HONEST MEN

to do so. They were men who understood the moral obligation of Contracts, and whose high sense of business responsibility would not let them suffer the reproach of the world. Such men deserve to have their statues, set up in imperishable bronze in the halls of our bankruptcy courts.

Agreements between employers and employed are, as a rule, worthless and unnecessary; except in so far as they state the conditions of the engagement, which might just as well be put in the form of a letter. A man will stay with his employer just as long as he is paid what he knows is the highest wage he can get; and the employer will keep a man just as long as he earns his money. No Agreement will alter these two facts. The payment of wages each week is evidence that the employer is satisfied with his part of the bargain ; the appearance of the employé on the following Monday morning is equally evidence of satisfaction on that side. No other ratification is necessary.

Partnership Agreements are equally superfluous as a rule. The most elaborately drawn up Agreement will break down the moment a partnership ceases to be of mutual advantage. Between two honourable men, each devoted to the interests of their common business, a partnership may be lifelong without a scrap of legal evidence. There are many such businesses which have grown from the smallest beginnings to colossal industries. In the early days the business was too small and too uncertain to warrant the drawing up of an Agreement; and as time went on neither partner

cared to question the sincerity of the other. Besides, the law very wisely allows that a partnership may be proved even in the absence of a formal Agreement.

Agreements will not avail where one or other of the partners is covetous, or obstinate, or passionate, or intemperate, or neglecful of duty. Partnerships are prudent, if the business be large enough for each partner to have separate and distinct duties, so that one is indispensable to the other; or when it is necessary for them to be in different places. But in general it is imprudent to take a partner if the business can be managed without one.

To sum up it would be impossible for the business of the world to be carried on if there were no credit and no confidence in mutual honesty. Who would trust his property to another, looking to the law alone for repayment? Integrity is to business what courage is to the soldier, zeal to the advocate, or impartiality to the judge; it stops a man from taking advantage of another's unskilfulness or inexperience; and induces him to make any sacrifice rather than not pay his debts and fulfil his engagements.

On Observation

"I search and search, and when I find I lay

The wisdom up against a rainy day."-HORACE.

ONE of the most indispensable faculties in Business is that of Observation. It is indispensable in every occupation. Without it, a man goes through

A RARE FACULTY

life contending against great odds. He is always blundering into difficulties, always up to the chin in a sea of troubles, always losing valuable hours and days of his life, and wasting money in pursuits which might be avoided by the exercise of this inestimable faculty.

There are so many men who go through life with eyes and ears open, yet, so to speak, neither seeing nor hearing anything. They knock their heads against a pillar or a brick wall for want of necessary observation to teach them where to expect to find a pillar or a brick wall; and even with the unpleasant experience which such contact entails they take such little advantage of Observation that they blunder into the same obstruction the next day.

An old sea captain who was asked if he knew where the rocks were in a certain harbour, showed his keen sense of observation when he replied, 'No, sir, but I know where they ain't.'

But whilst Observation teaches us what to avoid, it also prompts us to the achievement of great things. Genius, Talent, Inventiveness, Knowledge, Experience, are synonymous with Observation.

Consider the lives of the great men of this or any other age, and it will invariably be found that their greatness arose from their possession of the faculty of Observation; which led them to conceive some great invention or make some grand discovery, owing to some simple circumstance which had impressed itself on their minds, whilst other men would have left it unnoticed. Sir Isaac

Newton saw an apple fall to the ground, as multitudes have seen apples fall; but the fact impressed itself on his mind, and led him to evolve the law of gravitation with its ceaseless influence over the world of matter. Watt made his first successful steam engine through watching the steam issue from a kettle; and one of the greatest improvements in the early steam engine was discovered by a lazy, but observant boy, who was set to pull a string to actuate a lever, and found the work was just as well accomplished by tying the string to another lever, so that he was left free to go off and play marbles. These and similar examples, which might be indefinitely multiplied, are illustrations of that Observation which usually distinguishes successful people.

Observation is usually and most appropriately associated with seeing. We speak of a clever man as one with all his eyes about him,' or 'who goes about the world with his eyes open,' and we have heard it remarked of a man that 'he keeps his eyes peeled.' But it wants something more than mere seeing to be observant; the vision must be mental as well as physical. The divine proverb says, 'The wise man's eyes are in his head,' and we know what that means. There are many men who act as though their eyes were in their feet, or their elbows; or anywhere, in fact, but where they ought to be. A Russian proverb says, 'He goes through the forest and sees no firewood.' The mind must see as well as the eye; and the wise man employs not his vision alone, but all his powers, so as to make the most of his life. A

FOOLS CAN SEE

fool can behold an object; but that is all. The act does not make him wiser or better. He is a fool; and continues foolish amongst scenes that ought to lift him to a nobler manhood.

It may be urged that the faculty of Observation is a natural gift, and so no doubt it is; but if it is not born in a man, or if it be small and weak in him, it can be cultivated as other weak powers are cultivated. It has been well said that the habit of sharp discriminating Observation may be established by perseverance, as other good habits become permanent. Thousands of men go through the world without learning, or even trying to learn, how some men succeed, and why others fail. They ascribe Success to 'Luck,' and Failure to unavoidable misfortune.' Others, a little wiser, set it down to lack of education; but this alone is not the cause, for there are many instances of men of the most meagre education who have risen to high positions and even world-wide fame. Lord Bacon said 'Studies teach not their own use; but there is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation.'

In the workshops of to-day we want young men who will ask themselves why the wheels go round, why one wheel goes faster or slower than another, why one way of doing a thing is better than another, and why the act of doing one thing brings about a certain result; young men, in fact, who can always see that there are always more ways of doing a thing, and can decide which way is best; also