The Virtue ...

Wo t-ho'jid .sa.v 'Liiit Ibe virtue in ihrift, m) 1 ur as tbera is virtue ui it - lind we have met witb it in some of tba meanest as well as some of the noblest of maukiud - lay in tbe developmeut which tbe practice must give to tbe power of self control. There are ruauy higher occasions for tbe exercise of tbat high quality, but tbere are none, except in the rase of ill tenipered men, which recur so frequently. All men naturally like to spend, and to be thrifty the resolve not to spend whenever expenditure is avoidable must be acted on 20 times a week and will in a short time exercise a perceptible influencie on the cbaracter. The man learns to resist motnentary temptation and beoomes thereforo a stronger :mn, just as a white man becomes more enduring from tha constant wearing of olotb.es. The weigbt of clothes is seldom great, but the perpetual habit of carrying them almost imperceptibly strengthens the muscles. Tbe thrifty man is more uiasterof himself than the extravagant man and in self mastery is one most fertile seed of virtue. But thrift in itself is ïwt virtue any more than a plow is agricultura or mathematics accuracy of tbougbt. The best test of tbis is tbat a Christiaa teacher who in England would iucultate thrift would in many auother rountry be con:pplled to condemn it as of all qualitics tbe oue wliich most iuterfered with freedom of the spirit. Now a virtue whicb is a real virtue and not merely an e.xpedient practice imiHt be as independent of national manners as of geography. No doubt in England the use of carefulness needs to be inculoated, the typioal Knglishman, if be wants sparrows, being ready to shy at them with half crowus, but it should be taught as arithmetio is taught, not