LESSON XIX 1 BACON, FRANCIS, usually known as Lord Bacon, was born in London, England, Jan. 22, 1560, and died 1626. He was famous as a scholar, a wit, a lawyer, a judge, a statesman, a politician, but chiefly as a philosopher. NEWTON, SIR ISAAC, the greatest of English philosophers, was born in Lincolnshire, Dec. 25, 1642, and died March 20, 1727. His three great discoveries, of fluxions, the nature of light and colors, and the law of gravitation, were conceived before he was twenty-five years of age. On witnessing the fall of an apple, he was led into a train of reflection, which resulted in his theory of gravitation. He was a profound mathematician, and a sincere Christian. Certain prophecies in the Bible led him to infer that men would, one day, be able to travel at the rate of fifty miles an hour. How marvelously has his belief been verified! THE EDUCATION, OUR OWN WORK. JOHN TODD. 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. The object of training such a mind should be, to enable the soul to fulfill 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. 2. Most students need encouragement to sustain, instruction to aid, and direction to guide them. Few, probably, ever accomplish any thing like as much as they expected or ought; and perhaps one reason is, that they waste a vast amount of time in acquiring that experience which they need. Doubtless, multitudes are now in the process of education, who will never reach any tolerable standard of excellence. Probably some never could; but, in most cases, they might. The exceptions are few. In most cases young men do feel a desire, more or less strong, of fitting themselves for respectability and usefulness. 3. You may converse with any man, however distinguished for attainments, or habits of application, or power of using what he knows, and he will sigh over the remembrance of the past, and tell you that there have been many fragments of time which he has wasted, and many opportunities which he has lost forever. If he had only seized upon the fleeting advantages, and gathered up the fragments of time, he might have pushed his researches out into new fields, and, like the immortal Bacon,1 have amassed vast stores of knowledge. 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. 4. The object of hard study is not to draw out genius, but to take minds such as are formed of common mold, and fit them for active and decisive usefulness. Nothing is so much coveted by a young man as the reputation of being a genius; and many seem to feel that the want of patience for laborious application and deep research is such a mark of genius as can not be mistaken: while a real genius, like Sir Isaac Newton,2 with great modesty says, that the great and only difference between his mind and the minds of others consisted solely in his having more patience. 5. You may have a good mind, a sound judgment, a vivid imagination, or a wide reach of thought and views; but you can never become distinguished without severe application. Hence, all that you ever have must be the result of labor, — hard, untiring labor. You have friends to cheer you on, and you have books and teachers to aid you; but, after all, disciplining 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. 6. The first and great object of education is, to discipline the mind, to fit it for future acquisition and usefulness. 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 can not do it, will in vain look for success in any department of study. To effect any purpose in study, the mind must be concentrated. If any other object plays on the fancy than that which ought to be exclusively before it, the mind is divided, and both are neutralized, so as to lose their effect. 7. Patience is a virtue kindred to attention; and without it, the mind can not be said to be disciplined. Patient labor and investigation are not only essential to success in study, but are an unfailing guarantee to success. The student should learn to think and act for himself. True originality consists in doing things well, and doing them in our own way. A mind, half-educated, is generally imitating others. No man was ever great by imitation. Let it be remembered that we can not copy greatness or goodness by any effort. We must acquire them, if ever attained, by our own patience and diligence. 8. Students are in danger of neglecting the memory. It is too valuable to be neglected; for, by it, wonders are sometimes accomplished. He who has a memory that can seize with an iron grasp, and retain what he reads, — the ideas, simply, without the language, -and judgment to compare and balance, will scarcely fail of being distin guished. Why has that mass of thought, observation, and experience, which is embodied in books by the multitude of minds which have gone before us, been gathered, if not that we may use it, and stand on high ground, and push our way still farther into the boundaries and regions of knowledge? 9. Let every student reflect, that this is the time to form habits, and to begin a course of mental discipline, which, in a few years, will raise him high in the esteem and the honors of his fellow-men. Every distinguished man has traveled the same path. There is no other road to knowledge, to improvement, to distinction. This very discipline is the only thing that can bring the mind under proper subjection. SELF LESSON XX. SELF-CULTURE. CHANNING. ELF-CULTURE is something possible. It is not a dream. It has foundations in our nature. Without this conviction, the speaker will but declaim, and the hearer listen, without profit. There are two powers of the human soul which make self-culture possible, the self-searching and the self-forming power. We have first the faculty of turning the mind on itself; of recalling its past and watching its present operations; of learning its various capacities and susceptibilities, what it can do and bear, what it can enjoy and suffer; and of thus learning in general what our nature is, and what it is made for. 2. It is worthy of observation, that we are able to discern not only what we already are, but what we may become; to see in ourselves germs and promises of a growth to which no bounds can be set; and that, by using the powers which God has given us, we can dart beyond what we have actually gained. But self-culture is possible, not only because we can enter into and search ourselves, but because we have a still nobler power, that of acting on, determining, and forming ourselves. This is a fearful as well as glorious endowment; for it is the ground of human responsibility. We have the power not only of tracing our powers, but of guiding and impelling them; not only of watching our passions, but of controlling them; not only of seeing our faculties grow, but of applying to them means and influences to aid their growth. 3. We can stay or change the current of thought. We can concentrate the intellect on objects which we wish to comprehend. We can fix our eyes on perfection, and make almost every thing speed us toward it. Of all the discoveries which men need to make, the most important, at the present moment, is that of the self-forming power treasured up in themselves. They little suspect its extent, as little as the savage apprehends the energy which the mind is created to exert on the material world. It transcends in importance all our power over outward nature. There is more divinity in it than in the force which impels the outward universe; and yet how little we comprehend it! How it slumbers in most men unsuspected, unused! This makes self-culture possible, and binds it on us as a solemn duty. 4. To cultivate any thing-be it a plant, an animal, or a mind—is to make it grow. Growth, expansion, is the end. Nothing admits culture but that which has a principle of life capable of being expanded. He, therefore, who does what he can to unfold all his powers and |