up their earnings as
they go, renders them, to a great extent, dependent upon the frugal.

Men of business are accustomed to quote the maxim that "Time is
money;" but it is more; the proper improvement of it is self-culture,
self-improvement, and growth of character. An hour wasted daily on
trifles or in indolence, would, if devoted to self-improvement, make
an ignorant man wise in a few years, and, employed in good works,
would make his life fruitful, and death a harvest of worthy deeds.
Fifteen minutes a day devoted to self-improvement, will be felt at
the end of the year. Good thoughts and carefully gathered experience
take up no room, and may be carried about as our companions
everywhere, without cost or encumbrance. An economical use of time is
the true mode of securing leisure: it enables us to get through
business and carry it forward, instead of being driven by it. On the
other hand, the miscalculation of time involves us in perpetual
hurry, confusion, and difficulties; and life becomes a mere shuffle
of expedients, usually followed by disaster. Nelson once said, "I owe
all my success in life to having been always a quarter of an hour
before my time."

Some take no thought of the value of money until they have come to an
end of it, and many do the same with their time. The hours are
allowed to flow by unemployed, and then when life is fast waning,
they bethink themselves of the duty of making a wiser use of it. But
the habit of listlessness and idleness may already have become
confirmed, and they are unable to break the bonds with which they
have permitted themselves to become bound. Lost wealth may be
replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by
temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone forever.

A proper consideration of the value of time will also inspire habits
of punctuality. "Punctuality," said Louis XIV, "is the politeness of
kings." It is also the duty of gentlemen, and the necessity of men of
business. Nothing begets confidence in a man sooner than the practice
of this virtue, and nothing shakes confidence sooner than the want of
it. He who holds to his appointment and does not keep you waiting for
him, shows that he has regard for your time as well as for his own.
Thus punctuality is one of the modes by which we testify our personal
respect for those whom we are called upon to meet in the business of
life. It is also conscientiousness, in a measure; for an appointment
is a cont