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CHAP. II.

THE IMPROVEMENT OF TIME.

young, the

“ I asked an aged man, a man of cares,
Wrinkled, and curved, and white with hoary hairs ;
“ TIME is the warp of life,' he said. “Oh, tell
The

gay,

the fair, to weave it well.'
I asked the ancient, venerable dead,
Sages who wrote, and warriors who bled;
From the cold grave a hollow murmur flowed :
* Time sowed the seeds we reap in this abode.'
I asked a dying sinner, ere the tide
Of life had left his veins ;—TIME,' he replied,
“I've lost it! Ah, the treasure !' and he died.
I asked the golden sun and silver spheres,
Those bright chronometers of days and years.
They answered, 'Time is but a meteor's glare,'
And bade us for Eternity prepare.
I asked the Seasons in their annual round,
That beautify or desolate the ground;
And they replied (no oracle more wise),
• 'Tis Folly's blank, but Wisdom's highest prize."

-we

WHATEVER our position in the world,—how poor or how exalted soever our parents, are every one of us endowed with one rich inheritance on our entrance into life, of which

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no human being is able to deprive us. This gift, conferred on us by a beneficent Creator, for the happiness of others and for our own, is called “ TIME.” On ourselves it depends whether its possession be a source of happiness or of misery. True, to use it wisely, is to insure a large amount of all the best blessings of life; while to squander our rich patrimony is to court misery in this world, and to wholly unfit us for another.

We cannot overrate the value of Time, any more than we can compel its stay with us. Each night a certain amount of our whole allotted quantity has been withdrawn, and so much less is left for us to employ. How much may yet remain to us is uncertain; it is a problem no mortal can solve. Whether half a century or but half a minute remains to us we cannot tell. All that we do know is that the present moment is our own; our own, so far, that we have indeed the power to use or to abuse it as we please; but not our own, in that it is a loan, of which we must give a strict account to the lender. All that is certain about it is its utter uncer

tainty! All that we know is, that we know nothing!

What a marvellous thing is TIME! A friend or an enemy-a blessing or a curse, according to our own appreciation of it. Uninfluenced by our wishes it marches onward, and we seek in vain to retard or to accelerate its footsteps. Nay, so strange are its ways, that whilst it appears to fly from those who would seek to lengthen its stay, it steals along with feet of lead from those who would fain give it wings.

Amidst all this uncertainty, however, one fact is indisputable--it is this, that for us, ere long, “ TIME shall be no more ;" that neither love, nor wealth, nor learning, nor any other thing that we either have or are, can restore to us one single moment which we have wasted, or lengthen our years when the hour of death has

come.

How, then, shall we best use the fleeting hours ? how improve to the greatest advantage the gift of Time? To the young especially this should be a matter for serious deliberation, since all they can hope to have or to be depends on their improvement of time during the days of their youth. Indeed, its use or its neglect constitutes the difference between the happy and the unhappy, the successful and the unsuccessful, man or woman. From the girl who habitually wastes time, it is impossible to hope any good; for whatever her intellect or talents may be, unless her time is spent in improving them, she cannot attain to excellence. If she can dispense with personal exertion, as a matter of necessity, she still is a weariness to herself and to every one belonging to her. And if her circumstances be limited, and it be a duty for her to labour to save, if not to earn, it becomes still more serious; for if, in all instances it be true that “Idleness is the root of all evil,” it is so most especially in the case of woman. The love of ease, the want of the power and the habit of exerting herself, is the besetting sin which leads a woman into a thousand temptations. To her, it is, emphatically, the root of all evil.

Be sure, too, that she who habitually wastes time, the most precious thing she possesses, will not be economical of anything else; whilet

there never yet was found a person who systematically employed every hour of his days who did not ultimately succeed in any path of life he might have entered.

This value of time has been indeed a prominent characteristic of all our most eminent men and women.

Sir Walter Scott, who used to write for hours before any of the rest of the family had risen, although not (as he himself said) without any one being the wiser ; the Duke of Wellington, whose correspondence alone would have terrified half a dozen professed clerks; Elizabeth Smith, whose wonderful attainments never impeded the due performance of every domestic duty; Hannah More, Miss Edgeworth, and very many others might be cited, as instances of the possibility of performing a vast amount of labour without becoming a recluse, or neglecting any of the social duties of life, simply by using every minute for some purpose of business or pleasure.

If we have made up our minds to improve our own time to the utmost, the first thing to consider is, “What we have to do ?” and then,