Space.
As all thoughts and actions take place in time, so all material things
exist in space. Everything we have must be in some place. To give things
their right relations in space is one of the important aspects of
conduct.
THE DUTY.
+A place for everything, and everything in its place.+--Things that
belong together should be kept together. Dishes belong in the cupboard;
clothes in the closet; boxes on the shelves; loose papers in the waste
basket; tools in the tool-chest; wood in the wood-shed. And it is our
duty to keep them in their proper place, when not in actual use. In
business it is of the utmost importance to have a precise place for
everything connected with it. The carpenter or machinist must have a
place for each tool, and always put it there when he is through using
it. The merchant must have a definite book and page or drawer or
pigeon-hole for every item which he records. The scholar must have a set
of cards or envelopes or drawers or pockets alphabetically arranged in
which he keeps each class of facts where he can turn to it instantly.
This keeping things of a kind together, each kind in a place by itself,
is system. Without system nothing can be managed well, and no great
enterprise can be carried on at all.
THE VIRTUE.
+Orderliness is manly and virtuous because it keeps things under our own
control, and makes them the expression of our will.+--The orderly and
systematic man can manage a thousand details with more ease and power
than a man without order and system can manage a dozen. It is not power
to do more work than other men, but power to do the same amount of work
in such an orderly and systematic way that it accomplishes a hundred
times as much as other men's work, which marks the difference between
the statesman who manages the affairs of a nation or the merchant prince
who handles millions of dollars, and the man of merely ordinary
administrative and business ability.
THE REWARD.
+The orderly man has his resources at his disposal at a moment's
notice.+--He can go directly to the thing he wants and be sure of
finding it in its place. When a business is thoroughly systematized it
is as easy to find one thing out of ten thousand as it is to find one
thing out of ten. Hence there is scarcely any limit to the expansion of
business of which the systematic man is capable. A business thus reduced
to system will almost run itself. Thus the heads of great concerns are
able to accept public office, or to spend a year in Europe, in absolute
confidence that the business will be well conducted in their absence,
and that they can take it up when they return just as they left it. For
they know that each man has his part of the work for which he is
responsible; each process has its precise method by which it is to be
performed; each account has its exact place where it is to be kept.
Order and system are the keys to business success. Orderliness keeps
things under our control, and the convenience and efficiency with which
things serve us is the direct and necessary consequence of having them
under control.
THE TEMPTATION.
+System takes more labor to begin with, but in the long run system is
the greatest labor-saving device in the world.+--It takes ten times as
long to hunt up a thing which we have left lying around the next time we
want it, as it does to put it where it belongs at first. Yet, well as we
know this fact, present and temporary ease seems of more consequence at
the time of action than future and permanent convenience. Until by
repeated exercise and painful discipline we make orderliness and system
habitual and almost instinctive, the temptation to make the quickest and
handiest disposition of things for which we have no immediate use will
continue to beset our minds and betray our wills.
THE VICE OF DEFECT.
+The careless man lets things run over him.+--They mock him, and make
fun of him; getting in his way and tripping him up at one time; hiding
from him and making him hunt after them at another. Carelessness is a
confession of a weak will that cannot keep things under control. And
weakness is ever the mark of vice.
THE VICE OF EXCESS.
+The end and aim of system is to expedite business. Red tape is the
idolatry of system. It is system for the sake of system.+--Every rule
admits exceptions. To make exceptions before a habit is fully formed is
dangerous; and while we are learning the habit of orderliness and system
we should put ourselves to very great inconvenience rather than admit an
exception to our systematic and orderly way of doing things. When,
however, the habit has become fixed, it is wise and right to sacrifice
order and system, when some "short cut" will attain our end more quickly
and effectively than the regular and more round-about way of orderly
procedure. The strong and successful business man is he who has his
system so thoroughly under his control that he can use it or dispense
with it on a given occasion; according as it will further or hinder the
end he has in view.
THE PENALTY.
+The careless man is always bothered by things he does not want getting
in his way; and by things that he does want keeping out of his
way.+--Half his time is spent in clearing away accumulated obstructions
and hunting after the things he needs. Where everything is in a heap it
is necessary to haul over a dozen things in order to find the one you
are after. Carelessness suffers things to get the mastery over us; and
the consequence is that we and our business are ever at their mercy. And
as things held in control are faithful and efficient servants, so things
permitted to domineer over us and do as they please become cruel and
arbitrary masters. They waste our time, try our patience, destroy our
business, and scatter our fortunes.