3. Indeed, my friends, in the formation of character, personal exertion is the first, the second, and the third virtue. Nothing great or excellent can be acquired without it. A good name will not come without being sought. All the virtues of which it is composed are the result of untiring application and industry. Nothing can be more fatal to the attainment of a good character than a treacherous confidence in external advantages. These, if not seconded by your own endeavors, "will drop you mid way; or perhaps you will not have started, when the diligent traveller will have won the race." 4. To the formation of a good character, it is of the highest importance that you have a commanding object in view, and that your aim in life be elevated. To this cause, perhaps, more than to any other, is to be ascribed the great difference which appears in the characters of men. Some start in life with an object in view, and are determined to attain it; whilst others live without plan, and reach not for the prize set before them. The energies of the one are called into vigorous action, and they rise to eminence; whilst the others are left to slumber in ignoble ease and sink into obscurity. 5. It is an old proverb, that he who aims at the sun, to be sure will not reach it, but his arrow will fly higher than if he aimed at an object on a level with himself. Just so in the formation of character. Set your standard high; and, though you may not reach it, you can hardly fail to rise higher than if you aimed at some inferior excellence. Young men are not, in general, conscious of what they are capable of doing. 6. They do not task their faculties, nor improve their pow ers, nor attempt, as they ought, to rise to superior excellence. They have no high, commanding object at which to aim; but often seem to be passing away life without object and without aim. The consequence is, their efforts are few and feeble; they are not waked up to any thing great or distinguished; and therefore fail to acquire a character of decided worth. 7. My friends, You may be whatever you resolve to be.— Resolution is omnipotent. Determine that you will be something in the world, and you shall be something. Aim at excellence, and excellence will be attained. This is the great secret of effort and eminence. I cannot do it, never accomplished any thing; I will try, has wrought wonders. 8. You have all perhaps heard of the young man, who, having wasted, in a short time, a large patrimony, in profligate revels, formed a purpose, while hanging over the brow of a pipice from which he had determined to throw himself, that he would regain what he had lost. The purpose thus formed he kept; and though he began by shovelling a load of coals into a cellar, he proceeded from one step to another, till he more than recovered his lost possession, and died an inveterate miser, worth sixty thousand pounds. 9. I mention this, not as an example to be imitated, but as a signal instance of what can be accomplished by fixed purpose and persevering exertion. A young man who sets out in life with a determination to excel, can hardly fail of his purpose. There is, in his case, a steadiness of aim,-a concentration of feeling and effort, which bear him onward to his object with irresistible energy, and render success, in whatever he undertakes, certain. LESSON LXXXII. On Happiness of Temper.-GOLDSMITH. 1. WRITERS of every age have endeavored to shew-that pleasure is in us, and not in the objects offered for our amusement. If the soul be happily disposed, every thing becomes capable of affording entertainment; and distress will almost want a name. Every occurrence passes in review, like the figures of a procession; some may be awkward, others ill dressed; but none but a fool is, for this, enraged with the master of the ceremonies. 2. I remember to have once seen a slave, in a fortification in Flanders, who appeared no way touched with his situation. He was maimed, deformed and chained; obliged to toil from the appearance of day till night-fall, and condemned to this for life; yet, with all these circumstances of apparent wretchedness, he sung, would have danced, but that he wanted a leg, and appeared the merriest, happiest man of all the garrison. 3. What a practical philosopher was here! a happy constitution supplied philosophy; and though seemingly destitute of wisdom, he was really wise. No reading or study had contributed to disenchant the fairy-land around him. Every thing furnished him with an opportunity of mirth; and, though some thought him, from his insensibility, a fool-he was such an idiot as philosophers should wish to imitate: for all philosophy is only forcing the trade of happiness, when Nature seems to deny the means. 