monplace requisites for a good man of business, without which all the rest may never come to be translated into action.'"* The gilding wears off the most ingenious devices; the novelty fades away; the pretense appears below the mask; but the true gold of principle shines the more brightly the more it is tested, and endures as fresh as ever after all changes. * Essays Written in the Intervals of Business, p. 98. I. HOW TO READ. HE busiest professional life has its mo THE ments of leisure. It is the impulse and duty of every right-minded man to secure time for himself and his personal culture, as well as time for his business. This is something quite different from allowing any favorite or distracting pursuit to interfere with business. The one course, all men who would succeed in their profession will shun. The other course, all men who would not be mere professional machines will follow. And what never ceases to be more or less a duty throughout life, is an imperative duty to the young. Their hours of leisure recur regularly, their professional work has its formal limits of time; and beyond these limits, they have comparatively few cares or anxieties. Their minds are yet fresh and vigorous, athirst for knowledge, if not ruined by self-indulgence or spoiled by early education. To them those hours still in the morning of life which they can devote to self-culture, are among the most |