80

DUTY BECOME PLEASURE.

and engravings. I am not sure that the experiment would not command the approbati n of the wisest and best. How many learn to appreciate beautiful poetry who never try to write a line of verse!

You will see from what I have said, that study is a thing which no one can do for you. Authors may prepare good text-books, carpenters may make pleasant desks and beautiful rooms for study, and teachers may be ready to aid and encourage you, and, after all, nobody can study for you. It is the toil of the brain, and it must be done by yourself alone. It will always be hard, but easier the more and longer that you study. God has so made us, that the duty which is at first unpleasant will become easier and lighter, till at last it is a positive pleasure. The first rounds of the ladder are the most difficult to mount. The first part of the estate is the most difficult to obtain. The first few days of a journey are the most wearisome. By every effort you make, by every difficulty you overcome, by every successful bending of the mind and attention to your lesson, you are acquiring

THE MIND OBEDIENT TO THE WILL.

81

power and laying up strength for future years. You cannot become a scholar, nor can you discipline your mind, in a day; but every day you can take a step forward, and if faithful to yourself, you can learn, while at school, how to make your mind an obedient and a willing servant to the will, how to quarry out beautiful and polished stones from the deep earth, and how to create, for the soul, a palace of truth, of light, and of joy.

CHAPTER V.

SOCIAL DUTIES OF THE SCHOOL-GIRL.

Power of Oratory. Constant Impression. Almost a Nun. Poor Relations forgotten. Small Coin of Life. Professor Francke's Advice. Crows' Nests. A Beautiful Comparison. The always Miserable. Mirth and Cheerfulness. What you will desire to recal. Severest Punishment. Out of our own Shadow. School-girls not Matrons. One Burden lightened. Desperate Intimacies. Carry Sunshine with you. Not afraid of Responsibility.

THE tongue was given us as a means of pleasure, of mental and moral improvement. The human voice is the most powerful instrument to move the soul, so far as we know, that ever came from the hand of God. And the mightiest power which this instrument can exert is in speech. The utterance of music can thrill to a very high degree; but there are only a very few who are greatly moved

POWER OF ORATORY.

83

by it. It requires a peculiar organization of the human body to feel the full power of music. But every body is carried away by the orator. He can move and sway the heart, and thus the feelings, the mind, the actions, and the whole man, as no songster can ever do. There is no voice that will startle or move you like the voice of human agony. In our daily social intercourse, we use the voice as the great instrument by which to communicate our thoughts and feelings. This includes the words uttered, the tones and cadences of the voice, and the countenance of the speaker. It is the shortest and surest method by which one mind can reach and communicate with another. And conversation, which usually includes all our social intercourse with one another, is always and at all times for good or for evil. You make a constant impression of some kind or other on all with whom you come in contact.

One of the difficulties of the school-girl, in regard to this subject, is, that she feels no responsibility in regard to her

course with her companions.

social inter

To be sure,

she would not insult an instructor, and she would not be rude and unlady-like before visitors, and she would not be untidy in her personal appearance in the school-room, but in private, when with none but her mates, may she not throw off responsibility and say and do what she pleases? I reply, Yes, if she pleases to say and to do only what is proper and becoming. Some young ladies, on going to school and meeting new-comers, are fond of entertaining their new friends with doleful accounts of their personal sufferings,-what unheard of sacrifices they are making to attend school; what very fine houses and furniture, horses and dresses, they are leaving be hind; what genteel society they have moved

in; and how awful it is thus to be shut away and secluded in the crowded room of the school! She seems to repine most of all, if she could only express herself, that she finds a new standard of measurement in her new position, that houses and furniture, horses, dresses, and even admirers, are nothing here; but is she a scholar? Has she mind and diligence, industry and a desire to improve?