might always be found, in Spring, in Summer, in Autumn; and even in Winter his visits to his greenhouse were frequent; nothing but a tempest or a fit of illness could keep him away. Here, at almost any hour, this aged man of long experience and many conflicts might be seen, absolutely absorbed in his flowers and plants, which grew in silence and fragrance around him, and which gratefully rewarded him for his love and culture, by the delightful occupation which they afforded for every leisure moment, and the solace which they brought to pain, age, and infirmity to the very last. Blessed creatures of God! How I wonder that there are not more who will avail themselves of the pleasure, wisdom, and comfort which you can so abundantly impart; that there are so many, who, while they utterly neglect you and the other wonderful works of the Creator, yet complain that there is nothing to interest them, nothing to fill up their idle and unprofitable hours!"- pp. 32, 33.

Lectures to Young Men on the Cultivation of the Mind, the Formation of Character, and the Conduct of Life; delivered in Masonic Hall, Baltimore. By GEORGE W. BURNAP, Pastor of the First Independent Church. Baltimore: John Murphy. 1840. 12mo. pp. 144.

THESE lectures of Mr. Burnap, printed at the request of the young men to whom they were delivered, form a very valuable addition to our books of practical religion. None could have heard them without great benefit to both heart and head,— none can read them without profit. They have been written with especial reference to the young men of cities; but the counsels and the warnings they contain, their earnest and eloquent appeals in behalf of an industrious and virtuous life, are adapted equally to all in town or country. But we shall better show our sense of the value of this little volume by permitting it to speak for itself, than by any vague commendatory common places. The two first lectures are on the cultivation of the mind. Mr. Burnap contends strenuously for literary cultivation on the part of young men of business, and maintains that they are even in the midst of the busiest life favorably situated for making large and various attainments in good letters or the sciences, and that mental cultivation is by no means the duty and the affair of recluse students alone. In the following quotation the reader will find a fair specimen of the manner and tone of the volume.

"But I feel," says Mr. Burnap, "while I am thus commending the cultivation of the mind, that an objection is occurring to many who hear me, that I am speaking of something which is the exclusive business of scholars, of professional or literary men, or at most, of men of leisure and fortune. Cultivation of the mind, it is too often supposed, must be confined

to men of liberal education, who have passed years in the quiet walks of a university, or turned over the volumes of extensive libraries. But all history pronounces this objection false. The lives of the wisest and most eminent of mankind have demonstrated, that the disposition for self-improvement is infinitely more important than the means. The will will ever make for itself a way. The most eminent of mankind have been those who have been self-educated men, who have pursued knowledge under the greatest disadvantages. The difficulty of the attainment has made the prize seem only the more precious, has excited only a more unyielding determination, and nerved to more indefatigable efforts. Two of the sages who were selected by that august assembly which severed forever these states from the mother country, to draw that immortal instrument which declares us free and independent, were mechanics; they had attained their acknowledged eminence among their fellow citizens by no superiority of early advantages. Franklin became the wisest man of his age amidst the drudgery of types and proof sheets, and Sherman became a statesman while engaged in the still humbler occupation of making shoes. A blacksmith, who daily exercises his muscles at the anvil, is the most learned linguist now in the United States. To my own mind, the advantages of what is called a university education are less and less clear every year of my life. It is true it makes men learned in languages, and books, and scientific phraseology, but it is at a prodigious sacrifice of other things quite as important, a knowledge of men and things, at that period of life too when such knowledge can only be attained. I have often seen and lamented the inferiority of such educated men even to the illiterate, in the practical business of life. I am inclined, therefore, to believe that education to be the best, which combines the advantages of a speculative and an active life. He will be the wisest and most efficient man, who superadds to some regular employment, bringing him largely into contact with mankind, assiduous habits of study, reading, and meditation. This course of education I verily believe best calculated to develop the whole man, to preserve both physical and intellectual health, to combine theoretical knowledge with practical judgment, to unite refinement of taste with energy of character. You then, who hear me this night, are perhaps in the best possible situation to acquire the most valuable education. You live in a city, where it is impossible for the mind to stagnate. The very newspapers afford you the means of more extensive information than libraries and colleges Idid three hundred years ago. The average of employment by no means absorbs the whole of your time, nor tasks your faculties to the point of weariness and exhaustion. Books are at your disposal of any kind and in any abundance. Conversation, social discussion, mutual instruction, public lectures, are all within your reach. Nothing is wanting but the will, nothing is wanting but the taste to prefer the ennobling, the satisfactory cultivation of the intellect to the inanity of idleness, or frivolous company, or vapid amusements.

