not entirely lost, even though the acquirements in college should afterwards be neglected. Wholesome nourishment and exercise for the mind, are like wholesome nourishment and exercise for the body. They enter into the constitu5 tion, and impart to it general health and strength, and capacity for the exertions it may be called upon to make, and the trials it may be doomed to suffer. This is especially true of childhood and youth, and, as to all that concerns our physical condition, is universally admitted, in practice 10 as well as in theory. The tender infant is not suffered to lie in torpid inaction. Its little frame is put in motion in its mother's arms. As soon as it can bear exposure, it is sent forth to larger exercise in the open air. The boy is permitted and encouraged to rejoice in active and invig15 orating sports; and the youth, quite up to the season of manhood, is taught to blend the healthful exertion of his sinews and muscles, with the cultivation of his intellectual and moral powers. Why is this indication of nature thus carefully observed 20 and obeyed? Why do parents watch with so much anxious care over the forming constitution of the body, and seek to train it to grace and vigor? It is because it is forming, and the fashion it then receives may more or less abide by it ever after. Their anxious care is well be25 stowed. Much of the happiness of life depends upon it, and every one is aware that such is the case. Hence it is, that gymnastics have been introduced into places of instruction, where feats are performed which no man of full age expects ever to repeat, unless it should be his lot to be 30 a tumbler or a rope-dancer. Is there not a precise analogy, in this respect, between the two parts of our nature? Have not the moral and intellectual faculties a growth, a period of expansion, a season for nourishment and direction, when the constitution 35 of the mind and heart is taking a form like that of the body, and when the intellectual and moral capacities are to be assisted and trained into a healthy condition? Are there no gymnastics of the mind? It would be deemed a palpable absurdity, if any one were to argue, that a child 40 was likely to be employed in sedentary occupations, and therefore it was not material, that he should have the use of his limbs. Is it not still more absurd to use such an argument in relation to his higher and better faculties? It is a great calamity to be deprived of sight, to be unable to behold the glories of the visible creation, and enjoy the beauties of art. Is it a less one to be destitute of intellectual vision, by which we are enabled to "look through nature up to nature's God," and to discern glories greater 5 far than those, great as we must confess them to be, which are manifested to the eye of the body?-by which, too, we are enabled to look into ourselves, and there to see the fearful and wonderful thing we are, and how it is that, from the source of infinite wisdom and goodness, there is an emana10 tion of light imparted to us, which we are commanded not to allow "to be darkened." Surely, surely, these are reflections which ought forever to silence the sordid calculation that would bend man's whole powers down to the earth, instead of helping him 15 to grow up towards the heavens. The superincumbent weight of the world's business will press heavily enough upon him. With all the preparation he can have, and all the improvement he can make of it, there is danger that he will but seldom be able to raise himself above the thick 20 fog, that creeps along the ground, and limits his view to the objects immediately around him, into the clear region, where higher duties and higher enjoyments offer themselves to his attention, where the spirit may breathe, the mind hold communion with intelligence, the affections kin25 dle, the charities be nursed, and his whole nature exalted, under the quickening influence of the consciousness, that he is a man. It is in this consciousness, properly enlightened, that dwells his real dignity, and in it, too, the sense of all his duties. 30 What parent, then, who has the ability, will withhold from his child the means of such instruction and discipline, in their fullest measure, as may promise to give him a moral and intellectual constitution fitted to seize upon, and improve the occasions that may arise for purifying and 35 exalting his nature, and fulfilling all his obligations? In this consists his highest happiness. It will not control the course of events. It will not make adverse fortune prosperous, nor the contrary. But, like a wall in the sea, well planted and well supported, broad in its foundation, and 40 carried to its proper height, it will establish a secure and quiet retreat from the shocks, both of prosperity and adversity, to which he may betake himself in the hour of dangerous trial, and escape the imminent hazard of being overwhelmed by either. LESSON CLVIII.-OUR CONTROL OVER OUR PHYSICAL WELL- It is a truth fitted to awaken our most fervent gratitude to the Author of our existence, that He has placed the great conditions of our physical well-being under our own control. Of the nature or essence of the vital principle, we 5 are as yet ignorant. Some of the internal ganglia, also, are mysteries to the profoundest science. Of the more subtile movements in the interior of the system, we can take no available cognizance. These inward vital processes are not subject to our volition. The heart will not continue 10 to beat, nor the blood to flow, at the bidding of the mightiest of the earth. 