the humor of a
thing, I am like your tailor's needle--I go through with it."

This is not different from Richelieu, who said: "When I have once taken
a resolution, I go straight to my aim; I overthrow all, I cut down all."

And in business affairs the counsel of Rothschild is to the same effect:
"Do without fail that which you determine to do."

Gladstone's children were taught to accomplish _to the end_ whatever
they might begin, no matter how insignificant the undertaking might be.


WHAT IS WORSE THAN RASHNESS

It is irresolution that is worse than rashness. "He that shoots," says
Feltham, "may sometimes hit the mark; but he that shoots not at all can
never hit it. Irresolution is like an ague; it shakes not this nor that
limb, but all the body is at once in a fit."

The man who is forever twisting and turning, backing and filling,
hesitating and dawdling, shuffling and parleying, weighing and
balancing, splitting hairs over non-essentials, listening to every new