which, according to the concise definition of Watts," "teaches to use reason well, in inquiries after truth," is an important aid in the acquisition of all other sciences.

4. Ethics and sacred literature will undoubtedly occupy a prominent place in your system. These embrace a wide range, and comprehend some of the most gifted minds of which our world can boast. Books for perusal on the Sabbath should ever partake of the character of that consecrated day.

5. The command to rescue a seventh part of our time from the vanities of life, and select such topics of meditation and discourse as serve to prepare for a higher and purer state of existence, is indeed a great privilege. Let the Scriptures form a part of the study of every day.

6. All systematic reading should be with a fixed purpose to remember and to profit. Cultivate the retentive power, by daily and persevering exercise. If any one complains that she has a weak memory, it is her own fault. She does not take due pains to give it strength.

7. Does she forget the period for meals, the season for repose? Does she forget the appointed hour for the evening party, or to furnish herself with a fitting dress in which to appear there? Does she forget the plot of the last romance, or the notes of a fashionable piece of music? Yet some of these involve detail, and require application. Why, then might not the same mind contain a few historical facts, with their correlative dates? Frankly, because it does not feel the same interest, nor put forth the same effort.

8. I am inclined to think memory capable of indefinite improvement, by a judicious and persevering regimen." Read, therefore, what you desire to remember with concentrated and undivided attention. Close the book, and reflect. Undigested food throws the whole frame into a ferment. Were we as well acquainted with our intellectual as with our phys ical structure, we should see undigested knowledge producing equal disorder in the mind.

9. To strengthen the memory, the best course is not to

Watts; a distinguished poet and divine. b Regimen; discipline, government.

com nit page after page verbatim, but to give the substance of the author correctly and clearly in your own language. Thus the understanding and memory are exercised at the same time; and the prosperity of the mind is not so much advanced by the undue prominence of any one faculty as by the true balance and vigorous action of all. Memory aud understanding are also fast friends, and the light which one gains will be reflected upon the other.

10. Use judgment in selecting from the mass of what you read the parts which it will be useful or desirable to remember. Separate and arrange them, and give them in charge to memory. Tell her it is her duty to keep them, and to bring thein forth when you require. She has the capacities of a faithful servant, and possibly the dispositions of an idle But you have the power of enforcing obedience, and of overcoming her infirmities.

one.

11. To facilitate the management of memory, it is well to keep in view that her office is threefold. Her first effort is to receive knowledge; her second, to retain it; her last, to bring it forth when it is needed. The first act is solitary, the silence of fixed attention. The next is also sacred to herself and her ruling power, and consists in frequent, thorough ex. amination of the state and order of the things committed to her.

12. The third act is social, rendering her treasures available to the good of others. Daily intercourse with a cultivated mind is the best method to rivet, refine, and polish the hoarded gems of knowledge. Conversation with intelligent men is eminently serviceable.

13. For after all our exultation on the advancing state of female education, with the other sex will be found the wealth of classical knowledge and profound wisdom. If you have a parent, or older friend, who will, at the close of each day, kindly listen to what you have read, and help to fix in your memory the portions most worthy of regard, count it a privilege of no common value, and embrace it with sincere gratitude.

⚫ Classical knowledge; a knowledge of the Greek and Latin authors. mean a knowledge of standard authors in general.

It may also

LESSON XIII.

RULES FOR THE ATTAINMENT OF KNOWLEDGE.

WATTS.

1. DEEPLY impress your mind with the vast importance of a sound judgment, and the rich and inestimable advantage of right reasoning. Review the instances of your own mis conduct in life, and observe how many follies and sorrows you would have escaped, if from your early years you had taken due pains to judge rightly concerning persons, times, and things. This will awaken you to the work of improving your reasoning powers, and of seizing every opportunity and advantage for this end.

2. Take a wide survey, now and then, of the unlimited regions of learning. Let your meditations run over the names of all the sciences, with their numerous branchings and particular themes of knowledge, and then reflect with how few of them you are acquainted. The most learned of mortals will never find occasion to act over again what is fabled of Alexander the Great; that when he had conquered what was called the Eastern world, he wept for want of more worlds to conquer. The worlds of science are innumerable and endless.

3. Read the accounts of those vast treasures of knowledge which some of the dead have possessed, and some of the living do possess, and be astonished at the almost incredible advances that have been made in science. Acquaint yourself with some persons of great learning, that, by comparing yourself with them, you may acquire a just opinion of your own attainments, and be animated with a generous and laudable emulation to equal or exceed them. But remember, if upon a few superficial acquirements you value and exalt yourself as though you were already learned, you are thereby erecting an impassable barrier against all improvement.

4. Presume not too much upon a bright genius, a ready

■ Alex-an'der the Great; a Grecian general of great talents but corrupt morals

wit and good parts; for these, without labor and study, will never make a man of knowledge and wisdom. Persons of a gay and vigorous fancy have often fallen into this mistake. They have been acknowledged to shine in an assembly, and sparkle in a discourse upon common topics, and therefore have resolved to abandon reading and study; but when they had lost their vivacity of animal nature and youth, they became stupid and sottish even to contempt and ridicule. It is meditation and studious thought that gives good sense even to the best genius.

you

5. Exercise your reason and judgment upon all read; for if your learning be a mere accumulation of what others have written, without a due penetration into the meaning, and a judicious choice and determination of your own sentiments, your head has little better title to true knowledge than the shelves of your library.

6. Do not be suddenly taken upon the surfaces of things, or with mere appearances, for this will fill the mind with errors and prejudices, and give it an ill habit of thinking; but penetrate into the depth of matters, as far as your time and circumstances will allow.

a

7. Once a day, especially in the early years of life and study, examine what new ideas you have gained, and what advances you have made in any part of knowledge, and let no day, if possible, pass away without some intellectual gain. It was a sacred rule among the Pythagoreans, that they should, every evening, run thrice over the actions and affairs of the day, and examine what their conduct had been, what they had done, and what they had neglected; assured that, by this method, they would make a rapid progress in the path of knowledge and virtue.

Py-thag-o're-ans; the followers of Pythagoras, a Grecian philosopher.

LESSON XIV.

ON THE STUDY OF HISTORY.

1. THE advantages found in history seem to be of three Kinds; it amuses the fancy, improves the understanding, and strengthens virtue. In reality, what entertainment is there. more agreeable to the mind than to be transported into the remotest ages of the world, and to observe human society, in its infancy, making the first faint essays towards the arts and sciences?

2. What is more pleasant than to see the policy of government and the civility of conversation refining by degrees, and everything that is ornamental to human life adva.cing toward its perfection? than to mark the rise, progress, declension, and final extinction, of the most flourishing empires; the virtues which contribute to their greatness, and the vices which drew on their ruin?

3. In short, to see all the human race, from the beginning of time, pass as it were in review before us, appearing in their true colors, without any of those disguises which, during their lifetime, so much perplex the judgment of the beholders, what spectacle can be imagined so magnificent, so various, so interesting?

4. What amusement, either of the senses or imagination, can be compared with it? Shall those trifling pastimes, which engross so much of our time, be preferred, as more satisfactory and more fit to engage our attention? How perverse must that taste be, which is capable of so wrong a choice of pleasures!

5. But history is a most improving part of knowledge, as well as an agreeable amusement; and, indeed, a great part of what we commonly call erudition, and value so highly, is nothing but an acquaintance with historical facts. An extensive knowledge of this kind belongs to men of letters; but I must think it an unpardonable ignorance in persons of whatever sex or condition not to be acquainted with the history