Continuity in Character

CONTINUITY IN CHARACTER. BY DR. GEO. H. BRIMHALL, OF THE BRIGHAM YOUNG ACADEMY, PROVO.

A bank president, not long ago, was making enquiries with a view of obtaining two efficient accountants. The person applied to for information pointed to a group of young men among whom were three graduates from business colleges, and said, "Why not get two of those?" "Can't trust them," was the laconic reply. "Why not?" was the response, "they have a general reputa- tion for honesty." "That is not it," said the banker. "I do not suppose any of them would be wilfully dishonest; nor do I doubt their scholastic ability, but they lack what I should call continuity in character.

They are bright and no doubt well-meaning, but unfortunately weak. We have had experience already with just such fellows. They are really worse, from a practical point of view, than those who are spoken of as persons who will bear watching; for the very reason that they can not be watched. You see, it is this way: they enter upon their work with a skill and care that immediately secures our confidence. This goes on for weeks; and sometimes months pass before any irregularity is perceivable, and then we find things in a tangled-up condition. These promising fellows, having got the run of the work to the extent of making it comparatively easy, return to their old habits of social intemperance, then their business back-bone begins to weaken; they keep late hours, in- dulge in the social glass — and our business is compelled to foot the bill. They are not promptly in their places; they are dull and

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scatter-brained ; and the first thing one knows, an expert is

required to correct the mistakes they have made. We have no difficulty in securing professional skill and average honesty, but continuity in character, the chief essential to success, is sufficiently scarce to make it an article of high commercial value. Cite us to a man possessed of this quality, supplemented with average professional training, and his services will be sought for imme- diately. One hears so much about position not being permanent, but the fact of the matter is the persons are not permanent. There are more permanent positions than there are permanent per- sons to fill them." "What," asked the person with whom the banker conversed, "do yon consider the chief cause of this lack of what you call continuity in character?" "Well, one of the causes of this deficiency is what I should call the dodging of drudgery. There is a dangerous tendency in education towards over-flavoring everything with the amusement element; and while I am not an anti-Epicurean,* I am an advocate of considerable stoicisnrj* in education. Success demands that things be done to a finish whether the doing is pleasurable or pain- ful. The path of painful plodding is often the only one to perma- nent pleasure. The theory that pleasure should accompany intel- lectual effort is to be accepted with the understanding that there is pleasure in plodding, and certain delight in drudgery; and, further, that this enjoyment is made possible by the idea that per- sistent plodding is the highway to honor, and that drudgery is often essential to deliverance from it."

• Epicurus, born in Samos, 342 B. C: died at Athens, 270 B. C.

The founder of the Epicurean school of philosophy, which teaches that pleasure is the only end of rational action, the highest human happiness. Hence, Epicurean, one given to ease and luxury.

t Stoics, disciples of the Greek philosopher, Zeno, who founded a sect in 308 B. C, and taught in The Porch {stoa), a public portico in Athens. He taught that men should be free from passion, unmoved by joy or grief. The Stocis are known principally for the sternness and austerity of their doctrine. See Acts xvii: 18.

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"I infer, then, from what you say, that the man who seeks to dodge drudgery is most likely to be constantly caught by it?" "Yes, that is the conclusion we have arrived at. Leisure is purchased by labor, and the person who endeavors to possess the former before the latter, lives the life of a down-going debtor from start to finish." Such are the views of many of our most successful business men; and similar views are entertained by leading ecclesiastical authorities. It is the echo of the idea of the ancient sages from

whose sayings this truth may be gathered: "The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but to him that endureth to the end." One of the expressions that has most affected my life was an utterance of my teacher, Dr. Karl G. Maeser: "Navi- gators do not take their reckoning from the flaming comets, but from the fixed stars." The man of continuity, or stick-to-it-iveness, does not as a rule work so hard as a person of spasmodic effort.