Aids to Self-Culture.

No. III.

HUMAN life is conditioned. To be conditioned is to be environed with objectivities which circumscribe, influence, or operate against our nature. These externalities all that belongs to the Non-ego—are under the government of Law, and regularly and invariably obey its requirements. Hence, Man is ever encircled with, and impressed by recurrent series of sequences to which he must become subject, or over which he must attain and retain supremacy. To acquire and preserve this dominance, he must gain a correct knowledge of the laws which govern phenomena, and conform his habits and actions to the irreversible statutes ordained throughout the empire of Nature. Within that empire all is Law, and every objectivity which exists therein is surely though silently submissive to its influences. These objectivities have and retain certain inherent and special qualities, affections, and properties, which distinguish them each from each, and constitute the signs of their individuality. Each objectivity strives not only to preserve its own specific properties, but also attempts to subdue to itself the peculiar attributes of every other. There is, therefore, in Nature a continual and continuous warfare and change. In the centre of this immense intertwistment of actively operating causes Man has been placed, and amongst these he must effectively assert his right to live. Thus it is that life becomes a discipline Over all circumstances the personality of Man must triumph. The full and perfec development of human personality is culture.

There exists in Man special and peculiar capacities potentially excitable on the presentment of certain given stimulants. Upon the due and proportional excitement of each of these specific powers in its own time, and after its own manner, properly subordinated, however, to the design of the individual life, human development depends. To place one's own life into such circumstances, and to bring it under such influences as shall most efficiently and certainly conduce to the consentaneous development of all the powers with which it is endowed, by a sustained and continued voluntary intellectual effort, is the prime specific and essential of self-culture.

Thus, alone, is it possible to elevate one's-self to the true dignity of man,—

"The master-work, the end

Of all yet done; a creature who, not prone
And brute as other creatures, but endued
With sanctity of Reason, might erect
His stature, and upright with front serene
Govern the rest self-knowing; and from thence
Magnanimous to correspond with Heaven,
Be grateful to acknowledge whence his good
Descends, thither with heart, and voice, and eyes
Directed in devotion, to adore

And worship God Supreme, who made him chief
Of all his works."

Culture occasions growth. Wheresoever growth or progress is observable-throughout

the whole domain of life and organization-it results from the excitation of a self-developing potency, inherent in the germant object, by some agency exterior to itself, towards which, however, that object exhibits the utmost nicety and choiceness prior to its exerting that adaptive assimilation which constitutes growth. So also is it in man. Phenomena surround him, and Law governs phenomena; amid these phenomena, and within the circle of these ever-active laws, his life-lot is assigned-amongst these he must inweave his will, and with them or against them he must achieve his personality and assert his self-hood. The sense of conscious existence and personal activity and power thus excited and nurtured, must never be resigned. Ever the human Ego must proclaim war against the enslavement of the phenomenal world, and resolutely do battle against the ensnarements of sense. To have all the powers and faculties of the intellect under the supreme dominion and entire control of the self-conscious activity of the mind-to be self-directive and self-motived-is to be truly cultured, is to be truly great, is—

"To stand forth

And turn this frame of things the right side up."

These general views of the philosophy of life being propounded, lead us now to consider how these externalities may be employed as agents in self-culture, and this we shall do while considering-

THE EXTERNAL MEANS OF SELF-CULture.

Life is educative. The formation of individual character, and the acquirement of intellectual, moral, and religious habits, are its grand purposes. Hence, Life is a discipline of duty. Everywhere we are admonished that Duty ought to be the centre-light of every thought and deed. Duty is the result of true knowledge and right desires. Man must know in order that he may be able to do. To acquire knowledge is the preparative to, and the initiation of, Duty,—the first step towards the great end of being, that is-"to keep the spirit pure by the repellant strength of virtue." Let us now proceed to enumerate one or two of those means of culture with which we are surrounded.

