Business Men. Far otherwise, it is a pity that they are not discerned to be, what they verily are, as Jeroboam's clergy, The scum and refuse of the whole land.

Onocrotalos is right in much, I say. But to argue that all is perversion because some are perverse, will not convict any one. As maintained by the Arabian,—If a conjuror should say to me, "Three are more than ten, and in proof of it I will change this stick into a serpent," I might be surprised at his legerdemain, but I certainly should not admit his assertion. Notwithstanding his array of deadly facts, Onocrotalos should not contemn Business throughout, in spirit, body, and all its members. In doing so he may disparage his own perceptions, or, by deciding in the face of truth, demonstrate what Pythagoras affirmed to be the most important privilege in man,-The being able to persuade his soul to either good or bad. But, thereby, he shall not obscure the immortal spark which animates Business. He may smite and bruise its framework, but its spirit he cannot injure or bedarken. Beat the bag of Anaxarchus, cried that philosopher, when being pounded to death; but you will not beat Anaxarchus himself.

We may rest satisfied under calumnies. Business can reply, with Antisthenes, upon Plato's aspersions,—It is a royal privilege to do well, and to be evil spoken of: and whilst content to coincide with Gibbon, that,-Personal interest is often the standard of our belief, as well as of our practice; it will not acknowledge that this necessarily implies corruption of mind, or obliquity of intent. We may hold with the Stoics, that covetousness is a perturbation of judgment, being an opinion that money is a beautiful object at the same time, we can lighten our path with the Wisdom of the Son of Sirach,-Blessed is the rich that is found without blemish, and hath not gone after gold. Who is he? and we will call him blessed: for wonderful things he has done among his people.-Therein, we have a portrait of the Business Man: one whom the

good and great would delight to honour; such as at least lives in our imagination, in our hopes, if not in our streets. Such we should contemplate, and no inferior being. Proceed with our original purpose, Launcelot. In which, I pray thee, observe more method than our heresiarch; for, notwithstanding his determination, you will encounter in your subject more difficulties than his malignant knowledge can suggest, or his invention devise.

IV.

"For we have to solve the uncertain problem of selecting from those most multifarious papers, what is worthiest and most important, so that it be grateful to thinking and cultivated minds, and refresh and forward them in many a province of Life."- Wilhelm Meister's Travels.

"These are the ways to thrive,

And the means not cursed."

-The Beggars Bush.

BUSINESS is the child of Poverty. It begins by deeming all it is, and all it possesses, as nothing: that all that can make it a something has yet to be gained; even as Maximin in the menial exercise and exhibition of his powers. "Thracian," asked Severus, with astonishment, "art thou disposed to wrestle after thy race?" "Most willingly," replied the unwearied youth, and almost in a breath, he overthrew seven of the strongest soldiers of the army. The hero performed his wonderful feats before an emperor, prostrated his large ability, as though he knew as well as our Laureate's anonymous bard,

"That men may rise on stepping-stones

Of their dead selves to higher things;"

for in this way he made his own first advance towards the imperial purple. Business in its origin, never forgets

the spirit of such acts: its condition is Servitude; its religion is that of Saadi,-Make thyself dust to do anything well. Obedience frequently ensures greatness: many a Scipio Africanus serves under a Lucius Scipio.

Business meditates upon and inures itself (in the earliest dawn of its actions, before the hosts are ranged for the battle), to what heroes have shown in the shining hours of success,-self-imposed, perfect Humility. Dentatus, though he was the greatest man in Rome, had subdued the most warlike nations, and driven Pyrrhus out of Italy, cultivated a little spot of ground with his own hands, and after three triumphs lived in a cottage. But the imperial soul of Dentatus, was not more meek than is the Business Man in his obscure beginning. He is ever ready to stoop, to bow the knee, to kneel low: he supports himself with the remembrance of the silver-voiced Persian, who took upon himself the duty of water-drawer, till found worthy of having his mouth moistened with the water of immortality.-Humility, furthermore, delivers a man in his direst straits. This can be seen in the most ancient judgment,-when Noah took into the ark the beasts and fowls that lay down before him, but those that remained standing he abandoned. Humility, indeed, is sovereign of all

