Show NEW YE NY weakling can made resolutions it needs a strong man to keep them that Is perhaps why new year resolutions are so often futile the strong do not wait for high days and holy days to amend their conduct or carry out their resolves they obey goethe s dictum seize this very minute coldness has genius power and magic in it and so it happens that the large army of people who wait tor the mew year before effecting a reformation in their are seldom success tul in carrying out their intentions they are not possessed of the spirit of energy and resolution necessary to achievement it may be argued that it Is better to make good resolutions even though they are not carried out than not to make them at fill talc Is open to question however unless one Is absolutely determined to do what one has decreed it Is perhaps on the whole better not to make promises to oneself unfulfilled resolves continually repeated tend to weaken the character and to reduce ones faith in oneself just as resolutions put into practice are conducive to strength and self confidence very little tends to overbalance the resolutions of the average person in tact many people wel come any excuse to exonerate them from the carrying out of their resolves one individual determines let us eay never to lose hla temper he comes down on new years morning with a set smile on alc face alast it Is short lived the whole world seems in conspiracy to drag him back to hla former frame of mind the cottee Is cold the letters which look so alluring prove to be chiefly bills and begging epistles he falls over the doorstep as he leaves the bouse all these minor annoyances which if rightly met would have helped him to conquer his weakness serve but to throw him back into his original state and before evening he Is as bad as ever be has been or take another very general new years resolution that of getting up at a certain time in the morning when the day dawns any rea eon whatever Is grasped at to evade this the weather is too cold the alarm was not loud enough be Is sure his watch Is fast he doean doesn t really feel well enough to risk getting up earlier than usual and after all be asks himself is there any real reason why he should A thousand and one excuses the average individual will make to himself rather than perform what he hab designed to do the world is full c gobblers wobblers lers of this kind and the more they wobble the weaker they become another reason perhaps why the average resolution makers so seldom achieve their purpose is that they attempt too much they make two three sometimes six resolutions at once whereas to carry through one resolution successfully Is quite an admirable feat As thomas a kemila saya it every year we could root out one vice we would sooner become perfect men impatience Is at the root of many defeats it Is customary nowadays to sneer at the virtue tor which the name of job Is synonymous but those who say that patience Is the virtue of an ass or a beggar s virtue are not so wise as the spanish proverb maker who said patience and shuffle jhb cards most people shuffle the cards eagerly bough nough but the patience is lacking seeking to grasp the stars at a bound they fall back to the earth and so it people at he commencement of a new year adjusted their desires in accordance with their abilities and instead of sighing tor the unattainable made the very most of the opportunities tuni ties vouchsafed to them one would hear less of broken resolutions and wasted lives do the duty which lies nearest to thee which thou to be a duty said carlyle thy second duty will already have become clearer the turning of new leave good resolutions have almost gone out of fash ion on the last night of the year we no longer sit down to review our past lives and resolve to be better and wiser than we have been in the past it is of no use making resolutions I 1 never can keep them Is the plea that is usually prof this Is a mistake however it Is corn to resolve an alarm clock helping one to get up halt an h our earlier than usual in the morning even though it results as alas it too often does in one getting up halt an hour later it Is what one aspires to be that counts if people could live more in the present it would help them enormously in the keeping of good resolutions so many people persist in being 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 the dangers of procrastination such widely diverse people as horace the latin poet who flourished in 65 B C and persons who flourish exceedingly at the present day join issue in this particular who begins possesses halt the deed baya horace dare to be wise make a commencement do it now Is the curt command of the mod ern apostle of hustle again horace says it you are ignorant Ig noran how to live aright give place to those who have learn id the lesson get on or get out says a manikin following in more concentrated it ess courteous language the same line 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 thero are some who contend that the two cannot go together but it as has been contended by many men of wisdom what a man Is Is of more importance than what he has it Is well to make spiritual advancement as the years go by it we have not made progress we have gone back the soul never stands still time has no terror tor those who have learned wisdom pass thou wild heart wild heart of youth that belll hast half a mind to stay I 1 grow too old a comrade let us part pass thou away some people drag the tollies and maturities Im of youth into old age there Is wisdom in ad oneself to time to profet by past expert ances and to acquire that sense of proportion which refuses to magnify trifles into tragedies aad to worry over the inevitable |