one chance out of a hundred for him to live. Say with him, "I will take that chance!" "Be wise! The tide is at its height, Which now may waft thee to the wished-for shore; Waiting for Something to Turn Up. TH REV. ALPHEUS BAKER HERVEY, PH.D. HIS was the motto of that extraordinary man, whose interesting biography we owe to the pen of Mr. Charles Dickens, the late Wilkins Micawber. If closely pressed, we should have to admit that his career was not especially distinguished by what we call success. As a business man he does not shine forth an example to the world. It does not appear that Her Majesty ever selected him, as she did Bessemer, and Mason, and many others, for knightly honors, as a recognition of his great services to the wealth-producing activities of the nation. He was often deeply concerned in business transactions, and was justly celebrated for the number and variety of the legal papers which he signed and executed. Few in his day were more familiar with the stamped paper on which subjects of the British Crown record their contracts. His were always contracts to pay certain sums due, for value received. Though a distinguished man of affairs, his sense of meum et tuum was that obscure or defective that he considered himself to have fully discharged a debt when he had signed one of these bills. In consequence, those having the misfortune to be his creditors, taking a different view of the matter, and not finding these bills passing current like those of the Bank of England, subjected this great "financier" to endless troubles, by means of writs, and civil processes, and deputy sheriffs, and debtors' prisons, and things of that sort. Indeed, one can hardly read the story of this remarkable man, whose history so brilliantly illustrates our theme, without coming to see that it requires almost as much genius, and quite as much trouble, to manage "to live on nothing a year," as Thackeray phrases it, as it does to earn an honest livelihood. Mr. Micawber is the type of a class of "dead beats" which infest every community. They are great humbugs, but they probably humbug themselves even more than anyone else. They are selfish and ignoble, and mean-spirited to the last degree. But they are also preternaturally conceited. They have such lofty opinions of their merits and abilities that they think Providence, or Fortune, or whatever rules the world, is bound to make great things turn up for them. There is a proverb, long current, that "God takes care of the lame and the lazy." I suspect it originated in the philosophy of those who are always "waiting for something to turn up." Of course these people are always disappointed. They deserve to be. They come to nothing but disaster and disgrace. It would be an impeachment of the wisdom and justice of Providence to suppose it would bestow special favors on men of this kind. Things do not "turn up" in this world. They are turned up. It is the active not the passive voice in such matters. There is an endless chain of efficient, natural causes running through life. Nothing comes from nothing. Multiply even billions by a naught and a naught is the product. There is also a law of equity. Men get what they deserve. Victory is won only by strenuous, brave battle. Success is gained only by effort, by labor, by self-denial, by skill and patient long-continued struggle. "Waiting for something to turn up" is waiting for moonbeams to turn into silver, for magic and chance to take the place of natural law in the universe. It is the philosophy of the shiftless, the refuge of the lazy, the excuse of the improvident. But perhaps my readers will ask, "Are there then no favoring circumstances and conditions in life?" "Is there no tide in the affairs of men which taken at its flood leads on to fortune?" Yes, doubtless; but only for those who work and wait, not for those who lie and wait. They are for those who are out in the midst of life's activities, "doing their level best" under all conditions and circumstances, not for those who skulk and shirk. The best chances come only to those who take all the chances, good and bad, and make the most of them. The big fish, as well as the little, are caught by those who go a-fishing, not by those who stay at home. The best of all opportunities are those which arise out of a strong, resolute, earnest, faithful man's own character and personality. It was a part of the philosophy of the younger Disraeli, that "man is not the creature of circumstances, but circumstances are the creatures of man." His own remarkable career is a strong proof of the truth of the maxim. Much is said now about "environment" and its important relations to the evolution of life. This is only a new name for old things, viz., circumstances and conditions, the things standing round about the life. But the life, not the environment, is the really important factor in the case. That is power. That transforms, shapes, uses, the crude elements standing around. So the living man in the world is the only source and center of original power. In him is life, transforming force. Circumstances are plastic in his hands and yield themselves to his touch. He changes them by contact with himself, from crude, lifeless elements into inward living force. Obstacles tower before him like mountain chains, stopping his path and hindering his progress. He surmounts them by his energy. He makes a new path over them. He climbs upon them to mountain heights. They cannot stop him. They do not much delay him. He transmutes difficulties into strength, and makes temporary failures into stepping stones to ultimate success. In his great epic, Vergil sang of "arms and a man." In our modern epics we sing of "man and his machines." But in the new time as in the old, the man is infinitely more than either arms or tools. He it is, if he have the manly spirit, if he have courage, if he have ambition, if he be a man and not a dolt, or a block of wood, who will go forth and with a masterful hand turn the world about. He will not weakly and meanly "wait for something to turn up." Search the history of the world through and you will find that all the great captains of industry, as well as of war, the mighty men of action and influence in the world, in art, in science, in invention and discovery, in philanthropy, in statesmanship, are men who do not "wait for something to turn up," but who take hold of the world's work and do it. The duty of doing is for all and each, both small and great, in the proportion of his ability and strength. It is, beyond all expression, ignoble, unmanly, and cowardly to sit down in this great busy world idly "waiting for something to turn up." |