other. It was easy for him to guess how the females must have been employed, where such were the examples in those they were to honor and obey."

There are certain thieves who hang around a student, and who daily destroy much which might be of great value to liim. I will mention some of these, that you may know when you even hear their footsteps; for hear them you certainly will, and, if you have any thing of the desires of a student, will often cry out, "O fures,-latrones-O tyrannos crudelissimos quorum consilio mihi unquam periit Hora!"

1. Sleep.

Nothing is easier than to cultivate the habit of sleep so that the system demands, and will be deranged if the demand be denied, eight or ten hours out of the twenty-four. Physicians usually say that six hours are sufficient for all the purposes of health; and, were the eyes to close the moment you reach the pillow, perhaps six hours would be sufficient for the bed. But suppose you allow seven, and rigidly adhere to that number as a rule. Would you not have much more time than you now have? Were you faithfully to apply that time to your studies, which is now occupied by your bed, over and above the seven hours, would you not make great advances in almost any department of study? But the waste of time is not all. The whole system is prostrated by indulging the luxury of sleep; and you are as really and as certainly

Sleeping after dinner.

Second thief-indolence,

disqualified for severe study, after ten hours of sleep, as if you had over-loaded the stomach with food. The body and mind are both weakened by it. Take, then, two hours from the sleep of most who call themselves students, and add to it the value of two hours more, saved by increased vigor of mind, by the diminution of sleep, and you have a decided gain. What shall be said of the practice of sleeping after dinner? A few words will suffice. If you wish for a dull, feverish feeling, low spirits, prostration of strength, full, aching head, and a stomach that refuses to work for such a master, then be sure to eat hearty dinners, and sleep immediately after them. The call will be as regular as the dinner. But your fate, as a student, is sealed, if the practice be continued.

2. Indolence.

Indolence differs from sloth and idleness in the same

way that the parent differs from the child. It consists in the indulgence of a heavy, inactive disposition, entreating you to delay, till some future time, what ought to be done now. This will beset you by day and by night, unless you act from principle, and a high sense of moral responsibility. It can be resisted and overcome only by making your studies a duty, rather than a pleasure. They may, at times, be a pleasure, but should always be a duty. Dr. Fothergill, an eminent Quaker physician, says, "I endeavor to follow my business, because it is my duty, rather than my inter

Third thief-sloth.

Madame de Genlis.

est the latter is inseparable from a just discharge of duty; but I have ever looked at the profits in the last place."

3. Sloth.

This has frequently and justly been denominated the rust of the soul. The habit is easily acquired; or, rather, it is a part of our very nature to be indolent. It grows fast by indulgence, and soon seizes upon the soul with the violence and strength of an armed man.

The exhibitions of human nature, in the time of Seneca, were the same as at our day. "Quædam tempora eripiuntur nobis ; quædam subducuntur: quædam effluunt; turpissima tamen est jactura quæ per negligentiam venit."

The great mistake with us seems to be, that we feel that we cannot do any great thing, unless we have all our time to devote to that particular thing. "If I only had the time to go and sit down, day after day, for a number of days, or weeks, to examine that subject, and to write on that point, I could then do something." But, as it is, what can you do with such fragments as you gather, here and there, by sitting up late, or robbing your pillow at the dawn of day? Can you do any thing with them? No; you must wait for leisure, and for some great change in your outward circumstances, before you can hope to accomplish much! This is a great mistake. Madame de Genlis tells us, that, when a companion of the queen of France, it was

Author's experience.

Variety grateful to the mind.

Erasmus.

her duty to be at the table and waiting for her mistress just fifteen minutes before dinner. These fifteen minutes were saved at every dinner, and a volume or two was the result. No change, great and marked, in your general course, is necessary to make new and rich acquisitions; only save every moment of time which you now throw away, and you will be able to do any thing. If I may speak from my own experience, I can testify that very nearly all that I have ever attained, or done, out of the regular routine of my professional duties, has been by taking those odd moments which are so easily thrown away. There are little vacancies, in the most crowded periods of every man's duties, which are thrown away in resting from the great object of pursuit. But there is no way of resting the mind more effectual, than to have some-` thing on hand to occupy it. The mind is not like a hand-organ, which wears as fast after you have shifted the key, and taken a new tune, as before. I have a friend, who is most laborious in his profession, and so active in his duties, that one would think he could never enter his study; and yet, should he live and labor for the coming ten years as he has for the last five, he will die with a celebrity, as an author, that will not be doubtful. He accomplishes it all by improving the fragments of time. The well-known Erasmus spent the greater part of his life in wandering from country to country, chasing promises of patronage, which

Fourth thief-visiting.

were held out only to deceive. Yet, by an undeviating and vigilant improvement of those hours which will always remain amid the greatest activity, this poor scholar, compelled by poverty to solicit from the great, continued to write more valuable books than most men, in like circumstances, would have felt able to read. Johnson declares that he will forever stand in the first rank of literary heroes, having transmitted the most complete and perfect delineations of the manners of his age.

4. Visiting.

There can be no doubt but some of our time should be given to the cultivation of the social affections. But if the visiting be formal and ceremonious, it cannot well be too seldom, or too short. It is frequently said that the student should visit, and, in the society of the ladies, to relax his mind. I could never feel that this is any thing different from an insult to the sex. If you do visit with them, it should, in part, be, to be instructive and useful to them, and not to consider them in the mere light of "parlor ornaments," with the admiration of which it is very pleasant for you to relax your mind after severe study.

And how many dinner or evening parties can the student attend weekly, and yet be a student? Not any. He who would obtain knowledge, must have his body in the proper condition, his mind in his room, his attention all his own. You will find many stu