4. They who, like our slave, can place themselves on that side of the world in which every thing appears in a pleasing light, will find something in every occurrence to excite their good humor. The most calamitous events, either to themselves or others, can bring no new affliction; the whole world is, to them, a theatre, on which comedies only are acted. All the bustle of heroism, or the rants of ambition, serve only to heighten the absurdity of the scene, and make the humor more poignant. They feel, in short, as little anguish at their own distress, or the complaints of others, as the undertaker, though dressed in black, feels sorrow at a funeral. 5. Of all the men I ever read of, the famous Cardinal de Retz possessed this happiness of temper in the highest degree. As he was a man of gallantry, and despised all that wore the pedantic appearance of philosophy, wherever pleasure was to be sold, he was generally foremost to raise the auction. Being a universal admirer of the fair sex-when he found one lady cruel, he generally fell in love with another, from whom he expected a more favorable reception. If she, too, rejected his addresses, he never thought of retiring into deserts, or pining in hopelessdistress he persuaded himself—that, instead of loving the lady, he had only fancied that he had loved her;—and so all was well again. 6. When fortune wore her angriest look, and he at last fell into the power of his most deadly enemy, Cardinal Mazarine, (being confined a close prisoner, in the castle of Valenciennes*) he never attempted to support his distress by wisdom or philo sophy; for he pretended to neither. He only laughed at himself and his persecutor; and seemed infinitely pleased at his new situation. In this mansion of distress,-though secluded from his friends,—though denied all the amusements, and even the conveniences of life, he still retained his good humor; laughed at the little spite of his enemies and carried the jest so far as to be revenged, by writing the life of his jailer. 7. All that the wisdom of the proud can teach-is to be stubborn, or sullen, under misfortunes. The Cardinal's example will instruct us to be merry, in circumstances of the highest affliction. It matters not whether our good humor be construed, by others, into insensibility; or even idiotism; it is happiness to ourselves; and none but a fool would measure his satisfaction by what the world thinks of it: 8. The happiest silly fellow I ever knew, was of the number of those good natured creatures that are said to do no harm to any but themselves. Whenever he fell into any misery, he **Pronouneeil Val-en-seenes', a city in the north of France, situated on the river Scheldt. called it, "seeing life." If his head was broke by a chairman, or his pocket picked by a sharper, he comforted himself by imitating the Hibernian dialect of the one, or the more fashionable cant of the other. Nothing came amiss to him. 9. His inattention to money matters had incensed his father to such a degree, that all intercession of friends in his favor was fruitless. The old gentleman was on his death bed. The whole family (and Dick among the number) gathered around him. 66 10. "I leave my second son, Andrew," said the expiring miser, my whole estate; and desire him to be frugal.' Andrew, in a sorrowful tone, (as is usual on those occasions) prayed Heaven to prolong his life and health to enjoy it himself! 11. "I recommend Simon, my third son, to the care of his elder brother; and leave him, beside, four thousand pounds." "Ah! father," cried Simon, (in great affliction to be sure) ، may Heaven give you life and health to enjoy it yourself!" 12. At last-turning to poor Dick, "as for you, you have always been a sad dog; you'll never come to good; you'll never be rich; I leave you a shilling, to buy a halter." "Ah! father," cries Dick, without any emotion, " you life and health to enjoy it yourself!" LESSON LXXXIII. may Heaven give The Sleepers.-MISS M. A. BROWNE. 1. THEY are sleeping! Who are sleeping? Bow them on their slender stem, 2. They are sleeping! Who are sleeping? 3. They are sleeping! Who are sleeping? Yet sweet dreams are o'er them creeping, 4. They are sleeping! Who are sleeping? Gems and pearls of price untold. 5. They are sleeping! Who are sleeping? One remains, that slumber deep; From that sweet, that saving sleep.. 6. They are sleeping! Who are sleeping ?. Safe they rest, the green turf under ; LESSON LXXXIV.. A Good Scholar.-MAY.. 1. A GOOD scholar is known by his obedience to the rules of the school, and to the directions of his teacher. He does not give his-teacher the trouble of telling him the same thing over and over again; but says or does immediately whatever he is desired. His attendance at the proper time of school is always |