y will never have a firm,
elastic step, nor make the world feel the weight of their tread. The
man who thus shrinks from difficulties and responsibilities, refuses to
be a pupil of the best teacher the world affords. They should learn
that repeated failure, if wisely used, is but a means to grand success.
As Dr. Mathews truly says: "Great statesmen in all countries have owed
their sagacity, tact and foresight more to their failures than to their
successes. The diplomatist becomes master of his art by being baffled,
thwarted, defeated, quite as much as by winning his points. Every time
he is checkmated he acquires a profounder knowledge of the political
game, and makes his next combination with increased skill and increased
chances of success." Ease and luxury may make the butterflies of
society, but difficulties make men and women. That was a wise saying of
Pythagoras, that, "ability and necessity dwell near each other." It is
astonishing how difficulties will yield to one who will not yield to
them. They tip their plumed caps to his dominant will, and politely bow
themselves out of sight. They not only clear the way for self-reliance,
but give him the encouragement of their parting salute.

"Every person," says Gibbon, "has two educations--one which he receives
from others, and one, more important, which he gives himself."
Archimedes said, "Give me a standing-place and I will move the world."
But Goethe more happily says, "Make good thy standing-place and move
the world." Circumstances may afford a standing-place, but
self-reliance alone can give the leverage power. We must learn that
character and worth consists in doing, not in possessing. Not resting,
not having, not being simply, but growing and becoming, is the true
character of self-culture. This thought is most beautifully expressed
by Rogers--

"Our reward
Is in the race we run, not in the prize,
Those few, to whom is given what they ne'er earned,
Having by favor or inheritance
The dangerous gifts placed in their hands,
Know not, nor ever can, the generous pride
That glows in him who on himself relies,
Entering the lists of life. He speeds beyond
Them all, and foremost in the race succeeds.
His joy is not that he has got his crown,
But that the power to win the crown is his."

Another important item in the attainment of self-culture is the

ECONOMY OF TIME.

Time is a divine inheri