CHAPTER III.

HABITS OF BUSINESS, WHAT ARE THEY?

WHEN We have chosen our business wisely-when we have become initiated in its mysteries, and our apprenticeship is drawing to a close-the great question that will frequently recur in our after life, What shall we do? stares us in the face a second time. Shall we attempt business on our own account, or work awhile for another already established; and how shall we be able to attain the best situation? We solicit advice from our friends, and they tell us that the world will ask us two questions, which we had better ask ourselves beforehand. Are you master of your business? and have you habits of business? The former is presumed; but what is meant by habits of business? Habits of business include six qualities. Industry, arrangement, calculation, prudence, punctuality, and perseverance. Are you industrious? Are you methodical? Are you calculating? Are you prudent? Are you punctual? Are you persevering? If so, you possess what is known by the familiar term, Habits of Business. It is not the possession of any one of these qualities in perfection, nor the occasional exercise of them by fits and starts, as it is called, that will constitute a man of business; but it is the possession of them all in an equal degree, and their continuous exercise as habits, that give reputation and constitute ability. The difference in men and their success may be attributed, in a measure, to a difference in their business habits; and many a man has made his fortune with no other capital than their superior cultivation. In fact, a large capital and excellent opportunities, without them, will only provoke greater disaster, and a more wide-spread ruin. Perfection in most things is unattainable; yet men have attained to a greater degree of perfection in the cultivation of these qualities than in almost

any thing else; and, at all events, it is certain that he who "aimeth at the sun, though he may not hit his mark, will shoot higher than he that aimeth at a bush."

Industry is the energetic engagement of body or mind in some useful employment. It is the opposite of the Indian's maxim, which says, "It is better to walk than to run, and better to stand still than to walk, and better to sit than to stand, and better to lie down than to sit." Industry is the secret of those grand results that fill the mind with wonder-the folios of the ancients, the pyramids of the Egyptians, those stupendous works of internal communication in our own country that bind the citizens of many different States in the bonds of harmony and interest. "There is no art or science," says Clarendon, "that is too difficult for industry to attain to; it is the gift of tongues, and makes a man understood and valued in all countries and by all nations; it is the philosopher's stone, that turns all metals and even stones into gold, and suffers no want to break into dwellings; it is the North-west passage, that brings the merchant's ships as soon to him as he can desire; in a word, it conquers all enemies, and makes fortune itself pay contributions." The tendency of matter is to rest, and it requires an exercise of force or of will to overcome the vis inertiæ. When a thing should be done, it must be done immediately, without parleying or delay. A repeated exercise of the will, in this way, will soon form the habit of industry.

Arrangement digests the matter that industry collects. It apportions time to duties, and keeps an exact register of its transactions; it has a post for every man, a place for every tool, a pigeonhole for every paper, and a time for every settlement. A perfectly methodical man leaves his books, accounts, &c., in so complete a shape on going to bed that, if he were to die during the night, every thing could be perfectly understood. Jeremiah Evarts is represented to have been a model of industry and arrangement. A friend says, "During years of close observation in the bosom of his family, I never saw a day pass without his accomplishing more than he expected; and so regular was he in all his habits, that I knew to a moment when I should find him with his pen, and when with his tooth-brush in his hand; and so methodical and thorough that

though his papers filled many shelves when closely tied up, there was not a paper among all his letters, correspondence, editorial matter, and the like, which he could not lay his hands on in a moment. I never knew him search for a paper; it was always in its place." Some manifest this habit at an earlier age than others, and apparently exercise it with less difficulty; but any one with attention may acquire it.

Calculation is the mind of business. A readiness in calculation gives a man great advantages over his less experienced neighbor; and many a man has brought his fish to a bad market from inability to calculate quickly and accurately. To attain the habit of quick calculation without the aid of a slate and pencil, Dr. Alcott recommends that the learner seize on " every circumstance which occurs in his reading, where reckoning is required, and, if possible, stop at once and compute it. Or, if not, let the place be marked, and, at the first leisure moment, let him turn to it and make the estimates.

