moral because it
is unwise and unfitting. The morrow has its own appropriate duties; and if
to-day's work be thrown into it, the massing of two days' good work into
one exceeds ordinary ability. The consequence is, either that both days'
works are imperfectly performed, or that part of what fitly belongs to the
morrow is pushed farther on, and the derangement of duty made chronic.
Thus there are persons who are always in arrears with their engagements
and occupations,--in chase, as it were, after duties which they never lose
from sight, and never overtake.

*Hardly less grave,* though less common, *is the error of those who
anticipate duty*, and do to-day what they ought to do to-morrow. The work
thus anticipated may be superseded, or may be performed under better
auspices and with fewer hindrances in its own time; while it can hardly
fail to interfere injuriously with the fit employment or due relaxation of
the passing day. Moreover, the habit of thus performing work before its
time at once betokens and intensifies an uneasy, self-distrusting frame of
mind, unfavorable to vigorous effort, and still more so to the quiet
enjoyment of needed rest and recreation. There are those, who are
perpetually haunted by the forecast shadows, not only of fixed, but of
contingent obligations and duties,--shadows generally larger than the
substance, and often wholly destitute of substance.

*Punctuality*(17) denotes the most scrupulous precision as to
time,--exactness to a moment in the observance of all times that can be
designated or agreed upon. In matters with which we alone are concerned,
we undoubtedly have of right, and may often very fittingly exercise, the
dispensing power. Thus, in the arrangement of our own pursuits, the clock
may measure and direct our industry, without binding us by its stroke. It
is often of more consequence that we finish what is almost done, than that
we change our work because the usual hour for a change has arrived. But
where others are concerned, rigid punctuality is an imperative duty. A
fixed time for an assembly, a meeting of a committee or board of trust, or
a business interview, is a virtual contract into which each person
concerned has entered with every other, and the strict rules that apply to
contracts of all kinds are applicable here. Failure in punctuality is
dishonesty. It involves the theft of time, which to some men is money's
worth, to others is worth more than money. It ought not to s