lar impulse which
most frequently leads us to put off the duty of the hour is indolence.
But any appetite or passion which induces us to postpone a recognized
duty for the sake of a present delight is an invitation to
procrastination.

The fallacy of procrastination, the trick by which it deceives, is in
making one believe that at a different time he will be a different
person. The procrastinator admits, for instance, that a piece of work
must be done. But he argues, "Just now I would rather play or loaf than
do the work. By and by there will come a time when I shall rather do the
work than play or loaf. Let's wait till that time comes." That time
never comes. Our likes and dislikes do not change from one day to
another. To-morrow finds us as lazy as to-day, and with the habit of
procrastination strengthened by the indulgence of yesterday. Putting a
duty off once does not make it easier: it makes it harder to do the next
time.

Play or rest when we ought to be at work is weakening and demoralizing.
Rest and play after work is bracing and invigorating. The sooner we face
and conquer a difficulty, the less of a difficulty it is. The longer we
put it off the greater it seems, and the less becomes our strength with
which to overcome it.

THE VICE OF EXCESS.

+Anxiety defeats itself.+--Anxiety sacrifices the present to the future.
When this becomes a habit it defeats its own end. For the future is
nothing but a succession of moments, which, when they are realized, are
present moments. And the man who sacrifices all the present moments to
his conception of a future, sacrifices the very substance out of which
the real future is composed. For when he reaches the time to which he
has been looking forward, and for the sake of which he has sacrificed
all his early days, the habit of anxiety stays by him and compels him to
sacrifice that future, now become present, to another future, still
farther ahead; and so on forever. Thus life becomes an endless round of
fret and worry, full of imaginary ills, destitute of all real and
present satisfaction. It is a good rule never to cross a bridge until we
come to it. Prudence demands that we make reasonable preparation for
crossing it in advance. But when these preparations are made prudence
has done its work, and waits calmly until the time comes to put its
plans into operation. Anxiety fills all the intervening time with
forebodings of all the possible obstacles that may arise when