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are pursuing one study no other neglected duty can come in to claim our attention-and never undertaking what is not fairly within the reach of our powers, we may soon acquire habits of continuous and steady attention, at least in the study of books. But in order to form correct habits of attention in the highest sense, it is not enough for the individual to practise on books. He must practise on men and things. That is, he must not only, when engaged in reading, attend to his books, but when out in society, and surrounded by persons, and by the various objects of life, he must attend to them. That mind is as badly disciplined which loses itself in a revery when surrounded by society, as the one which continually wanders in search of amusement when its possessor is endavoring to confine it to books. In a word, give the whole attention with a vigor and earnestness to the object, whatever it may be, which, for the time being, is properly before you.

Faithful practice on these principles will soon give the pupil this first quality of a well regulated mind.

II. Nearly connected with the former, and of equal importance, is a careful regulation and control of the succession of our thoughts. This remarkable faculty is very much under the influence of cultivation, and on the power so acquired depends the important habit of regular and connected thinking. It is primarily a voluntary act; and in the exercise of it in different individuals there are the most remarkable differences. In some the thoughts are allowed to wander at large without any regulation, or are devoted only to frivolous and transient objects; while others habitually exercise over them a stern control, directing them to subjects of real importance, and prosecuting these in a regular and connected manner. This important habit gains strength by exercise, and nothing, certainly, has a greater influence in giving tone and consistency to the whole character. It may not, indeed, be going too far to assert that our condition, in the scale both of moral and intellectual beings, is in a great measure determined by the control which we have acquired over the succession of our thoughts, and by the subjects on which they are habitually exercised.

The regulation of the thoughts is, therefore, a high concern; in the man who devotes his attention to it as a study of supreme importance, the first great source of astonishment will be the manner in which his thoughts have been

To what applicable besides the study of books? General principle? Second quali ty? How far voluntary? Differences of character in this respect. Consequences depending?

occupied in many an hour and many a day that has passed over him. The leading objects to which the thoughts may be directed, are referable to three classes. (1.) The ordinary engagements of life, or matters of business, with which every man is occupied in one degree or another; including concerns of domestic arrangement, personal comfort, and necessary recreation. Each of these deserves a certain degree of attention, but this requires to be strictly guided by its real and relative importance; and it is entirely unwor thy of a sound and regulated mind to have the attention solely or chiefly occupied with matters of personal comfort, or of trivial importance, calculated merely to afford amusement for the passing hour. (2.) Visions of the imagination built up by the mind itself when it has nothing better to occupy it. The mind cannot be idle, and when it is not occupied by subjects of a useful kind, it will find a resource in those which are frivolous or hurtful,-in mere visions, waking dreams, or fictions, in which the mind wanders from scene to scene, unrestrained by reason, probability or truth. No habit can be more opposed to a healthy condition of the mental powers; and none ought to be more carefully guarded against by every one who would cultivate the high acquirement of a well regulated mind. (3.) Entirely opposed to the latter of these modes, and distinct also in a great measure from the former, is the habit of following out a connected chain of thoughts on subjects of importance and of truth, whenever the mind is disengaged from the proper and necessary attention to the ordinary transactions of life. The particular subjects to which the thoughts are directed in cultivating this habit, will vary in different individuals; but the consideration of the relative value of them does not belong to our present subject. The purpose of these observations is simply to impress the value of that regulation of the thoughts by which they can always find an occupation of interest and importance distinct from the ordinary transactions of life, or the mere pursuit of frivolous engagements; and also totally distinct from that destructive habit by which the mind is allowed to run to waste amid visions and fictions unworthy of a waking man.

Classification of the objects of thought? First class? Its proper importance? Second class? Influence of this habit? Third class. Influence of this habit ?

In acquiring this second quality of a well regulated mind, there are several ways in which the pupil may practise. It will of course be understood that this head refers to the employment of the thoughts when they are at liberty, as when the individual is walking, or sitting alone, or engaged in those employments which do not necessarily occupy the mind. The following are some of the methods by which the mind can be in such cases usefully employed.

1. Reviewing, and fixing in the memory, what has been read, or learned in any other way. You have been engaged, we will imagine, in a book of travels; now you can call up to mind the scenes described there. Commence the journey with the traveller in imagination, anew, and go regularly forward, calling up to mind as fully as possible all the adventures and incidents which the book described. The same may be done with any other work.

2. Pursuing a connected train of thought on some useful subject selected for this purpose. You take, for instance, for your subject, "Common instances of Insincerity," and making a logical division of it, you consider one head at a time, regularly examining it in all its bearings and relations, as if you were going to write a treatise upon the subject. You first think, perhaps, of insincere professions for the sake of civility,-call to mind as many cases as you can, and arrange and classify them. In the next place you take cases of false appearances assumed from vanity, and pursue this in the same way. Thus the whole subject may be explored, and reduced to order and system in your own mind. The subjects which may in this way be examined are innumerable.

