OBITER DICTA.
Life viewed in retrospect down the vista of half a century of activity,
presents many lessons which may be both interesting and
instructive--lessons from one's own experience, lessons derived from
watching the careers of others, of those who have made a brilliant
success, of others who have made a disastrous failure, and of the many
who have lived all their lives on the ragged edge between plenty and
penury.
It is also instructive to notice the conditions under which the great
problem of life had to be worked out, as they vary to some extent with
each decade. The world does not stand still, it will not mark time for
our convenience; we have to go with the times, and the enigma of life is
how to turn them to the best account.
The outstanding features of the present day are the keenness of
competition in every walk of life, and the rapidity with which events
occur, creating a hurry which is prejudicial to the careful ordering of
one's own life.
Competition has always been very keen, and the cry has ever been for
the return of those good old days when competition was less. If they
ever existed, it was before my time.
Everything, however, is comparative. With larger numbers of people there
must be more competition, but there are also more opportunities, more
employment, more people to feed, and more to clothe.
But with the advance of education, particularly of technical knowledge,
the competition has become more intense in the higher branches of
industrial and intellectual activity; still, there is room, and ample
room, on the top. The lower rungs of the ladder are well occupied, but
the numbers thin off as we approach the top, and this must be more and
more the case as education advances.
The hurry of the present day is prejudicial to that thoroughness which
is necessary if we are to attain efficiency. The hurry of everyday life
becomes more and more conspicuous. Living at high pressure, in this
super-heated atmosphere we are apt to lose our sense of proportion, and
crowd our minds with thoughts, schemes and projects regardless of our
power of assimilation and arrangement. Our minds are apt to become mere
lumber rooms, into which everything is tossed. Many things are
forgotten, and cannot be found when wanted. How much better it would be
for ourselves and for the world at large if we could live with more
deliberation, if we could specialise more, be more intense within a more
limited range of thought and activity, less casual, more thorough in the
commonplaces of life. Life would not lose in interest or
picturesqueness, and it would gain in symmetry and value. It may be said
that while it might add to the effectiveness of life, it would deprive
it of much of its colour and romance; this would not, however,
necessarily follow. On the contrary, greater effectiveness would open
out new avenues for thought and action, new spheres of usefulness, more
refined and elevating in their character, and more satisfying in their
results.
These appear to be surroundings in which we have to work out the
problems of our lives, and this leads us to the consideration of how we
are to achieve success under these conditions of competition and hurry.
SUCCESS IN LIFE.
There are various kinds of success in life: business success, social
success, and success in public affairs. Perhaps to the ordinary
individual business success is the most important; it is a source of
happiness, promotes social success, and opens up avenues of public
usefulness.
If we look back and endeavour to trace the careers of those with whom we
have been associated when young, I think we shall observe that those
who have been most successful in their business careers have, with few
exceptions, not been the brilliant and clever boys, but rather those of
duller intellect, who have had the gift of steady application. This
faculty is not born in us; we are by nature casual, and apt to follow
the lines of thought and endeavour which require the least labour, and
offer the most varied interest. We hate the grind of sustained effort,
it bores us, and we long for something new. This dislike of prolonged
application, and desire for change, has made more shipwrecks of business
careers than perhaps any other cause. In its craving for change and
excitement, it leads to speculation as a possible road to wealth without
effort.
The power of steady application must be inculcated in the school, by
insisting that every subject taught shall be mastered by the boy, and
not left until he has made it his own, and is able to clasp his hands on
the far side of it. A few subjects taught and mastered in this way are
of more value than a whole curriculum of studies learnt in a superficial
and casual manner. We are apt to forget that the primary object of all
education must be to train the mental faculties and to educate the
judgment. We are too prone to cram the boy with knowledge which he has
not the power to assimilate and make his own. We set out too often with
the presumption that as a boy is born with legs and arms which are ready
for use, so he must be born with a brain ready cultivated. The arms and
legs do their work very much better if they are trained and strengthened
by gymnastic exercises. In like manner the brain requires training--for
this reason I have always regretted the gradual elimination of Greek and
Latin from our national system of education. I know of nothing to take
their place as a gymnastic for the mind.
We too often send boys into the world to handle the most mighty weapons
for weal or for woe, "capital and credit," without any proper mental
equipment.
The lack of hard mental training is more far-reaching and disastrous
than is generally supposed. The want of accuracy leads to many mistakes.
