"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. midst of life's activities, They are for those who are out in the "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." The Secret of Making Things Turn Up. REV. JAMES W. COLE, B.D. S "The heights by great men reached and kept, Were not attained by sudden flight, OME of them were, but not all. Some persons have stum bled into great places for a time, or upon a great fortune, and so have gained a name and fame that could not be said to be either of their making or seeking. They simply happened to be there at the auspicious time and place and were lifted into greatness. Some have inherited special conditions favorable to gaining a fortune or fame; but outside of or without those conditions, they would have been only ordinary persons in ordinary circumstances of life. Others have attained to great fortune and eminent distinction regardless of the most unpromising circumstances of birth and life. Yet even these last were not independent of place, and time, and education for their success. Indeed, it may be truthfully said that no man is wholly independent of circumstances; and that his environment will determine both his place in history, and his degree of success in life. Would Shakespeare have been Shakespeare in any other age or country? If Dante had lived in our time, he could not write "The Inferno," neither could Milton now write "Paradise Lost." The progress of thought since their day would prevent. Alexander the Great could not now conquer the world; nor should we have the famous names of Wellington, Grant, or Sherman, if they had lived in more peaceful times. What other age, or what other country, could produce the present enormous number of American millionaires? Great names as well as great riches are sometimes due to other causes than an overmastering intellect, or "the hand of the diligent." The owner of a corner lot in San Francisco, California, traded it for a suit of clothes. The lot is now worth over a million dollars; but it was not "the hand of the diligent" that made its present owner the millionaire. In Melbourne, Australia, in 1837, a corner lot was sold for one hundred and sixty dollars. Fifty years later it was worth $2,466,500, and its owner a rich man, but not by his own diligent hand.” The founder of the house of Rothschild was a poor Jewish clerk in Hanover, Germany. He afterward began business in a very small way as banker at Frankfort, and became distinguished for two things, his shrewd good sense and unswerving integrity. When the French army invaded Hesse-Cassel in 1806, compelling the Elector William to flee the land, William deposited with Mr. Rothschild for safe keeping for eight years, the sum of five millions of dollars without interest, or security other than his integrity. It was the judicious investment of this huge sum left to him without interest, and not merely the "hand of the diligent," that was the prolific source from whence came the present colossal fortune of the house of the Rothschilds. When Meyer Anselm Rothschild died, his heirs continued to pay the Elector an annual interest of two per cent. on the five millions, until in 1823 they paid the principal to William's son and heir. Said So, likewise, the vicissitudes of the war of 1812 gave to Stephen Girard the bulk of his millions, just as the civil war enabled other men to amass their present great fortunes. the old Celtic-Breton law, "There are three periods at which the world is worthless,-the time of plague, the time of a general war, the time of a dissolution of spoken promises.' But in each of these times a few persons become greatly rich. While our late war wasted hundreds on hundreds of millions of dollars, and hundreds of thousands of human lives, it also developed hitherto unsuspected resources of wealth and methods of getting rich, together with a surprising energy of mind that |