There is one great and general direction, which belongs to the improvement of other powers as well as of the memory, and that is, to keep it always in due and proper exercise. Many acts by degrees form a habit, and thereby the capacity or power is strengthened and made more retentive and ready. Due attention and diligence to learn and know the things which we would commit to our remembrance, is a rule of great necessity. There are some persons, who complain they cannot remember what they hear, when in truth their thoughts are wandering half the time, or they hear with such coldness and indifference, and a trifling temper of spirit, that it is no wonder the things which are read or spoken make but a slight impression, and soon vanish and are lost. If we would retain a long remembrance of the things which we read or hear, we should engage our delight and pleasure in those subjects, and use proper methods to fix the attention. Sloth and idleness will no more bless the mind with intellectual riches, than they will fill the hand with gain, the field with corn, or the purse with treasure.

Such

Some persons are conceited of their abilities, and trust so much to an acuteness of parts denominated genius, that they think it superfluous labour to make any provision beforehand, and they sit still, therefore, satisfied without endeavouring to store their understanding with knowledge. should remember that we are born ignorant of every thing. God has made the intellectual world harmonious and beauti ful without us; but it will never come into our heads all at once; we must bring it home by degrees, and there set it up by our own industry, or we shall have nothing but darkness and chaos within, whatever order and light there may be in things without us.

Others, on the contrary, depress their own minds, despond at the first difficulty, and conclude that getting an insight in any of the sciences, or making any progress in knowledge, farther than serves their ordinary business, is above their capacities. The proper remedy here is to set the mind to work, and apply the thoughts vigorously to the business; for it holds in the struggles of the mind, as in those of war,—a persuasion that we shall overcome any difficulties that we may meet with in the sciences, seldom fails to carry us through them. Nobody knows the strength of his mind, and the force of steady and regular application, until he has tried.

PLAN OF READING."

All things are open to the searching eye
Of an attentive intellect, and bring
Their several treasures to it, and unfold
Their fabric to its scrutiny. All life,
And all inferior orders, in the waste
Of being spread before us, are to him,
Who lives in meditation, and the search
Of wisdom and of beauty, open books,
Wherein he reads the Godhead, and the ways
He works through his creation, and the links
That fasten us to all things, with a sense
Of fellowship and feeling, so that we
Look not upon a cloud, or falling leaf,

Or flower new blown, or human face divine,
But we have caught new life, and wider thrown
The door of reason open, and have stored
In memory's secret chamber, for dark years
Of age and weariness, the food of thought,
And thus extended mind, and made it young,
When the thin hair turns gray, and feeling dies.

PERCIVAL.

QUESTIONS.-I. What does memory imply? 2. What general direction is given for the improvement of memory? 3. What is a rule of great necessity? 4. What is said of those who are conceited of their abilities? 5. What is the proper remedy for those who despond at difficulties?

LESSON 5.
Plan of Reading.

Speculation, a train of thoughts formed by meditation.
Discrimination, the act of distinguishing one from another.
Desidera'ta, pl. some desirable things which are wanted.
Lab'yrinth, a place formed with inextricable windings.

THE only method of putting our acquired knowledge on a level with our original speculations, is, after making ourselves acquainted with our author's ideas, to study the subject over again in our own way; to pause, from time to time, in the course of our reading, in order to consider what we haye gained; to recollect what the propositions are, which the author wishes to establish, and to examine the different

proofs which he employs to support them. Such reasonings, as we have occasion frequently to apply, either in the business of life, or in the course of our studies, it is of importance to us to commit to writing, in a language and in an order of our own; and if, at any time, we find it necessary to refresh our recollection on the subject, to have recourse to our own composition, in preference to that of any other author.

