through life. What you read to-day will soon be gone, expended, or forgotten; and the mind must be continually filled up with new streams of knowledge. Even the ocean would be dried up, were the streams to be cut off, which are constantly flowing into it. How few read enough to stock their minds! It is the "hand of the diligent which maketh rich."

3. Reading stimulates and puts your own mental energies into operation.

You cannot read a good book properly without being stimulated. He who knows how to read to advantage, will ever have something as applicable to his mental powers, as electricity is to move the animal system. The man who has traced the workings of a powerful mind, as exhibited on the written page, without being excited, moved, and made to feel that he can do something, and will do something, has yet to learn one of the highest pleasures of the student's life, and is yet ignorant of what rivers of delight are flowing around him through all the journey of life.

I close by repeating, do not read too many books; read thoroughly what you undertake. Buy but few books; and never buy till you can pay for what you buy. You cannot more than half enjoy anything for which you are in debt. Make all that you do read your own; and you will soon be rich in intellectual wealth, and ever be making valuable additions to your stores.

CHAPTER V.

ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF TIME.

THERE is scarcely any point, upon which I wish to touch, so difficult as this; and yet not one upon which so much good might be done, if the right things could be said, and said in the right way. It is easy enough to write prettily about the shortness and the fleetness of time, but not so easy to give specific rules how to improve it as it flies; but it is far easier to do this, than to confer the disposition, and create the determination, to use it to the best possible advantage. A miser will frequently become wealthy, not because he has a great income, but because he saves with the utmost care, and spends with the greatest caution. This is a precept taught us with respect to our time in the very morning of life, but generally not learned till late in the evening. It is a prodigious thing to consider that, although amongst all the talents which are committed to our stewardship, time, upon several accounts, is the most precious, yet there is not any one of which the generality of men are more profuse and regardless. Nay, it is obvious to observe, that even those persons who are frugal and thrifty in every thing else, are yet extremely prodigal of their best revenue, time; 'of which,' as Seneca

nobly says, it is a virtue to be covetous.' It is amazing to think how much time may be gained by proper economy."

No one will try to improve his time, unless he first be impressed with the necessity. Remember that, at the very best calculation, we can have but a short time in which to learn all, and do all, that we accomplish in life. At the beginning of each day, see what, and how much, you want to accomplish before you sleep, and then at once begin to execute your plans, suffering no time to run waste between planning and acting. At the close of the day, be impartial and thorough in reviewing the day, and noting wherein you have failed. There is much to be learned from the somewhat humorous account of the Indian Gymnosophists, in their plans for educating their disciples. The account is from Apuleius, a Platonic philosopher of the second century. "When their dinner is ready, before it is served up, the masters inquire of every particular scholar how he has employed his time since sun-rising: some of them answer, that, having been chosen as arbiters between two persons, they have composed their differences, and made them friends; some, that they have been executing the orders of their parents; and others, that they have either found out something new, by their own application, or learned from the instructions of their fellows. But if there happens to be any one among them who cannot make it appear that he has employed the morning to advantage, he is immediately excluded from the company, and obliged to work, while the rest are at dinner."

1. Sleep.

Nothing is easier than to cultivate the habit of sleep, so that the system shall demand eight or

ten hours out of the twenty-four, and will be inconvenienced if they be denied. 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, could you not make great advances in study? But the waste of time is not all. The whole system is deteriorated by indulging the luxury of sleep; and you are as really disqualified for severe study, after nine or ten hours of sleep, as if you had overloaded your stomach with food. The body and mind are both weakened by it. Take, then, two hours from sleep, and add to it the value of two hours more, saved by increased vigour 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, a 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, leading 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 endeavour to follow my business, because it is my duty, rather than my interest 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 denomi nated the rust of the soul. The habit is easily acquired; or rather, it is a component part of our 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 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 anything 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 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