youth to hope, but if hope turns to a belief
in luck, it becomes a poison to the mind. The youth of England has
before it a splendid opportunity, but let it remember always that
nothing but work and brains counts, and that a man can even work himself
into brains. No goddess will open to any man the portals of the temple
of success. Young men must advance boldly to the central shrine along
the arduous but well-tried avenues of Judgment and Industry.

IV

MODERATION

Judgment, Industry, and Health, as the instruments of success, depend
largely on a fourth quality, which may be called either restraint or
moderation. The successful men of these arduous days are those who
control themselves strictly.

Those who are learned in the past may point out exceptions to this rule.
But Charles James Fox or Bolingbroke were only competing with equals in
the art of genteel debauchery. Their habits were those of their
competitors. They were not fighting men who safeguarded their health and
kept a cool head in the morning. It is impossible to imagine to-day a
leader of the Opposition who, after a night of gambling at faro, would
go down without a breakfast or a bath to develop an important attack on
the Government. The days of the brilliant debauchee are over.
Politicians no longer retire for good at forty to nurse the gout. The
antagonists that careless genius would have to meet in the modern world
would be of sterner stuff.

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 sin