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The New Zealand Evangelist

Improvement Of Time

Improvement Of Time.

The celebrated Earl of Chatham performed an amount of business, even minute, which filled common improvers of time with utter astonishment. He knew not merely the great outlines of public business, the policy and intrigues of foreign courts, but his page 89 eye was on every part of the British dominions; and scarcely a man could move without his knowledge of the man and his object. A friend one day called on him when Premier of England, and found him down on his hands and knees, playing marbles with his little boy, and complaining bitterly that the rogue would not play fair; gaily adding, “that he must have been corrupted by the example of the French!“. The friend wished to mention a suspicious-looking stranger, who, for some time had taken tip lodgings in London. Was he a spy, or merely a private gentleman? Pitt went to his drawer, and took out some scores of small portraits, and, holding up one which he had selected, asked, “Is that the man?” “Yes, the very person.” “O, I have had my eye upon him from the time he stepped on shore!“. All this was accomplished by a rigid observance of time; never suffering a moment to pass without pressing it into service. No one will try to improve his time unless he be first impressed with the necessity. Remember that at the very best calculation we can have but a short time in which to learn all and do all that we accomplish in life.—

Todd's Student's Manual.