"I lay it down then, as a first principle in the cultivation of the mind, that there can be no intellectual progress without study, an earnest, diligent, perservering application of the mental faculties. This is the only effectual means of making the mind powerful in itself. Mere accumulation of knowledge is not the thing most desirable. It is strength of mind.

It is discipline more than acquisition. The faculties of the mind bear a close analogy to the powers of the physical frame. The muscles can acquire strength, firmness, and endurance, only on the condition of continual exercise. It is in vain that you nourish the body with the greatest variety of the most luxurious food. Sickness will be produced not health, weakness not strength, unless there goes with it powerful action, continual exercise. So mere desultory and miscellaneous reading is more apt to be pernicious than useful. It is more likely to enervate than strengthen the mind. Hence it is, that we often see intellectual and strong-minded men, who have scarcely ever read a book. They have read men and things, not books, in this great world. What they have seen and experienced in life, has been thoroughly digested by meditation, and been wrought into the very texture of a powerful and vigorous mind. On the presentation of a new subject, (which after all is the test of a sound education,) such a mind grasps it with a firm and tenacious hold. It sees what there is in it. It detects its strong and its weak points. It is able to make up a solid judgment, to decide with promptness, and act with energy. Education is not a holiday dress, to be put on only to shine and to dazzle. It is an armor of strong defence and solid weapons, by which man goes down into the fierce battle of this world, conquering and to conquer. That education I honestly believe is best, which mingles books with business, action with meditation, theory with practice, interchanges solitude with society. I consider it then propitious rather than unfavorable in the condition of the most of those who hear me, that you are engaged in active employments. Milton, the greatest master in English literature, was a considerable part of his life a schoolmaster. Newton interchanged his sublime studies with the dry and monotonous duties of master of the mint. Our Bowditch, that miracle of self-education, pursued those mathematical studies, which afterwards made him the translator of La Place, and the universal guide of navigation through the trackless seas, in the uncongenial employment of a supercargo, and a sea captain. And Charles Lamb, that most accomplished of Belles Lettres scholars, and sweetest of prose writers, passed his life at the desk of a common clerk. Roscoe, the historian of Leo the Tenth, was an active and successful merchant, at the same time that he was delighting the world with his literary productions. Bacon was one of the most laborious men that ever lived, in the common drudgery of his profession. He was at the same time the deepest of philosophers, and yet he found leisure so to cultivate elegant literature, as to become the most perfect master of mere English composition, that the nation has ever produced." —pp. 16-20

The second Lecture is also on the cultivation of the mind, and embraces the following topics: - Foreign and Ancient Lan-` guages; Metaphysics, Ethics; Politics; Political Economy; History; Pure Literature; Books of Reference. In his estimate of the relative value of studies, Mr. Burnap decides strongly against languages, ancient or modern, in favor of philosophy, mental and moral, and political economy. The third and fourth Lectures are on the formation of character. The topics of the

first of the two are,- Genius; Talent; Decision of Character; Industry; Perseverance; Speculation; Economy; Sentiments, Feelings, and Dispositions. The following offers true and wholesome doctrine on the subject of Genius.

