CHAPTER XIII.

NOW.

Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a

day may bring forth.-PROVERBS.

There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

SHAKESPEARE.

THE past is gone, the future may never come, the present is our own.

"Now," says Thomas à Kempis in The Imitation of

Christ

Now is the time to act,

Now is the time to fight,

Now is the time to make myself a better man.

If to-day you are not ready,

Will you be to-morrow?

To-morrow, moreover, may never come so far as

you are concerned.

Do not act as if you had a thousand years to live.

Delay is always dangerous. What is well begun is half

done.

What is once put off is more difficult than be

fore. Even

Youth is not rich in time; it may be poor;
Part with it as with money, sparing; pay

No moment but in purchase of its worth;

And what its worth, ask death-beds-they can tell. Even the years of Methuselah came to an end at last. Pulvis et umbra sumus.

Quis scit an adiciant hodiernae crastina summae
Tempora di superi ? *

"Seize your opportunity," was the advice of Pittacus, and one reason why he was counted among the seven wise men of Greece.

A little fire is quickly trodden out,

Which being suffered, rivers cannot quench.**

As a more homely proverb has it, "A stitch in time saves nine."

Thrift of time is as important as, or rather more important than, that of money. The Bible urges this over and over again. "Teach me to number my days," said Moses. "Make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days," said David. "Sufficient to the

"We are but shade and dust. Who knows whether the gods above will add to-morrow to the days already past?" (Horace). ** Shakespeare.

day," said Christ, "is the evil thereof"-sufficient, but not intolerable.

Many are the proverbs inculcating prompt action and deprecating delay. "Strike while the iron is hot; " "Make hay while the sun shines;" and many

more.

If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well

It were done quickly.*

The exhortations to make the most of the present moment are innumerable. Many are more or less melancholy:

"The world's a bubble," says Bacon, "and the life

of man less than a span.”

Like the dew on the mountain,

Like the foam on the river,
Like the bubble on the fountain
Thou art gone, and for ever.*

It is no doubt true that life is short.

before, and Exodus is the next."

reason for making the most of it. For

What are past or future joys?

The present is our own.

And he is wise who best employs

The passing hour alone.***

"Genesis goes

All the more

Our Anglican divines urge this very strongly. "Enjoy the blessings," says Jeremy Taylor, "of this day if God send them, and the evils of it bear patiently and sweetly; for this day is only ours; we are dead to yesterday, and we are not born to the morrow. He, therefore, that enjoys the present, if it be good, enjoys as much as is possible, and if only that day's trouble leans upon him, it is singular and finite."

"If a man," said Bishop Fuller, "chance to die

young, yet he lives long that lives well; a time misspent is not lived but lost."* Moreover, if you lose any of your time, you will hardly find it again. Yet while all men cling to life, many are often dull and at a loss what to do with their time. Do not be in a hurry to settle what to do, but when once you have made up your mind, begin without delay, so that you may be able to finish without hurry.

Defer not till to-morrow to be wise,

To-morrow's sun to thee may never rise.**

Archias, Governor of Thebes in the fourth century B.C., received one day a letter of warning, but put it on one side, saying, "Business to-morrow," and lost his life in consequence. Lord Chesterfield said that the Duke of Newcastle lost an hour in the morning and spent the rest of the day looking for it. It is important to arrange every day so as to dovetail duties as well as we can. If we do not, much valuable time is lost, and though it is really altogether our own fault, we are apt to complain, with Benjamin Constant: "How I lose my time! what an unarrangeable life mine is!"*** We have it,

* Holy and Profane State.

*** Journal intime.

** Congreve.