That the plan of reading, commonly followed, is very different from that which is here recommended, will not be disputed. Most people read merely to pass an idle hour, or to please themselves with the idea of employment, while their indolence prevents them from any active exertion; and a considerable number with a view to the display which they are afterwards to make of their literary acquisitions. From whichsoever of these motives a person is led to the perusal of books, it is hardly possible that he can derive from them any material advantage. If he reads merely from indolence, the ideas which pass through his mind will probably leave little or no impression; if he reads from vanity, he will be more anxious to select striking particulars in the matter or expression, than to seize the spirit and scope of the author's reasoning, or to examine how far he has made any additions to the stock of useful and solid knowledge.

A proper selection of the particulars to be remembered is necessary to enable us to profit by reading. When we first enter on any new literary pursuit, we commonly find our efforts of attention painful and unsatisfactory. We have no discrimination in our curiosity, and by grasping at every thing, we fail in making those moderate acquisitions which are suited to our limited faculties. As our knowledge extends, we learn to know what particulars are likely to be of use to us, and acquire a habit of directing our examinations to these, without distracting the attention with others. It is partly owing to a similar circumstance, that most readers complain of a defect of memory, when they first enter on the study of history. They cannot separate important from trifling facts, and they find themselves unable to retain any thing from their anxiety to secure the whole.

In order to give a proper direction to our attention to the course of our studies, it is useful before engaging in any particular pursuits to acquire as familiar an acquaintance as

possible with the great outlines of the different branches of science; with the most important conclusions which have hitherto been formed in them, and with the most important desiderata which remain to be supplied. By such general views alone we can prevent ourselves from being lost amidst a labyrinth of particulars, or can engage in a course of extensive and various reading, with an enlightened and discriminating attention.-STEWARt.

QUESTIONS.-1. By what method may our acquired knowledge be put on a level with our original speculations? 2. What reasonings is it important to commit to writing? 3. What plan of reading is commonly followed? 4. What are its disadvantages? 5. Why should a proper selection be made of the objects of knowledge? 6. What is useful before engaging in any particular pursuits? 7. What will an acquaintance with the great outlines of science prevent?

LESSON 6.

Hymn to Science.

Scho'liast, a writer of explanatory notes.
Soph'ist, a plausible but false reasoner.

SCIENCE! thou fair effusive ray
From the great source of mental day,
Free, gen'rous, and refined,
Descend with all thy treasures fraught,
Illumine each bewilder'd thought,
And bless my lab'ring mind.

But first with thy resistless light
Disperse those phantoms from my sight,
Those mimic shades of thee,

The scholiast's learning, sophist's cant,
The visionary bigot's rant,

The monk's philosophy.

Oh! let thy powerful charm impart
The patient head, the candid heart,

Devoted to thy sway;

Which no weak passions e'er mislead,
Which still with dauntless steps proceed
Where reason points the way.

HYMN TO SCIENCE

Give me to learn each secret cause
Let numbers, figures, motion's laws
Reveal'd before me stand;

Then to great nature's scenes apply,
And round the globe and through the
Disclose her working hand.

Next to thy nobler search resign'd
The busy restless human mind
Through ev'ry maze pursue;
Detect perception where it lies,
Catch the ideas as they rise,

And all their changes view.

Her secret stores bid Mem'ry tell,
Bid Fancy quit her airy cell

In all her treasures drest;
While, prompt her sallies to control,
Reason, the judge, recalls the soul
To truth's severest test.

Say from what simple springs began
The vast ambitious thoughts of man,
That range beyond control,
Which seek eternity to trace,
Drive through the infinity of space,
And strain to grasp the whole ?

Then range through being's wide extent,
Let the fair scale with just ascent
And equal steps be trod,
Till, from the dead corporeal mass,
Through each progressive rank you pass
To instinct, reason, God!

There, Science, veil thy daring eye,
Nor dive too deep, nor soar too high,
In the divine abyss;

To faith content thy beams to lend,
Her hopes t'assure, her steps befriend,
And light the way to bliss.

Then downward take thy flight again,

Mix with the policies of men,

And social Nature's ties