fathers, we know, so long as integrity reigns in their hearts, it shall be well with them. In this age of progress, the temper of our young men is admirably adapted to the genius of our country. If we can engage them on the side of wisdom and of God, we need have no fears for the expansion, in their hands, of trade, commerce, and business, in their multiplied forms. Washington, carrying a surveyor's chain at seventeen, exhibited the elements of every great quality, of the perseverance, wisdom, honesty, sagacity, and dauntless devotion to duty, that marked him at fifty. The seed was then planted, and ere long it sprang up. It needed only the plan drawn by Providence, a bold revolution, a protracted struggle for life, liberty, and happiness; and, finally, the mighty government of the United States called forth that which God had enshrined in that massive form and peerless soul.

We earnestly hope to eradicate the impression, so fatal to many a young man, that one cannot live by being perfectly honest. You for whom we write must know men who have gone on for years in unbroken prosperity, and yet never adopted that base motto, "All is fair in trade." You must have seen, too, noble examples of those who have met with losses and failures, and yet risen from them all with a conscious integrity, and who have been sustained by the testimony all around them, that though unfortunate, they were never dishonest. When we set before you such examples, when we show you not only that "honesty is the best policy," but that it is the very keystone of the whole arch of manly and Christian

qualities, it cannot be that every ingenuous heart does not respond to the appeal. Heaven grant all such to feel that an "honest man is the noblest work of God," and to live as they feel.

Now, while the imagination is fertile in schemes, while the soul has not bowed to conventionalism, nor been chilled by doubts and fears, while the mountain air of hope, and not that of the murky vales of disappointment and distrust, is the life-breath of the interior being-now is the day to set the feet in the God-opened path of a sound, true, and enduring prosperity.

There is a stream which rises in equatorial regions, and flows onward and onward, warming the chilled waters through which it passes, and spreading mildness, verdure, and beauty over the cold and otherwise bleak lands of the adjacent North. So do our earnest young men diffuse a genial and invigorating influence through the whole tone of society around them, quickening the slow pulse of the aged, and giving an impulse to their seniors in trade, art, and industry. If it be but a warmth beaming from the rays of the great Sun of righteousness, a power which sheds light, and never darkness-if it be a healthful heat, and never a lurid glare-blessed is the land of their birth and their abode! God grant such a boon to our homes, such a brace in our shocks and trials! It will be a power lifting us, as a community, ever nearer to the high standard of a perfect integrity, and an all-regarding justice, a noble, and ever-expanding self-sacrifice, and a deep, unquestioned piety. Our young men have but

to contend against sordid views and selfish purposesagainst impure principles and corrupt practices—to live for the future and not for the present alone—to live for God, and not for man supremely, and all will be well with them and well with us.

CHAPTER IV.

SELF-EDUCATION.

HE subject of this chapter is self-education. The word is often applied to the acquisition. of knowledge alone, but we will give it a more extended and more important application. Not only the intellect needs to be educated, but also the tastes, the affections, the manners, and the character. There is diversity of talents, of gifts, and of opportunities. It is our duty to use those which we have to the best advantage, and thereby to secure their enlargement.

The majority of young men are led, either by necessity or choice, to enter upon the active duties of life with an imperfect education, and comparatively unformed in character. He is set to work, and is very often kept so constantly employed, that it requires a good deal of resolution to find either time or inclination for anything else. There is a strong temptation to give up the leisure time which comes, either to natural indolence or to frivolous amusement. If the temptation is yielded to, the result is constant deterioration of character; and instead of educating himself,

the young man is soon diverted from the best purposes of life, and brought under influences which forbid either his moral or intellectual elevation.

The great fault of the young under such circumstances, as we have already said, is the want of a fixed aim, and of resolution in keeping it. There is a want also of self-reliance. They too readily yield their own principles and purposes to those around them, and instead of forming themselves after the model which they held before them at first, they suffer themselves to be formed by others. It is here that the importance of self-education is seen.

The young should begin with a standard of excellence before them, to which they should resolutely conform themselves. There should be a fixed determination to make the best of one's self, in whatever circumstances we are placed. Let the young man determine, that whatever he undertakes he will do well; that he will make himself master of the business upon which he enters, and always prepare himself for advancement by becoming worthy of it. It is not opportunity of rising which is wanting, so often as the ability to rise. It is not the patronage of friends and the outward helps of fortune, to which the prominent mert of our country owe their elevation, either in wealth or influence, so much as to their own vigorous and steady exertions. We hear a great many complaints, both among young men and old, of the favouritism of fortune and the partiality of the world; but my observation leads me to believe, that, to a great extent, those who deserve promotion obtain it. Those who are worthy of confidence