their reach, the means of feeding those minds with knowledge and the principles of virtue and of truth. There is no fear of the human mind starving, it will feed itself. It will never allow its hunger to go unappeased; but in feeding itself, it often poisons itself. It pampers itself on low vices, instead of nourishing itself on the nobler virtues. Neglect the mind, and it will not grow barren, but only noxious in its growths. Like an uncultured field, it will not shew a mere dead waste,— its growths will be luxuriant enough; but instead of the heavy grain, or the fertile pasture, it will shew a tangled mass of useless, and evil, and unwholesome weeds; there will be the envenomed nettle sucking the virtue from the soil to impart vice to its own sting; there will be the bitter poppy, secreting poison from the nourishment it draws from the bosom of its mother earth; there will be the thistle, like some vegetable hag with unpared nails, using the sustenance it drinks out of the ground to stiffen and to point its barbed claws; and there will be the hemlock, rank and baleful, laying up within its myriad cells a laboratory of deadly juices, to threaten with destruction man and beast. Just so with the mind; its fibres will drink in something which will keep it vigorous and active; but it all depends upon the care and wisdom of those on whom its cultivation devolves, whether it will grow in the vigour and activity of evil, or in the vigour and activity of good. Plant it amongst ungenial influences, place it in an untilled soil, and neglect its culture and tillage, and it will soon appear in all the luxuriance of vice. Do you mean to say that the mind will only be dormant if let alone, and not active in doing and devising wrong? It would be bad enough if it were so ; for a torpid mind would indeed be a humiliating anomaly. But it is not so. If not busy in the right, it will be busy in the wrong; if not fruitful in good, it will be fruitful in evil. Do you suppose a thief is not ever planning, and devising, and contriving dark plots of mischief? Is not his mind active and intent on what is vile and vicious?

Is not the mind of

the sharper, or the cheat, quick and ingenious in doing evil? Be assured of it, the devil will find enough to occupy the minds of all who, through ignorance and depravity, give or lend themselves to his service. Beelzebub will always have some shady scheme for the corrupt mind to contrive; and

"Satan will find some mischief still

For idle hands to do."

A great deal might be said about the practical advantages of education. We might shew how many resources it furnishes to its possessor, each and all of which are sources of happiness and interest to him. We might shew how it may be made the lever to lift burdens from the mind, and the sun to dispel darkness from the view. We might shew how, by raising the standard of intelligence, it gives scope to the inventive powers and enlarges the means both of doing and of getting good. We might shew how, in a thousand ways, it can make the home happy and the fireside bright. And we might shew, how, when rightly wielded and applied, it becomes a potent weapon to demolish the evil and defend the right; and walks hand in hand, side by side, and heart in heart, as the younger sister of Piety herself.

But we take it for granted that education is appreciated and not despised by working men, and that they would be glad to avail themselves of as much of it as they can. Before leaving the subject let me throw out a passing hint about discrimination in the selection of the sources of every-day knowledge. The blessing of a free press cannot be enjoyed without bringing with it some abuses. And that blessing has been abused in England. While literature is cheap and plentiful, there is a great deal of it which is low and debasing in its tendency. I might mention a dozen of our popular periodical papers which are a disgrace to the men who produce, to the men who sell, and to the men who read them. And these demoralising prints, sad to say, have a wider circulation than anything else that issues from the press. I cannot, for

86

MAKE HAY WHILE THE SUN SHINES

their reach, the means of feeding those mind
and the principles of virtue and of truth
of the human mind starving, it will fee
allow its hunger to go unappeased;
often poisons itself. It pampers it
of nourishing itself on the nobler
and it will not grow barren, but
Like an uncultured field, it wil'
its growths will be luxuriant
grain, or the fertile pastu
useless, and evil, and ut
envenomed nettle sucki
vice to its own sting ;
poison from the nout
mother earth; the
hag with unpared
the ground to s
will be the h
myriad cells
destructio

will drir

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ves while he

ut, Bulwer, Disraeli,

the authoress of "Adam

St) the gifted Mrs. Gaskell,--of

...1 be proud,—as ever to be associated a healthy and ennobling literature,-a ve from its brilliancy and power, and wholeits chasteness and its purity—a literature which might read without a blush, and a saint (unless he and Pharisee) without a sigh."

