Adapting Self to Circumstances.

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HON. EDWIN F. LYFORD, State Senator of Massachusetts.

E independent of circumstances, adapt them to yourselves, make them for yourselves," is the boastful advice of the self-made man.

There is in this, however, no great encouragement to the average citizen, who, like the unfortunate Mr. Dolls, is sure to feel that there are circumstances over which he has no control. For his comfort be it said, that it is not always safe to rely implicitly upon the statements of the man of self-manufacture, especially with reference to his own mode of construction and operation.

It is true that in a sense we may often be said to control and alter our circumstances, but the change is rather in, than outside, ourselves. He who moves into a new house alters his surroundings, but he it is who has changed position, while the house has neither burned down nor moved away. We enter into different circumstances rather than alter the circumstances themselves, and it is worthy of note that any advancement and improvement we may thus make, is due very largely to a careful adaptation to our present surroundings and a ready and judicious use of the opportunities about us. While, then, the stubborn facts may not be altered, we can conform to them, and by so doing make them serve our ends. He who thus adjusts himself to circumstances makes them his friends that hasten to help at every turn, while he who fails so to do is surrounded by enemies that continually annoy and attack.

In society, that man "gets on," is popular, and makes a success who knows how to adapt himself to the people whom he

meets. This does not require him to be two-faced or double in his dealing, nor that when "among the Romans, he should do as the Romans do," without regard to his own sense of right, but it does demand the use of good sense in rendering his conduct appropriate to the places and people in which and among whom he is for the time placed. He who should wear crape at a wedding or crack jokes at a funeral, would very soon have no weddings to attend and no funeral but his own to enjoy. On the other hand, he who is ever quick to respond to the feelings of those about him, becoming a child with children and a man among men, possesses not only the strongest element of popularity, but a means of accomplishing untold good.

The business man must continually adapt himself to his surroundings. As the nature of trade changes, as times are good or bad, as customers are easy or hard to please, and as the numerous chances of business are every day presented to him, he must be ever on the alert and quick to adjust himself to all these and the thousand other circumstances of his business world. The exercise of this power of adaptation or, in other words, business sagacity, insures success; to neglect it, means failure. The manufacturer who should still insist on turning out flintlock guns, instead of conforming to the changed condition of affairs, would find no market for his wares, and he who should undertake to run a line of stages from Boston to New York would be quickly taught that he had failed to understand the requirements of the present day.

The teacher, the lawyer, the doctor, and the minister must learn to adapt themselves to the characters with whom they come in contact. The teacher who instructs all his scholars in the same unvarying manner, without regard to their individual peculiarities, fails to understand the first principles of his vocation. The lawyer and doctor are obliged to suit themselves to their cases, their clients, and their patients, and even the minister must deal differently with the lambs and sheep of his flock, and preach very different sermons on Thanksgiving and Fast day.

From the countless minor adaptations to circumstances required in change of place, of scene, or in society, a positive pleasure is often derived. The person who constantly presents to his own view but one phase of his character will soon tire of the prospect. In adapting himself, however, to various people, the changing moods of the same people, and to different situations and circumstances, he becomes aware of a certain variety in his nature which gives an interest and zest to life.

Many a one who supposed himself suited to his ordinary surroundings and nothing else has been agreeably surprised to find that, under altered conditions, new capacities have developed and powers been manifested of which he had not dreamed before. Much of the pleasure of travel and the summer vacation is due not merely to new sights and sounds, but, largely and especially, to learning to adapt ourselves to these changed conditions. He who is fond of camp life finds a keen enjoyment in his plain and primitive quarters, not only because they are so different from those at home, but also because he feels a peculiar delight in the discovery that he can live and be happy, though the floors are not carpeted nor the streets paved. His food also has an added relish when, in adapting himself to his summer environment, he has discovered a hitherto unsuspected ability to prepare it himself.

In the greater vicissitudes of life, in the often sudden changes from poverty to wealth, from obscurity to renown, from health to sickness or the reverse, an ability to adjust one's self to the new conditions saves many an annoyance, lightens many a bitter disappointment, and makes conquest possible, when without it defeat would have been inevitable. Many a man fallen "on evil days" has, by adapting himself to the change, succeeded in rising again, while had he shunned companionship and, keeping aloof from others, merely sighed for past glories, he would have grown still poorer. On the other hand, he who bears suddenly acquired wealth or popularity without undue elation is justly counted worthy of his good fortune.

Modern science proclaims the doctrine of the survival of the fittest. It tells us that those forms of life which are best adapted to their environment are most likely to endure. It is no less true that in society, in business, in life, the man who has learned most perfectly to adapt himself to his surroundings, and to conform to the circumstances in which he is placed, will succeed, while he who has neglected to learn this lesson will continually struggle and continually fail.

Individual Responsibility.

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REV. W. C. WHITFORD, D.D., President Milton College, Wisconsin.

WILL be somebody," exclaimed a country lad to him. self, as he, seventeen years of age and walking towards a village in Central New York, first caught sight of the buildings of a flourishing academy in the place. He had come from a school district then in the backwoods, and from a home scantily supplied with even the necessaries of life; and was determined to become, if possible, a student in that institution and to complete in it a course of its hardest studies. He was clad in rustic garments woven and made by his mother, was blessed with a robust body and a large brain, and had formed habits of patient industry and serious thinking.

The teachers were at once pleased with his rugged, honest face and earnest spirit, and saw that he possessed natural abilities of no inferior sort, but undeveloped. Admission to the lower classes was granted him; chances to pay his expenses by working at odd jobs fell in his way; and at the end of four years, a diploma was handed him as the best scholar among a dozen graduates of the school at the time.

Afterwards he finished elsewhere a college course with great credit to himself; some years later he returned to the old academy as its efficient principal; and was finally elevated to the presidency of a leading theological seminary in the West. Hundreds of youths enjoyed his ripe instruction in each of these positions, and were incited and guided by him to engage in most active and useful labors. Thus he filled out a distinguished career, relying upon his own powers, and giving full scope to a worthy ambition to rise in the world by cultivating