the face will not alter its shape or its colour; and, perhaps, of all wasted time; none is so foolishly wasted as that which is employed in surveying one’s own face.  Nothing can be of little importance, if one be compelled to attend to it every day of our lives; if we shaved but once a year, or once a month, the execution of the thing would be hardly worth naming:  but this is a piece of work that must be done once every day; and, as it may cost only about five minutes of time, and may be, and frequently is, made to cost thirty, or even fifty minutes; and, as only fifteen minutes make about a fifty-eighth part of the hours of our average day-light; this being the case, this is a matter of real importance.  I once heard SIR JOHN SINCLAIR ask Mr. COCHRANE JOHNSTONE, whether he meaned to have a son of his (then a little boy) taught Latin.  ‘No,’ said Mr. JOHNSTONE, ’but I mean to do something a great deal better for him.’  ‘What is that?’ said Sir John.  ‘Why,’ said the other, ‘teach him to shave with cold water and without a glass.’  Which, I dare say, he did; and for which benefit I am sure that son has had good reason to be grateful.  Only think of the inconvenience attending the common practice!  There must be hot water; to have this there must be a fire, and, in some cases, a fire for that purpose alone; to have these, there must be a servant, or you must light a fire yourself.  For the want of these, the job is put off until a later hour:  this causes a stripping and another dressing bout; or, you go in a slovenly state all that day, and the next day the thing must be done, or cleanliness must be abandoned altogether.  If you be on a journey you must wait the pleasure of the servants at the inn before you can dress and set out in the morning; the pleasant time for travelling is gone before you can move from the spot; instead of being at the end of your day’s journey in good time, you are benighted, and have to endure all the great inconveniences attendant on tardy movements.  And, all this, from the apparently insignificant affair of shaving!  How many a piece of important business has failed from a short delay!  And how many thousand of such delays daily proceed from this unworthy cause! ‘Toujours pret’ was the motto of a famous French general; and pray let it be yours:  be ‘always ready;’ and never, during your whole life, have to say, ’I cannot go till I be shaved and dressed.’  Do the whole at once for the day, whatever may be your state of life; and then you have a day unbroken by those indispensable performances.  Begin thus, in the days of your youth, and, having felt the superiority which this practice will give you over those in all other respects your equals, the practice will stick by you to the end of your life.  Till you be shaved and dressed for the day, you cannot set steadily about any business; you know that you must presently quit your labour to return to the dressing affair; you, therefore, put it off until that be over; the interval, the precious interval, is spent in lounging about; and, by the time that you are ready for business, the best part of the day is gone.