would have thought that they did well, could they have sung a few tunes, and earned their bread by making baskets. But Milton!he has thrown a glory over his age, and nation, and language, which can be impaired only by blotting the world out of existence.

Look at Andrew Fuller;-without education, without opportunities, without circumstances which can, in any way be denominated favourable, like the birch rising up in the cleft of the rock, he stood far above the age and the generation in which he lived.

But the cry is, "We have no favourable circumstances- -no opportunities-no tools; we can do nothing." Can do nothing! If we have any thing of the deathless Roman fire within-alta petens-aliquid immensum, infinitumque*-we have every needed help. Many a beautiful ship has sat like a swan upon the dark-blue waters, which never had a tool upon her sides, save the axe, the auger, and the knife. Hear what a master spirit says on this point-a man whose example has often reproved me, and thousands like me. "If a man really loves study, has an eager attachment to the acquisition of knowledge, nothing but peculiar sickness or misfortunes will prevent his being a student, and his possessing, in some good degree, the means of study. The fact is, that when men complain of want of time for study, and want of means, they only shew that, after all, they are either attached to some other object of pursuit, or have no part nor lot in the spirit of a student. They will applaud others, it may be, who do study, and look with a kind of wonder upon their acquisitions; but, for themselves, they cannot spare the time nor expense necessary to make such acquisitions; or they put it to the account of their humility, and bless themselves that they are not ambitious. In most of all these cases, however, either the love of the world or genuine laziness lies at the bottom. Had they more energy and decision of character, and did they redeem the precious moments which they now lose in laboriously doing nothing, or nothing to the purpose of the church, they might open all the treasures of the east and the west, and have them at their disposal. I might safely promise a good knowledge of Hebrew and Greek to most men of this sort, if they would diligently improve the time that they now absolutely throw away, in the course of three or four years. While one man is deliberating whether he had better study a language, another man has obtained it. Such is the difference between decisive, energetic action, and a timid, hesitating, indolent manner of pursuing literary acquisitions. And what is worst of all, in this temporizing class of stu

Aspiring to lofty objects: to the vast-the infinite.

dents, is, that, if you reason with them, and convince them that they are pursuing a wrong course, that conviction operates no longer than until the next paroxysm of indolence, or of a worldly spirit, comes on. These siren charmers lull every energetic power of the mind to sleep. The mistaken man, who listens to their voice, finds himself, at the age of forty, just where he was at thirty. At fifty, his decline has already begun. At sixty, he is universally regarded with indifference, which he usually repays with misanthropy. if he has the misfortune to live until he is seventy, every body is uneasy because he is not transferred to a better world."*

And

6. Remember that the great secret of being successful and accurate as a student, next to perseverence, is, THE CONSTANT HABIT OF

REVIEWING.

I have already spoken of the memory. I would here say a word as to its use in your definite studies. Have you never tried to banish a thought, or a train of thought, from your memory, and could not? Have you never tried to recall some idea, or some train of thought, and the more you tried, the more you seemed to forget it? The reason is, that the memory loves freedom, and disdains to be forced. The correct path, then, in which to tread, is to cultivate the memory as much as possible, without weakening it by restraint. It loves to try its power spontaneously. Little children will frequently learn a long list of Latin or Greek words, without designing it, merely by hearing others repeat them. And I have known an ignorant Catholic, who could repeat the most of the Lord's Prayer, and a good part of the Missal, all in Latin, without knowing what it meant, simply by hearing it frequently repeated. Those who have been most successful in fixing language in the memory, have uniformly done it by repeated readings of the thing to be retained. In committing grammar, for example, to memory, you should not attempt to confine the mind to it too long at a time, but bend the whole attention to it while you do study, and repeat the process often repeat the lesson aloud, that it may come to the mind through the ear, as well as through the eyes, and then use the pen, and, laying aside the book, write it all out. In this process, you use the eyes, the ears, and you also give the mind an opportunity to dwell upon every letter, and syllable, and sound. This will be slow, at first, but it will effectually do the thing; it will make you thorough, and soon give the courage of the war-horse. No new encounters will, in the least, appal you. The great difficulty in committing grammar, consists in the similarity of the words and things that are brought to

*Professor Stuart.

