Part 17 (2/2)

CHAPTER XIV

”ON TIME,” OR THE TRIUMPH OF PROMPTNESS

”On the great clock of time there is but one word--NOW”

Note the sublime precision that leads the earth over a circuit of five hundred millions of miles back to the solstice at the appointed moment without the loss of one second,--no, not the es of which it traveled that imperiled road--EDWARD EVERETT

”Who cannot but see oftentie the threads of our destiny run? Oft it is only for a moment the favorable instant is presented

We miss it, and months and years are lost”

By the street of by and by one arrives at the house of never--CERVANTES

”Lose this day by loitering--'t will be the same story tomorrow, and the next more dilatory”

Let's take the instant by the forward top--SHAKESPEARE

”Haste, post, haste! Haste for thy life!” was frequently written upon land, with a picture of a courier swinging froibbet Post-offices were unknown, and letters were carried by govern if they delayed upon the road

Even in the old, slow days of stage-coaches, when it took ato accomplish the distance we can now span in a few hours, unnecessary delay was a criains civilization hastime We can do as much in an hour to-day as they could in twenty hours a hundred years ago

”Delays have dangerous ends” Caesar's delay to read a e cost him his life when he reached the senate house Colonel Rahl, the Hessian coht a letter stating that Washi+ngton was crossing the Delaware He put the letter in his pocket without reading it until the game was finished, when he rallied his men only to die just before his troops were taken prisoners Only a few minutes' delay, but he lost honor, liberty, life!

Success is the child of two very plain parents--punctuality and accuracy There are critical moments in every successful life when if the mind hesitate or a nerve flinch all will be lost

”I your proclamation,” wrote Governor Andrew of Massachusetts to President Lincoln on May 3, 1861, ”we took up the war, and have carried on our part of it, in the spirit in which we believe the Administration and the American people intend to act, namely, as if there were not an inch of red tape in the world” He had received a telegraton on Monday, April 15; at nine o'clock the next Sunday he said: ”All the regiments deton, or in Fortress Monroe, or on their way to the defence of the Capitol”

”The only question which I can entertain,” he said, ”is what to do; and when that question is answered, the other is, what next to do”

”The whole period of youth,” said Ruskin, ”is one essentially of formation, edification, instruction There is not an hour of it but is tre with destinies--not a moment of which, once passed, the appointed work can ever be done again, or the neglected blow struck on the cold iron”

Napoleon laid great stress upon that ”supreme moment,” that ”nick of tie of which means victory, and to lose in hesitation means disaster He said that he beat the Austrians because they did not know the value of fivethe trifles that conspired to defeat him at Waterloo, the loss of a fewwas the nificant Blucher was on tih to send Napoleon to St Helena, and to change the destiny of millions

It is a well-known truisnity of a maxim, that what may be done at any time will be done at no time

The African association of London wanted to send Ledyard, the traveler, to Africa, and asked when he would be ready to go ”To-,” was the reply John Jervis, afterwards Earl St Vincent, was asked when he could join his shi+p, and replied, ”Directly” Colin Campbell, appointed commander of the army in India, and asked when he could set out, replied without hesitation, ”To- until to-morrow a duty of to-day would often do the work How reeable, too, it is to do hich has been put off! What would have been done at the time with pleasure or even enthusiasery Letters can never be answered so easily as when first received Many large firms make it a rule never to allow a letter to lie unanswered overnight

Pro off usuallya deed is like sowing a seed: if not done at just the right time it will be forever out of season The su to maturity the fruit of a delayed action If a star or planet were delayed one second, it ht throw the whole universe out of harmony

”There is no eworth; ”not only so, there is no y, but in the present The man ill not execute his resolutions when they are fresh upon him can have no hopes from them afterward They will be dissipated, lost in the hurry and scurry of the world, or sunk in the slough of indolence”

Cobbett said he owed his success to being ”always ready” more than to all his natural abilities combined

”To this quality I owed my extraordinary prouard at ten, I was ready at nine; never did anywait one h, ”do you acco to do, I go and do it,”