wisdom" whose provisions are neither stinted or inadequate on one hand, nor superfluous on the other. Thus accomplished, the man is-clad in panoply-prepared to discharge the high offices to which humanity is called in relation both to the visible and to the spiritual world. Cultivation of the mind is the result of well directed exercise, those objects being presented which are calculated to excite its various capacities, and by the pursuit of which the capacities themselves are beneficially employed. We can hardly account it wise, however, to exert either the mental or bodily powers in those employments, which furnish exercise indeed, but yield no further advantage, when so many labors present themselves which minister a double fruit, first in him that labors in them, and then in the things themselves in which he labors. He that walks to preserve health does well. He that digs does better; for in this case the labor itself is productive and profitable, which in the former it is not. So, it is better the mental powers should be employed on even the most barren subjects than that they should be idle; but when the world is full of pregnant truths, valuable both in themselves and in the further possessions to which they lead, it is surely not wise to expend our energies on those which in themselves are utterly valueless. The student of chess gets mental exercise-which in and of itself is good-but he gets nothing further; the knowledge thus acquired being of no use either absolutely or instrumentally: whereas the student of the mathematics and the student of history, beside mental employment, obtain a key-the one to all physical sciences, that is to the whole material world-the other to humanity itself. Thus the labor, which in the former case terminates in itself, in the other opens up to the great store-house of Nature, and makes us free of all the riches of the world. Few perhaps would maintain that our minds do not require any particular discipline, in order to qualify us for discharging those functions, to which as members of society, and as subjects of the moral government of our invisible Sovereign, all men are called. But many of the most prevalent and pernicious errors are never avowed, much less defended in words, as the most powerful agents in nature manifest themselves only by their effects. Millions of persons show that the only education of their inner man, which they hold out to be desirable, consists in that acquaintance with the alphabet of knowledge-obtained at schools, and which has (unfortunately) engrossed the name of education; and that skill in their particular trades or professions, which may secure success in them, and through them the means of subsistence. But that this does not deserve to be styled " the cultivation of the mind" will instantly be admitted, if we consider that that know ledge concerns man chiefly not as a man, but as an animal, pressed with certain corporeal necessities; and therefore it only puts him on a level with the inferior creatures, which are taught the methods of supplying their wants by blind irresistible instincts. Man's mind cannot surely be said to be cultivated, when it is so instructed as to enable him to supply only his lowest wants, and to act suitably only in his lowest relations. Few possessions of much real value come into our hands by accident. No man ever was a skilful architect, or physician, or carpenter, by chance. What is said of poets-Poeta nascitur non fit-must here be reversed; these gifts being not bestowed by Nature, but acquired by industry. And the knowledge of those sciences and arts which are profounder and more intricate in themselves, and which more deeply concern us, is not granted on easier terms. Not even the lowest organ in the body, not a muscle or a sense, can perform its function without having undergone a lengthened and elaborate process of instruction. The hand, the ear, the eye, must each be trained and taught; and though we may be unconscious of this education, it has as really been received as that was by which we learned to read or to write. If then even the meanest corporeal senses demand an appropriate education, without which they would prove rather encumbrances to the individual than his scouts and messengers, by which he keeps up his communication with the external world, shall we suppose that the noblest capacities of man's spirit are alone independent of all training and culture-that they only are incapable of expansion and refinement-that, in the whole territory of human nature, this is the only field which promises to reward the tillage with no fruit? Addison's celebrated comparison of the human soul without cultivation to a block of marble in the quarry, though beautiful and striking, falls below the case. For the process of polishing only displayed those spots and veins, which were in the substance as much before it was hewn and dressed as afterwards. Whereas cultivation performs for the mind the same office which heat and moisture discharge in relation to the vegetable seed, or food and exercise to the animal organization; to which, though they absolutely impart no new organ, they enlarge and strengthen all, and permit sore to develope themselves, which had no existence except in germ. It is an inadequate comprehension of our position and our relations which shelters the delusion that our faculties are then sufficiently disciplined and expanded, when they qualify us to fulfil our vocation, as creatures beset with certain corporeal necessities. We have other problems to solve than these What shall we eat? what shall we drink? wherewithal shall we be clothed? Our personal wants, our domestic ties, even our social relations, address not to us those questions which touch our interests most vitally. Man has also relations to the universe, to the sum of visible things which surrounds him, and to that higher