All this is the result of thrift.  It is the result of economizing money, and employing it for beneficial purposes.  The thriftless man has no share in the progress of the world.  He spends all that he gets, and can give no help to anybody.  No matter how much money he makes, his position is not in any respect raised.  He husbands none of his resources.  He is always calling for help.  He is, in fact, the born thrall and slave of the thrifty.

CHAPTER II.

HABITS OF THRIFT.

“Die Hauptsache ist dass man lerne sich selbst zu beherrschen.” [The great matter is to learn to rule oneself.]—­Goethe.

“Most men work for the present, a few for the future.  The wise work for both—­for the future in the present, and for the present in the future.”—­Guesses at Truth.

“The secret of all success is to know how to deny yourself....  If you once learn to get the whip-hand of yourself, that is the best educator.  Prove to me that you can control yourself, and I’ll say you’re an educated man; and without this, all other education is good for next to nothing.”—­Mrs. Oliphant.

“All the world cries, ’Where is the man who will save us?  We want a man!  Don’t look so far for this man.  You have him at hand.  This man—­it is you, it is I, it is each one of us! ...  How to constitute oneself a man?  Nothing harder, if one knows not how to will it; nothing easier, if one wills it.”—­Alexandre Dumas.

Competence and comfort lie within the reach of most people, were they to take the adequate means to secure and enjoy them.  Men who are paid good wages might also become capitalists, and take their fair share in the improvement and well-being of the world.  But it is only by the exercise of labour, energy, honesty, and thrift, that they can advance their own position or that of their class.

Society at present suffers far more from waste of money than from want of money.  It is easier to make money than to know how to spend it.  It is not what a man gets that constitutes his wealth, but his manner of spending and economizing.  And when a man obtains by his labour more than enough for his personal and family wants, and can lay by a little store of savings besides, he unquestionably possesses the elements of social well-being.  The savings may amount to little, but they may be sufficient to make him independent.

There is no reason why the highly-paid workman of to-day may not save a store of capital.  It is merely a matter of self-denial and private economy.  Indeed, the principal industrial leaders of to-day consist, for the most part, of men who have sprung directly from the ranks.  It is the accumulation of experience and skill that makes the difference between the workman and the no-workman; and it depends upon the workman himself whether he will save his capital or waste it.  If he save it, he will always find that he has sufficient opportunities for employing it profitably and usefully.