Success in Life.
There are various kinds of success in life: business success, social success, and success in public affairs. Perhaps to the ordinary individual business success is the most important; it is a source of happiness, promotes social success, and opens up avenues of public usefulness.
If we look back and endeavour to trace the careers of those with whom we have been associated when young, I think we shall observe that those who have been most successful in their business careers have, with few exceptions, not been the brilliant and clever boys, but rather those of duller intellect, who have had the gift of steady application. This faculty is not born in us; we are by nature casual, and apt to follow the lines of thought and endeavour which require the least labour, and offer the most varied interest. We hate the grind of sustained effort, it bores us, and we long for something new. This dislike of prolonged application, and desire for change, has made more shipwrecks of business careers than perhaps any other cause. In its craving for change and excitement, it leads to speculation as a possible road to wealth without effort.
The power of steady application must be inculcated in the school, by insisting that every subject taught shall be mastered by the boy, and not left until he has made it his own, and is able to clasp his hands on the far side of it. A few subjects taught and mastered in this way are of more value than a whole curriculum of studies learnt in a superficial and casual manner. We are apt to forget that the primary object of all education must be to train the mental faculties and to educate the judgment. We are too prone to cram the boy with knowledge which he has not the power to assimilate and make his own. We set out too often with the presumption that as a boy is born with legs and arms which are ready for use, so he must be born with a brain ready cultivated. The arms and legs do their work very much better if they are trained and strengthened by gymnastic exercises. In like manner the brain requires training—for this reason I have always regretted the gradual elimination of Greek and Latin from our national system of education. I know of nothing to take their place as a gymnastic for the mind.
We too often send boys into the world to handle the most mighty weapons for weal or for woe, "capital and credit," without any proper mental equipment.
The lack of hard mental training is more far-reaching and disastrous than is generally supposed. The want of accuracy leads to many mistakes. Mistakes lead to excuses, and excuses mark the high road to lies. The absence of accuracy is the fruitful parent of carelessness in thought, in habit, and in the discharge of the duties of everyday life. I fear this is a national weakness, for I have found that the German clerk excels in accuracy; he may be wanting in initiative, but he is accurate and reliable in his work. Englishmen have, however, remarkable gifts for a business career, if they are properly trained and educated. A good English man of business is the best in the world, he has great initiative, the power of getting through work, the talent to observe and to form a rapid judgment, but he is not born with these accomplishments, they are largely the result of education and training.
There is a great reluctance in this country to introduce any system of compulsory military service. Without dwelling upon its advantages to the nation, as likely to increase the physique of our men, military discipline would have a very beneficial moral effect. Probably one of the most valuable traits of character is that of "obedience," and this would be cultivated and enforced by military drill, and I think it would also add to our self-respect. As things are moving we are in danger of becoming a nation of "slackers," both physically and mentally.
I have already spoken of the necessity for steady perseverance and accuracy if we are to make a success in life, but there are two other qualities which are also essential to success, the capacity to observe, and the gift of imagination.