EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
071 
constantly on his watch-tower, to guard against assailants, 
for Tis his to direct, and should he be at fault, the con- 
sequences may prove serious, although not perhaps so 
much to himself as to others. But does this render him less 
solicitous? Rather, does it not impose on him greater 
carefulness and circumspection? His mental solicitude 
often causes him to consume the midnight taper, and awakens 
him at early dawn. His mind is ever on the alert to acquire 
fresh facts whence to deduce principles that shall be the 
guide of those he is privileged to instruct. Nor does it rest 
here ; the force and correctness of expression wherewith 
rightly to impress these truths are to be acquired, so that 
his class may become thoroughly imbued with them. 
Yet, in common with Professor Spooner, we have no wish 
to lessen nor remove the weight of the responsibility felt by 
the student, believing, as we do, that it will have a salutary 
influence on him, and determine his future course of conduct. 
The labour of thought will strengthen his mind in the 
acquirement of knowledge ; and, although much that is 
apparently incomprehensible, will present itself at the first, 
having been rightly instructed, he steadily pursues his 
studies, confident that in the end all difficulties will be 
surmounted. Others have pursued the same path before 
him, and attained to honour and success in life, and why 
may not he ? Moreover, he finds himself associated with those 
who are entering on the same course, and the interchange 
of thoughts and of hopes stimulates him to go onwards. He 
feels assured that by and by the thin veil will be removed, 
and the mind, becoming expanded by what it has acquired, 
will possess new powers, and thus be enabled to comprehend 
those things which at one time appeared to him to be both 
perplexing and abstruse. Further, he will see their utility, 
and thus appreciate their worth, and this conviction will 
strengthen his resolution to persevere, conscious that he 
alone wins the race who strives for it. The very difficulties, 
indeed, excite attention and create an interest, and ere long 
he becomes convinced that it is only by intense mental labour 
that the possession of knowledge is to be ensured ; while a 
