What would happen if everybody should begin tomorrow to keep all his
promises and fulfill all his engagements? I think it would make a new
world at once. There is great need that the attention of young people
should be called to the importance of keeping engagements. Much of the
confusion and annoyance and trouble of this world would be done away
with if people would learn to keep their promises. The oft-repeated
excuse, “I forgot,” is not reasonable. If the memory is in the habit of
playing tricks with you, then you ought to make notes of your
engagements, write them down in some way, so that you will not forget
them. Arnold of Rugby said: “Thoughtlessness is a crime,” and he was
right. The great Ruskin has also uttered strong words in condemnation
of thoughtlessness in youth. He said: “But what excuse can you find for
willfulness of thought at the very time when every crisis of future
fortune hangs on your decisions? A youth thoughtless! when the career of
all his days depends on the opportunity of a moment. A youth
thoughtless! when his every act is a foundation-stone of future conduct,
and every imagination a fountain of life or death. Be thoughtless in
any after years rather than now, though, indeed, there is only one place
where a man may be nobly thoughtless--his deathbed. No thinking should
ever be left to be done there.”
[Illustration: KEEPING ONE’S ENGAGEMENTS.]
And, then, boys and girls should remember that promptness should always
accompany the fulfilling of an engagement, otherwise the engagement is
not really kept. A person’s time is a valuable possession, which should
be respected by all. Who has not been exasperated by some one with
apparent indifference keeping (?) an engagement a half or three-quarters
of an hour late! And often a whole train of troubles will follow in the
wake of tardiness. The punctual boy or girl in this life is the one who
advances most rapidly. The punctual boy or girl will make a punctual man
or woman. A promise-breaker, or one who is late in keeping his
appointments, cannot in the true sense of the term be considered a
first-class person.