If

gether. Similarity confuses the mind. you were to go into a jeweller's shop, and see a card containing twenty watches, though each had a different name, yet, the next day you could not tell one from another. But suppose you go for five days in succession, and examine four watches each day. The jeweller carefully points out the difference. This is a common watch: he shows you its mechanism, and all its parts. That is a patent lever he shows you how it differs from the former. The third is a lepine: its parts are very different still. The next is a chronometer, and differs widely from any you have yet seen. He tells you the properties of each one, and compares them together. The second day, you review and recall all that he told you, and you fix the name, the character, and the properties of each in the memory. You then proceed to the second four. You go through the same process, every day reviewing what you learned on the preceding day. At the end of five days, you can repeat from memory, the name and powers of each watch, though before the process, all you could remember was, that their number was twenty, and that they stood in five different rows. Now, study the grammar with the same precision, and in the same manner, and the memory will not complain that she is confused, and cannot retain what you ask her to keep.

But what I have said of reviewing, pertains more especially to the lessons which you prepare for the recitation-room, and which are to be reviewed and repeated at your room. The indefatigable Wyttenbach- and few could speak more decidedly from experience—says, that this practice will have "an incredible effect in assisting your progress;" but he adds, "it must be a real and thorough review; that is, it must be again and again repeated. What I choose is this; that every day the task of the preceding day should be reviewed; at the end of every week, the task of the week; at the end of every month, the studies of the month; in addition to which this whole course should be gone over again and again during the vacation." Again; this great scholar tells his pupils, "You will not fail to devote one hour, or part of an hour, at least, every day, to these studies, on the same plan which you have followed under me; for there is no business, no avocation whatever, which will not permit a man who has an INCLINATION, to give a little time every day to the studies of his youth." I would add, that one quarter of an hour, every day, devoted to reviewing, will not only keep all that a man has ever gone over, fresh in mind, but advance him in classical study. And no man may hope to become a thorough scholar, who does not at first fix this habit upon himself. It will be irksome at first, but only at first. "In reading and

studying this work (the Memorabilia of Xenophon), I made it a rule never to begin a section without re-perusing the preceding one, nor a chapter, nor book, without going over the preceding chapter and book a second time; and finally, after having finished the work in that manner, I again read the whole in course. This was a labour of almost three months; but such constant repetition proved most beneficial to me. The effect of repetition seemed to be, that when I proceeded from a section or a chapter which I had read twice, to a new one, I acquired an impulse which bore me along through all opposing obstacles; like a vessel,-to use Cicero's comparison in a similar case, which, having once received an impulse from the oar, continues her course even after the mariners have suspended their operations to propel her."

How very different this from the practice of too many! That part of the path over which they passed, is covered with a thick fog, and they can look back and see nothing but the fog. They look forward, and the atmosphere is, if possible, still more dim. The road seems long, and they are constantly in doubt where they are. Any one can travel in a fog, but with no comfort or certainty at the time, and with no impression upon the memory to recall at some future time.

It is not for me to say that our colleges and schools should insist on such reviews in the recitation-room. It would probably be impracticable; but the youth ought to be encouraged and urged to do it at his room, again and again. We are told that there is a fine, and a more than human emotion produced by reading Demosthenes. But who feels it?

