not entirely lost, even though the acquirements in college should afterwards be neglected. Wholesome nourishment and exercise for the mind, are like wholesome nourishment and exercise for the body. They enter into the constitu5 tion, and impart to it general health and strength, and capacity for the exertions it may be called upon to make, and the trials it may be doomed to suffer. This is especially true of childhood and youth, and, as to all that concerns our physical condition, is universally admitted, in practice, 10 as well as in theory. The tender infant is not suffered to lie in torpid inaction. Its little frame is put in motion in its mother's arms. As soon as it can bear exposure, it is sent forth to larger exercise in the open air. The boy is permitted and encouraged to rejoice in active and invig15 orating sports; and the youth, quite up to the season of manhood, is taught to blend the healthful exertion of his sinews and muscles, with the cultivation of his intellectual and moral powers. Why is this indication of nature thus carefully observed 20 and obeyed? Why do parents watch with so much anxious care over the forming constitution of the body, and seek to train it to grace and vigor? It is because it is forming, and the fashion it then receives may more or less abide by it ever after. Their anxious care is well be25 stowed. Much of the happiness of life depends upon it, and every one is aware that such is the case. Hence it is, that gymnastics have been introduced into places of instruction, where feats are performed which no man of full age expects ever to repeat, unless it should be his lot to be 30 a tumbler or a rope-dancer. Is there not a precise analogy, in this respect, between the two parts of our nature? Have not the moral and intellectual faculties a growth, a period of expansion, a season for nourishment and direction, when the constitution 35 of the mind and heart is taking a form like that of the body, and when the intellectual and moral capacities are to be assisted and trained into a healthy condition? Are there no gymnastics of the mind? It would be deemed a palpable absurdity, if any one were to argue, that a child 40 was likely to be employed in sedentary occupations, and therefore it was not material, that he should have the use of his limbs. Is it not still more absurd to use such an argument in relation to his higher and better faculties? It is a great calamity to be deprived of sight,-to be unable to behold the glories of the visible creation, and enjoy the beauties of art. Is it a less one to be destitute of intellectual vision, by which we are enabled to "look through nature up to nature's God," and to discern glories greater 5 far than those, great as we must confess them to be, which are manifested to the eye of the body?-by which, too, we are enabled to look into ourselves, and there to see the fearful and wonderful thing we are, and how it is that, from the source of infinite wisdom and goodness, there is an emana10 tion of light imparted to us, which we are commanded not to allow "to be darkened." Surely, surely, these are reflections which ought forever to silence the sordid calculation that would bend man's whole powers down to the earth; instead of helping him 15 to grow up towards the heavens. The superincumbent weight of the world's business will press heavily enough upon him. With all the preparation he can have, and all the improvement he can make of it, there is danger that he will but seldom be able to raise himself above the thick 20 fog, that creeps along the ground, and limits his view to the objects immediately around him, into the clear region, where higher duties and higher enjoyments offer themselves to his attention,-where the spirit may breathe, the mind hold communion with intelligence, the affections kin25 dle, the charities be nursed, and his whole nature exalted, under the quickening influence of the consciousness, that he is a man. It is in this consciousness, properly enlightened, that dwells his real dignity, and in it, too, the sense of all his duties. 30 What parent, then, who has the ability, will withhold from his child the means of such instruction and discipline, in their fullest measure, as may promise to give him a moral and intellectual constitution fitted to seize upon, and improve the occasions that may arise for purifying and 35 exalting his nature, and fulfilling all his obligations? In this consists his highest happiness. It will not control the course of events. It will not make adverse fortune prosperous, nor the contrary. But, like a wall in the sea, well planted and well supported, broad in its foundation, and 40 carried to its proper height, it will establish a secure and quiet retreat from the shocks, both of prosperity and adversity, to which he may betake himself in the hour of dangerous trial, and escape the imminent hazard of being overwhelmed by either. LESSON CLVIII.