CHAPTER XXIII.

BE BRIEF.

I saw one excellency was within my reach-it was brevity, and I determined to obtain it. -JAY. Brevity is the best recommendation of speech, whether in a senator or as orator. - CICERO. -

Words are like leaves, and where they most abound, Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found.

POPE.

The fewer the words, the better the prayer.-LUTHER. Be comprehensive in all you say or write. - JOHN NEAL.

Brevity is very good

When we are, or are not, understood.

BUTLER.

Concentration alone conquers. - CHAS. BUXTON.

BE brief, let us say with Sargent. Come to the point. Begin very near. where you mean to leave off. Brevity is the soul of wisdom as well as of wit. Gems are not reckoned by gross weight. The common air we beat aside with our breath, compressed, has the force of gunpowder, and will rend the solid rock. A gentle stream of persuasiveness may flow through the mind, and leave no sediment : let it come at a blow, as a cataract, and it sweeps all before it. Mere words are cheap and plenty enough; but ideas that rouse, and set multitudes thinking, come as gold from the mine.

The leaden bullet is more fatal than when multiplied into shot. If you want to do substantial work, concentrate; and if you wish to give others the benefit of your work, condense. Rufus Choate would express in a minute's conversation what his contemporaries would require an hour to state clearly.

One of the firm of Baring Brothers once called Stephen

Girard from a hay loft, and said: "I came to inform you that your ship, the Voltaire, has arrived safely." " I knew that she would reach port safely," replied Girard; "my ships always arrive safe. She is a good ship. Mr. Baring, you must excuse me; I am much engaged in my haying." And he returned to his work. While Horace Greeley would devote a column of the "New York Tribune" to an article, Thurlow Weed would treat the same subject in a few words in the “Albany Evening Journal," and put the argument into such shape as to carry far more conviction.

" Be brief," Cyrus W. Field would say to callers; time is very valuable. Punctuality, honesty, and brevity are the watchwords of life. Never write a long letter. A business man has not time to read it. If you have anything to say, be brief. There is no business so important that it can't be told on one sheet of paper. Years ago, when I was laying the Atlantic cable, I had occasion to send a very important letter to England. I knew it would have to be read by the prime minister and by the queen. I wrote out what I had to say; it covered several sheets of paper; then I went over it twenty times, eliminating words here and there, making sentences briefer, until finally I got all I had to say on one sheet of paper. Then I mailed it. In due time I received the answer. It was a satisfactory one too; but do you think I would have fared so well if my letter had covered half a dozen sheets ? No, indeed. Brevity is a rare gift, and punctuality has made many a man's fortune. If you make an appointment, be sure and keep it, and be on time; no man of business can afford to lose a moment in these busy times."

“Call upon a business man in business hours. State your business in a business way; and, when done with business matters, go about your business, and leave the business man to attend to his business."

A. T. Stewart regarded his time as his capital. No one was admitted to his private office until he had stated his business to a sentinel at an outer door, and then to another near the office. If the visitor pleaded private business, the sentinel would say, " Mr. Stewart has no private business." When admittance was gained one had to be brief. The business of Stewart's great establishment was dispatched with a system and promptitude which surprised rival merchants. There was no dawdling or dallying or fooling, but. "business" was the watchword from morning until night. He refused to be drawn into friendly conversation during business hours. He had not a moment to waste.

"Genuine good taste," says Fenelon, "consists in saying much in a few words, in choosing among our thoughts, in having order and arrangement in what we say, and in speaking with composure."

"If you would be pungent," says Southey, "be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams - the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn."

" When one has no design but to speak plain truth," says Steele, "he may say a great deal in a very narrow compass."

The fame of the Seven Wise Men of Greece rested largely upon a single sentence by each, of only two or three words.

" The wisdom of nations lies in their proverbs."

"Have something to say," says Tryon Edwards "say it, and stop when yon 've done."

DAVID GLASGOW FARRAGIIT "The viking of our western clime who made his mast a throne." "The youth who does not look up will look down; and the spirit that does not soar is destined perhaps to grovel."