3. Systematic and attentive observation. In this case, the thoughts are not engaged in reviewing past attainments, or in exploring a subject of reflection, but in examining with interest and care visible objects around. If riding through a new country he may study its geographical features, or the pursuits and occupations of its inhabitants. If taking an evening walk, he can examine with care the plants or flowers he sees, or, by conversation with the various individuals he may meet with, increase his knowledge of human character and action. He may thus draw off his thoughts from the field of mere reflection, and apply them, with active interest, to the objects or the scene hrough which he moves. He may, if he chooses to regulate in some legree these studies, select some class of objects to examine, or some point towards which his observations shall tend. For example, when rambling in the fields, he may employ himself in finding as many proofs of contrivance as he can in the works of nature, and to this point direct all his inquiries and observations on his walk, whether he looks at an insect or a plant, or the form and structure of a hill.

Such are the various ways by which solitary thought may be regulated. Reviewing past studies; reflecting systematically on some new

Ways in which the thoughts may be employed. First mode. Example? Second mode? Example? Third mode ? Examples? Recapitulation ?

subject; and the scientific and active examination of nature. It must not be understood, however, that the writer recommends that every hour of reflection or solitude should be rigidly devoted to such purposes. There must be recreation, which such exercises will not afford; for thought, guided by these principles, will be study, and in the case of the young, it will be study of the severest kind. It is, however, an effort which must be often made, or the mind will never acquire the full command of its powers.

III. The cultivation of an active, inquiring state of mind which seeks for information from every source that comes within its reach, whether in reading, conversation, or personal observation. With this state of mental activity ought to be closely connected attention to the authenticity of facts so received; avoiding the two extremes of credulity and scepticism.

IV. The habit of correct association; that is, connecting facts in the mind according to their true relations, and to the manner in which they tend to illustrate each other. This, as we have formerly seen, is one of the principal means of improving the memory; particularly of the kind of memory which is an essential quality of a cultivated mind; namely, that which is founded not upon incidental connections, but on true and important relations. Nearly allied to this is the habit of reflection, or of tracing carefully the relations of facts, and the conclusions and principles which arise out of them. It is in this manner, as was formerly mentioned, that the philosophical mind often traces remarkable relations, and deduces important conclusions; while to the common understanding the facts appear to be very remote, or entirely unconnected.

It is very important that the pupil should understand distinctly and precisely what is meant by this "correct association." Let us suppos a case. It may perhaps seem rather trivial, but no other one will fully illustrate the case. Suppose you are riding in the stage with a sea captain, who wears a white hat. The conversation turns on the sub ject of the form of ships. You tell him you should suppose that they would make their way more easily through the water if they were made narrow across the bows or forward part, and gradually increas

Recreation sometimes necessary. Third quality? Fourth quality? Correct associ ation? The kind of memory essential to a cultivated mind? Tracing the relations of facts? Example to illustrate the two modes of association ?

ing towards the stern, so as to force open the water like a wedge. He tells you that this is found by experience to be a bad construction, for on this plan the friction of the water is great along the whole side, whereas by making the ship broad near the bows, and gradually tapering towards the stern, it opens a sufficient passage through the water at once, and the friction along the sides is relieved. In other words, that it is more important to avoid friction along the sides, than resistance at the bows. He tells you also that the Creator has formed fishes, and all animals who are intended to move in water, on this principle.

Now after hearing such a conversation as this, a person of well disciplined mind will pause a moment, and connect these facts with his other knowledge on the same subjects-that is, the construction of ships, the resistance of fluids,-and the admirable mechanism of the Creator's works. And he will establish this connection so firmly, that when at a future time any of these subjects come up in conversation, this information will come up too; and thus all his knowledge on such subjects, from whatever sources derived, will form one connected and harmonious whole. On the other hand, the person whose mind is undisciplined and unregulated, will perhaps have this knowledge associated in his mind with no other idea than that he was riding in a stage when he heard it, or that his informant wore a white hat. Perhaps he would not think of the subject again, until he meets, some weeks after, a gentleman in the street, wearing a white hat, the sight of which may remind him of his fellow-traveller, and the conversation about the construction of ships. Thousands of individuals have their ideas grounded on such principles as these.

Such is the difference between correct scientific association, and that which is merely accidental and trivial. And a moment's reflection will show the reader the immense superiority of the former, for all the purposes for which knowledge is to be used. We must of course learn facts and principles at various times, and under every possible variety of circumstances. But though they cannot in all cases be acquired in order, they may be put in order as soon as they are acquired. Every truth, as scon as it is possessed, must be carried to its proper place in the intellectual store-house, or else all will soon be inextricable confusion.

V. A careful selection of the subjects to which the mind ought to be directed. These are, in some respects, different in different persons, according to their situations in life; but there are certain objects of attention which are peculiarly adapted to each individual, and there are some which are equally interesting to all. In regard to the latter, an appropriate degree of attention is the part of every wise

Facts stated by the captain? Proper mode of associating and remembering these facts? Improper mode? Importance of correct habits of association. Fifth quality? Selection of subjects. Principles which should guide.

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