-OUR CONTROL OVER OUR PHYSICAL WELL- It is a truth fitted to awaken our most fervent gratitude to the Author of our existence, that He has placed the great conditions of our physical well-being under our own control. Of the nature or essence of the vital principle, we 5 are as yet ignorant. Some of the internal ganglia, also, are mysteries to the profoundest science. Of the more subtile movements in the interior of the system, we can take no available cognizance. These inward vital processes are not subject to our volition. The heart will not continue 10 to beat, nor the blood to flow, at the bidding of the mightiest of the earth. The sculpture-like outline of the body; its gradual and symmetrical expansion from infancy to manhood,-every day another, yet the same; the carving and grooving of all 15 the bones and joints; the weaving of the muscles into a compact and elastic fabric, and their self-lubricating power, by which, though pressed together in the closest order and crossing each other in all directions, they yet play their respective parts, without perceptible friction; the winding20 up of the heart, so that it will vibrate the seconds of threescore years and ten, without repair or alteration; the channelling out of the blood-vessels, more numerous than all the rivers of a continent, and so thoroughly permeating every part, that there is no desert or waste spot left, where 25 their fertilizing currents do not flow; the triple layer of the skin, with its infinite reticulations; the culling, and exact depositing, of the material of that most divinely-wrought organ, the brain, for whose exquisite workmanship it would seem as though air, and light, and heat, and elec30 tricity, had all been sifted and winnowed, and their finest particles selected for its composition; the diffusion of the nerves over every part of the frame, along whose darksome and attenuated threads, the messengers of the mind pass to and fro with the rapidity of lightning; the fashioning of 35 the vocal apparatus, so simple in its mechanism, and yet so varied in its articulation, and its musical range and compass; the hollowing out of the ear, which secures to us all the utilities and blessings of social intercourse; the opening of the eye, on whose narrow retina, all the breadth 40 and magnificence of the universe can be depicted; and, finally, the power of converting the coarse, crude, dead materials of our food, into sentient tissues, and miraculously enduing them with the properties of life;-over all these, as well as over various other processes of formation and growth, our will has no direct control. They will not 5 be fashioned, or cease to be fashioned, at our bidding. It was in this sense that the question was put, 66 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? It is not by "taking thought," but by using the prescribed means, by learning and obeying the physical laws,—that 10 the stature can be made loftier, the muscles more vigorous, the senses quicker, the life longer, and the capacity of usefulness almost indefinitely greater. It is diet, oxygenation of the blood, and personal purity or cleanliness, which have the prerogative of accomplish15 ing these objects; and these are in our power, within our legitimate jurisdiction; and if we perform our part of the work, faithfully and fully, in regard to these things, Nature will perform her part of the work, faithfully and fully, in regard to those subtler and nicer operations which lie 20 beyond our immediate control. LESSON CLIX.-SCENE FROM HENRY IV.-Shakspeare. [Hotspur, Worcester, Mortimer, and Glendower.] Hotspur. Lord Mortimer, and cousin Glendower,- 5 And uncle Worcester:-A plague upon it: I have forgot the map. Glendower. No, here it is. Sit, cousin Percy; sit, good cousin Hotspur: 10 Doth speak of you, his cheek looks pale; and, with Hot. And you in hell, as often as he hears Glend. I cannot blame him: at my nativity, The frame and huge foundation of the earth Hot. Why, so it would have done At the same season, if your mother's cat had 5 If you suppose as fearing you it shook. Glend. The heavens were all on fire, the earth did tremble. Hot. Oh, then the earth shook to see the heavens on fire And not in fear of your nativity. 10 Diseased nature often times breaks forth In strange eruptions; oft the teeming earth By the imprisoning of unruly wind Within her womb; which, for enlargement striving, 15 Shakes the old beldame earth, and topples down Steeples, and moss-grown towers. At your birth, Our grandam earth, having this distemperature, In passion shook. Glend. Cousin, of many men 20 I do not bear these crossings. Give me leave I am not in the roll of common men. Hot. I think there is no man speaks better Welsh :— 35 I will to dinner. 40 Mort. Peace, cousin Percy; you will make him mad The devil. Hot. And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil, |