NO man can save without a purpose unless he is willing to narrow his life and dwarf his soul. What was your first attempt at saving money? Did not a doting uncle or aunt give you a toy bank with a few pennies. A few hours later the desire to shake the pennies out proved irresistible. What is purpose to a child of five compared with the exquisite pleasure of rattling something? Shall we go through life like little children with no goal ahead?

Some of us are so constituted that only selfish motives can spur us on. The "what-is-there-in-it-for-me?" spirit alone animates some. More of us, praise be, can do better when prompted by unselfish considerations. How many men never gave one thought to the proverbial rainy day until other lives than their own became dependent upon their exertions? How often do those seeking work say - quite truly - that they would not care so much if they had only themselves to provide for, "but there are my wife and kiddies."

It is the purpose which makes saving noble. To take a needed vacation, to get an education, to marry, to provide for one's family, to provide against a dependent old age - these are what make thrift a prime element in the building of character.

With a worthy object in view what a sense of security, what a fresh measure of self-respect, of sturdy manly independence springs from an ample "nest-egg"! The man who has toiled and saved a few hundred or a few thousand dollars can be a better American than the one who has not enough stored up to buy three meals for himself and his family.

Even small savings minister to the sense of independence. Peace of mind is worth more than any amount of self-indulgence. It is a fine thing to be able to hold one's head up, to have a feeling of responsibility and proprietorship. A small boy stepped upon a weighing machine. He lacked the necessary penny and after standing on the scales for a moment or two, his face took on a look of small consequence, and he muttered to himself: "I don't weigh anything." And he didn't. He had no money; hence, he had no weight.

What did Mr. Micawber say to David Copper-field on a famous occasion? "Annual income twenty pounds; annual expenditure, nineteen pounds, nineteen shillings, six pence; result, happiness. Annual income, twenty pounds; annual expenditure, twenty pounds, no shillings, six pence - result, misery."

The beginning of a savings-bank account is often a crisis in a man's moral destiny, a revolution destined to make over his whole life. Saving may be the symbol and instrument of your moral as well as financial independence. It takes a certain amount of discipline to stick by any plan of savings. If you stick, it will deepen until fixed into habit, and then into second nature. Do it for the sake of your will power. The moral value of keeping one's promises to one's self is greater than all the riches in the world.

A clerk worked six years and failed to get ahead. One day his employer gave him a calling down and he was so mortified that he wanted to resign, but couldn't because he was in debt. So he gave up his boarding house, lived in a tent (it was summer-time) did his own cooking and saved one hundred dollars. With that he built a tiny cottage on land of little value in the country and rented it to a young couple who took him to board in return for rent. Two years later he sold the cottage at a considerable profit, bought a house of his own, married and never again fell behind. "Where there's a will there's a way."

The worst thing about failure to save and extravagance is that money wasted is more than squandered. It usually means debt and often means self-indulgence, weakening of character and untold evils that follow moral degeneration. Debt is like a millstone hanging about one's neck. George MacDonald, the English novelist, has said: "No man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when tomorrow's burden is added to that of to-day that the burden is more than a man can bear."

There are debts incurred for worthy objects. A business may be increased by borrowing money, or a home purchased by mortgaging it. It is often desirable to borrow for investment purposes. The dividends on the investment pay for interest on your loan. Besides, going into debt for any permanent object such as a home acts as an incentive to saving. It compels one to save.

But borrowing for ordinary household expenses, for furniture, for clothes, for amusements, is no incentive to economy. Quite the contrary. What is the use of saving money to pay for pleasures almost forgotten, for food that is consumed and clothes which have been worn out. Two men are slaves: he who skimps and toils for no object but to gratify a taste for money itself, and he who plunges into debt for no good object, who borrows from Peter to pay Paul. Both are far too numerous, and who can say which is the more contemptible? But to those who have a real purpose the eloquent advice of a great English essayist is full of meaning:

"My son, if poor, see wine in the running spring; let thy mouth water at last week's roll; think a threadbare coat the only wear; acknowledge a white-washed garret the fittest housing place for a gentleman; do this and flee debt. So shall thy heart be at peace and the sheriff be confounded."