e respectable? And is not the word "respectable" the highest
term of praise which can be applied to the British tradesman?

Credit is the polished shaft of the temple. But with what are you to
polish it? The stone does not come from the quarry with its gloss on.
Man's labour is necessary to give it that beauteous exterior. Then
wherewith shall we polish credit? I answer the question at once. With
the pumice-stone and sand-paper of advertisement.

Different great men have promulgated the different means by which they
have sought to subjugate the world. "Audacity--audacity--audacity,"
was the lesson which one hero taught. "Agitate--agitate--agitate,"
was the counsel of a second. "Register--register--register," of a
third. But I say--Advertise, advertise, advertise! And I say it again
and again--Advertise, advertise, advertise! It is, or should be,
the Shibboleth of British commerce. That it certainly will be so I,
George Robinson, hereby venture to prophesy, feeling that on this
subject something but little short of inspiration has touched my
eager pen.

There are those,--men of the old school, who cannot rouse themselves
to see and read the signs of the time, men who would have been in
the last ranks, let them have lived when they would,--who object to
it that it is untrue,--who say that advertisements do not keep the
promises which they make. But what says the poet,--he whom we teach
our children to read? What says the stern moralist to his wicked
mother in the play? "Assume a virtue if you have it not?" and so say
I. "Assume a virtue if you have it not." It would be a great trade
virtue in a haberdasher to have forty thousand pairs of best hose
lying ready for sale in his warehouse. Let him assume that virtue if
he have it not. Is not this the way in which we all live, and the
only way in which it is possible to live comfortably. A gentleman
gives a dinner party. His lady, who has to work all day like a
dray-horse and scold the servants besides, to get things into order,
loses her temper. We all pretty well know what that means. Well; up
to the moment when she has to show, she is as bitter a piece of goods
as may be. But, nevertheless, she comes down all smiles, although she
knows that at that moment the drunken cook is spoiling the fish. She
assumes a virtue, though she has it not; and who will say she is not
right?

Well; I say again and again to all young tradesmen;--Advertise,
advertise, advertise;--and don't