world, regarding which our senses bring no information, but in which we must seek the archetypes or ideas of whatever of the perfect, good, or fair, is found, though dimly represented in this; which, as the wise men persuaded themselves, was created with such analogy to that, as both to suggest to the inquiring spirit those higher forms of beauty and goodness, and to aid it somewhat in apprehending these. Yes: Man, the animal formed out of the dust of the ground, that eats and sleeps, is born and dies, is also "the image of God"-" a ray of the divinity" to whom even the structure of his body intimates that he was formed to look above the earth to which he is chained. A mediator and a priest, he stands between God and his other terrestrial works, consecrated to present them in sacrifice; for they are full of praises, which they cannot themselves offer. And that man has not apprehended his highest calling, who knows not that he is anointed with the holy oil of reason and speech, to express the sense of all things here below; to say that which all the creatures mean; to render those works of God vocal which naturally are dumb. But how shall he fulfil his vocation as a priest, offering up his works to God as sacrifices of praise continually, who is all unconscious of that manifold wisdom, goodness, and power, from which they all originated, and which they all reveal? And how can these be known, if they are not carefully observed and diligently studied? "Jehovah is a God that hideth himself" as well in nature, and the moral constitution and government of the world, as in that dispensation of divine mercy unfolded in the Bible. In that, as well as in this, the truth is spoken in parables-it is revealed in mystery; so that they who have no ear to hear are nothing the wiser. The shekinah blazes indeed in both; but it is either a pillar of fire or a pillar of cloud, according to the position from which we view it. The objects to be proposed in the cultivation of the intellectual powers are chiefly these: First, Knowledge, acquaintance with facts and principles, that is, with particular and general truths: as also, the power of retaining this, which power is called Memory, the store-house or treasury of the mind;—and, Secondly, Judg ment, the faculty of estimating correctly whatever is presented. The caution formerly given may here be repeated, lest the intellectual vessel be upset, too much ballast being thrown to one side or the other, the mind becoming either a depository of unarranged, unmanageable knowledge, mere lumber, of which the possessor understands not the value, and which he can turn to no account in the way of utility or pleasure; or a naked uninform ed judgment. The former in these states is an intellectual gluttony, craving for knowledge which is swallowed ravenously, but is never digested or transmuted into the substance of the mind, of which it only feeds the peccant humors. "Who reads incessantly, and to his readings brings not A spirit and judgment equal or superior, Uncertain and unsettled still remains, Deep read in books, but shallow in himself."-MILTON. The latter state is not less to be dreaded, when the mind grows to a naked judgment, acute and active, but unfurnished-destitute of the materials, without an abundant supply of which, our decisions are likely to be as erroneous as if the judgment itself were weak-or even more so; for more false opinions and of greater consequence arise from too narrow comprehension of facts, than from a mistaken estimate of those which are observed: as a tower is exposed to no less danger of falling if it stand on a basis too narrow or insecure, than if the building itself be infirm. And while Passion and Interest beget many prejudices, Ignorance is the parent of more; who, besides her own numerous family, shelters and rears all the offspring of her two sisters. No acuteness or vigor of judgment can deliver an ignorant mind from the danger of the most hurtful prejudices; whereas, in many cases, the very extension of our knowledge inevitably and instantaneously dispels those prejudices, which are the night of the soul, and which fly before the first beams of the rising Truth, which is her sun-the ghosts and spectres of the mind also, whose habitation is darkness, not being permitted to abide the crowing of the cock. "The flocking shadows pale Each fetter'd ghost slips to his several cave." To prevent both these evils, it is necessary we mingle as great acquaintance as may be with other men's thoughts, with as great an exercise as possible of our own. In order to be very profitable, reading and reflection should be united. Either without the other will fail of obtaining the great end which should be had in view. A mere swallower of books is no more likely to become wise, than is a glutton to be healthy or strong. Information is not knowledge, much less is it wisdom-any more than food is chyle or blood. We must exercise reflection upon facts-information must be digested. Then only is it turned into that knowledge which is the vital fluid of man's spirit, and from which wisdom draws her nourishment. On the other hand, to prevent them preying upon themselves and corroding their own vitals, men's minds, especially those that are energetic and active, should be furnished with a copious supply of wholesome nourishment derived from books, in which we must read much if we would be mentally healthy and vigorous. THE AWAKENING. BY MRS. ABDY. AWAKE, awake, ye sleepers; the tuneful linnets sing, Awake, awake, ye sleepers, to busy life awake, O! varied are the lots ye are summoned to partake; Awake, awake, ye sleepers, awake at duty's call, A heritage is yours to claim, a conquest yours to gain; Awake, awake, ye sleepers, the day may shortly come Awake, awake, ye sleepers; ye shall hear that summons dread, O! may ye live, while life endures, in pure and true belief, |