20 The sculpture-like outline of the body; its gradual and symmetrical expansion from infancy to manhood,-every day another, yet the same; the carving and grooving of all 15 the bones and joints; the weaving of the muscles into a compact and elastic fabric, and their self-lubricating power, by which, though pressed together in the closest order and crossing each other in all directions, they yet play their respective parts, without perceptible friction; the windingup of the heart, so that it will vibrate the seconds of threescore years and ten, without repair or alteration; the channelling out of the blood-vessels, more numerous than all the rivers of a continent, and so thoroughly permeating every part, that there is no desert or waste spot left, where 25 their fertilizing currents do not flow; the triple layer of the skin, with its infinite reticulations; the culling, and exact depositing, of the material of that most divinely-wrought organ, the brain, for whose exquisite workmanship it would seem as though air, and light, and heat, and elec30 tricity, had all been sifted and winnowed, and their finest particles selected for its composition; the diffusion of the nerves over every part of the frame, along whose darksome and attenuated threads, the messengers of the mind pass to and fro with the rapidity of lightning; the fashioning of 35 the vocal apparatus, so simple in its mechanism, and yet so varied in its articulation, and its musical range and compass; the hollowing out of the ear, which secures to us all the utilities and blessings of social intercourse; the opening of the eye, on whose narrow retina, all the breadth 40 and magnificence of the universe can be depicted; and, finally, the power of converting the coarse, crude, dead materials of our food, into sentient tissues, and miraculously enduing them with the properties of life;-over all these, as well as over various other processes of formation and growth, our will has no direct control. They will not 5 be fashioned, or cease to be fashioned, at our bidding. It was in this sense that the question was put, "Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?" It is not by "taking thought," but by using the prescribed means, by learning and obeying the physical laws,-that 10 the stature can be made loftier, the muscles more vigorous, the senses quicker, the life longer, and the capacity of usefulness almost indefinitely greater. It is diet, oxygenation of the blood, and personal purity or cleanliness, which have the prerogative of accomplish15 ing these objects; and these are in our power, within our legitimate jurisdiction; and if we perform our part of the work, faithfully and fully, in regard to these things, Nature will perform her part of the work, faithfully and fully, in regard to those subtler and nicer operations which lie 20 beyond our immediate control. LESSON CLIX.-THE INSOLVENT AND THE BANKRUPT.-BERRIEN. [Extract from Mr. Berrien's speech on the Bankrupt Law.] Mr. President, the true and practical mode of testing the question of the tendency of this law to produce immorality, is to compare the bankrupt and insolvent laws, not in the operation of the former, on the mass of insolvencies, 5 which our neglect of duty has suffered to accumulate, but to examine each in its ordinary operation, as a permanent portion of a system of jurisprudence. Let us do this briefly. The bankrupt, when he is declared to be so, either by 10 his own confession, or the proof adduced by his creditor, is instantly divested of all control over his estate. He has no hope of relief, but from perfect integrity of conduct, and the relief which that promises him, is great and permanent. It is no less than entire emancipation from his 15 thraldom. Thus the law presents every stimulus to honesty, every motive to abstain from fraud. Superadded to this, is the knowledge of the fact, that no time affords him protection. If he has succeeded in concealing his fraud, has obtained his certificate, amassed property, and resumed 20 the station in life from which he had fallen, that certificate may be rendered invalid, his newly acquired property may be subjected to the claims of his creditors, and he himself must be doomed to ignominy, if at any period of his life, however remote, a single act of fraud be established against 5 him. Looking to the ordinary motives of human action, these would seem to be safeguards against dishonesty, which would be sufficient even for the restraint of bad men. What now, sir, is the situation of the insolvent ? His most valuable effects have been assigned to the confiden10 tial creditors, who have enabled him to sustain his failing credit, and given him an appearance of substance, by which he has been able to delude the rest of the community. At last, the hour of reckoning comes, but it finds him stripped of the means of satisfying even a small portion of the 15 demands against him. His confidential creditors are safe, and therefore indifferent, and so is he. He has committed no fraud in the eye of the law, in rendering them so. All others are remediless. He is arrested, imprisoned, and, without some gross act of fraud, detected during the pro20 cess, is discharged. The boon which is awarded to him, is that of dragging out a miserable existence, with the privilege of locomotion indeed; but he is destined for life, to be the slave of his creditors, living, moving, having his being for their benefit. What motive has he for the honest sur25 render of his property, if he has any left, which is covered from the view of his creditors? Why, all his hopes for the future, depend upon concealment. He is doomed to a life of deception. If he is detected, what then? He loses his adventure, it is seized by his creditors; but his dis30 charge is untouched. He may try again. The privilege of dragging his wretched limbs from the market to the strand, is still accorded to him.. Look now at the condition of the bankrupt and insolvent, when the respective processes against them are 35 closed, and say which is likely to prove the better and more upright citizen. The bankrupt has surrendered his all. He is poor, nay destitute, penniless; but he is free. Aye, there is the charm. He is really, truly free. It is not merely the poor privilege of locomotion, which is accorded 40 to him. His hands are unshackled. The energies of his mind are unfettered. He is free to exert them for the benefit of those whom nature and affection have endeared to him. His recovered freedom is his stimulus. The lesson of experience, which adversity has taught him, is his safe |