Read over the first and second Olynthiac, and do you feel it? No; nor can you, till you have reviewed every sentence, and paragraph, and section, again and again, and that, probably, to the twelfth time. Then, if you are faithful, you will begin decidedly to feel it. You cannot but feel it. The influence of Plato's genius is thought to be distinctly felt through the whole world of letters. Does the student see any thing of this by dipping into Plato? No! nor can he ever do so, unless he train himself to the constant, invariable habit of reviewing every sentence, and every page, and that, too, many times. Try it for six months, and my poor reputation shall be staked on the result. Get, by any labour, your author's meaning and spirit. What Quintilian says of eloquence, is doubly applicable to this point: "Prima est eloquentiæ virtus, perspicuitas; et quoquisque ingenio minus valet, hoc se magis attollere et dilatare conatur; ut statura breves in digitos eriguntur, et plura infirmi minantur.”*

* The first excellence of eloquence is perspicuity. And

7. Be faithful in fulfilling your appointed

exercises.

It has been said of the promising and lamented Professor Fisher, that, during his collegiate course, he never missed a recitation of his class, and was never known to have his name handed in by the monitors. And all those men, who have ever become influential amongst us, almost without exception, began to be distinguished for a conscientious discharge of all appointed exercises, while obtaining their education. You may feel unwell to-day; you have over-eaten, or abused the body in some other way; and now you have but little courage to master your lesson. You are tempted not to try to learn it. But I beg of you not to lay it by. You will lose in selfrespect; you will have yielded to a temptation that will often assail you; you will have lowered yourself in the estimation of others. No call of friends, no preparation for a society, no writing to friends, should ever turn you aside from getting that lesson which is shortly to be recited. The strong language of the late venerable President Porter ought to be hung up in the room of every student. It is the testimony of one who was so careful and so judicious an observer of men and things, that he seldom made mistakes. "Regular, prescribed exercises have the first claim on your time, and should never be thrust aside by incidental things. It should be a point of conscience with every member of this seminary, for his own good, as well as in conformity with his sacred promise at matriculation, never to neglect these regular exercises, unless disabled by Providence. I was detained by company, is sometimes offered as a reason for such neglect, and it may be a good reason; very rarely; but in my own case as a student, from twelve years of age, through college, it never once was regarded by me as a reason for such neglect; never once has it been so, in the nineteen years of my connection with this seminary. Take the catalogue of our seminary from the beginning, and mark the men, if you can, on that honoured list, who, since they have left us, have been most distinguished for usefulness as ministers and missionaries, and also the men, not a few, who have been elected presidents and professors, in colleges and theological seminaries, and then remember, that the same men were distinguished for punctuality, and industry, and conscientious regard to order, while they were here.”

These remarks apply with as much force to every other student, as to the student in theology. "Les hommes sont à peu près tous

he who strives to be pompous and diffuse, does it from a deficiency of intellectual strength; as short men stretch themselves on tiptoe, and the weak are most given to threatening.

faits, de la même maniere; et ainsi ce qui nous a touche, les touchera aussi."

8. Learn to rest the mind, by variety in your studies, rather than by entire cessation from study.

Few can confine the mind down to severe thought, or to one study, long at a time, and therefore most, when they relax, throw the thoughts loose, and do not try to save them. You are studying Homer or algebra, for example. You apply yourself some two or three hours at a time. Your body becomes weary, and the mind is jaded. You stop, and throw aside your books, and rest, perhaps, quite as long as you have been studying. Now, all this time is lost, or nearly so. You forget that the mind is as much refreshed by variety as by idleness. When you lay aside your algebra, take up your Livy or Tacitus, and you will be surprised to find that it is a refreshment, as you review your last lesson. Or make those minutes in your common-place book of what you last read; or turn your thoughts, and ponder over the subject of your next composition. You may save a vast amount of time in this way.

We wonder how our fathers, and how the students of Germany, at the present time, can study sixteen hours a day. They never could do it, were it not that they pursue one study till the mind reluctates; they then turn to another, by which the mind is relieved, and at once becomes buoyant. This is the difference between him who loses no time, and him who loses very much. The men who accomplish so much in life, are those who practice on this plan. This will account for the fact, that the same man will not unfrequently hold several offices which require talents and efforts seemingly incompatible with each other, and yet promptly execute the duties of all. He is thus continually busy and continually resting.

