EDITOR'S TABLE. 



699 



To the Tnultitude perhaps success in life 

 is gauged by a money scale : to be rich 

 is to be successful, to be poor is to be 

 unsuccessful; but this is far from being 

 a desirable standard to erect. But few- 

 can reap success according to this idea ; 

 and the rest must reap failure and dis- 

 contentment, A truer and better con- 

 ception is that the man who develops 

 his faculties and cultivates his disposi- 

 tions aright, who, amid the warfare and 

 vicissitudes of life, keeps his judgment 

 sound, his aims sincere, his temper sweet, 

 his domestic and social relations duly 

 adjusted, and who thus in a true sense 

 Ums through his whole career, is the 

 type of a successful man. The Roman 

 poet Horace, whose good sense strikes 

 us at every turn, must have had this 

 idea to some extent; since the thought 

 with which he feels he could satisfy him- 

 self were his existence to be suddenly 

 brought to a term is that expressed in 

 the word " Vixi," the exact equivalent 

 of the Ablie Sieyes's "J'ai vecu," "/ 

 ham linedy 



The education, then, that we want is 

 an education for life; we want to be 

 taught how to live, how to make the 

 best of ourselves, of our circumstances, 

 of our relations, of our environment 

 generally. Is this the type of education 

 prevalent in the present day? We fear 

 not. The dominant idea in most — we 

 might almost say in all — of our schools 

 is that of a purely selfish success, which 

 means, if realized, a quite incomplete 

 success, one that leaves the general life 

 of the man or woman essentially unblest. 

 What our young people need above all 

 things to be taught is to know them- 

 selves and their surroundings, and to 

 understand the true objects of life. They 

 want an education dominated by com- 

 mon sense and right motive ; and the 

 few who get such an education are not 

 likely to fail of success in any sense. It 

 is a great thing to be taught the simple 

 habit of verification : one who has this 

 will score many a point even in the 

 competition of the market-place. It is 



a great thing to be taught, with convic- 

 tion, that a well-regulated life is always 

 worth living, and that this world is 

 worth doing justice to. Many are 

 stranded in mid-life simply because they 

 have not taken things seriously enough, 

 because they have trusted to chance 

 rather than to doing with their might 

 what their hands found to do. No time 

 is unsuitable for overhauling one's 

 scheme of life, and trying to find out 

 its weak places if it has any; but per- 

 haps the beginning of a new year offers 

 the greatest advantages for such a re- 

 view. All should aim at a true success 

 in life ; and a true success is within the 

 reach of all, if prudence but take the 

 helm. 



COMPETITION^. 



The article by Mr. George lies, 

 which we publish in our present num- 

 ber, draws attention to the economic 

 waste resulting from unrestricted com- 

 petition, and suggests the action which 

 the State may hereafter be compelled 

 to take, in the public interest, to check 

 the undue greed of individuals and cor- 

 porations. Competition, as it seems to 

 us, is not a thing which there is any 

 use in opposing or condemning. It is 

 simply, in the last resort, individual 

 self-assertion ; and as long as there are 

 individuals they will assert themselves. 

 Sometimes it occurs to a number of in- 

 dividuals that they can assert them- 

 selves — i. e., promote their own inter- 

 ests^more effectually by uniting their 

 means and their efforts than by acting 

 in complete independence of one an- 

 other: then we have combination or 

 co-operation ; but the consolidated body 

 stin has its own competitors and its 

 own battles to fight. From this we 

 gather that there are certain unneces- 

 sary forms or modes of competition, 

 and that experience points out, from 

 time to time, what these are ; but that 

 competition, in the broad sense, is as 

 lasting as human nature. Now, if we 

 differ at all from our respected con- 



