ment.

The reaction is awfully great; and, therefore, you may not do it. What can you do? I reply, that you can stimulate your mind at any time, when the body is healthful, by reading. No one can read the speeches of Burke, of Chatham, and of our own Patrick Henry, without being moved. No matter what you are writing upon, or upon what you are to speak, you cannot read a good book without being stimulated. The dream of Clarence, and the speeches of Hamlet, in Shakspeare; the speeches of men in the senate; the addresses of men from the pulpit; and, above all, the overwhelming torrent of clear thought, in burning language, which the masters of ancient times poured out,—will swell the bosom, rouse the soul, and call all your own powers into action. This effect of books will last through life; and he who knows how to read to advantage, will ever have something as applicable to his mental powers, as electricity is to move the animal system. The man who has sat over the workings of a powerful mind, as exhibited on the written page, without being excited, moved, and made to feel that he can do something, and will do something, has yet to learn one of the highest pleasures of the student's life, and is yet ignorant of what rivers of delight are flowing around him through all the journey of life.

I close by repeating, Do not read too many books: read thoroughly what you undertake. Buy but few

Buying books.

books; and never buy till you can pay for what you buy. You cannot more than half enjoy any thing for which you owe. Make all that you do read your own; and you will soon be rich in intellectual wealth, and ever be making valuable additions to your stores.

CHAPTER V.

TIME.

THERE is no point, upon which I wish to touch, so difficult as this; and yet not one upon which so much good might be done, if the right things could be said, and said in a right way. It is easy enough to write prettily about the shortness and the fleetness of time, but not so easy to give specific rules how to improve it as it flies; but it is far easier to do this, than to confer the disposition, and create the determination, to use it to the best possible advantage. A miser will frequently become wealthy, not because he has a great income, but because he saves with the utmost care, and spends with the greatest caution. This is a precept taught us in the very morning of life, but generally not learned till late in the evening. "It is a prodigious thing to consider that, although, amongst all the talents which are committed to our stewardship, time, upon several accounts, is the most precious; yet there is not any one of which the generality of men are more profuse and regardless. Nay, it is obvious to observe, that even those persons who are frugal and thrifty in every thing else, are yet extremely prodigal of their best revenue, time; ' of which,' as Seneca nobly says,

Earl of Chatham's habits.

'it is a virtue to be covetous.'

Minute knowledge.

It is amazing to think

"Ad

how much time may be gained by proper economy." This is a hard lesson, but it must be learned. summa perveniet nemo, nisi tempore, quo fugacius constat, prudenter utatur.”

nihil esse

The celebrated earl of Chatham performed an amount of business, even minute, which filled common improvers of time with utter astonishment. He knew, not merely the great outlines of public business, the policy and intrigues of foreign courts, but his eye was on every part of the British dominions; and scarcely a man could move, without his knowledge of the man, and of his object. A friend one day called on him when premier of England, and found him down on his hands and knees playing marbles with his little boy, and complaining bitterly that the rogue would not play fair, gaily adding, "that he must have been corrupted by the example of the French." The friend wished to mention a suspiciouslooking stranger, who, for some time, had taken up lodgings in London. Was he a spy, or merely a private gentleman? Pitt went to his drawer, and took out some scores of small portraits, and, holding up one which he had selected, asked, "Is that the man?" "Yes, the very person." "O! I have had my eye on him from the moment he stepped on shore."

All this was accomplished by a rigid observance of

Must feel the necessity of improving time.

Johnson's reflections.

time, never suffering a moment to pass without pressing it into service.

No one will try to improve his time, unless he first be impressed with the necessity. Remember that, at the very best calculation, we can have but a short time in which to learn all, and do all, that we accomplish in life. There is something melancholy in the following picture, drawn by the great hand of Johnson :-" When we have deducted all that is absorbed in sleep; all that is inevitably appropriated to the demands of nature, or irresistibly engrossed by the tyranny of custom; all that passes in regulating the superficial decorations of life, or is given up in the reciprocations of civility to the disposal of others; all that is torn from us by the violence of disease, or stolen imperceptibly away by lassitude and languor,—we shall find that part of our duration very small, of which we can truly call ourselves masters, or which we can spend wholly at our own choice." At the beginning of each day, see what, and how much, you want to accomplish before you sleep, and then at once begin to execute your plans, suffering no time to run waste between planning and acting. At the close of the day, be impartial and thorough in reviewing the day, and noting wherein you have failed. There is much to be learned from the somewhat humorous account of the Indian Gymnosophists, in their plans for educating