ract, expressed or implied, and he who does not keep it
breaks faith, as well as dishonestly uses other people's time, and
thus inevitably loses character. We naturally come to the conclusion
that the person who is careless about time is careless about
business, and that he is not the one to be trusted with the
transaction of matters of importance. When Washington's secretary
excused himself for the lateness of his attendance and laid the blame
upon his watch, his master quietly said, "Then you must get another
watch, or I another secretary."

The person who is negligent of time and its employment is usually
found to be a general disturber of others' peace and serenity. It was
wittily said by Lord Chesterfield of the old Duke of Newcastle--"His
Grace loses an hour in the morning, and is looking for it all the
rest of the day." Everybody with whom the unpunctual man has to do is
thrown from time to time into a state of fever: he is systematically
late; regular only in his irregularity. He conducts his dawdling as
if upon system; arrives at his appointment after time; gets to the
railway station after the train has started; posts his letter when
the box has closed. Thus business is thrown into confusion, and
everybody concerned is put out of temper.

To secure independence, the practice of simple economy is all that is
necessary. Economy requires neither superior courage nor eminent
virtue; it is satisfied with ordinary energy, and the capacity of
average minds. Economy, at bottom, is but the spirit of order applied
in the administration of domestic affairs: it means management,
regularity, prudence, and the avoidance of waste. The spirit of
economy was expressed by our Divine Master in the words, "Gather up
the fragments that remain, so that nothing may be lost." His
omnipotence did not disdain the small things of life; and even while
revealing His infinite power to the multitude, he taught the pregnant
lesson of carefulness, of which all stand so much in need.

Economy also means to power of resisting present gratification for
the purpose of securing a future good, and in this light it
represents the ascendancy of reason over the animal instincts. It is
altogether different from penuriousness: for it is economy that can
always best afford to be generous. It does not make money an idol,
but regards it as a useful agent. As Dean Swift observes, "we must
carry money in the head, not in the heart." Economy may be styled