Mistakes lead to excuses, and excuses mark the high road to lies. The
absence of accuracy is the fruitful parent of carelessness in thought,
in habit, and in the discharge of the duties of everyday life. I fear
this is a national weakness, for I have found that the German clerk
excels in accuracy; he may be wanting in initiative, but he is accurate
and reliable in his work. Englishmen have, however, remarkable gifts for
a business career, if they are properly trained and educated. A good
English man of business is the best in the world, he has great
initiative, the power of getting through work, the talent to observe and
to form a rapid judgment, but he is not born with these accomplishments,
they are largely the result of education and training.
There is a great reluctance in this country to introduce any system of
compulsory military service. Without dwelling upon its advantages to the
nation, as likely to increase the physique of our men, military
discipline would have a very beneficial moral effect. Probably one of
the most valuable traits of character is that of "obedience," and this
would be cultivated and enforced by military drill, and I think it would
also add to our self-respect. As things are moving we are in danger of
becoming a nation of "slackers," both physically and mentally.
I have already spoken of the necessity for steady perseverance and
accuracy if we are to make a success in life, but there are two other
qualities which are also essential to success, the capacity to observe,
and the gift of imagination.
OBSERVATION.
The number of men who go through life with their eyes closed is
astonishing. These men regret their want of luck, they say they have had
no chances; alas! they have had their chances but either failed to see
them, or lacked the courage or capacity to take advantage of them.
The world is so constituted that changes are ever taking place, and
every change is fruitful of opportunities. We hear it said of some that
everything they touch turns into gold. It is only another way of saying
that they are ever on the look-out for opportunities, and are not
laggards in turning them to good account.
IMAGINATION.
The want of imagination prevents many men from making use of their
opportunities. Upon a dull day, when the clouds hang in the valleys, and
obscure from view the tops of the mountains, imagination fills up the
picture, and probably paints the crests of the mountains much higher
than they really are. Too many men travel only in the valleys of life,
content with what they see; and imagine nothing above or beyond.
Suppose, for instance, a serious disaster overtakes the harvest. The man
endowed with imagination will look beyond the disaster and note its
far-reaching effects, and in them recognise his opportunities for
action.
General Sir Richard Baden-Powell is doing an excellent work with his
"boy scouts," not only in teaching discipline, but in encouraging the
habits of observation and imagination, which will be of the greatest
value to them in after-life.
I have touched upon three points necessary to success in life,
"thoroughness and accuracy," the faculty of "observation," and the gift
of "imagination," because they are but seldom prominently referred to.
It is not needful to enlarge upon the value of character nor upon the
necessity for "integrity." Of nothing am I more certain, than that
"Honesty is the best policy." I can think of no career which has been
permanently successful, in which this "golden rule" has not been
observed. Speculation is the gambler's road to fortune. It has many ups
and downs, and generally leads to disaster and the "slough of despond."
But there is a wide gulf separating speculation from the enterprise of
the genius that foresees and devises new methods of trade, or
anticipates, as the result of careful observation and calculation,
changes in the market value of securities and commodities.
Enterprise degenerates into speculation when the dictates of caution and
prudence are set aside. To use the words of an old and much respected
Liverpool merchant, who recently passed away, "Commercial success
requires the concurrence of two contrary tendencies, caution and
enterprise. Caution is necessary in avoiding risks, in foreseeing
consequences, and in providing against contingencies, even remote ones.
But this will not carry a man far, he must also have the brain to
originate, and the courage to strike when a favourable opportunity
occurs. What we call a sound judgment is the due balance and just
proportion of a well-stored mind. In no department of life is there more
need for this balance and proportion than in the higher walks of
commerce. The head of a great firm needs be a statesman, an economist,
and a financier, as well as a merchant."
I had proposed to conclude this sketch by a short account of the men of
my time still living, who have been active in the making of Liverpool,
but so many have lent a helping hand, the work having been that of the
many rather than of the few, that it would be impossible to avoid being
invidious. Events move so rapidly, the men and circumstances of to-day
are crowded out and their memory obliterated in the new interests of
tomorrow, that no man's work or influence can be said to have exercised
more than an evanescent power; yet Liverpool has been built up--its
commerce, its municipality, and its charitable and philanthropic
work--by leaders of men who have found their work lying at their hand
and have done it, and have done it well.
My story must now end. It has necessarily been told in a somewhat
desultory manner, leaving out many details and many incidents which
might have added to its completeness. But if it interests any of my kin
or my friends, and still more, if it inspires them to make some effort
on behalf of our great and glorious city--to elevate its social and
intellectual life, to adorn and beautify its public streets and places,
to brighten the lives and homes of the people, to carry forward and
onward the great temple we are building to the glory of God--it will not
have failed in its purpose.
LIVERPOOL:
LEE AND NIGHTINGALE, PRINTERS, 15, NORTH JOHN STREET.
1910.
End of Project Gutenberg's Recollections of a Busy Life, by William B. Forwood