To be ready and willing to perform a part - to do a thing that is needed - this is the one great requirement in the world of human affairs; - but since most lives are at best in the stage of experiment, or of trying to do things, the average is far, far below the standard usually required; hence things are not done - they are only attempted, and this is well; for life, after all, is a matter of growth; i. e.: unfoldment from within - and these various stages of growth form the interesting parts of life.

As the parents and family of children find amusement and entertainment in the attempts (and mistakes) of babes - their imperfect, lisping speech, their little uncontrolled steps, their imitations of the older children, - so in these children of larger growth, called men and women, there are the numberless stages of growth before attainment of efficiency in any given direction is reached.

When the Master appears (man or woman), the one who knows and can do and can show the way - how wonderful are the results 1 How changed all things become! chaos becomes cosmos - uncertainty is changed to certainty.

It is a great delight - in the midst of almost universal inefficiency, states of incompleteness of performance - to find the one who is thoroughly competent to do the thing or things undertaken.

How quickly all the incompleteness changes when the Angel of Efficiency appears! Wonderful is the transformation! There is no heralding of power - no vaunting display of ability - no vainglorious boasting, but, the time and place and thing to be done being given - the work is performed!

Sometimes the one thus endowed dwells among the lowly and takes on no different garb or habitation in human life from the others who are around, but when there is need responds - straightening out this piece of work - substituting that device for one less perfect, and influencing the whole neighborhood with the conviction that there is one in their midst who "can do anything and everything."

We have in mind a man in the world of work today - and in your own country - who has been in such demand for many years that he could not fill the numbers of important positions offered him. He is sought by firms - by manufacturers, by those owning or managing great interests, to ascertain - when there is difficulty or inertness in the works or the business - the "cause of the trouble" and regulate it. At one time he would find in a large manufacturing plant, wherein the management was at fault in its personal treatment of the employees; too harsh and exacting as to hours; too little interest taken in the welfare of the operatives; the business itself was lagging - the heads of departments indifferent; a general air of unconcern and "O, what's the use?" pervaded the entire establishment. He was appointed "General Supervisor" - a position not called for by the articles of incorporation or by previous usage - and some of those in positions of authority showed enough spirit (anger) to rebel or protest against a "new boss." But he won them from the first, not by taking any portion of their authority or duty from them, but by interesting them in their work - in the' workers. Slowly at first, but surely and with increasing acceleration, everything assumed a more animated and cheerful air. He untangled knotty problems and knotty work - fie was asked his opinion about the various difficulties with which the department heads found themselves surrounded - every one soon began to try to do his best instead of doing his worst. There is a sort of "psychological sympathy" - i if one may be permitted to use the term - between people and things as well as people and people; not only does each person reveal or reflect his personality in his surroundings (if he or she has means to express the personal tastes and preferences), but the inanimate objects in some subtle way seem to respond to moods, and to the general trend of one's disposition.

We recall an elderly gentleman in Washington, D. C, who found "things" generally disturbed in the household one morning, and who came into the presence of his wife, exclaiming: "It is awful, awful, awful; the whole house is possessed of ------." The maid was cross, the cook was cross, the coachman was cross, the cat and dog were cross, and the chairs and tables and breakfast were all out of temper. But the wife was smiling and calm and soon restored order.

And so it came to pass in the matter referred to in the preceding pages that the entire machinery, the wheels, spindles, engines, and even the warp and woof of the manufactured articles became smooth, harmonious and beautiful; while the buildings were beautified, within and without - bare walls covered with vines - walks bordered with flowers and verdure - and the workers? Oh, how happy, contented and efficient they had become! Every one was proud of his or her position and, however humble the work each one was assigned to perform, it was done with cheerfulness and an effort to do if well. If mistakes were made, encouragement instead of rebuke was given: "We all make mistakes," they were told, "but you are very careful and so it cannot occur again or often."

No one knew just how or when this change had taken place. And he who had been the primal cause and source of it all never for an instant betrayed or possessed any self-consciousness of having accomplished it. Adjustment is harmony, and he had adjusted the human and inanimate machines to themselves and to each other.

One more example will serve to illustrate the presence of the Angels of Efficiency. This was in teaching - just the usual lines of instruction in one of the Educational Institutions. There had not been harmony - there had been great lack of progress in their studies among the students - something was wanting, somewhere there was a lack - alas! where is there not a lack in all teaching in all Institutions?

There came - at last - a change in the "head" of the Institution. It was not an unusual thing to occur and all supposed, with mingled curiosity and indifference, that matters would go on much as before. After a little time there was an awakening Faculty.

Teachers, Assistants and Students began to take an interest in their teaching and their studies. It was not merely a mechanical process of grinding out just so much technical knowledge, or evading it if possible and trusting to luck of "coaching" to carry the students through. They were aroused to their best endeavors by the presence of a new light in their midst. Knowledge, Beneficence, Power.

"He knows everything," said one of the teachers, "yet how unassuming he is!"

Efficiency is Power.