3. _Moments Undervalued._—A young collegiate of our acquaintance
during his four years’ course read every word in Webster’s Unabridged
Dictionary, correcting his spelling and his pronunciation thereby,
and acquired an almost inexhaustible fund of information as to the
derivation of words. It was all done in odd moments; scraps of time
useless for regular work; time that _some_ people spend in gossip,
yawns, plannings to vault to the moon, or in misanthropy.
A German critic memorized every line of Homer’s Iliad while going from
one medical patient to another.
Bishop Gilbert Haven dropped quills from a flying wing as he flew
across continents and seas, and the snowy feathers fell in Boston,
Chicago, San Francisco, and New York.
Moments are gold dust. Sweep every one up. The assayer washes his hands
in water that is carefully saved. His men at the benches save every
filing of the precious ore. His shop boy sweeps the very dirt into a
safe. His workmen clean their feet upon a mat as they _go home_ from
work. All this to save a _little_ gold. And yet that gold is worth, in
large establishments, more than one thousand dollars annually.
You can learn Greek by saving _minutes_. And the mental discipline
gained in the endeavor will in itself be worth a fortune to you. You
will learn to save moments on other accounts.
Henry Clay, speaking about courtesies of a trivial character as
affording gratification to others, says, “It is the picayune
compliments which are most appreciated.” He does not give us the
philosophy of the fact. Possibly it is to be found in this, that we all
have an abundance of this small change, and fling it forth as being
valueless. But “picayune” _moments_ must be better treated.
Dr. Johnson is credited with the saying, “The habit of looking on the
bright side of things is worth a thousand pounds a year to any man.”
The habit of saving moments is worth more than thousands of gold and
silver.
[To be continued.]
[Footnote J: General Secretary of the Chautauqua School of Theology,
and Dean of the Department of Greek and the New Testament.]