Self Help by Samuel Smiles (desktop ebook reader txt) 📖

Houses of Parliament.”

Socrates said, “Let him that would move the world move first

himself. ” Or as the old rhyme runs -

 

“If every one would see

To his own reformation,

How very easily

You might reform a nation.”

 

It is, however, generally felt to be a far easier thing to reform

the Church and the State than to reform the least of our own bad

habits; and in such matters it is usually found more agreeable to

our tastes, as it certainly is the common practice, to begin with

our neighbours rather than with ourselves.

 

Any class of men that lives from hand to mouth will ever be an

inferior class. They will necessarily remain impotent and

helpless, hanging on to the skirts of society, the sport of times

and seasons. Having no respect for themselves, they will fail in

securing the respect of others. In commercial crises, such men

must inevitably go to the wall. Wanting that husbanded power which

a store of savings, no matter how small, invariably gives them,

they will be at every man’s mercy, and, if possessed of right

feelings, they cannot but regard with fear and trembling the future

possible fate of their wives and children. “The world,” once said

Mr. Cobden to the working men of Huddersfield, “has always been

divided into two classes,—those who have saved, and those who have

spent—the thrifty and the extravagant. The building of all the

houses, the mills, the bridges, and the ships, and the

accomplishment of all other great works which have rendered man

civilized and happy, has been done by the savers, the thrifty; and

those who have wasted their resources have always been their

slaves. It has been the law of nature and of Providence that this

should be so; and I were an impostor if I promised any class that

they would advance themselves if they were improvident,

thoughtless, and idle.”

 

Equally sound was the advice given by Mr. Bright to an assembly of

working men at Rochdale, in 1847, when, after expressing his belief

that, “so far as honesty was concerned, it was to be found in

pretty equal amount among all classes,” he used the following

words:- “There is only one way that is safe for any man, or any

number of men, by which they can maintain their present position if

it be a good one, or raise themselves above it if it be a bad one,-

-that is, by the practice of the virtues of industry, frugality,

temperance, and honesty. There is no royal road by which men can

raise themselves from a position which they feel to be

uncomfortable and unsatisfactory, as regards their mental or

physical condition, except by the practice of those virtues by

which they find numbers amongst them are continually advancing and

bettering themselves.”

 

There is no reason why the condition of the average workman should

not be a useful, honourable, respectable, and happy one. The whole

body of the working classes might, (with few exceptions) be as

frugal, virtuous, well-informed, and well-conditioned as many

individuals of the same class have already made themselves. What

some men are, all without difficulty might be. Employ the same

means, and the same results will follow. That there should be a

class of men who live by their daily labour in every state is the

ordinance of God, and doubtless is a wise and righteous one; but

that this class should be otherwise than frugal, contented,

intelligent, and happy, is not the design of Providence, but

springs solely from the weakness, self-indulgence, and perverseness

of man himself. The healthy spirit of self-help created amongst

working people would more than any other measure serve to raise

them as a class, and this, not by pulling down others, but by

levelling them up to a higher and still advancing standard of

religion, intelligence, and virtue. “All moral philosophy,” says

Montaigne, “is as applicable to a common and private life as to the

most splendid. Every man carries the entire form of the human

condition within him.”

 

When a man casts his glance forward, he will find that the three

chief temporal contingencies for which he has to provide are want

of employment, sickness, and death. The two first he may escape,

but the last is inevitable. It is, however, the duty of the

prudent man so to live, and so to arrange, that the pressure of

suffering, in event of either contingency occurring, shall be

mitigated to as great an extent as possible, not only to himself,

but also to those who are dependent upon him for their comfort and

subsistence. Viewed in this light the honest earning and the

frugal use of money are of the greatest importance. Rightly

earned, it is the representative of patient industry and untiring

effort, of temptation resisted, and hope rewarded; and rightly

used, it affords indications of prudence, forethought and self-denial—the true basis of manly character. Though money represents

a crowd of objects without any real worth or utility, it also

represents many things of great value; not only food, clothing, and

household satisfaction, but personal self-respect and independence.

Thus a store of savings is to the working man as a barricade

against want; it secures him a footing, and enables him to wait, it

may be in cheerfulness and hope, until better days come round. The

very endeavour to gain a firmer position in the world has a certain

dignity in it, and tends to make a man stronger and better. At all

events it gives him greater freedom of action, and enables him to

husband his strength for future effort.

 

But the man who is always hovering on the verge of want is in a

state not far removed from that of slavery. He is in no sense his

own master, but is in constant peril of falling under the bondage

of others, and accepting the terms which they dictate to him. He

cannot help being, in a measure, servile, for he dares not look the

world boldly in the face; and in adverse times he must look either

to alms or the poor’s rates. If work fails him altogether, he has

not the means of moving to another field of employment; he is fixed

to his parish like a limpet to its rock, and can neither migrate

nor emigrate.

