While many a vacant, thoughtless youth, is whirled throughout Europe, without gaining a single ideä worth crossing a street for, the observing eye and inquiring mind find matter for improvement and delight in every ramble in town or country. Do you, then, William, continue to make use of your eyes, and you, Robert, learn that eyes were given you to use. Aikin. IX. A CHAPTER OF ADVICE. 1. I GIVE you, in this chapter, some maxims, which I hope you will read again and again, until they are so fixed in your memories that they will influence you every day and every hour. If you are governed by them, you may not become great, but you certainly will become good; and it is much more important to be good than to be great.187 2. Rise early, and offer up your praise to the Giver of all good. Enter steadily and fearlessly upon the duties of the day. Be determined that no trial shall overcome your patience, and no impediment conquer your perseverance. If your object be a good one, say, "I will try to attain it.” 3. Never be found without an object. Ask yourself how you can do the most good; and when you have decided, throw your soul into your purpose. Never do good to obtain praise. Take a red-hot iron in your hand rather than a dishonest penny. Do no bad action to serve a good friend. Be charitable to others' faults, but implacable to your own. 4. Wage war with evil, and give no quarter. Die for the truth, rather than live to uphold a lie. Never court needless danger, nor fly from a peril which duty imposes. Read good books, seek out good companions, attend to good counsels, and imitate good examples. Never give way to despondency. Does the sun shine?— rejoice. Is it covered with a cloud? — wait till the cloud has passed away. 5. Take good care of your education; see that your principles and your deportment are equal to your attainments. I knew one whose head was highly educated, but whose heart was sadly neglected. He was too learned to honor his unlettered parents; too well-informed to follow the advice of his friends, and by far too polite to practise the vulgar duties of his situation. 6. This person is now spending his days in idleness, as low in the estimation of others as he is high in his own. If you wish to be good, great or wise, you must begin while you are young, or you will never begin at all Be attentive to your manners. Those are the best manners which raise you in the opinion of others without sinking you in your own. 7. A poor woman once fell and injured herself so that she could not walk, and a crowd soon gathered around her. One polite person pitied her, another promised to make her case known; but a plain, modest-looking man stepped forward, paid for a coach to convey her home, slipped a piece of money into her hand, and disappeared. One kind act, done with simplicity. is worth a thousand fine speeches. Bruce. X. -TRUST NOT TO APPEARANCES. 1. EARLY one day in leafy June, 2. Though he could see no houses near, For not a thief upon the road Would guess where he his cash had stowed. "Stop, brother!" said the first; "the weather 4. "Nay," said the stranger, "know'st thou not That robbers here resort, my brother?" 5. "I've all my money in a note, And that is hid- not in my coat But-". "Where?" the other asked. "Behold!" -"What! in your shoe?"—"The secret 's told. 6. "You see it has a double sole: Within that I have hid the whōle: Now, where's the robber who would think so dismount, 7. "Here!" cried the stranger; Advice194 shall serve you while you live: 9. "Don't take each broad-brim chance may send, While riding over Horsley Down! Osborne. XI. - NOT AFRAID OF BEING LAUGHED AT. 1. I SHALL never forget a lesson which I received when quite a young lad, at an academy in the village of B. Among my schoolfellows were Hartley and Jemson. They were somewhat older than myself, and to the latter I looked up as to a sort of leader in matters of opinion as well as of sport. He was not at heart malicious, but he had a foolish ambition of being thought witty and sarcastic, and he made himself feared by a besetting habit of turning things into ridicule, so that he seemed continually on the look-out for matter for derision. 2. Hartley was a new52 scholar, and little was known of him among the boys. One morning, as we were on our way to school. EI he was seen driving a cow along the road towards11 a neighboring field. A group of boys, among whom was Jemson, met him as he was passing. The opportunity was one not to be lost by Jemson. "Holloa!" he exclaimed ; "what's the price of milk? I say, Jonathan, what do you fodder her on? What will you take for all that gold on her horns? Boys, if you want to see the latest Paris style, look at those boots!" 3. Hartley waved his hand at us with a pleasant smile, and, driving the cow on to the field, took down the bars of a rail fence, saw her safely in the enclosure, and then, putting up the bars, came and entered school with the rest of us. After school in the afternoon he let out the cow, and drove her off, none of us knew where.82 And every day, for two or three weeks, he went through the same task. 4. The boys of the B academy were nearly all the sons of wealthy parents,129 and some of them, among whom was Jemson, were dunces enough to look down with a sort of disdain upon a scholar who had to drive a cow. The sneers and jeers of Jemson were accordingly often renewed. He once, on the plea that he did n't like the odor of the barn, refused to sit137 next to Hartley. Occasionally he would inquire after the cow's health, pronouncing the word "ke-ou," after the manner of some of the country people. 66 5. With admirable good-nature did Hartley bear all these silly attempts to wound and annoy him. I do not remember that he was even once betrayed into a look or word of angry retaliation. "I suppose, Hartley," said Jemson, one day, "I suppose your daddy means to make a milkman of you."- Why not?" asked Hartley."O! nothing; only don't leave too much water in the cans after rinse them you that's all!" The boys laughed, and Hartley, not in the least mortified, replied, "Never fear; if ever I should rise to be a milkman, I'll give good measure and good milk." 6. The day after this conversation there was a public exhibition, at which a number of ladies and gentlemen from neighboring cities were present. Prizes were awarded by the Principal of our academy, and both Hartley and Jemson received a credit able number; for, in respect to scholarship, these two were about equal. After the ceremony of distribution, the Principal remarked that there was one prize, consisting of a gold medal, which was rarely awarded, not so much on account of its great cost, as because the instances were rare which rendered its bestowal proper. It was the prize for heroism. The last boy who received one was young Manners, who, three years ago, rescued the blind girl from drowning. 7. The Principal then said that, with the permission of the company, he would relate a short story: "Not long since, some scholars were flying a kite in the street, just as a poor boy on horseback rode by on his way to mill. The horse took fright and threw the boy, injuring him so badly that he was carried home, and confined some weeks to his bed. Of the scholars who had unintentionally caused the disaster, none followed to learn the fate of the wounded boy. There was one scholar, however, who had witnessed the accident from a distance, who not only went to make inquiries, but stayed to render services. 8. "This scholar soon learned that the wounded boy was the grandson of a poor widow, whose sole means of support consisted in selling the milk of a fine cow of which she was the owner. Alas! what could she do now? She was old and lame, and her grandson, on whom she had depended to drive the cow to pasture, was now on his back, helpless. Never mind, good woman,' said the scholar, I can drive your cow.' With blessings and thanks the old woman accepted his offer. 9. "But his kindness did not stop here. Money was wanted to get articles. from the apothecary. I have some money that my mother sent me to buy a pair of boots with,' said the scholar; but I can do without them for a while.' ་ ‹ O, no,' said the old woman; 'I can't consent to that; but here is a new pair of cow-hide boots that I bought for Henry, who now can't wear them. If you would only buy these, giving us what they cost, we should get along nicely.'-The scholar bought the boots, clumsy as they were, and has worn them up to this time. 10. " Well, when it was discovered by other boys of the academy that our scholar was in the habit of driving a cow, he |