THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
No. 172.] SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 1860 [Price Id. 
GOOD RESOLUTIONS. 
At the opening of each year it is 
customary to form a number of good 
resolutions, and no doubt during the 
past fortnight the construction of 
‘‘paving stones for the lower regions” 
has been a part of the occupation of 
many of our readers. Resolutions to 
be more active, more industrious, more 
energetic ; resolutions not to neglect 
opportunities — not to defer till the 
morrow, but to mate always the most 
of the passing hour ; resolutions to 
> catch with more certainty ; resolutions 
to abstain from “peeping;” and reso- 
lutions to pin and set with more 
adroitness have no doubt been freely 
I imade. 
But unfortunately there is a wide 
sspace — an almost impassable gulf — be- 
ttween making resolutions and keeping 
them; the tendency is to make them 
land to break them. For what is a 
rresolution P Is it not a determination 
to do something you have not been in 
the habit of doing? If at the begin- 
ning of the new year husband and 
wife resolve to live pleasantly together, 
the inference seems natural that the 
year which has passed had witnessed 
its scenes of altercation and bickering. 
The very fact of a resolution implying 
a change of habit indicates the ex- 
treme difficulty of keeping to the reso- 
lutions that we form ; for few things 
are more difficult to change than 
habits. A habit of inattention is 
easily acquired, and once obtained is 
very hard to lose. Perhaps in reading 
these few lines you have already let 
your thoughts wander * * * * 
If resolutions be formed, a good 
plan is to chronicle them in your 
diary ; otherwise you may perchance 
forget that you have formed them. 
But if they be inserted in the diary 
they will be the more certain to be 
recalled to your recollection several 
times in the course of the year, and 
hence will stand a better chance of 
being attended to. But beware! of all 
bad habits the worst you can contract 
is that of continually making resolu- 
tions to no purpose. You delude your- 
self by thinking how much you are 
going to improve yourself, and yet no 
improvement comes; whilst the pro- 
spect is so alluring of what you in- 
tend to do that it imparts quite a 
pleasurable glow of self-satisfaction! 
H 
