| Show E sr IV LD V lapo u HE NATI KE UR ING NG Of SIT ARINO WISE SA PROFIT E PROFIT BY M I G Ci TONS SIN EL E I KEE TH BO 0 f- f I 4 NY weakling can made resolutions It needs a strong man to keep them That is perhaps why New Year resolutions are so often orten futile The strong do not wait walt for- for high days and holy days to amend their conduct or carry out their re re- L solves They obey Goethe's dictum Seize this very minute Boldness has genius power and magic In it it And so it happens that the large army of people people peo pee pie who wait walt for the New Year before effecting a reformation In their lives are seldom successful successful successful success success- ful in carrying out their intentions They are not possessed of the spirit of energy ant and andi resolution resolution tion necessary to achievement It may be argued that it is better to make good resolutions even though they are not carried out than not notto notto notto to make them at all Thi Thic Is open to question however Unless one Is absolutely determined to do what one has haa decreed It is perhaps on the whole better not to make promises to oneself Unfulfilled resolves continually repeated tend to weaken the ch character and to reduce ones one's faith in oneself just as resolutions put into practice are conducive to strength and self self confidence Very little tends to overbalance the resolutions of ot the average person In fact many people veople welcome welcome welcome wel wel- come any excuse to exonerate them from the carrying out of their resolves One individual determines let us us say never to lose his temper He comes down on New Y Years Year's rs r's morning with a tet et et smile on hit his face Alas it is short short The rhe whole world seems In conspiracy to drag him back to his former frame of mind The coffee cof cot tee fee Is cold old the letters which look so alluring prove to be chiefly bills and begging epistles he falls over the doorstep as he ho leaves the house All these minor annoyances which if rightly met would have helped him to conquer con his weakness weak ness serve but to throw him back into his original state and before evening he be is as bad badas badas badas as ever he has been M K r 4 S ran y ot oi rr c era J Jr rt r rd r. r d' d 4 4 y r I. I J t ts 77 J s b h r J J Ja a Y j 2 t t H u cri iA y s g r i i k Sr r fr i r Cr Or take another very general New Years Year's resolution that of getting up at a certain time In the morning When the day dawns any reason rea rea- reason son eon whatever is grasped at to evade this The weather is too cold the alarm was not loud enough he is sure his watch Is fast he doesn't really allY feel well enough to risk getting up earlier than than usual and after aver all he asks himself is there any real reason why he should A thousand thousand and andone and and- one excuses the average Individual will make to himself rather than perform what he hab designed to do The world Is full of wobblers of this kind and the more they wobble the weaker they become be be- come Another reason perhaps why the tho average resolution reso reso- lution makor lution-makor makor v so seldom achieve their purpose is that they too much They make two three sometimes sir t resolutions at once whereas to carry trough through one resol resolution successfully is quite an admirable feat As Thomas a Kempis says vice we If every year we could root out one would sooner become perfect men Impatience is at the root of many defeats It Is customary nowadays to io sneer at the virtue for which the name of Job is synonymous but those who say that patience is the virtue of an ass or a beggars beggar's virtue are not so wise as the Spanish proverb proverb- maker who said Patience and shuffle the cards Most people Veople shuffle the cards eagerly nough but the patience is lacking Seeking to grasp the stars at ata a a bound they fall talI back to the earth And so if people at he be e commencement of aNew aNew a aNew New Year adjusted their thel desires in accordance with their abilities and Instead of sighing for the unattainable made the very most of ot the opportunities opportunities opportunities vouchsafed to them one would hear less lessof lessof lessof of broken resolutions and wasted lives Do the duty which lies nearest to thee which thou thon to be a duty said Carlyle Thy second duty will already have become clearer The Turning of New Le Leaves Good resolutions have almost gone out of fash fash- Ion On the last night of the year we no long longer r sit down to review our past lives and resolve tobe tobe to tobe be better and wiser than we have been In the past It is of no use making resolutions I never can keep them is the plea that is usually prof proto This This' is a mistake however It is commendable commendable com com- to resolve an alarm clock helping one to get up h half lf an hour earlier than usual in the Ithe morning even though it results results-as results as alas It too toe often orten does does In In one getting up half an hour later i It is what one aspires to be that counts If people could live more in the present it would i help t them em enormously In th the keeping oi of good resolutions So many people persist p in being baIng ba- ba be ing just a little ahead all the time Tomorrow they say we will reform but the tomorrow of their imaginings never dawns Ancient and modern philosophers have agreed as to tho the dangers of procrastination Such widely widely widely wide wide- ly diverse diverse- people as Horace the Latin poet who flourished in 65 B. B C. C and persons who flourish exceedingly at the present day jolt join Issue in this particular Who begins possesses half the deed says say Horace I Dare to be bo wise make a commencement Do it now l Is the curt command of the the modern mod ern apostle of ot Hustle Again Horace says If in you are aro Ignorant how to live aright give place to those who have learn learnd id the lesson Get on or get out says says a manikin following in more concentrated ted If less ess courteous language the same line lino of thought on a somewhat lower plane The one was concerned with the things of the soul and the spirit the other with worldly advancement There hero are some who contend that tho the two cannot go together but if as has been contended by many men of wisdom what a aman amanis manIs man manis is is of ot more importance than what he has it Is isi well to make spiritual advancement as the years yeara go by If we have not made progress wo have bave gone back The soul never stands still Time has no terror for those who have learned wisdom Pass thou wild heart Wild heart of youth that still Hast half halt a mind to stay I 1 grow too old a comrade I het et us part Pass thou away Some people veople drag tho the follies and of youth into old age There Is wisdom In adjusting adjusting ad ad- oneself to time to profit by past experiences experiences and to acquire that sense of proportion which h refuses to magnify trifles s Into tragedies and to worry over the inevitable |
