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always determined to pursue their course without any other deviation.

"Reason was too often prevailed upon so far by these promises as to venture her charge within the eddy of the gulph of Intemperance, where, indeed, the circumvolution was weak, but yet interrupted the course of the vessel, and drew it, by insensible rotations, towards the centre. She then repented her temerity, and with all her force endeavoured to retreat; but the draught of the gulph was generally too strong to be overcome; and the passenger, having danced in circles with a pleasing and giddy velocity, was at last overwhelmed and lost. Those few whom Reason was able to extricate generally suffered so many shocks upon the points which shot out from the rocks of Pleasure, that they were unable to continue their course with the same strength and facility as before, but floated along timorously and feebly, endangered by every breeze, and shattered by every rustle of the water, till they sank, by slow degrees, after long struggles, and innumerable expedients, always repining at their own folly, and warning others against the first approach to the gulph of Intemperance.

"There were artists who professed to repair the breaches and stop the leaks of the vessels which had been shattered on the rocks of Pleasure. Many appeared to have great confidence in their skill, and some, indeed, were preserved by it from sinking, who had received only a single blow; but I remarked that few vessels lasted long which had been much repaired, was it found that the artists themselves continued afloat longer than those who had the least of their assist

nor

ance.

"The only advantage which, in the voyage of life, the cautious had above the negligent, was that they sank later and more suddenly; for they passed forward till they had sometimes seen all those in whose company they had issued from the straits of infancy perish in the way, and at last were overset by a cross breeze, without the toil of resistance or the anguish

of expectation.

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But such as had often fallen against the rocks of Pleasure commonly subsided by sensible degrees, contended long with the encroaching waters, and harassed themselves by labours that scarce Hope herself could flatter with

success.

"As I was looking upon the various fate of the multitude about me, I was suddenly alarmed with an admonition from some unknown power, Gaze not idly upon others when thou thyself art sinking. Whence is this thoughtless tranquillity, when thou and they are equally endangered?' I looked, and seeing the gulph of Intemperance before me, started and awaked."

As separate parts make up but one harmony, and the most agreeable music has its discords, so should a prudent man cull and gather examples and precepts from the highways and byways as a guide for his own life.

CHAPTER III.

LEARN WISDOM IN YOUTH-HAPPINESS BEGINS AT THE DAWN OF UNDERSTANDING UNHAPPINESS IS CONSEQUENT ON THE NEGLECT OF EARLY IMPROVING THE MIND-DUTY.

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T is necessary, says Blair, "to habituate our minds in our younger years to some employment which may engage our thoughts, and fill the capacity of the soul at a riper age; for however we may roam in youth from folly to folly, yet the time will come when we shall outgrow the relish for childish amusements, and if we are not provided with a taste for manly satisfactions to succeed in their room, we must, of course, become miserable at an age more difficult to be pleased. While men, however unthinking and unemployed, enjoy an inexhaustible flow of vigorous spirits-a constant succession of gay ideas, which flutter and sport in the brain, makes them pleased with themselves and with every frolic as trifling as themselves; but when the ferment of their blood abates, and the freshness of their youth, like the morning dew, passes away, their spirits flag for want of entertainments more satisfactory in themselves, and more suited to a manly age; and the soul, from a sprightly impertinence, from quick sensations and florid desires, subsides into a dead calm and sinks into a flat stupidity. The fire of the imagination-a property of youth-may make folly look pleasing, and lend a beauty to objects which have none inherent in them, just as the sunbeams may tint a cloud and diversify it with beautiful stains of light, however dark and unsubstantiative in itself. Knowledge and virtue shine with undiminished lustre; they are ever bright; and in religion there

YOUTH: THE AGE FOR IMPROVEMENT.

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is an inexhaustible store for the mind; there is everything that is beneficial to man-comfort to himself and happiness in the administration of comfort to others for where there is no basis, nothing else will bear a calm and sedate review."

Nature, when beautified and improved by an assemblage of moral and intellectual endowments, ensures happiness, and is the only object of a solid and lasting esteem. It is a well-known fact that the neglect of early improving the mind is attended by unhappy consequences.

There is no greater inlet to misery and vices of all kinds, says an old philosopher, "than not knowing how to pass our leisure hours." A man that has a taste for music, painting, or architecture, or any other intellectual pursuit, is like one that has another sense when compared with such as have no relish for those arts. The arts of the florist, the planter, the gardener, the husbandman, when they are only as accomplishments, are great reliefs to the mind, and avocations which are in many ways useful; to study which is better than to suffer the mind to lie idle or run adrift by any passion that may chance to influence it; and, remember, that whatever knowledge or acquirement we do not solidly lay the foundation of in youth, is difficult to master in after years, and knowledge is a comfortable retreat and shelter; but if we do not plant when young, there is no shade for us in old age. Let youth store up an inexhaustible fund of knowledge when he may, for when he is laying out that time in the pursuit of some great and important truth which others waste in follies, he is conscious of having acted up to the dignity of his nature; and from that consciousness there result a serenity and complacency which add strength to strength; for, in science, as in each new conquest, what he gains empowers him to push his conquests still further, gives impulse to his exertions, and enlarges the centre of reason; thus he is ever in a progressive state, still making more acquirements, and still animated with fresh hopes of future discoveries.

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DUTY.

OPPORTUNITIES LOST ARE DIFFICULT TO RECALL.

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Let not valuable opportunities escape; for once lost, they are difficult to recall. The only sure way to make any proficiency in a virtuous and praiseworthy life is to set out at once. It is in youth that our inclinations are trained up in the way that they should lead us; that custom soon makes the best habits the most agreeable, the ways of wisdom being the ways of pleasantness, and every step we advance they grow more easy and more delightful. But, on the contrary, when vicious. hereditary appetites are to be reclaimed, and inveterate habits to be corrected, what security can we give ourselves that we shall have either inclination, resolution, or power to turn back, and recover the right way, from which we have so long and so widely wandered, and enter upon a new life when health, perhaps, faileth us, and our journey's end may be near? Happy for men,” says the philosopher, "would they once seriously consider their evil ways;" and no time can be more proper than the present, when discipline should particularly dispose them to seriousness and thought. They would then discover that though they are awhile carried supinely down the stream of pleasure, yet soon the torrent will grow too violent to be stemmed, the waves will arise, and dash them on rocks, or sink them in whirlpools. It is, therefore, the part of prudence to stop short while they may, and to divert their course into a different channel; while whatever obstructions and difficulties they may labour with at first will every day become more practicable and pleasing, and they are at length sure to reach a serene and secure haven.

DUTY.

: Our duties are moral and social, as they relate to ourselves or our neighbours. He who, under the guidance of reason and calm reflection, feels he has a duty to perform to himself or others, and neglects it, is morally guilty of an act of dishonesty, and conscience will be his silent but inexorable accuser for the wrong.

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