Merit Can Wait

A paper on "ArobiteoturalCompetitinm," read at the Instituto of Bfitlah architect., liad for its object to whow tho harinful clfeets of'coiu(u itions on the profession at large, and loggosts to tho instituto to " take some practical stepu to remcdy th cvils acknowledxed toeziet. " In tho disouwicm tliat f'ullowed, Prof'. Kerr made a few reBUrkl wliich ïuay perhaps be allowed a place in sueh a HUinmary as tlic present, llaving protfsted against tho notion that jouipetition favors modest merit, the fesaor said : " Modosty will wait ; it is immodesty that will not. Merit can wait ; it is deincrit that cannot. The iuan wlio, in professional life, is the most fortúnate ia be who starts without false aids, without falla cious incentives, without self conoeit, and without hurry. Waitiqg patiently, woiking diligently, and wallting uprightly, unil hu has reached the ape of inatured usefulncss, he then attains that position which maturud usefulness alono can perniaoently hold, because it alone is worthy to hold it. In plain language, at the age of forty (whioh is recognized as the earliest period at which a man may expeot to aoquire a position in a profession au distinguished from a trado) he finds himself boginning to know the world wcll ; youth has paraedinto t'ull manhood, and liaa fivo-and twonty years before him during which to eniploy his onereie8 at thnir hest. inH tn win