To make the best and fullest use of our time, regularity is absolutely necessary in the arrangement of our pleasures and occupations, as celerity and attention are in our pursuit of them.

Were we to reflect upon the frightful havock made in the brief period allotted to our existence upon earth, by slowness and want of methodical proceeding, we should be too much shocked to require any other incentive to improve our faulty practices. Lassitude is said to have been introduced into the world by sloth; to which might be added, that those who waste most time are always complaining of their want of it.

Solon caused idleness to be punished by infamy, and deprived every father who neglected to give his son a trade, of the assistance which he might otherwise have had in his old age. But what need have we of heathen wisdom to guard us against waste or neglect of time? Holy writ expressly condemns it, and both by precept and narrated examples teaches us that it is in itself one of the greatest vices, and is, besides, the parent of innumerable others.

ORDER.

To do any thing well, we should do every thing regularly. Without order all things are hurried, and more time is lost in selecting what to do first, than with a proper arrangement would suffice to do all: hours are lost, duties eglected or ill performed, the temper ruffled,

and, frequently, the most important interests irreparably injured.

Order is the parent of comfort and ease; but the perfection of order includes a perfect absence of all appearance of effort. A constant habit of putting the same things in the same places, and performing the same duties at the same times, will always enable us to find what we want, and do what is to be done, readily, pleasantly, and without any annoyance to others.

As an auxiliary, and a very powerful one, to order, we earnestly recommend to our young friends the practice of early rising. It is astonishing how much may be effected by curtailing an hour or two in the morning from indolent and unnecessary indulgence. Whether as it regards health, beauty, or mental improvement, this practice cannot be too earnestly recommended.

How cheerful is the face of nature in early morning! and how pure and balmy is the breeze which fans the cheek of the early riser, and gives, and preserves to it, that purity of breath, and bloom of complexion, which are the very perfume and essence of beauty!

But a more important consideration, which should have proportionately greater weight in inducing us to rise early, is the certainty, that our CREATOR will call upon us for an account of our lives; and that the time which is given to sloth will be charged against us as ill spent. Short as human life is, the sluggard renders it still shorter; and adds to the awfulness of his future account a new sin, in every minute of sluggish inaction and criminal indulgence.

TO A SISTER.

THE Soft gale of summer, though past,
Will breathe of the rose it loved last;
Thus divided by land and by sea,
My soul whispers fondly of thee.

And to me thou art now as a star,
In the blue depths of heaven afar;
On which, from the gloom of my lot,
I can gaze till my griefs are forgot.

And my spirit full oft when it turns
From the cold hearted crowd which it spurns,
Confesses with pain, yet with pride,

It hath found but One like thee beside.

I

may err-and have erred,-for a mind
That finds not repose-nor can find-
All helmless and heavenless tost,
Like a wreck on the ocean-is lost.

But oh! when most wild or most weak,
Let me think of the tear on thy cheek,-
And, as one from a serpent would start,
My soul and her madness shall part.

I once sighed for the wreath that is wove Round the brow of the blest in their love; And I burned for the raptures that steal Through those hearts which are felt for, and feel;

I once hoped the proud laurel should bloom,
Ever green on my temple, or tomb,-
And I thought round this rude harp of mine,
An amaranth leaf might entwine.

Alas! they were dreams that pass on,
Like a cloud o'er the moon, and are gone!
For the stone that may tell of my name,
Shall speak not of fortune or fame.

Yet, dear one, though hopeless I be,
Divided and distant from Thee,

My lot shall not make me repine,
Whilst thy fondness and friendship are mine.

Farewell! with thy purity blest,

Be still my own star in the west!
For thy beam has a passionate spell,
Which binds me to earth-Fare-thee-well!

READING.

To read well, is to possess a most useful and agreeable qualification; and though reading is the earliest commenced branch of our education, few acquire that degree of proficiency in it which is attainable. Perhaps this partly arises from injudicious tuition in early life, but chiefly, we incline to believe, from self-neglect in more mature years. For the latter we can offer no remedy; for if any be ignorant of the great uses of reading, and the constant and careful practice which alone will acquire or preserve excellence in this accomplishment, their early education

has been to so little purpose, that nothing that we could say would cause them to betake themselves to study.

But to our young readers, who wish to improve themselves, and for whose improvement and amusement we are diligently, and, we trust, not quite unsuccessfully labouring, some hints towards correcting erroneous, and acquiring judicious habits of reading, will perhaps not be unacceptable, more especially as they will be brief.

1. Reading is neither more nor less than speaking another's words for him; consequently, unless you fully understand a composition, you cannot possibly read it even tolerably.

2. The first point then to be attended to, is to put yourself in possession of the author's sense, and also of his peculiar turn of expression, and general tone of thinking; for unless you have secured this possession, nothing but mere chance can enable you so to modulate your voice, and place your emphasis, as to convey to your hearers the meaning of him whose words you are speaking.

3. Bearing in mind what reading is, be careful to read as you would speak; that is, to speak the words of your author in the same key or tone in which you would speak words of your own expressive of the same feelings upon the same object.

4. A very arbitrary use is made of punctuation; and in many compositions, if you give to each stop precisely the pause which it techni cally represents, you will most assuredly neither do justice to your author, nor give any satisfaction to your auditors. A proper attention to