action, "noble, sublime, and god-like action." Let him see well to it, that he does not thwart the design of his creation, and plunge headlong into the abyss of misery and woe. LESSON XXVI. MENTAL DISCIPLINE. TODD. 1. The human mind is the brightest display of the power and skill of the Infinite Mind with which we are acquainted. It is created and placed in this world to be educated for a higher state of existence. Here its faculties begin to unfold, and those mighty energies, which are to bear it forward to unending ages, begin to discover themselves. 2. The object of training such a mind should be, to enable the soul to fulfil her duties well here, and to stand on high vantage ground, when she leaves this cradle of her being for an eternal existence beyond the grave. There is now and then a youth, who, like Ferguson, can tend sheep in the field, and there accurately mark the position of the stars, with a thread and beads, and with his knife construct a watch from wood; but such instances are rare. Most need encouragement to sustain, instruction to aid, and directions to guide them. 3. The mighty minds which have gone before us, have left treasures for our inheritance, and the choicest gold is to be had for the digging. How great the dissimilarity between a naked Indian, dancing with joy over a new feather for his head-dress, and such a mind as that of Newton or of Boyle! And what makes the difference? 4. There is mind enough in the savage; he can almost outdo the instincts of the prey which he hunts; but his soul is like a Ferguson; an eminent experimental philosopher and astronomer of Scotland. b Boyle; a celebrated natural philosopher, born in Ireland. the marble pillar. There is a beautiful statue in it, but the hand of the sculptor has never laid the chisel upon it. That mind of the savage has never been disciplined by study; and it, therefore, in the comparison, appears like the rough bison of the forest, distinguished only for strength and ferocity. 5. I am not now to discuss the question whether the souls of men are naturally equal. You may have a good mind, a sound judgment, or a vivid imagination, or a wide reach of thought and of views; but, believe me, you probably are not a genius, and can never become distinguished without severe application. Hence all that you ever have, must be the result of labor; hard, untiring labor. 6. You have friends to cheer you on; you have books and teachers to aid you, and multitudes of helps. But, after all, discipline and educating your mind must be your own work. No one can do this but yourself. And nothing in this world is of any worth, which has not labor and toil as its price. 7. The zephyrs of summer can but seldom breathe around you. "I foresee distinctly, that you will have to double Cape Horn in the winter season, and to grapple with the gigantic spirit of the storm which guards the cape; and I foresee as distinctly, that it will depend entirely on your own skill and energy, whether you survive the fearful encounter, and live to make a port in the mild latitudes of the Pacific." 8. Set it down as a fact, to which there are no exceptions, that we must labor for all that we have, and that nothing is worth possessing or offering to others, which costs us nothing. The first and great object of education is, to discipline the mind. Make it the first object to be able to fix and hold your attention upon your studies. He who can do this, has mastered many and great difficulties; and he who cannot do it, will in vain look for success in any department of study. 9. Patience is a virtue kindred to attention; and without it the mind cannot be said to be disciplined. Patient labor and investigation are not only essential to success in study, but are an unfailing guaranty to success. 10. The student should learn to think and act for himself. True originality consists in doing things well, and doing them in your own way. A mind half educated is generally imitating others. "No man was ever great by imitation." Let it be remembered that we cannot copy greatness or goodness by any effort. We must acquire it by our own patience and diligence. 11. Another object of study is, to form the judgment, so that the mind can not only investigate, but weigh and balance opinions and theories. Without this, you will never be able to decide what to read or what to throw aside; what author to distrust or what opinions to receive. Some of the most laborious men, and diligent readers, pass through life without accomplishing any thing desirable, for the want of what may be called a well-balanced judgment. 12. The great instrument of affecting the world is the mind; and no instrument is so decidedly and continually improved by exercise and use, as the mind. Many seem to feel as if it were not safe to put forth all their powers at one effort. You must reserve your strength for great occasions, just as you would use your horse, moderately and carefully on common occasions, but give him the spur on occasions of great emergency. This might be well, were the mind, in any respect, like the bones and muscles of the horse. 13. You may call upon your mind to-day for its highest efforts, and stretch it to the utmost in your power, and you have done yourself a kindness. The mind will be all the better for it. To-morrow you may do it again; and each time it will answer more readily to your calls. 14. But remember that real discipline of mind does not so much consist in now and then making a great effort, as in having the mind so trained that it will make constant efforts. The perfection of a disciplined mind is, not to be able, on some great contingency, to rouse up its faculties, and draw out a giant strength, but to have it always ready to produce a given, and an equal quantity of results in a given and equal time. LESSON XXVII. ODD ON EDUCATION. MONTGOMERY. 1. THE lion, o'er his wild domains, Rules with the terror of his eye; The eagle of his rock maintains By force the empire in the sky; The shark, the tyrant of the flood, Reigns through the deep with quenchless rage; Parent and young unweaned from blood, Are still the same from age to age. 2. Of all that live and move, and breathe, Man only rises o'er his birth; He looks above, around, beneath, At once the heir of heaven and earth; Force, cunning, speed, which Nature gave The various tribes throughout her plan, Life to enjoy, from death to save, These are the lowest powers of man. 3. From strength to strength he travels on; Is but Eternity begun. 4. What guides him in his high pursuit, Opens, illumines, cheers his way, Discerns th' immortal from the brute, God's image from the mold of clay? 'Tis knowledge; knowledge to the soul Is power, and liberty, and peace; And while celestial ages roll, The joys of knowledge shall increase. 5. Hail!to the glorious plan, that spread New spirit breathed into the clod, LESSON XXVIII. EXALTED CHARACTER OF POETRY. CHANNING. [The reader may note the inflections for emphatic succession of particulars, in the following piece.* See Rule 10, p. 34.] 1. POETRY seems to us the divinest of all-arts; for it is the breathing or expression of that principle or sentiment, which is deepest and sublimest in human nature; we mean, of that thirst or aspiration, to which no mind is wholly a stranger, for something purer and lovelier, something more powerful, lofty and thrilling, than ordinary and real life affords. 2. In an intellectual nature, framed for progress and for higher modes of being, there must be creative energies, power of original and ever-growing thought; and poetry is the form in which these energies are chiefly manifested. 3. It is the glorious prerogative of this art, that it "makes all things new" for the gratification of a divine instinct. It indeed finds its elements in what it actually sees and experiences in the worlds of matter and mind; but it combines and It is believed to be important in securing a correct application of the principles of reading, for the learner to mark lightly with a pencil such words, pauses, inflections, &c., as are illustrative of the rules to which refer ence is made in the subsequent lessons. a The most ancient poetry which has come down to us, is that of the Hebrews. |