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tread-mill would afford regular and powerful exercise; but it would be intolerably irksome. It might give you iron sinews, but the soul would be gloomy and cheerless. It is of the first importance, that you take pleasure in the exercise. Walking is good, but not if you must walk as a mill-horse. Riding is good, but not if you had to ride a wooden horse. Be sure, in your hour of exercising, to cultivate cheerfulness. 'Writers, of every age, have endeavoured to show that pleasure is in us, and not in the objects offered for our amusement. If the soul be happily disposed, everything becomes a subject of entertainment."

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(3.) It should relax the mind. Philosophy

can teach us to be stubborn or sullen when misfortunes come; and religion can enable us to bear them with resignation; but to a man whose health and spirits are good, they never come with their full power. We should aim to keep both the mind and body in such a condition, that our present circumstances may be pleasant, and the future undreaded. But this cannot be done if the mind be always keyed up like the strings of the musical instrument. The mind that attains the habit of throwing off study and anxiety, and relaxing itself at once, has made a valuable acquisition.

I should be sorry to have my remarks construed as tending to discountenance any manual labour by which the student or the professional man may benefit himself. Many illustrious men have alternately followed the plough, harangued in the forum, commanded armies, and bent over their books. The patriarchs and the distinguished son of Jesse were shepherds, as were Moses and some of the prophets. Paul, though

no mean scholar, was a tent-maker. Cleanthes was a gardener's labourer, and used to draw water and spread it on his garden in the night, that he might have time to study during the day. Cæsar, as every student knows, studied in the camp, and swam rivers holding his writings out of the water in one hand. Of Gustavus Vasa it is said, "A better labourer never struck steel." It is by no means certain that these men would ever have been as distinguished for mental excellence, had they not endured all these fatigues of the body. If you can feel as cheerful and happy in the garden, the field, or the workshop, as you can while walking with a companion, it is to be preferred to walking. But that regular daily exercise which is most pleasant to you, is that which, of all others, will be the most beneficial.

Permit me to say, in a word, that no student is doing justice to himself, to his friends, or to the world, without the habit of a uniform system of exercise; and that for the following

reasons:

[1] Your life will probably be prolonged by it. The Creator has not so formed the body, that it can endure to be confined, without exercise, while the mind burns and wears out its energies and powers every moment.

[2.] You will enjoy more with than without exercise.

This remark is to be applied only to those who take exercise daily; and to such it does apply with great force. Every one who has formed this habit will bear ample and most decided testimony to this point.

[3.] You add to the enjoyment of others.

A cheerful companion is a treasure; and exercise will make you cheerful.

[4.] Your mind will be strengthened by exercise.

Were you wishing to cultivate a morbid, sickly taste, which will, now and then, breathe out some beautiful poetical image or thought, like the spirit of some most refined essence, too delicate to be handled or used in this matter-of-fact world, and too ethereal to be enjoyed, except by those of like taste, you should shut yourself up in your room for a few years, till your nerves only continue to act, and the world floats before you as a dream. But if you wish for a mind that can fearlessly dive into what is deep, soar to what is high, grasp and hold what is strong, and move and act among minds-firm, resolved, manly in its aims and purposes; be sure to be regular in taking daily exercise.

"We consist of two parts, of two very different parts; the one inert, passive, utterly incapable of directing itself, barely ministerial to the other, moved, animated by it. When our body has its full health and strength, the mind is so far assisted thereby, that it can bear a closer and longer application; our apprehension is readier; our imagination is livelier; we can better enlarge our compass of thought; we can examine our perceptions more strictly, and compare them more exactly. By which means we are enabled to form a truer judgment of things; to remove, more effectually, the mistakes into which we have been led by a wrong education, by passion, inattention, custom, example; to have a clearer view of what is best for us, of what is most for our interest, and thence determine ourselves more readily to its pursuit, and persist therein with greater resolution and steadiness."

CHAPTER VIII.

DISCIPLINE OF THE HEART.

ONE of the first steps to be taken, if you would have a character that will stand by you in prosperity and in adversity, in life and death, is to fortify your mind with fixed principles.

There is no period of life in which the heart is so much inclined to scepticism and infidelity as in youth. Not that young men are infidels, but the mind is tossed from doubt to doubt, like a light boat leaping from wave to wave. There is no positive settling down into deism or infidelity, but the heart is full of doubting, so that the mind has no position, in morals or religion, fortified. If the restraints of education are so far thrown off as to allow you to indulge in sin, which is in any way disgraceful if known, you will then easily become an infidel. "The nurse of infidelity is sensuality. The young are sensual. The Bible stands in their way. It prohibits the indulgence of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life.' But the young mind loves these things, and therefore it hates the Bible, which prohibits them. It is prepared to say, 'If any man will bring me arguments against the Bible, I will thank him; if not, I will invent them.' As to infidel arguments, there is no weight

in them. They are jejune and refuted. Infidels are not themselves convinced by them. What sort of men are infidels? They are loose, fierce, overbearing men. There is nothing in them like sober and serious inquiry. They are the wildest fanatics on earth. Nor have they agreed among themselves on any scheme of truth and felicity. Look at the needs and necessities of man. 'Every pang of grief tells a man he needs a helper; but infidelity provides none. And what can its schemes do for you in death?' Examine your conscience. Why is it that you listen to infidelity? Is not infidelity a low, carnal, wicked course? Is it not the very picture of the prodigal, 'Father, give me the portion of goods which falleth to me?' Why, why will a man be an infidel? Draw out the map of the road of infidelity. It will lead you to such stages, at length, as you could never suspect." This is the testimony of one who had himself travelled the road of infidelity.

I will here put it to my reader to say, whether he can recollect, in all he has known of men from history or observation, a great, discriminating, and efficient mind, a mind that has blessed the world in any degree, which was thoroughly imbued with infidel principles? Take the writings of such a mind, and you will, generally speaking, be astonished at the vulgarity, sophistry, puerility, and weakness, which are continually marking its progress. It is justly remarked by some writer, I know not whom, "that the mind which has been warped and biased upon one great subject, is not safely to be trusted upon another." And can we

say of a man, "It is true that the evidences of the Christian religion, which carry along with them the soundest judgments, and the most profound minds, did not meet a reception in his-it is true

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