IX 



HOW TO WORK 



TO-DAY is always with us, and it is proverbial 

 that to-morrow never comes. The present 

 hour alone is our sure possession. Yester- 

 day is dead and gone forever; to-morrow is yet in em- 

 bryo. The present tense alone expresses reality. 



The workers of every age have realized these elemen- 

 tal truths. The phrase-makers of every language have 

 embalmed them in telling words. By universal consent, 

 the all-important time is Now. Yet this truism, like 

 many another equally obvious one, is exceedingly hard 

 to act upon. Contemplative minds are ever prone to 

 builds their plans to-day, but to put off action till that 

 ever-elusive morrow. Meanwhile the arch-thief Pro- 

 crastination steals the years; and the visionary who 

 lacks nothing but the initial energy to start, finds him- 

 self a middle-aged and then an old man, with his 

 work not accomplished, perhaps not even begun. 



For it is Father Time's paradoxical jest that though 

 to-morrow never comes, yet still the years roll swiftly on. 

 No skill can retard their flowing; no power can recover 

 so much as one unit hour. No genius can utilize any 

 moment but the present one. To postpone is not to 

 accomplish. 



Cousin-german to the procrastinator, in point of un- 

 productiveness, is the man who is forever regretting 

 the past. For to "cry over spilled milk" is no less 



