4. But after all, habits of mental and moral discipline, are the first great objects in any system of instruction, public or private. The value of education depends far less upon varied and extensive acquirements, than upon the cultivation of just powers of thought, and the general regulation of the faculties of the understanding. That it is not the amount of knowledge, but the capacity to apply it, which promises success and usefulness in life, is a truth, that cannot be too often inculcated by instructors, and recollected by pupils.

5. If youth are taught how to think, they will soon learn what to think. Exercise is not more necessary to a healthful state of the body, than is the employment of the various faculties of the mind to mental efficiency. The practical sciences are as barren of useful products as the speculative, where facts only, are the objects of knowledge unless the understanding is habituated to a continued process of examination and reflection.

6. No precocity of intellect, no promise of genius, no extent. of knowledge, can be weighed in the scale with those acquisitions. But he, who has been the object of such sedulous attention, and the subject of such a course of instruction, may enter upon the great duties of life, with every prospect of an honorable and a useful career. His armor is girded on for battle. However difficult the conjuncture in which he may be called on to act, he is prepared for whatever may betide him.

LESSON LXVII.

VALUE OF TIME.-MRS SIGOURNEY.

1. As nothing truly valuable can be obtained without industry, so there can be no persevering industry, without a sense of the value of time. Youth would be too happy, might they add to their own beauty and felicity, the wisdom of riper years.

Were it possible for them to realize the worth of time, as life's receding hours will reveal it, how rapidly would they press on toward perfection. It is too often the case, that the period allotted to education, is but imperfectly appreciated till it approaches its close, or has actually departed.

2. Then, its recollections are mingled with regret or repentance; for experience is more frequently the fruit of our own mistakes and losses, than the result of the admonitions and counsels of others. Suffer me then, with the urgency of true friendship, to impress on you the importance of a just estimation of time.

3. Consider how much is to be performed, attained, and conquered, ere you are fitted to discharge the duties which the sphere of woman comprehends. Think of the brevity of life. The most aged have compared it to a span in compass,— and, to a shuttle in flight. Compute its bearings upon the bliss or woe of eternity, and remember, if misspent, it can never be recalled.

4. Other errors admit of reformation. Lost wealth may be regained by a course of industry; the wreck of health, repaired by temperance; forgotten knowledge, restored by study; alienated friendship, soothed by forgiveness; and even forfeited reputation, won back by penitence and virtue.

5. But who, ever again looked on his vanished hours; recalled his slighted years and stamped them with wisdom; or effaced from Heaven's record, the fearful blot of a wasted life? Figure to yourself the loss that the year would sustain, were the spring taken away:- such a loss do they sustain who trifle in youth. Let none, therefore, forget to value above all other possessions,-time, which may be so improved as to purchase the bliss of eternity.

LESSON LXVIII.

ENERGY OF CHARACTER.- WISE.

[See Rule 3, p. 59.]

1. "It is impossible!" said one of Napoleon's staff-officers, in reply to his great commander's description of a plan for some daring enterprise. "IMPOSSIBLE!" cried the emperor, with indignation frowning on his brow, "Impossible is the adjective of fools!"

2. This may be an apocryphal anecdote of the imperial conqueror; but it is, at least, characteristic. Every young man who hopes to stand triumphant at the goal of life, must possess a measure of this energy, proportionate to the exigencies of his condition.

3. Energy is force of character,-inward power. It imparts such a concentration of the will, upon the realization of an idea, as enables the individual to march unawed over the most gigantic barriers, or to crush every opposing force that stands in the way of its triumph. Energy knows of nothing but success; it never yields its purpose.

4. Longfellow's "Excelsior" is a beautiful embodiment of the idea of energy. Its hero is a young man seeking genuine excellence; proving himself superior to the love of ease, the blandishments of passion, and the sternest outward difficulties. You behold him ascending the rugged steeps of the upper Alps, at the dangerous hour of twilight. In his hand he bears a banner, whose strange device, "Excelsior," is the visible expression of his noble purpose, to attain the height of human excellence.

5. His brow is sad, his eyes are gleaming with the light of lofty thought, his step is firm and elastic; while his deep, earnest cry, "Excelsior!" rings with startling effect among the

surrounding crags and glaciers. Ease, in the form of an enchanting cottage, with its cheerful fireside, invites him to relax his effort. Danger frowns upon him from the brow of the awful avalanche, and from the "pine-tree's withered branch." Caution, in the person of an aged Alpine peasant, shouts in his ear and bids him beware; while Love, in the form of a gentle maiden, with heaving breast and bewitching voice, wooes him to her quiet bowers.

6. But vain are the seductions of love, the voice of fear, or the aspects of danger. Regardless of each and of all, animated by his sublime aims, intent on success, he only grasps his mysterious banner more firmly, and bounds with swifter step along the dangerous steep. Through falling snows, along unseen paths, amid intense darkness, beside the most horrible chasms, he pursues his way, cheering his spirit, and startling the ear of night, with his battle-cry, "EXCELSIOR!"

7. Thus, you see, that energy is the soul of every great enterprise, while enervation, only enfeebles the spirit, and dooms the man to obscurity and ill-success. Should any young man desire a confirmation of these ideas, let him carefully study the history of every man who has written his name on the walls of the Temple of Fame. Let him view such minds in their progress toward greatness. He will see them rising, step by step, in the face of stubborn difficulties which gave way before them, only because their courage would not be daunted, nor their energy wearied. He will find no exception in the history of mankind.

8. Supine, powerless souls have always fainted before hostile circumstances, and sunk beneath their opportunities; while men of power have wrestled, with sublime vigor, against all opposing men and things, and succeeded in their noble efforts, because they would not be defeated.

[See Personation, p. 200, and Rhetorical Dialogue, p. 204.]

1. Two honest tradesmen meeting in the Strand,

2.

"Hark ye," said he, "'t is an odd story this, About the crows!"—"I don't know what it is," Replied his friend.

Where I come from, it is the common chat.

"No! I'm surprised at that;

But

shall hear, you

an odd affair indeed!

And that it happened, they are all agreed.
Not to detain you from a thing so strange,-
A gentleman, that lives not far from 'Change,
This week, in short, (as all the alley knows,)
Took physic, and has thrown up three black crows."

3. "Impossible!"-"Nay, but it's really true;
I had it from good hands, and so may you."
"From whose, I pray?" So, having named the man,
Straight to inquire, his curious comrade ran.
"Sir, did you tell?"-relating the affair:
"Yes, sir, I did; and, if it's worth your care,

Ask Mr. Such-a-one; he told it me;

But, by-the-by, 'twas two black crows, not three."
Resolved to trace so wondrous an event,

Whip to the third, the virtuoso went.

4. "Sir," and so forth,- "Why, yes, the thing is fact, Though in regard to number, not exact;

It was not two black crows,—'t was only one;—