The modern men of action realise that a sacrifice of health is a
sacrifice of years--and that every year is of value. They protect their
constitutions as the final bulwark against the assault of the enemy. A
man without a digestion is likely to be a man without a heart. Political
and financial courage spring as much from the nerves or the stomach as
from the brain. And without courage no politician or business man is
worth anything. Moderation is, therefore, the secret of success.

And, above all, I would urge on ambitious youth the absolute necessity
of moderation in alcohol. I am the last man in the world to be in favour
of the regulation of the social habits of the people by law. Here every
man should be his own controller and law-giver. But this much is
certain: no man can achieve success who is not strict with himself in
this matter; nor is it a bad thing for an aspiring man of business to be
a teetotaller.

Take the case of the Prime Minister. No man is more careful of himself.
He sips a single glass of burgundy at dinner for the obvious reason that
he enjoys it, and not because it might stimulate his activities. He has
given up the use of tobacco. Bolingbroke as a master of manoeuvres would
have had a poor chance against him. For Bolingbroke lost his nerve in
the final disaster, whereas the Prime Minister could always be trusted
to have all his wits and courage about him. Mr. Lloyd George is regarded
as a man riding the storm of politics with nerves to drive him on. No
view could be more untrue. In the very worst days of the war in 1916 he
could be discovered at the War Office taking his ten minutes' nap with
his feet up on a chair and discarded newspapers lying like the débris of
a battle-field about him. It would be charitable to suppose that he had
fallen asleep before he had read his newspapers! He even takes his golf
in very moderate doses. We are often told that he needs a prolonged