241 



call facts or illustrations, which when he first met them, seem- 

 ed hardly worth the preservation. 



But time you may think is wanting; you may be constant- 

 ly employed, and the little portions of the day which are not 

 occupied with business, must be given to relaxation and exer- 

 cise ; these, then, are the portions which you should give to 

 observation ; and you will Soon find that it affords not merely 

 relaxation, but revives and strengthens the faculties oppressed 

 and overpowered by intense application to an absorbing pur- 

 suit. It brings into exercise faculties of the mind which might 

 otherwise have remained dormant, and thus relieves us from 

 fatigue, not by absolute rest which can never effect such end, 

 but by change of activity. Nor must it be supposed that these 

 httle fractions of time are insufficient to lead to any valuable 

 result. If faithfully and regularly employed, they will enable 

 us to effect almost any purpose we can form. The most dis- 

 tinguished authors have left upon record their warning against 

 the pursuits of literature as a profession, and their testimony 

 tliat far more can be effected by the application of a certain 

 regular portion of the time, that even the most engrossing pur- 

 suit will always afford to him who desires it, than by making 

 it the sole and constant employment. You all recollect the 

 anecdote of the French Chancellor, who finding that his wife 

 never came down to dinner until fifteen minutes after she had 

 been summoned, appropriated that time to writing, and in a 

 few years had amassed a large collection of folio volumes as 

 the result. One hour a day faithfully employed, will enable 

 any one to make in a few years a collection of observations 

 far surpassing in value any estimate which should previously 

 be formed, and that was at all within the hmits of probability. 

 Constancy and regularity are the only indispensable requisites; 

 and without these, nothing valuable can be produced, no mat- 

 ter how great be the expenditure of time. 



Neither the mechanic, the merchant, nor the professional 

 man expects, when entering upon life, to continue busily en- 

 gaged until its termination; no one thinks to die with harness 

 on; but each looks forward (no matter how obscure may be 

 the prospect) to the period when his toil-won gains will enable 



