Soap is very fertile in pro- of enchanted paradise where ducing wealth, though some to wish is to have-Aladdin's prefer to "play the stock lamp brought down to earth." market." But by whatever Alas for the vanity of human means the the precious gold is wishes! The whole pleasure collected, the result is sanctified of money is in the heart. The to the collector. He hastens richest man upon earth cannot to place upon his head a gilded eat or drink more than the crown. He believes very poor fool who is content with speedily that he is not as a moderate income, and all other men. The clay of which the garnered wealth of the a rich man is compounded is of East could not help its posa finer quality than that which sessor to taste the finer flavours encloses the starved soul of of life and art if he had not the wretch who looks forward been born with a palate and to nothing better than a an eye. pension of £2000 a year." Here, for instance, is Lord Beaverbrook, who has written a religious tract called 'Success,' and who, after a strenuous and triumphant career, still speaks of "money" with a pious fervour and an ardent enthusiasm. It is touching to note with what reverence he approaches the hard substance gold which he has spent his life in gathering. He is kind enough to recognise, so he tells us, the existence of other ambitions in the walks of Art, Religion, or Literature." But these are not practical affairs," and it is practical affairs" which engross this noble author. Nor can practical affairs" be expressed otherwise than in the currency of gold and silver. It is money that is at once our guest and our goddess. "Money," says Lord Beaverbrook, in a tender passagemoney-the word has a magical sound. It conjures up before the vision some kind 66 66 66 Thus it is a simple scale of measuring success to look at a man's banking account, and it is clear that Lord Beaverbrook gives advice to others because he is absolutely satisfied with his own career. 'The first key which opens the door of success," says he in his simple style, "is the trading instinct; the knowledge and sense of the real value of any article. Without it a man need not trouble to enter business at all, but if he possesses it even in a rudimentary form, he can cultivate it in the early days when the mind is still plastic, until it develops beyond all recognition." There is a lofty ideal to set before the rising generation! Lord Beaverbrook was, of course, peculiarly gifted, or he could not have attained the eminent position which is his to-day. "When I was a boy," he confesses, "I knew the value in exchange of every marble in my village." Thus was he marked out for future grandeur. And when he turned his austere mind from marbles to objects of greater worth, he "always had an intuitive perception of the real and not the face value of any article." So he chose for himself the only sound method of education. When other boys confused their starveling brains with the Latin grammar or the works of Shakespeare, he knew how to exchange marbles, and we may well believe that he did not get the worse of his bargains. Beaverbrook Nor is Lord haunted by any doubts. "Money which is striven for brings with it the real qualities of life," says he dogmatically. Here are the counters which mark character and brains. The money brain is, in the modern world, the supreme brain." There you have the plain truth, stripped of all embellishment. Poetry will scarcely feed the sad poet himself. The self-denial and devotion of the artist are wasted upon a barren age. A circulation of three millions, with the solid profit that it brings, is a better thing to achieve, even though the best of its news comes from the Old Bailey. Why? Because it gives clear proof of the money brain, and " because that which the greatest number of men strive for will produce the fiercest competition of intellect." As, then, it is to the moneybags we must look for intellect, it follows that there is no need to educate the supreme, the money brain. Lord Beaverbrook's own education was of a most rudimentary description," and what he rejected need not be esteemed by any one of us. Indeed, we are told by the great hero himself that if a young man is not stamped with the hall-mark of Oxford or Cambridge, he has "possibly escaped a grave danger." The boy who is kept too busy with his books may overlook the exchange value of marbles, and he will lose at the outset all chance of becoming great with the only greatness that is worth achieving. And when he leaves marbles behind, he is not likely ever to know the thrill of the first £10,000. There is the real struggle," says Lord Beaverbrook, "the test of character, and the warranty of success. Youth and strength are given us to use in that first struggle, and a man must feel those early deals right down to the pit of his stomach if he is going to be a great man of business." How we have been misguided! misguided! We have always believed that youth and strength were given us to discover as best we could the meaning and the beauty of the world about us, to learn the lofty lessons taught us by the past, to delight in the mighty-mouthed harmonies of the poets. Not a bit of it! Youth and strength were given us to make the first £10,000, which counts, and unless grandeur and success are to perish upon the earth, the lesson taught by Lord Beaverbrook exchange value of every marble must not be forgotten. The apostles of success are never more interesting than when they point their moral with snippets of biography, and Lord Beaverbrook does not disappoint us. "Shelley had genius," he is kind enough to say, but he would not have been a success in Wall Street, though the poet showed a flash of business knowledge in refusing to lend Byron money." There is the practical kind of literary criticism which all aspirants to success will appreciate. With a light hand also and a profound knowledge of history, Lord Beaverbrook has sketched his friend the Prime Minister. "He sips a single glass of burgundy at dinner for the obvious reason that he enjoys it, and not because it might stimulate his activities. He has given up the use of tobacco. Bolingbroke, as a master of manœuvres, would have had a poor chance against him." Is there anything else that you would wish to know about our Prime Minister than is expressed in these few intimate words? We think not; and if only Lord Beaverbrook had not in his boyhood learned the in the village, he might have been a profound historian. But Success with a capital cannot be achieved in the world of letters. Admirable also is the following brief sketch of the Lord Chancellor : "Although the most formidable enemy of the Pussyfooters and the most powerful protector of freedom in the social habits of the people that the Cabinet contains, he is, like Mr Bonar Law, a teetotaller. It is this capacity for governing himself which is pointing upwards to still greater heights of power." Who is there so churlish as not to rejoice that Lord Birkenhead, by governing himself, still points upward to the heights of power? The sketch is drawn by the master hand of a practical and successful man. And yet when we laid aside Lord Beaverbrook's book, we could not but wonder whether in the world of art and literature there is not a beauty which escapes the trading instinct, and which, if only he were sensitive to its influence, would persuade even our noble author himself that the value of marbles was not the best or the only lesson fit for a boy to learn. HAZARDOUS SERVICE, ON, 120. OPENSHAW, MR, PRESENTS- 234. HEATHER MIXTURE, 382, 429, 582, Opportunism, the triumph of, 427. HIGHER EDUCATION, THE, 410. HILLS, GREEN, 639. HOTELS, Two, 349, 361. OUTLAW OF OLD CEYLON, AN, 778. PEPYS, MRS SAMUEL: AS BEFITS MY Humanity, treaty for the advancement РHAULKON, THE LORD, 524. of, 143. A M'Corton, Dr, and the Vatican, 144. MONTAGUE, C. E.: A TRADE REPORT MOUNTAINS, BLUE, 25. Murder, general condonation of, 555. Oliver Cromwell and Ireland, 280. P., J.: THE HIGHER EDUCATION, 410. 'Protocols,' authenticity of the, 558. "PUNJAB CAPTAIN": SEVEN YEARS OF REVOLUTION, WORLD, 764. RIFLE THIEVES OF IRAQ, 492. SALT RANGE, SEVEN YEARS OF WAR SHOOTING TRIP IN THE EMERALD ISLE, Sinn Fein, the surrender to, 552-its 221. 'Success,' Lord Beaverbrook's tract, 840. 402. Swapping England's honour for Ulster's TALES OF THE R.I.C.: IX. The Re- "THE FOURTH," "FIGHT FANS"—AND, Todas, curious manners and customs TRADE REPORT ONLY, A, 335. TWO HOTELS: I. The Wagon Lits |