"The Powers that tend the soul, To help it from the death that cannot die, And save it even in extremes,"

and will not fail to secure our hero from much retribution due to his errors, even as the subtile Jacob, on meeting the incensed Esau, bowed to the ground seven times, and God gave him grace in his brother's eyes. The Business Man will not, however, abase himself to such an extreme and mistaken position, that, like Gibbon in his courtship, he has to be assisted up again. He is lithe and nimble: as quick to rise as to bend. In doing the latter he foregoes none of his manhood, but

rather manifests its completeness, holding with Plato,— That to know how to obey requires as generous a disposition, and as rational an education, as to know how to command.

To faithfully execute its trust, Business must be found to be of Industry and Honesty all compact. No fairy favours does it look for; but straightforward, hard work. This was expressed intelligibly by Mahomet, Bey of Tunis. Deposed by his subjects, he was restored by the Dey of Algiers, on condition that he would reveal to him the secret of the philosopher's stone, which he was reputed to possess. Mahomet, with great pomp and solemnity, sent the Dey a plough. Mahomet was faithful as the dial to the orb of day; and the matter was as distinctly announced, although in another fashion, by Artaxerxes, when a poor man presented him with a very fair and great apple, and he cried,-By the Sun! 'tis my opinion, if this person were entrusted with a small city he would make it great.

Honesty must not be understood to signify mere abstinence from theft,-the decrepit, negative thing so popular—aye, and of money value, too, in the markets. Let us not use words here in a pinched, qualified, or half sense, but in the full opulence of their meaning. Honesty is not restricted to the eighth commandment, but to the keeping of the whole decalogue. Honesty in Business, refers to intentions and hourly actions: the doing of all things well,-punctually, patiently, thoroughly-as though each matter was a rendering "to God and man their dues." And it is, so to say, incorporate with unwearying Industry. Virtue, said one of old, writing of Demosthenes, like a strong and hardy plant, will take root in any place where it can find an ingenuous nature, and a mind that has no aversion to labour and discipline. And our honest, succulent Rabelais, uplifts the truth in his own style when he affirms that,-As all the country was idle, it could do no virtue.

Thus much of the earliest hours, the condition and primal energies of Business. Now, briefly, as to its Object. Words better suited for our design, more delicate and precise, cannot be found than those of our treasured Hooker, who, with strange cognition, shows it as descending from the Kingdom of God, which truly has to be,-The first thing in our purposes and desires. But inasmuch as a Righteous Life presupposeth Life; inasmuch as to live virtuously it is impossible except we live; therefore, the first impediment which naturally we endeavour to remove is penury and the want of things without which we cannot live. Now the only implement by which this can be done is Business; characterise it by any caste-epithet you choose, it is simply, solely Business: provide for the Object of Business any galaxy of words you like, none shall better state it than those -the Removal of Penury. Afterwards, no doubt, it broadens and brightens. In the very day-dawn of success, the horizon expands and a new and more distant goal is seen. The Business Man recognises a value in the mere continuance of his endeavours: the prolongation of his action amidst his fellows has a result, a record, beyond the mere obtaining of daily bread,"For all his life the charm doth talk

About his path, and hovers near
With words of promise in his walk,

And whisper'd voices in his ear."

He wins esteem, troops of friends; attracts public regard, and knows as well as poet, politician, or philosopher, what Bion affirmed, that, - Glory is the mother of years. Naturally, he then digs deeper and builds wider after honour, he begins to look for fame, and his policy may suffer a humane change: not keeping everything to itself, but sacrificing to men or opportunity; foregoing much or yielding more, with the spirit of Pompey, who would not lead Tigranes captive at the wheel of his chariot, but declared, in language that has