on the grave even of an enemy, and not feel remorse that he
should ever have warred with the poor handful of earth that lies
mouldering before him?

LESSON LXIII

ECONOMY OF TIME

One of the most important lessons to be learned in life is the art of
economizing time. A celebrated Italian was wont to call his time his
estate; and it is true of this as of other estates of which the young
come into possession, that it is rarely prized till it is nearly
squandered. Habits of indolence, listlessness, and sloth, once firmly
fixed, cannot be suddenly thrown off, and the man who has wasted the
precious hours of life's seed-time finds that he cannot reap a harvest
in life's autumn. Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost
knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine; but lost
time is gone forever. In the long catalogue of excuses for neglect of
duty, there is none which drops more often from men's lips than the
want of leisure. People are always cheating themselves with the idea
that they would do this or that desirable thing, "if they only had the
time." It is thus that the lazy and the selfish excuse themselves from
a thousand things which conscience dictates should be done. Now, the
truth is, there is no condition in which the chance of doing any good
is less than in that of leisure.

Go, seek out the men in any community who have done the most for their
own and the general good, and you will find they are--who?--Wealthy,
leisurely people, who have plenty of time to themselves, and nothing to
do? No; they are almost always the men who are in ceaseless activity
from January to December. Such men, however pressed with business, are
always found capable of doing a little more; and you may rely on them
in their busiest seasons with ten times more assurance than on idle men.

The men who do the greatest things do them, not so much by fitful
efforts, as by steady, unremitting toil,--by turning even the moments
to account. They have the genius for hard work,--the most desirable
kind of genius.

SELECTION XX

RECESSIONAL

God of our fathers, known of old--
Lord of our far-flung battle-line--
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine--
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget--lest we forget.

The tumult and the shouting dies--
The captain and the kings depart--
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrit