The North Wales Express

PRINCIPLES OF SUCCESS IN LIFE. The following able and interesting paper was read la.st week by Mr W. Rathbone, M.P., on the occasion of the annual distribution cf prizes at the Liverpool Institute. Knowing that it will prove of great interest to our readers, we publish it in extenso: Mr Rathbone, who was received with applause, said —It is with great diffidence that I address you this evening, on an occasion on which you have been accustomed to listen to men distinguished in politics, in education, in literature, and in science. Formerly, when the kind partiality of my friends of the Institute offered me this honour, I declined it on the ground that I 'iad no experience in the work of education. I had aJd I have no message to deliver whose freshness might atone for the want of that eloquence which can make even old commonplaces attractive. But I have had s,ome experience of the results of education upon young men. During thirty years of mercantile life, foI. owed by fifteen years of political life, I have studied th >se results with watchful and unceasing interest. Thus my only hope of justifying my presence here to- night is to deviate from precedent and tell you what my experience has led me to believe are the principles or" success which will enable you to turn to good account the admirable education which you have enjoyed here. This course, I have been assured, will be satisfactory to your directors, and I shall do my best to follow it out. 1 deeply feel the responsibility of speaking to the YOUIJ£! a.bout the practical principles cf conduct. For upon their observance or disregard of those principles it depends whether their lives shall be successes or failures, shall prove a blessing or a curëe to themselves, to their fellows, and to their country (hear, hear). I feel that such an address upon tnis subject as some men could sdve would be invaluable. I feel, too, how incapable I am of doing justice to the subject. Yet I am not without hope that my words to-night may be of use. The maxims of success upon which I shall dwell to-night, have no claim to novelty, but as they have helped me, so I hope that they may help you. What I mean by success in life, I hope hereafter to make more clear by one or two examples of success achieved by persons with very ditferent talents, education, and opportunities. For the present it is enough to say that by success I do not understand merely success in enlarging your income or improving your position in society. That success, indeed, if fairly won, is legitimate and honourable. But a far nobler success lies in doing well your own appointed work, in making the most of the faculties you possess for the benefit of others as well as yourselves, in trying to make yourselves as refinesi and as wise and as good as you can (hear, hear). n This success is within the reach of all who earnestly "'j c c strive after it. We cannot all become rich we cannot all become eminent. But we can all become better and more intelligent than we are. We can all do something for our family, our friends, and our neigh- bours (applause) we can all raise our own class perhaps the more nobly whilst remaining in it; we can all be good citizens of a great country (applause). This success I should most of all desire for those in whom I was most deeply interested; and it is concerning the principles of this success that I would mainly speak to you to-night. The most powerful aid to success I had almost said its first condition—is faith faith that you can and will accomplish that which you have set your hand to do, that which you have to do. Faith removes mountains of difficulties, for it enables a man to make, and to presevere in making, the efforts and sacrifices necessary to success. Without faith in your own efforts you cannot inspire others with confidence, and if you cannot cam their confidence, you must not look for their zealous client assistance. Thus faith is indispensable even to those whose end of action is low or unworthy, it is an end simply of personal ambition. When someone told Napoleon Bonaparte that what he wished was impossible, Never let. tne hear that stupid word again," was Napoleon's reply. Confident in himself, and impartng the same con- fidence to his generals, and even to the common soldier, he conquered Europe and attained to power greater than that of any other modern ruler. But his faith was narrow and mean in its object; a faith chiefly in his own power to gratify his own desires; and his career displays the most dazzling success, and the most tragic failure in history. He might have wielded for good the vast forces of liberated France he might have lived in power and died in glory and have left his country at the head of European civilisation. He died in exile, deserted and betrayed; and he left France depopulated, impoverished, and crushed under the invader's heel (applause). Another great soldier and statesman exemplifies a larger and sounder faith than that which inspired Bonaparte. Washington "believed, not in himself only, but also in liberty, in justice, in unselfish patriotism (applause). Far less gifted than Bonaparte, he achieved a far more real success. Tie became the foremost founder of a great and free community, "hich has been preserved from many a danger by the tradition which he bequeathed of faith not only in one's own power, but in the power of principle. Of cours ■ we cannot all be Washingtons. We cannot all be men of genius we cannot all find great opportunities or fill large spaces in history. All the more on that account do we need the sustaining belief, the knowledge that if we do thoroughly our work, however humble, we shall accomplish real good for ourselves, and real good for the world. My own e xperience is that the things which I have been told we"e impossible were the very things in which I suet ceded best—the very things upon whose accom- plishment I look back with most satisfaction (applause). The a.-gumecta by which men convince themselves that they cannot do their work are usually the sugges- tions of cowardice or laziness. To hearken to such suggestions is to court failure and ruin. For a. man is not a machine of so many horsepower he is a force incalculable by others, incalculable even bv himself a force that mows by being exerted and multiplies itself at everv victory. Four Latin words embody the g-rand secret of the most, practically successful people the xvorld ever saw— Possunt quia posse videntur. They can because they think they can. Having then got our work to do, and having faith that we can do it, we must next remember the maxim What thv hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. A very bid time is coming for those who fail to (o ,v>. All classes in this country are or are becoming educated All civilised countries have become or are fast becoming free and intelligent. England will have to sn'stain in the future a foreign competition far more severe than she has known in the past. English- men will compete with one anoLher more sharply than ever. In thi, deepening conflict there will be. no r^hrce tor those who do just enough to escape blame or just enough, as they think, to get through, and gain a bare success. well-being will, I hope, be more widely diSttsed tl n at anv further period but the prosperity am ti e well-behto- will only be for those who are re,)d> to take unwearied pains. And this will be especially true of those who work with the head rather than 'with the hand. Even were it otherwise. evea. if we lCNdd afford to do our work ill, se f-respect shou uur.Jse US do it well. It were almost better to sit wit h f,d .,j hands and starve than to live by selling seamed work (applause). Everybody s self-respect is bound uo with doing as well as he can whatever o undertake* to do. Every stroke of work tells-te s in turning out better work; tells in making the ■craftsman more expert; tells in favour of Ins reputa- tion. his happiness, his success, m the be*„ sense of the -word No honest endeavour towards perfection in -cne-. art or profession can ever be thrown away Work itself is a pleasure to a man who takes a pride in it. and does it well, whilst to one without ambition to excel, and eager only to ha^e it o f)f always a task and a bore (applause). i+tnn nf doing one's very utmost is, then, a prime on* suecL. Another habit or quality no ess condiicne t success, and no less valuable in itse 1f, is slllgleness of mind—the looking things straight m the face am 2L. them a* thev are. Thus ttw man who no impting of feeling or interest to bias nm u I -'J- -r whether a particular action be right or dec,dim cours! through life by a chart fat wrong, s. V e se(j u:cn of most powerful or subUe mtel tQ thg rudent ordering of our n-StJ affairs ^'lir. would choose his profession ariVdit must see hi.n^if as he is, know Ins own taients ■aright mubt see oscillate between an ex- audhis owndeU^Uweening self-contidence. Cessive huni'i^y ami an uv „r„fp<j«ion which he And lie whe profession constantly before has chosen must keep n sp which offer themsslves to our choice ana i :iniv<sr,aj causes them are among the greatest ,g QRe wfty> T)t our unliappiuess. Wh third and perhaps interest another, inch^ nature contrary u all, a man •uartiea to time but ill who has so many ditterent panic please (applause). The states of man, Like to a little kingdom, suffers than The nature of a revolution. •One h«d better settle on a way of life which is not the very beat one might have chosen, than grow old without determining ones choice, and go out of the world before one has resolved to live in lt (aj,I ;U 't There is but one method oi set',ling out solve, at ie»t iut £ particulate that is by aTuermg steadfastly to one great end as the chief and ultimate aim of all our pursuits. Again, the same quality which enables us to tix upon our object is equally needful in the right selection of means. To see how far an expedient. will take us, in what way an instrument can be of use to us, what result may be expected from a given amount of time and trouble spent.—to know, in short, what we may expect from the resources at our disposal, all this is impossible without singleness of eye, without the turn for seeing things as they are, not as our hopes or fears, our likings or our dislikings re- present them to be. Furnished with this quality, a man of but common ability is much more likely to do well than the cleverest man who has now one object and now another, who snatches at every chance, tries every manoeuvre, and travels hard all day to find himself at evening pretty well in the same place he left in the morning (applatisej I may appear to have been using the word "faith" in the unauthorised sense of self-reliance, but the faith I have faith in is the faith that whatever ought to be done can be done; that whatever it is our duty to do we can do it; and to that faith at ,east the criticism does not apply (applause). Yet another virtue is, in respect of success, perhaps the test rewarded of all. I mean patience. Patience is not a virtue which comes naturally to most of us in yiuth, yet without it anything worth doing is rarely accomplished. I remember to have heard a great lawyer and judge say that we should not send to the bar anyone who had more tliau .?200 a year, for he would not have the patience to wait for success. And in ccvimerce patience is just as much needed as in the law. I believe that the experience of most men who have worked hard, and not altogether unsuccess- fully, is the same as my own—that for the firs' few years they worked persistently with little or no tangible result, but that. subsequently some part of their work, not always that on which they chiefly built their l opes, amply repaid all their labours. And this remind-} me that patience means patience to work and wait—for patience must be the reverse of inaction- -patience must leave no stone unturned. "Sow in the morn thy seed; at eve hold not thy hand." If you persevere in acting upon this exhorta- tion you may lose a good deal, but, sooner or later, some seed will return the reward of your work into your bosom. To some men the reward of patience and of thoroughness—their opportunity in life—comes late, so late that., ]f they lack patience, it. finds them, after all, unprepared. When opportunity comes, there is often no rime for preparation, and the greatest successes are the most frequently secured, by those whom opportunity has found prepared—not because they had foreseen or had any suspicion of the nature of the chance which would be given them, or of the direction from which it would come, but because they had the faith and the patience to cultivate assiduously the means at their disposal, and to do thoroughly what their hand found to do (applause). When opportunity comes to such men it finds them not con- fused, undecided, uncertain of their own powers—cer- tain porhaps, that, such as they are, they are out of condition-but, on the contrary, knowing what they know and knowing it thoroughly, conscious that such faculties as they have are bright, that whatever work the utmost cultivation of their powers can enable them to do that they are ready to do now not with a few months' or days' grace for preparation,Jbut now. A very remarkable instance of patience was afforded by the career of a merchant from whom I received many valuable lessons in the principles of sound commerce. He was the son of a man owning a stone-ledge, or, as we should call it, a quarry, at a small seaport in one of the New England States. A lad without means, he entered the office of a merchant in Boston, mastered his business in detail as well as in principle, put in practice all the maxims I have been suggesting; but for many years found little or no result to himself of all his industry and all his prudence. When more than forty years of age he had with great pains saved up a very small capital. The chance came at last. A commercial house failed. His accumulated experience and vigilance showed him that the failure was from speculations outside their business, and that the failure gave an opening for a great undertaking. The same qualities had secured for him the confidence of powerful and influential friends. He availed himself of the chance to his own benefit. His twenty-five years of apparently almost fruitless work had trained him for the opportunity, and had given him the means of availing of it. He died a millionaire, at the head of one of the first houses in Europe. There is a tide in the affairs of man Which, taken at the Hood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. We must take the current when it flows, Ur lose our ventures. (applause). Our age is sadly too fond of short-cuts to success. It is eager to enjoy but averse to patient labour. Believe me, this is a very dangerous temper of mind. Great ability is more conspicuous, more easily recognised than industry. The imagination of youth perversely loves to dwell on eaey success. Yet many a success which you attribute to genius is really due to an infinite capacity for taking pains. Even where great ability without patient industry does achieve a seeming success, i(iab success commonly draws after it failure in one form or another. The shores of life are strewn with wrecks of men who have discarded patience and industry for shorter courses—wrecks in which not only fortune but happiness and health and character have been lost. To name in- stances of such failure would be invidious, but I could till a book with those which come within myown experience. No maxim, perhaps, is more generally acknowledged or more generally disregarded than the maxim that He who striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things." I am not going to weary you with an argument directed to prove that a man who puts no control upon his eating and drinking lessens his chance of success, and bears his punishment in impaired health and exhausted powers, that we dig our graves with our teeth." Men are, per- haps. too much inclined to construe temperance in a very restricted sense, and to think themselves temperate so tougastheydonotgctdruuk. Mostmenwhobavethe means to do so live, I fear, more luxuriously than is really good for them. But every man should always be in training; he should always b; in his best condition and this means that he should be rigidly moderate in all In all that affects our higher life, our intellect aild our character, perfect self-control is the beginning and the end. The poet Burns, who spoke from bitter experience, says:- Know, prudent, cautious self-control Is virtue's root. And self-control has as much to do with success as with virtue. As partner in a large firm, I have had for 25 years the selection and superintendence of many young men who passed through our office. I think I may say that in the whole course of those 25 years I never found a young man who was good for nothing without also finding, sooner or later, that not want of ability but want of self-control was the root of his incapacity. So often did I make this discovery that at length I came to assume it as a rule. If a young fellow's work was un- satisfactory, I would say to hfm, Look here, you are not doing your work well. I am sure that, in one way or another, yon are going wrong, and if you do not pull up, you will have to go" (applause). I do not mean to say that everyone who is temperate and pure becomes wealthy aud powerful, or that vicious men are never known to succeed. But I do repeat that temperate self-control in ways not generally recognised makes for success, and success" of the most practical kind. With reference not only to virtue and happiness, but to such success, I have learnt to attach much more importance than is usually attached to avoiding all that is impure and un wholesome in thought, in books, in companions, and in cnndnct. Be not misled, by cant phrases about seeing life, into making personal acquaintance with vice aud vicious people, or visiting their haunts. You will not be seeing life, but you will he courting death for everything in yourselves whose life is most precious. Not by "blunting in unworthy company the fine edge of your feelings and faculties, but by living with the best aud purest men and women you know will you come to understand men, to judge them correctly, and to work well with them. And if mixing' with the intemperate and impure does nothing for any useful knowledge of mankind, still more surely does it impair energy and application. It is always the most dangerous of experiments. 4i Let him that thinketh he staudeth take heed lest he fall." Need- lessly to place himself in temptation because he relies UP on his own virtue is the worst error a man can com- mit. However strong we may think ourselves, it is only by shunning temptation that we can be safe. Temptations which we may not shrink from, tempta- tions which cross our clear path of duty—.these we can and must face, and conquer. But these tempta- tions are quite enough to exercise the must vigorous character. Beware also of sailing too near the wind, of treading on doubtful ground. if right and wrong a¡re put clearly before men and women and they ar., definitely asked to choose which they would do, r ^rly all would choose the right. It is on doublful ground on which we commonly take our that steps cowards evil. Therefore, when you hear anyone say, Oil, jyell, perhaps it is not. quite correct according to the atriMest rules, but there can be no harm in it," re- member the ords of St. Paul, lie Lnat doubteth is damned a he eat." Qne might add. He that doubteth will often be degraded or even ruined if he allow himseif to take courses of whose rectitude he is not sure The mention of the rashness in choosing our I company juad foraiug ow U»bita bungs vividly to my remembrance the very different careers of two com- panions of my youth. One was by no maans clever, and, although diligent, seemed not to possess that peculiar energy and enterprise which naturally iead to great success, but he was temperate and pure. His friends knew that, under circumstances of great temp- tation, he could never be led into auy^acts of iutemper- auce or vice. They felt secure that, in new suiroundings and away from all oversight and control, they might trust their fortunes and honour safely iu his keeping. Their confidence placed him in a position where he justified it and achieved eminent success. He is now wealthy and useful and respected, and, in his old age, enjoys undiminished the aifectionate regard of the friends of his youth. When first 1 knew the other, he had just come to London with brilliant hopes. He belonged to a very wealthy and powerful family, he possessed unusual ability, he had received an excellent education, he hid been guarded from all evil com- panions or communications. Success in business, success in politics was within his reach. But he lacked self-control. It amused him to see life, as the phrase goes. He was most indignant when I urged upon him that if he amused himself by associating with vicious men and women he must in', the end, become like them. Could I suppose, he asked, that he could fall under their influence, merely because sometimes, after his day's work it diverted him to go among them and see their ways? I answere-l that be could not touch pitch without defilement (hear, hear). Within two years he had thrown away his chances. Others took his place, and now enjoy tie wealth and power which might have been his; and when I last heard of him, he was living on a pittance from his family (applause). Here was a man who trusted in his own force of character, in the reiined tastes developed by oducation, in the refined com- pinions of his own society to keep him virtuous among the degraded people who revolted whilst they amused him; and you have heard how far his confidence was justified. It is so very easy to deprave our likings and from vicious associations to vicious actions there is but one short step. To burn away in mad water the divine aromas and plainly celestial elements of our existence to change our holy of holies into a pl"e of riot to make the soul itself hard, impious, barren purely a day is coming when it will be known a what virtue is in purity and continence of life. How divine is the blush of young human cheeks how high, beneiicient, sternly inexorable if forgotten, is the duty laid not on women only, but on every creature with regard to these particulars."—CARLYLE'S FREDERICK II., Bk. ti, Ch. 3. Finally, I should like to say a word or two upon the importance of using well your spaie timo. It is only by a strict economy that we can get out of our few spare hours all the improve- ment. aad enjoyment which they can possibly afford. Men who are most punctual in the conduct of their business often waste hours in reading trashy news- papers and frivolous books, or in talking the stalest, stupidtst, dreariest gossip. Such men may succeed iu business, but they do not succeed in life they do not make the most of life. You may, perhaps, be inclined to say-We have so little leisure. I would answer in the words of a great German poet, "Time is endlessly long; and I might quote Mr Mathew Arnold, who says, "Some of us waste all our time— most of us waste much of it but all of us waste some." For strong, healthy men and women, the best repose is found in ohange of employments. We all know that great discoveries have been made, and great books have been written, by men who were not at all professed men of science or of letters. I think that almost all the important mechanical inventions of the last hundred years were made by men who had to work hard for a bare living. So much can be done with the hours which most of us throw away. Uf course, great inventions, great dicoveries, great works of literature and art, are reserved for a few men of genius. But there are many ways in which every intelligent person can use his spare time to some purpose. He may take his share in local government he may interest himself in all sorts of charitable and philanthropic undertakings. The best public work is done by the busiest men. It is from them rather than from people with nothing to do that we expect counsel and help in all endeavours to advance the general good (applause). Again, every intelligent man may use his spare time in carrying on for himself the education which he received at school or college-iii adding to his knowledge, in improving his tates, and so helping to make social and domestic life more rational, and graceful, a-,i(i lively. In doing tnis he does more important work than many of us imagine. Half the temptations of existing society are temptations only to gross and ignorant, men and even other temptations are very much weakened for those who have a variety of innocent and exciting diver- sions. Until quite lately it was assumed that such diversions were only for rich people. But now they are within the means of everyone who thinks about the disposal of his lighter hours. We have libraries and museums and galleries; we have plenty of the. best music. It is our own fault if we do not use these advantages to the utmost (applause). In the opening part of this address I spoke shortly of success as I understood it. There are two kinds of success which are above all things necessary. In the first place a man ought to do well his own work in life. Thus, if he is a joiner, he ought to be a good joiner; if lie is a merchant, he ought to be a good merchant. If not, those who depend upon him suffer, and his work and those who use it suffer. A bad merchant tends to multiply bad merchants and bad clerks a I)a(i rivet,er I may cause the loss of a fine ship and of hundreds of lives. No man knows how far may go or how lom- may continue the effect, of a single piece of bad work. In the second place, a man 'night to bring up well his children, if he have auy. Success in this, as in his work is the first duty of every man. He who fails in either way is indeed a failure. Yet disastrous failure in either or in both may go along with success in business. For a man may succeed ill business by means that degrade himself and his fellows; lie may I y c;ain wealth by means that disqualify him for a right use of it or enjoyment; his wealth may only serve to lure his children into debauchery and ruin. Wealth, indeed, has too often had this effect. Surely, ilien, the only success worth striving for is success in using our talents ami our opportunities so as most to further the goodness and the happiness, not of our- selves and of our happiness only, but of all whom we I can help or benefit. One or two examples may help to make my meaning clearer. I know of few suc- cessess equal to that of the successful head-master of a great school like this (applause). Think bow wist, hew incalculable his influence for good in turning out men well equipped for life men with high principle and high intelligence to guide them in their own work, and to influence others iu widening circles for ever. The successful head-master of one our great- est public schools once expressed himself in conversa- tion with me, as if lie almost envied the position of a member of Parliament. I could not help expressing my surprise, and I argued, We only make laws, I am afraid, often very bad laws but you make law- makers." My view seemed strange to him; but I had the best of the argument. A very remarkable instance of success in a very different path of life is given by Mr Sedley Taylor in his interesting book upon profit sharing. It is that of the Parisian house painter and decorator, Leclaire. Leclaire was born the son of a country shoemaker. After working in the fields and as a mason's boy, he arrived in Paris penniless at the age of seventeen. He apprenticed himself to a house painter, and in ten years became a master. As soon as lie had secured his own footing in the trade lie turned Irs mind to improving the condition of those who worked in it. His first step was to seek a substitute for white lead, which he found injurious to their health. This he succeeded in doing. Much impressed with the uncertainty of their position, he went on to found a system by which every man in his employment received as a bonus a part of the profits of his trade. For the regular and permanent workmen, he also established a Mutual Aid Society, supported at first by the voluntary contributions of members, but subsequently by the receipt of another con- siderable portion of the profits. His workmen thus not only became partners in the business, but also secured a large addition to their wages, as well as an ample pro- vision for old age, sickness, or accident. Between 18-12 and 1872, when he died a rich man worth £48,000, Leclaire had paid the sum of £ 44.000 in houses to his workmen and in contributions to their Mutual Aid or Provident Society (applause). His business is now carried on by two managing partners chosen by the workmen out of their own numbers. It has a capital of £ 16,000, belonging half to the managing partners, and half to the Mutual Aid Society. The Mutual Aid Sooiety now owns a capital of .£G2,00iJ, including its share in the capital of the business. It has 105 ni 'mbers, besides 52 who are living upon their retired allowances. To the regular v.wkituui it secures large yearly bonuses upon his aggregate wages all the advantages of an ordinary bjnefit club a life pension of rC48 per annum payable on his completing his fiftieth year of life and his twentieth year of work for the concern; one half of his pension continued to his widow for her life a sum of £4:0ptlyable to his family at his death, and the certainty that he, if he be disabled, and his family if he be kiiled, by any accident occurring ia the course of his employment, vail | not be left without permanent, moans of support (applause). More than ten years have passed since Leclaire died, and his Mutual Aid Society continues not merely to prosper, but even to improve. You will easily understand how great arc its moral as well as material effects. Not only is every workman iu the concern secured against distress, but hs feels himself a partner ia the concern, respousible for its character and interested for its success. Such a concern attracts steady aud well-conducted men, and con- j firms them in steadiness and good c ad :c Aud you j will admit, 1am sure, that the man who combined with his own prosperity the prosperity uf those who worked for him. the man who continues to benefit his class for years after his death, is in the fullest seuse of the word a successful man (applause). But my last and humblest instance of success is to my mind, the means being con- i sidercd, the most telling of all. Kitty Wi kinsun was the wife of a cotton porter in my father's employment. and at that time a cotton porter's wages were, I think, only 18s or 2Js a week. Having only one child of her own, Kitty and her husband adopted, brought up, and educated upon their scant wages no less than thirteen orphans. When the cholera broke out in 18bl, a panic ensued, and there were riots not quite so bad. but very like those which have recently troubled the south of Europe. Kitty, however, knev. no fear when work was to be done. She nursed the sick and got others to do the same she faced and shamed the rioters she established in her own cellar a washhouse where the poor of the neighbourhood could do infected and other washing. The knowledge of the good thus done led the late rector. Mr Campbell, my father and mother, and others, to advocate the establishment of public baths and washhouses. To Kittv's example we owe the:r establishment (applause). No one in Liverpool did more than that pour woman to check the spread and to promote the cure of cholera in its first and worst outbreak in Liverpool (applause). With the example of the great things she did with her small means, will anybody ever use again that stupid word li impossible (applause) ? Is there anybody here pre- sent who, if he has faith in the right, if he does it with his might, if he is steadfast and patient, if he exercises self-control and self-denial, if he suffers nothing low or foul, does no doubtful act. treads on no doubtful ground, and, where possible, shuns temptations, but can make a true man of himself, help on what is good, check what is evil, aud so in the noblest sense succeed. To leave the world something better than we found it; each of us can do that aud that is success (loud applause).