"Suppose he reads of a shipwreck. The crew is said to consist of thirty men, besides the captain and mate, with three hundred and thirteen passengers, and a company of sixty grenadiers. The captain and mate, and ten of the crew, escaped in the longboat.The rest were drowned, except twelve of the grenadiers, who clung to a floating fragment of the wreck, till they were taken off by another vessel. Now is there a single person in existence, who would read such an account, without being anxious to. know how many persons in the whole were lost? Yet nine readers in ten would not know, and why? Simply because they will not stop, and use what little addition and subtraction they possess.

"Long practice, it is true, will render it unnecessary for an individual to pause, in order to estimate a sum like that above mentioned. Many, indeed most persons, who are familiar with figures, might compute these numbers while reading, and without the slightest pause; but it certainly requires some practice. And the most important use of arithmetical studies, except as a discipline to the mind, is to enable us to reckon without slates and pencils. He has but a miserable knowledge of arithmetic who is no arithmetician without a pen or pencil in his hand. These are but the ladders upon which he should ascend to the science, and not the science itself."

But calculation as a business habit is not limited to arithmetic. It deals with principles as well as figures, and frequently arrives at principles by means of figures. It deduces the value of economy, and distinguishes between a true and a false economy. It shows that a man who spends a dollar and a half in hiring a horse, and also the greater part of a day to purchase six or eight bushels of wheat at a sixpence a bushel less than he must have given nearer home, is not so economical as he may have imagined. It satisfactorily demonstrates that honesty is the best policy, and that a rogue is a fool. I cannot comprehend the force of that philosophy which excludes calculation as an unworthy process of arriving at a right course of action. A maxim, that is true, can be proved to be so by any test; and in considering a principle, a man should choose that means which ordinarily yields him the greatest certainty of conviction. There is nothing debasing in reducing every thing to a rigid system of calculation; and principles that will not bear it are not sound. A man takes advantage of confidence to perpetrate an act of villainy; is he a wise man or a fool? How does his account stand? On the debtor side is found the confidence of the community, which would have supported him for life, lost; his family disgraced; his happiness embittered; his soul endangered, and much more. On the creditor side is found a temporary advantage gained, and the balance is largely against him. The man who killed his goose to get at the golden eggs has not been handed down to us as a very wise man; and Solomon says, "He that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool." Policy, right, reason, and revelation, all harmonize.

Prudence is defined to be wisdom applied to practice. As this is one of the most important of qualities, and the most difficult to describe, we subjoin the various definitions of prudence, and some general rules that may be serviceable. Under prudence are comprehended that discreet suiting and disposing as well of actions as words in their due place, time, and manner. It is principally in reference to actions to be done, and due means, order, season, and method of doing or not doing. A man exhibits the highest prudence who places himself in such a position that, whether the priv

ciples he acts upon prove true or false, he secures a happy issue to his actions. In a case where the probabilities on the one hand somewhat preponderate the other, yet if there be no considerable hazard on that side which has the least probability, and a very great apparent danger in a mistake about the other, prudence will oblige a man to do that which may make most for his safety. It is always prudent in matters of importance to conceal intentions, or we may be anticipated by others; and it is generally prudent to conceal motives, letting only friends have a key to our hearts as to our garden. It is prudent to withhold confidence from an entire stranger, and in some disagreeable cases it is prudent to do nothing. "When a prudent man," says Chesterfield, "gets into that predicament that he must ask himself more than once what he shall do, he will answer 'Nothing.' Where reason points out no good way, or at least none less bad than the other, he will stop short and wait for light. A little busy mind runs on at all events-must be doing, and like a blind horse fears no danger because he sees none." "I think a prudent man," says Plutarch, "ought not to permit any thing at all to trust to fortune, but to trust some things to his wife, some things to his servants, and some things to his friends, while he is employing his reason about such matters as are most proper for him, and of greatest concernment." Prudence is the result of judgment. Judgment is an original faculty of the mind which God has given to supply the want of certain knowledge, and by which a man takes a proposition to be true or false without perceiving demonstrative evidence in the proofs. A total want of judgment cannot be supplied by art; but, where the faculty exists, it may be cultivated to an extraordinary degree of accuracy.

Partnership, marriage, and the proper time or age for commencing business are important subjects for the exercise of judgment. In any remarks on these subjects, I desire to be understood as expressing my individual opinion, and not well-settled truths, as my range of facts is limited.

Partnership is prudent or not according to the nature of the business and the relative situation of the parties. It is prudent in an extended business where each partner will have separate and distinct duties, or where it is necessary for them to be in different