invention, and have no thought higher. They may look about and see a
great deal of misery and unhappiness; but its alleviation is nothing to
them. "The great mission of life" is something that is very well to be
talked of in the pulpit, and ministers and reformers will accomplish it,
no doubt. But life has no responsibilities for them.

One of our first duties is to seek our own moral and intellectual
culture. Let both these portions of our nature be cultivated together.
Do not separate them, for by so doing both are threatened with danger.
Heart without mind is generally weak, but mind without heart is always
dangerous. Do not suppose because you have left the schoolroom and no
longer have lessons set, and are no longer reprimanded if they are not
committed, that your education is finished. Rather regard the _school_
as the place where you shall learn to study, life as your term-time, and
consider your education finished when there is nothing more for you to
learn. It is not necessary that study should be confined to books.
Accustom yourself to study actions and their influences and effects.
Public lectures, conversations, in short, every event of your life, will
present questions, and your own mind, with a little reflection, will
present the answers. If it does not, do not let the fear of ridicule
prevent your asking.

But it is through books, chiefly, that we are to look for improvement.
Every person should appropriate some part of each day to reading. Young
persons should early be taught the advantages of a method for
appropriating their time. Let each duty have its time. In this way much
time is saved. Let the time you appropriate to reading be one that will
be the least liable to interruption. Defer it not, if it can be avoided,
till late in the evening, when you are wearied with the fatigues of the
day.