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MISCELLANIES.

ADDRESSES TO YOUNG MEN.

I.

YOUTH THE SEASON FOR THE FORMATION OF CHARACTER, AND THE CULTIVATION OF ACTIVE HABITS.*

"He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city.”— PROV. xvi. 32.

THE season of youth I take to be that period of the life of man, during which he is passing from a state of what may be called comparative passivity or passiveness to a state of activity; and the importance of that season to the individual man himself, and to his fellows whom he may influence, depends mainly on this of transition which is then going on.

process

Of course it is not to be supposed, that these two phases or conditions of man's nature can be exactly discriminated, or that the precise limits which separate the one from the other, in point of time, or even in respect of their distinguishing features, can be with

* The readers of this paper are recommended to consult Foster's Essay on Decision of Character, and a Lecture on Man's Responsibility for his Dispositions, Opinions, and Conduct, by Isaac Taylor, Esq., author of the "Natural History of Enthusiasm."

perfect accuracy defined. They mutually shade off towards the line of junction, and are blended together. No uniform, nor even any average, date in a man's life can be fixed, at which he may be said fairly to leave the first state, and to enter upon the second; nor is either state free from the admixture of the element which chiefly predominates in the other. Thus, even in the earliest childhood, the active working of the mind on the materials presented to it may be discerned and traced; while, in the full vigour of maturest manhood, the soul is still, more or less, the passive recipient of impressions and influences from without, by which, to the last, it continues to be modified and moulded. Much, also, will be found to depend on the peculiarities of individual temperament, and the varieties of situation, habit, and occupation among men.

Still there is a sufficiently broad and generally well marked line of distinction between infancy and early boyhood, when what may be termed the passive department of man's constitution is more developed than the active-or at least tells more upon his destiny; and the stage of ripe and full growth, when the active prevails and rules over the passive or at least may and ought to do so. The debatable land, as it were, lying between the two, is the province, of greater or less extent as the case may be, which we assign to the occupation of youth. And the great and arduous problem with which youth, as occupying that province, has to deal, is to adjust the relative claims and rights of these antagonist elements of human nature, so that the result may be a finished moral agent a perfect and complete man-rescued from the undue dominion of

circumstances, endowed with a mastery over them, and thus thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

The hinge of the great practical and vital question which youth has to resolve, is the mysterious but undeniable fact of responsibility; for on the right understanding and application of that fact or principle of our constitution, every thing depends.

That there is in this fact a certain mystery,—that in respect of his responsibility man is fearfully and wonderfully made,—it were vain to deny. Whence this universal idea of duty, of merit, and of blame—this joint sense of freedom and of accountability-which sophistry may perplex, and sin may vitiate, but neither sophistry nor sin can ever eradicate? That I am at full liberty to act as I choose, but that on every choice I make some sort of awful obligation lies, and some unknown issues depend, my instinctive consciousness tells me. Bet it tells me nothing more. This, however, which it does tell me, is enough; for it is distinct, palpable, unequivocal. So far the trumpet gives no uncertain sound. Obscure mists may gather in the high regions of metaphysical and transcendental speculation. They are mists, however, which in theory overhang equally all the fields of human knowledge, whether physical or moral, whether secular or sacred, while in practice they never actually come in contact with any. And on the broad path which man has to tread, as made not to speculate but to act, the lights of his own inborn instincts, whether of sense or reason, shine with a steadiness sufficient to prevent mistake, or to make mistake, if it occur, wilful and inexcusable. Of these lights, the conviction of respon

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