depend on the same set of maxims in
public life and private. The puzzle will often greet us, and here it is
enough to glance at it. In every statesman's case it arises; in Mr.
Gladstone's it is cardinal and fundamental.

V

MAXIMS OF ORDERED LIFE

To say that he had drawn prizes in what is called the lottery of life
would not be untrue; but just as true is it that one of those very
prizes was the determined conviction that life is no lottery at all, but
a serious business worth taking infinite pains upon. To one of his sons
at Oxford he wrote a little paper of suggestions that are the actual
description of his own lifelong habit and unbroken practice.

_Strathconan, Oct. 7, 1872._--1. To keep a short journal of
principal employments in each day: most valuable as an account-book
of the all-precious gift of Time.

2. To keep also an account-book of receipt and expenditure; and the
least troublesome way of keeping it is to keep it with care. This
done in early life, and carefully done, creates the habit of
performing the great duty of keeping our expenditure (and therefore
our desires) within our means.

3. Read attentively (and it is pleasant reading) Taylor's essay on
Money,[126] which if I have not done it already, I will give you.
It is most healthy and most useful reading.

4. Establish a minimum number of hours in the day for study, say
seven at present, and do not without reasonable cause let it be
less; noting down against yourself the days of exception. There
should also be a minimum number for the vacations, which at Oxford
are extremely long.

5. There arises an important question about Sundays. Though we
should to the best of our power avoid secular work on Sundays, it
does not follow that the mind should remain idle. There is an
immense field of knowledge connected with religion, and much of it
is of a kind that will be of use in the schools and in relation to
your general studies. In these days of shallow scepticism, so
widely spread, it is more than ever to be desired that we should be
able to give a reason for the hope that is in us.

6. As to duties directly religious, such as daily prayer in the
morning and evening, and daily reading of some portion of the Holy
Scripture, or as to the holy ordinances