eneca, "of the shortness of time, and yet we have
more than we know what to do with. Our lives are spent either in doing
nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing
that we ought to do. We are always complaining that our days are few,
and acting as though there would be no end of them."

In regard to the right use of time--how to make the most of it and to
get the most out of it--there are certain things that we should bear in
mind and keep in constant remembrance. We may arrange them for
convenience under four heads: _Economy, System, Punctuality and
Promptitude_.

I. Economy.--We all know what economy is. In regard to money, in
connection with which the word is chiefly used, it is keeping strict
watch over our expenditure, and not spending a penny without good
reason. According to the oft-quoted proverb, "Take care of the pence
and the pounds will take care of themselves." Economy, in regard to
time, is to watch over the minutes, hours and days, and the years will
take care of themselves. It is, to let every moment of time be well
employed; to let every hour of the day as it passes be turned to use;
to let none be spent in idleness or folly. It is a good advice that of
the poet--

Think nought a trifle though it small appears,
Sands make the mountain, moments make the years,
And trifles life.

In the mint, where money is coined, when the visitor reaches the room
where the gold coins are cast, it is said that the floor is a network
of wooden bars to catch all the particles of the falling metal. When
the day's work is done, the floor is removed and the golden dust is
swept up to be melted again. In the same way we should economize time:
gather up its golden dust, let none of its moments be lost. Be careful
of its spare minutes, and a wealth of culture will be the result. It
is said of a European cathedral that when the architect came to insert
the stained-glass windows he was one window short. An apprentice in
the factory where the windows were made came forward and said that he
thought he could make a window from the bits of glass cast aside. He
went to work, collected the fragments, put them together, and produced
a window said to be the finest of all. In the same way men have made
much out of the bits of time that have been, so to speak, broken from
the edges of a busy life.

Many illustrations might be given from history of what men have been
able to do by a w