1st, Nature.- Nature, most beautiful of illuminated manuscripts—eternal classic-primeval book of God-how vast, how wisdom-filled! Ever as the ages roll, and thoughtful men acquire a profounder knowledge of those combinations of "the alphabet of heaven” which constitute facts, or are interpreted into truths, the page of Nature becomes more lustrous in its beauty, and more adapted to excite intellectual activity and emotional warmth. "The celestial cipher," blazoned on the broad blue evening sky, who can rightly read?—the symphonies of the ever-billowed sea, who can adequately translate?-the mellow music which the autumn breezes utter, who can re-echo? When earthquakes open the rock-leaves on which God has imprinted the secret records of creation, whence can the fitting expounder be summoned? Does not every chemical change-every electrical phenomenon-every exertion of mechanic force-every transformation of matter- every mode of life and being contain within it a mighty mystery, of which whoso can supply the exegesis is recognized as a glory to his race? To find the great thought which lies hid in the centre of each phenomenon to discover one of the great principles which regulated the counsels of creation-to construct an index of causation-to elucidate the laws which give harmony and order to the universe—and to teach the relations between objects and events—are not these

the acts to the accomplishers of which, as their fit reward, fame presents a passport to immortal honour? The choicest truths, the most important lessons, Nature hesitates not to impart to him who, with a student's earnest perseverance, pores upon her ample page. Nay, Man is so constituted that she entices him to read. The beauty and the glory, the sublimity and the grandeur, which permeate the universe, culture his taste, excite his curiosity, and stimulate his desires. Then, again, his wants imperatively demand an acquaintance with the structure and qualities of those things amid which he lives, while his fierce impatience of restraint makes him feelingly alive to the necessity of learning at what point Nature inclines to say to his invention--" thus far shalt thou go, and no farther; and here shall thy pride be stayed." Thus it is that scientific culture is originated, and these are the influences and opportunities which Nature supplies as aids to self-culture.

But we require more than scientific lore to make us truly wise. Not thought alone, but thought resulting in and combined with action, is the greatness of humanity. To accept "Nature and Nature's laws," and within the realms wherein they act, whether in subservience to or by the overmastery of them, to work out the purpose of our individual life, is not less needful than to know the attributes, and qualities, and powers of everything around us. Not for itself alone does any object exist, the entire end and aim of its being is not circumscribed by the circle in which you can encompass it; nor is its own nature that for the sake of which it was made. Creation is a harmonious unity, in which all is closely joined, and in which every item suggests, pre-supposes, and implies every other as its full complement.

"Each part may call the farthest, brother."

All the relationships, therefore, into which man is thus placed or brought, are educative agencies, from which the personal power of each individual man must derive nurture, if he be wise in soul. Think how firmness and concentrated mental energy are taught to the mariner by the rude ocean and the unruly winds; how, in the still quietude of summer, thankful gratitude is educed in the bosom of the sickly or toilworn; how, in the structure of a bridge to span a river's rapid waters, the endurance of disappointment and the patient contest with difficulty is learned; how faith and works require to be actively conjoined by the husbandman before he can receive rich autumn's gifts; and how, in every circumstance and station, death, and misfortune, and sorrow impart the lesson of humble dependence and eager watchfulness over the life and conduct, and it will be found that Nature is not less really and effectively a ministrant to moral than to scientific culture.

Trust, then, and labour to realize that trust, that Nature is no valueless instructress to those who stoop to win her favours. Bacon says truly, "Nature is only conquerable by submission." To know the laws to which she conforms, and to act in accordance with them, is the only effective way of making her work out our purposes. Every scientific or mechanical invention is but an adaptation of the laws of nature to the fulfilment of the will of man. If we can make her conform to our wishes, and fulfil our plans in these matters without violating her eternal purpose, why not also use her as an educative agent in the development of that mind with which God has endowed us? Why not cultivate a devout discipleship to Nature?

2nd, Society.-By Society, as an educative agent, I mean to include law, government, social duty, friendship, acquaintanceship, business, conversation, amusements, and all the

relations of life, which are implied in, or result from, the institution of Society. Shall I then be asked, From that terrible assemblage of uniformity and common-place-that viaduct of anile persiflage-that sweltering mass of selfishness and merchantic sinuousness -that organization of abuses named Society, what can be learned? "Much every way."