In this way the justly distinguished Dr. Good, long before he was forty years old, amid the incessant and anxious duties of a laborious profession, had gained prizes by writing essays; had mastered at least eleven different languages; had aided in making a Universal Dictionary in twelve volumes; had written his celebrated Study of Medicine; and was constantly writing and translating poetry. His "Book of Nature" will give the reader an admiring conception of the variety and the accuracy of his attainments. Instead of being thrown into confusion by such a variety and pressure of occupations, he carried them all forward simultaneously, and suffered none to be neglected, or but half executed. His practice was like that of the indefatigable, but somewhat eccentric Dr. Clarke, who said, "I have lived to know the great secret of human happiness is this,-never suffer your energies

to stagnate. The old adage of 'too many irons in the fire,' conveys an abominable lie. You cannot have too many; poker, tongs, and all-keep them all going." This habit of keeping the mind employed, will soon destroy the common habit of reverie. The soul will

be too busy for reverie; and then, if she gains nothing by change of occupations, by way of acquisition, she gains the satisfaction that she is not wandering off on forbidden ground.

THE genius of Shakspere has shed a glory around the name of Brutus, which the iron pen of history cannot do away. The historian and the poet are certainly greatly at variance in regard to him: the latter has made him so amiable and exalted a character, that we feel unwilling to know the truth about him. I am not now to act as umpire between them; but there is one spot where we see him in the same light, both in history and in poetry. It is this. The night before the celebrated battle of Pharsalia, which was to decide the fate of the known world, Brutus was in his tent reading and making notes from his author with the pen!

The elder Pliny seldom sat down to eat a meal, without having some one to read to him; and he never travelled without having one or more books with him, and conveniences for making extracts or memoranda.

The amiable Petrarch never felt happy a day, if, during it, he did not read or write, or do both. One of his friends fearing it would injure his health, begged him to lend him the key of his library. Petrarch, without knowing the design, granted it. His friend locked it up, and forbade him to read anything for ten days. The poet consented with great reluctance. The first day seemed longer than a year; the second produced a hard head-ache from morning till night; and on the morning of the third day, he was evidently in a fever. His friend, touched with his situation, restored the key, and with it his health and spirits.

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All distinguished men have been given to the habit of constant reading; and it is utterly impossible to arrive at any tolerable degree of distinction without this habit. Reading," says Bacon, “makes a full man; conversation a ready man; writing an exact man." That which he means by full can never be obtained, except by an extensive and thorough acquaintance with books. No genius, no power of inventing and creating thoughts, can ever supply a deficiency in this

respect. The mightiest mind that was ever created, could, perhaps, here and there strike out a road; but who would wish it to spend itself in beating about to discover a path, and even to make it, when the united minds of the generations who have gone before us, have done this for him? In order to have a judgment sound and correct, you must travel through the history of other times, and be able to compare the present with the past. To have the mind vigorous, you must refresh it, and strengthen it, by a continued contact with the mighty dead who have gone away, but left their imperishable thoughts behind them. We want to have the mind continually expanding, and creating new thoughts, or at least feeding itself upon manly thoughts. The food is to the blood, which circulates through your veins, what reading is to the mind; and the mind that does not love to read, may despair of ever doing much in the world of mind which it would effect. You can no more be the "full man whom Bacon describes, without reading, than you can be vigorous and healthy without any new nourishment. It would be no more reasonable to suppose it, in the expressive and beautiful language of Porter, "than to suppose that the Mississippi might roll on its flood of waters to the ocean, though all its tributary streams were cut off, and it were replenished only by the occasional drops from the clouds." Some will read works of the imagination, or what is called the light literature of the day while that which embraces solid thought is irksome. The Bishop of Winchester (Hoadley) said that he could never look into Butler's Analogy without having his head ache-a book which Queen Caroline told Mr. Sale, she read every day at breakfast. Young people are apt-and to this students are continually tempted to read only for amusement. Pope says, that, from fourteen to twenty, he read for amusement alone; from twenty to twenty-seven, for improvement and instruction; that in the former