 

To secure independence, the practice of simple economy is all that

is necessary. Economy requires neither superior courage nor

eminent virtue; it is satisfied with ordinary energy, and the

capacity of average minds. Economy, at bottom, is but the spirit

of order applied in the administration of domestic affairs: it

means management, regularity, prudence, and the avoidance of waste.

The spirit of economy was expressed by our Divine Master in the

words ‘Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing may be

lost.’ His omnipotence did not disdain the small things of life;

and even while revealing His infinite power to the multitude, he

taught the pregnant lesson of carefulness of which all stand so

much in need.

 

Economy also means the power of resisting present gratification for

the purpose of securing a future good, and in this light it

represents the ascendancy of reason over the animal instincts. It

is altogether different from penuriousness: for it is economy that

can always best afford to be generous. It does not make money an

idol, but regards it as a useful agent. As Dean Swift observes,

“we must carry money in the head, not in the heart.” Economy may

be styled the daughter of Prudence, the sister of Temperance, and

the mother of Liberty. It is evidently conservative—conservative

of character, of domestic happiness, and social well-being. It is,

in short, the exhibition of self-help in one of its best forms.

 

Francis Horner’s father gave him this advice on entering life:-

“Whilst I wish you to be comfortable in every respect, I cannot too

strongly inculcate economy. It is a necessary virtue to all; and

however the shallow part of mankind may despise it, it certainly

leads to independence, which is a grand object to every man of a

high spirit.” Burns’ lines, quoted at the head of this chapter,

contain the right idea; but unhappily his strain of song was higher

than his practice; his ideal better than his habit. When laid on

his deathbed he wrote to a friend, “Alas! Clarke, I begin to feel

the worst. Burns’ poor widow, and half a dozen of his dear little

ones helpless orphans;—there I am weak as a woman’s tear. Enough

of this;—‘tis half my disease.”

 

Every man ought so to contrive as to live within his means. This

practice is of the very essence of honesty. For if a man do not

manage honestly to live within his own means, he must necessarily

be living dishonestly upon the means of somebody else. Those who

are careless about personal expenditure, and consider merely their

own gratification, without regard for the comfort of others,

generally find out the real uses of money when it is too late.

Though by nature generous, these thriftless persons are often

driven in the end to do very shabby things. They waste their money

as they do their time; draw bills upon the future; anticipate their

earnings; and are thus under the necessity of dragging after them a

load of debts and obligations which seriously affect their action

as free and independent men.

 

It was a maxim of Lord Bacon, that when it was necessary to

economize, it was better to look after petty savings than to

descend to petty gettings. The loose cash which many persons throw

away uselessly, and worse, would often form a basis of fortune and

independence for life. These wasters are their own worst enemies,

though generally found amongst the ranks of those who rail at the

injustice of “the world.” But if a man will not be his own friend,

how can he expect that others will? Orderly men of moderate means

have always something left in their pockets to help others; whereas

your prodigal and careless fellows who spend all never find an

opportunity for helping anybody. It is poor economy, however, to

be a scrub. Narrowmindedness in living and in dealing is generally

short-sighted, and leads to failure. The penny soul, it is said,

never came to twopence. Generosity and liberality, like honesty,

prove the best policy after all. Though Jenkinson, in the ‘Vicar

of Wakefield,’ cheated his kind-hearted neighbour Flamborough in

one way or another every year, “Flamborough,” said he, “has been

regularly growing in riches, while I have come to poverty and a

gaol.” And practical life abounds in cases of brilliant results

from a course of generous and honest policy.

 

The proverb says that “an empty bag cannot stand upright;” neither

can a man who is in debt. It is also difficult for a man who is in

debt to be truthful; hence it is said that lying rides on debt’s

back. The debtor has to frame excuses to his creditor for

postponing payment of the money he owes him; and probably also to

contrive falsehoods. It is easy enough for a man who will exercise

a healthy resolution, to avoid incurring the first obligation; but

the facility with which that has been incurred often becomes a

temptation to a second; and very soon the unfortunate borrower

becomes so entangled that no late exertion of industry can set him

free. The first step in debt is like the first step in falsehood;

almost involving the necessity of proceeding in the same course,

debt following debt, as lie follows lie. Haydon, the painter,

dated his decline from the day on which he first borrowed money.

He realized the truth of the proverb, “Who goes a-borrowing, goes

a-sorrowing.” The significant entry in his diary is: “Here began

debt and obligation, out of