Page:About people (IA aboutpeople00well).pdf/91

things which orderly habit seems to make imperative, since some higher good to others requires instant performance. Such neglect, however, is but the fulfilment of order, which seeks that the greatest duty be first done. Its chief value in life is this adjustment of the relative importance of actions. We are very apt to esteem minor necessities as major ones, and so miss the grandeur of opportunity. Those who have carried on the world's work have performed it by selecting what first or most important, and not simply by doing that which turned up first. So much of life is lost because order is supposed to mean a place for everything and everything in its place, — a repetition of a mere routine of hours and occupation, rather than the observance of this relative proportion of duties.

That perceived, then concentration turns perception into action, and is the sign of power. All great acts have been fulfilled by its command, either slowly, as execution de-