but it

its cr

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To say nothing of poets and dramatists,-whom some religionists would sweepingly decry, but whose works ought to be prized and read by all,-suffer me to urge a hint or two in connection with the periodical and newspaper literature of the day. I would respectfully advise working men to read newspapers, not so much for their politics as for the morality they teach. Be well up in the current news of the world Take all the Manchester papers, of course. Be sure and read the Times, so often vilified, but almost always in the right. Read the Saturday Review, one of the ablest papers in the land; and, above all, be sure and get a sight of Punch regularly every

There are papers of another class which deserve

mention" here, because their conductors are seekact the influence of the baser class of periodic ey are trying to purify the thick and turbid voluptuous literature. Among these we may

Hour, the Home Circle, and the Sunday all of which we commend the working paper, above all, which I have great to the ten thousand operatives of this dapted for them, and designed to d benefit. The fact of my not iple of total abstinence renders to commend it to your perusal. working man in this city, if he can't Other paper, to stretch a point and save a

to take in the British Workman.

I know my

riends are in the habit of regarding me as an enemy to

eir cause; but I can assure them it is not so. I wish them all success, and pray God to help them in their efforts to soberise the masses; and it is because I am as anxious to make men sober as they are, that I entreat you to take in this glorious paper, the British Workman-aye, and the Alliance Weekly News too, if you will, in which, some twelve or fourteen months ago, I was roasted and badgered like a baited hound. Take these papers because they try to teach you to govern yourselves and if there is anything in them repugnant to your common sense, you can excuse that for the sake of that which is wholesome, philanthropic, and good. But, be sure and order the British Workman, price one penny, and, unless you are a greater noodle than I take you for, you will never give it up. Your wife won't let you give it up, for it will bring you early home; and your youngsters won't let you give it up, because it is full of pretty tales and pretty pictures.

I have thus sought to urge upon you to "Make Hay while the Sun Shines," by economising your resources, and by apply

my own part, join altogether in an indiscriminate censure of the practice of novel reading. But it is a practice that needs to be both guardedly and wisely indulged. I believe the majority of so-called novels are unmitigated trash, and sometimes worse; but, at the same time, I think there are many others which, when read at proper times, and within proper limits, are calculated to quicken the fancy, to instruct the mind, to touch the sympathies, and to enlarge the heart. I defy any man, who has a soul at all, to read any of the earlier works of the immortal Charles Dickens without being the better for it-both socially and morally. His inimitable wit, his overwhelming pathos, and, above all, his gushing, earnest humanity, are attributes which invest all the productions of his master mind with an unspeakable and wholesome charm. He instructs while he fascinates, and he improves while he amuses. Need I mention the names of Scott, Bulwer, Disraeli, Thackeray, Currer Bell, Miss Evans, the authoress of "Adam Bede," and (though last, not least) the gifted Mrs. Gaskell,--of whom Manchester may well be proud,-as ever to be associated with the promotion of a healthy and ennobling literature,literature attractive from its brilliancy and power, and wholesome from its chasteness and its purity-a literature which a virgin might read without a blush, and a saint (unless he be a Pharisee) without a sigh."

-a

To say nothing of poets and dramatists,-whom some religionists would sweepingly decry, but whose works ought to be prized and read by all,-suffer me to urge a hint or two in connection with the periodical and newspaper literature of the day. I would respectfully advise working men to read newspapers, not so much for their politics as for the morality they teach. Be well up in the current news of the world Take all the Manchester papers, of course. Be sure and read the Times, so often vilified, but almost always in the right. Read the Saturday Review, one of the ablest papers in the land; and, above all, be sure and get a sight of Punch regularly every