38 BE MASTER OF YOUR OWN MIND. 



which does not harmonize with truth, a careful selec- 

 tion of the topics upon which the efforts of your minds 

 may be usefully concentred ; and therefore the cautious 

 and unwearied exercise of a calm, independent, and 

 sound judgment, which shall as safely and as success- 

 fully apply itself to the formation of opinions as of habits. 

 And, with respect to the acquisition of knowledge, 

 recall to your thoughts, what I have often told you, that 

 the easiest way of arriving at truth is not always the 

 best; but that, in matters of investigation, one addition 

 to our store which results from our own efforts is ulti- 

 mately of more value than ten gathered from the com- 

 munications of others, because of its greater tendency to 

 fix itself indelibly ; and that, with a few exceptions (so 

 few, indeed, that they need scarcely be taken into a 

 practical estimate) any person may learn any thing upon 

 which he sets his heart : to ensure success he has simply 

 so to discipline his mind as to check its vagrancies, to 

 cure it of its constant proneness to be doing two or 

 more things at a time, and to compel it to direct its 

 combined energies simultaneously to a single object, and 

 thus to do one thing at once. This I consider as one of 

 the most difficult, but one of the most useful lessons that 

 a young man can learn. 



But however difficult it may be, it is attainable. It 

 is the practical result of a still more exalted attainment, 



" THE POWER OF MASTERING THE MIND." But if it be 



desirable to obtain and keep the ascendancy any where, 

 it is, surely, at home, in the centre of your own intellect 

 and its principles, your heart and its emotions. Gain 

 the mastery here, govern within, learn to direct your 

 thoughts to any subject you please, and keep them 

 uninterruptedly to their occupation, till at your bidding 