For

"But before I proceed to the general subject of these lectures, I have one word to say on the use of certain terms, which I conceive to be exceedingly pernicious to young men, and those terms are genius and talents. We hear them used by the young with a frequency, a flippancy, and a vagueness, which is painful, I had almost said, disgusting. The use of these terms operates as an injury to all parties; to those who imagine themselves to possess these fine endowments, by inducing them to trust to their native powers, and to omit that discipline and application which are absolutely necessary to the best capacities, and often leads them to affect an eccentricity of conduct which makes them perfect nuisances in society. As injurious is it to those, who suppose themselves to have shared a slender portion in nature's general inheritance. They imagine that no efforts can place them on a level with the more gifted, and therefore are contented with a dull mediocrity, all their days. I admit that there are occasionally instances of transcendent endowments, such as can achieve miracles in literature, in the arts, and perhaps in professional attainment. But these instances are exceedingly rare; and then such talents are God's especial gift to the world, not to their immediate possessors. genius is generally the predominance of one power or faculty, which renders the character ill balanced in precise proportion to its preponderance, and therefore unfitted for the general business and responsibilities of life. Taking out those few instances of unquestionable superiority, there is less difference in the original endowments of mankind than is generally supposed. What usually passes for genius is the result of early intellectual habits, and still more often, of thorough and careful preparation for every individual effort. What is called talent, is that judgment, facility, and expertness, which is gained by judicious and persevering direction of good native powers, and a well balanced mind, to some particular employment. I have seen hundreds of young men pass through the ordeal of an academic education, and then assume their places in society; and I can safely say, that academic rank was oftener the result of intense application than genius, and was no further indication of future eminence than as forming habits of industry and perseverance, which are the first requisites to success in all situations. No man can tell whether he is a genius or not, until he has devoted himself a reasonable time with all that ardor, which is the characteristic of genius, to that pursuit, which seems most congenial to his natural disposition." — pp. 62 – 64.

We extract a sentence from the same chapter, comprehensive in its thought, terse in language, and which in few words presents an excellent philosophy of life. There are not many sentences in any book better worth storing in the memory.

"When you have sufficient intelligence to perceive what you ought to be, and judgment enough to discern what you may be, and decis

ion enough to determine what you will be, the next indispensable qualities to success are industry and perseverance.".

p. 67. Lectures fifth and sixth are on the conduct of life. The fifth on the relations of the sexes, and embracing the following subdivis ions, The springing and influences of virtuous love; Libertinism, its destructive effects upon industry and religion; Seduction, and illicit connexions, is manly, bold, earnest, and therefore eloquent. The sixth, and last, is devoted to intemperance and gaming, under the heads of, — Intemperance not only a habit but a disease; its causes; the natural desire of society and excitement; the employment of leisure hours; disappointment in business; its remedy; the causes and consequences of gaming. Among the causes of intemperance, Mr. Burnap thus speaks of the desire of society and of excitement.

"Intemperance usually has its origin in two wants of our nature, both natural and both perfectly innocent, the desire of society and the desire of excitement. These are two constituent elements of our nature, designed to promote our individual and social happiness and improvement. We are made to delight in the company and conversation of our fellow beings, particularly with those of the same age or pursuit. Hence it is, that the boy and youth are seen to rush from home, whenever they can escape parental control, and form groups on the playgrounds and at the corners of the streets. Society, either for good or for evil, the young will have. But how shall they entertain themselves and each other? Stories, jokes, and fun are soon exhausted. Excitement must be kept up, and so they think it manly and spirited, to adjourn to some neighboring bar-room or tippling shop and get something to drink. Beware! young man. This is the moment for the resistance of temptation: here the first steps are taken in that downward path, which leads by a more and more rapid descent to the precipice of perdition. The first indulgence is generally entirely indifferent. To abstain from it requires little or no effort. Then is the time for the effort to be made. If it is not made, a few instances of indulgence begin to beget a taste, to form a habit, to induce a disease, to impair the moral sense, and then the young man is ruined even in the morning of life. He is wrecked before he has parted from the shore. "This universal element of our nature, the desire of society and excitement, requires a deeper investigation and a more careful regulation than has hitherto been given to it, on account of its influence upon the condition of public morals. It may be laid down as a maxim, that it will have its gratification in one way or another. Pass through a country village, and you will usually see collected about the stores or taverns a group of men and boys, in the various stages from simple idleness to downright vagabondism! What brought them there, and what has brought them there every day for the last ten years? Had they any deliberate design to become tipplers and vagabonds? Was it the love of strong drink that brought them there? By no means. It was the desire of society, excitement, and entertainment. Their own homes gave them little of either. They had no books and no education to