In the confused "babbledom" of gregarious humanity, all is not idle talk and insincerity; some lives are victorious over the pretentious ineptitude of the mob of mankind. The feverish titillation of the palm at the touch of gold is not all-powerful; the vain conceits which rank erects into barriers, shutting man from man, are not always strong enough to dispute successfully against the influences of friendship and love's sweet ecstacy; the emulative zeal which urges mankind onward, is not unfrequently free from petty jealousy and pettier hypocrisy; the old insanities of birth, rank, fortune, pre-eminence, or power, are sometimes exchanged for the generous honesty of hearty appreciation; sordid self-seeking is occasionally placed in bold contrast by honourable and praiseworthy disinterestedness; and the intense rivalries of man with man are often conducted with gentlemanly and candid acknowledgment of the merits of others. Keenly as the worldling's soul may be sharpened in its desires-torpidly as the luxury-out-worn spirit may feel the nobler impulses of emotion-the universal heart of humanity is not wholly polluted and vile. True, that— "Temptation hath a music for all ears,

And mad ambition trumpeteth to all."

That is life's mystery. And all is doubtless well. This at least we do know, that these very evils, within our own hearts, and abroad in society, are all useful in the culture of the soul. Resistancy to sin may overcome temptation, and thus the spirit may be strengthened in virtue. Example may be powerful to lead astray;-may it not be made equally efficacious in leading back? A knowledge of man-his errors, his weaknesses, his glory, and his greatness—may be acquired, and thus a lesson in our own heart may be re-echoed and impressed by the voice of experience. And surely we may even learn from the hypocritical homage vice pays to virtue-from the disguises in which men enwrap their evil doingsfrom the fear that is felt lest the eye of a fellow-man should fall upon us while engaged in the commission of a shabbiness or a sin-how sedulously careful we should be to avoid the indignant glance of the sin-hating God.

"Sure, 't should fright the sinner,

And make him a good coward; put a reveller

Out of his antic amble;

And cloy an epicure with empty dishes."

"No idlest word thou speakest," thought thou thinkest, or act thou doest, "but is a seed cast into time, to grow through all eternity." Society is a schoolmaster of wondrous efficacy; ever he teacheth; enter whatsoever class you choose-you have the choiceand he will instruct you, in good as in evil, still he worketh the monitorial system with exceeding infallibility, and in all classes secures progress in his pupils. Not the most insignificant of the many multitudes of men, but as one of the environments of our existence affects our progress. Hence the danger or the blessedness of companionship. Mingle not, therefore, heedlessly in the vast heterogeneity men call the social circle; choose well, act bravely, resist evil, persevere in good, keep on "the ethereal, heavenward side of things," be full of hope, and then―

"Press on! for it is godlike to unloose
The spirit, and forget yourself in thought,
Bending a pinion upwards to the sky.
And in the very fetters of your flesh
Mating with the pure essences of Heaven!
Press on! for in the grave there is no work
And no device! Press on! while yet ye may."

3rd, Books.-Books are the transcripts of the thoughts of men.

"Great men have lived among us, heads that planned,

And tongues that uttered wisdom;"

And books are the legacies they have left us.

"Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a progeny of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life." How grand a privilege must it be, then, to have

are.

"The sayings of the wise

In ancient and in modern books enrolled "

and thus made ours! Well, indeed, may we rapturously exclaim with the poet of olden time

"Oh blessed letters! that combine in one

All ages past and make one live in all:

By you we do confer with those now gone
And the dead-living into council call."

It is not necessary that we should enlarge on the value of books, and the advantages of reading; these have already been accepted by the common sense of mankind as the guides of human thought. They are, in essence, only the ideas which men entertain regarding Nature and Society, and those truths which seem to rise out of their constitution and organization. If, then, the two former means of self-culture be vastly beneficial when properly employed, so also must this. Nature and Society present us with facts, but leave the interpretation of these to men. Books contain that interpretation; they explain the processes by which men were led to deduce certain conclusions from the facts which environed them. To us they fulfil the office of teachers, by leading our thoughts to the best modes of investigation. They permanently record what has already been done. All that the might and energy of mind has ever accomplished—all the changes and mutations which society and its usages have undergone—and all the grand and wonderful results which Nature's laws effect are detailed, described, and explained in them. The warrior's conquests and the scholar's victories; the poet's glory and the merchant's success; the student's struggles and the patriot's strivings; the inventor's dreams and the mechanician's realization of them; the monarch's efforts and the peasant's trials; the speculator's schemes and the gamester's distresses; the philanthropist's generous and elevating endeavours to aid and bless, and the villain's cunningly-planned devices; the tyrant's fate and the mob's misery; the honesty of friends and the duplicity of enemies; and all the innumerous chances and changes which work in and influence Society, are here recorded for our "reproof, correction, or instruction." The gladsomeness of Summer, and the phenomena