had accomplished his object, which was to hold the place twenty-four hours, in order to give the French army time to complete its maneuver. After that he knew the pass would be of no consequence to the enemy. 20. The next day at sunrise the Austrian troops lined the pass in two files, extending from the mouth of the ravine to the tower, leaving a space between them for the garrison to pass out. 21. The heavy door of the tower opened slowly, and in a few minutes a bronzed and scarred grenadier, literally laden with muskets, came out and passed down the line of troops. He walked with difficulty under his heavy load. To the surprise of the Austrians no one followed him from the tower. 22. In astonishment the Austrian colonel rode up to him, and asked in French why the garrison did not come out. "I am the garrison, Colonel," said the soldier proudly. 23. "What!" exclaimed the colonel, "do you mean to tell me that you alone have held that tower against me?" "I have the honor, Colonel," was the reply. "What possessed you, that you made such an attempt, Grenadier?" "The honor of France was at stake." 24. The colonel gazed at him for a moment with undisguised admiration. Then, raising his cap, he said warmly: "Grenadier, I salute you. You have proved yourself the bravest of the brave." 25. The officer caused all the arms which La Tour d'Auvergne could not carry to be collected, and sent them with the grenadier into the French lines, together with a note relating the whole affair. 26. When the circumstance came to the knowledge of Napoleon he offered to promote La Tour; but the latter preferred to remain a grenadier. 27. The brave soldier met his death in an action in June, 1800, and the simple and expressive scene at rollcall in his regiment was commenced and continued by command of the Emperor. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportioned thought his act. Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy; For the apparel oft proclaims the man; And they in France, of the best rank and station, Are most select and generous, chief in that. Neither a borrower nor a lender be: SHAKESPEARE. 11. THE FORMATION OF GOOD HABITS. 1. The habit of method is essential to all who have much work to do, if they would perform it easily and with economy of time. The importance of system in the discharge of daily duties was strikingly illustrated in the experience of Dr. Kane when he was locked up among the icebergs of the Arctic Circle, with the prospect of months of dreary imprisonment. With his men enfeebled by disease and privations, and when all but eight of his company had gone to search for a way of escape, he sustained the drooping spirits of the handful who clung to him, and kept up their energies, by systematic performance of duties and by moral discipline. 2. "It is," he observes, "the experience of every man who has either combated difficulties himself, or attempted to guide others through them, that the controlling law must be systematic action. I resolved that every thing should go on as it had done. The arrangement of hours, the distribution and details of duty, the religious exercises, the ceremonials of the table, the fires, the lights, the watch, the labors of the observatory, and the notation of the tides and the sky,-nothing should be intermitted that had contributed to make up the day." 3. The necessity of accuracy to success in any calling is so obvious as hardly to need remark. Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well. It is better to do a few things carefully, precisely as they should be done, than to do ten times as many in a loose, slovenly way. It matters little what virtues a man has, if he is habitually inexact. Be he a lawyer, an architect, an accountant, or an artisan, his work is done so poorly that it has to be done over again, causing infinite trouble and perplexity. 4. Punctuality is another virtue which must be culti vated by all who would succeed in any calling, whether lofty or humble. Nothing sooner inspires people with confidence in a business man than this quality, nor is there any habit which sooner saps his reputation than that of being always behind time. Thousands have failed in life from this cause alone. 5. Unpunctuality is not only a serious vice in itself, -it is also the cause of other vices; so that he who becomes its victim becomes involved in toils from which it is almost impossible to escape. He who needlessly breaks his appointment shows that he is as reckless of the waste of the time of others as of his own. His acquaintances readily conclude that the man who is not conscientious about his appointments will be equally careless about his other duties, and they will refuse to trust him with matters of importance. 6. Punctuality should be made not only a point of courtesy, but also a point of conscience. The beginner in business should make this virtue one of his first objects. Let him not delude himself with the idea that he can practice it by and by, when the necessity of it will be more cogent. 7. It is not easy to be punctual, even in youth; but in after-life, when the character is fixed, when the mental and moral faculties have acquired a cast-iron rigidity, to unlearn the habit of tardiness is almost an impossibility. 8. The successful men in every calling have had a keen sense of the value of time. They have been misers of minutes. Nelson attributed all his success in life to having been a quarter of an hour before his time. 9. Napoleon studied his watch as closely as he studied the map of the battle-field. His victories were not won by consummate strategy merely, but by impressing his subordinates with the necessity of punctuality to the minute. Maneuvering over large spaces of country, so that the enemy was puzzled to decide where the blow would fall, he would suddenly concentrate his forces and fall with resistless might on some weak point in the extended lines of the foe. The successful execution of this plan demanded that every division of his army should be at the place named at the very hour. 10. Washington was so rigidly punctual, that when Hamilton, his secretary, pleaded a slow watch as an excuse for being five minutes late, he replied, "Then, sir, either you must get a new watch or I must get a new secretary." 11. Such habits as we have commended are not formed in a day, nor by a few faint resolutions. Not by accident, not by fits and starts are they acquired;-not by being one moment in a violent fit of attention, and the next falling into the sleep of indifference; but by steady, persistent effort. Above all, it is necessary that they should be acquired in youth; for then do they cost the least effort. Like letters cut in the bark of a tree, they grow and widen with age. 12. Once acquired, they are a fortune in themselves; for their possessor has disposed thereby of the heavy end of the load of life,-all that remains he can carry easily and pleasantly. On the other hand, bad habits, once formed, and acquired, as they generally are, in early life, will hang forever on the wheels of enterprise, and in the end will assert their supremacy, to the ruin and shame of their victim. con sum'mate, very skillful. de lude', deceive. DEFINITIONS. per sist'ent, fixed; tenacious. ri gid'i ty, stiffness. ma neu'ver ing, moving adroitly. di vis'ion, two or more brigades. strat'e gy, generalship; science of military command. sub or'di nate, those in a lower order of rank. su prem'a cy, power of commanding or ruling. com mend', to present as worthy of regard. |