Page 9 Advertisements Column 1

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7077, 15 March 1910, Page 9

in San Francisco "Call " Take your medicine; procrastination can't possibly sweeten it. You'll only increase the ultimate number of doses by seeking to postpone them. The more you hold back, the more bitterness imagination will add to the prescription. If you hired the fiddler you must settle his bill. If you keep him waiting he'll add interest for the delay. Realise now and for all time that when you play you must pay. Conscienpe is sure to present a statement, and when conscience finds that the account is overdue and starts out to dun for a settlement the meanest collection agency you've ever known behaves like a philanthropic enterprise by contrast. Only very little persons with flaxseed souls and shrivelled brains are wilfully unjust. Broad minded people play their cards in the. game of life as they play them in a game of whist—fairly—squarely —cleanly. They don't consciously renege, and when corrected for an oversight they cheerfully submit to the established penalty for spoiling everybody else's hand. No one is expected to judge all things correctly all the time. Human brains are as full of flaws as a sieve is filled with holes. The best minds have their occasional weak spots —the finest intellects have their little leaks. , Omniscience is only demanded of deities. ■ The most that can ever be asked of you is that you dq your very best. Every now and then you're bound to be in error —so that you don't shake confidence in your average of discretion when you volunteer the acknowledgment of a mistake. On the other hand, if you persist in defending what is palpably indefensible—when you insist that white be regarded as black, you do not establish proof thereby ; you merely establish a reputation for self and color blindness, which vitiates your prospect of support and co-operation on other occasions' when you are really sane and absolutely well founded in your position. The child caught in an outright lie gains a v name as a falsifier when he seeks to evade what is unescapably evident. The clerk who tries to cover what was originally an innocent error involves himself in suspicion and blocks his own advancement. The world has learned many a bitter lesson from dealing; with inconsistency. That egotism which induces complacency in the face of egregious blunders* is as dangerous as dishonesty./ Assurance is a terrific asset, but when it is founded upon conceit instead of self-analysis- it is as perilous as an overpressure of steam to a frail boiler. Reliability compensates for many a. mental lack. We withhold confidence from those who wilfully bandage their own eyes, for fear that they will pull the wool over ours. Granted that ignorance, rather than .intent, is the motive, the effect is just as severe and costly. Frankness is a virtue of valor. Self-criticism is a wholesome exercise and is as beneficial as physical calisthenics. It is certain to strengthen and develop moral power; it is a brake upon impulse and wanton recklessness. You're never so right as when you admit to a wrong; you're never so tall' in dignity as when you' own up that you've been small. The biggest and finest thing on the face of the earth is, the sight of a strong man knuckling down and confessing of his own accord that he has been guilty of a weakness. Apology can not demean; it glorifies. It's the hallmark of simon pure courage. It's the trademark of a real gentleman. It's the liquidation of a debt of honor—all the more pressing because it can't be wiped out by compulsory measures.