34 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
A young man who had wasted, in a short time his patrimony, in 
profligacy, while standing, one day, on the brow of a precipice from 
which he had determined to throw himself, formed the sudden 
resolution to regain what he had lost. The purpose thus form¬ 
ed was kept; and though he began by shovelling a load ol coals in¬ 
to a cellar, for which he only received twelve and a half cents, yet 
he proceeded from one step to another till he more than recover¬ 
ed his lost possessions, and died worth sixty thousand pounds ster¬ 
ling. 
1 have thus treated, at greater length than I intended, of the mo¬ 
tives, which ought to persuade young men, especially of the present 
generation, to set a high standard of action. On the means by which 
you are to attain this elevation, it is the purpose of this little work 
to dwell plainly and fully. These means might be classed in three 
great divisions ; viz. physical, menial, and moral. Whatever relates 
to the health, belongs to the first division; whatever to the improve¬ 
ment of the mind, the second, and the formation of good manners 
and virtuous habits, constitute the third.— Young Man’s Guide. 
ON THE PLEASURES AND ENJOYMENTS CONNECTED WITH THE PUR¬ 
SUITS OF SCIENCE. 
Man is a compound being; his nature consists of two essential 
parts, body and mind. Each of these parts of the human constitu¬ 
tion has its peculiar uses, and is susceptible of peculiar gratifica¬ 
tions. The body is furnished with external senses, which are both 
the sources of pleasure and the inlets of knowledge ; and the Crea¬ 
tor has furnished the universe with objects fitted for their exercise 
and gratification. While these pleasures are directed by the dictates 
of reason, and confined within the limits prescribed by the Divine 
law, they are so far from being unlawful, that in the enjoyment of 
them, we fulfil one of the purposes for which our Creator brought us 
into existence. But the pursuits of sensitive pleasures is not the ul¬ 
timate end of our being ; we enjoy such gratifications in common 
with the inferior animals ; and in so far as we rest in them as our 
chief good, we pour contempt on our intellectual nature, and degrade 
ourselves nearly to the level of the beasts that perish. 
Man is endowed with intellectual powers, as well as with organs 
of sensation,—with faculties of a higher order, and which admit of 
more varied and sublime gratifications, than those which the senses 
can produce. By these faculties we are chiefly distinguished from 
the lower orders of animated existence ; in the proper exercise and 
direction of them, we experience the highest and most refined enjoy¬ 
ments of which our nature is susceptible, and are gradually prepar¬ 
ed for the employments of that immortal existence to which we are 
destined. The corporeal senses were bestowed chiefly in subservi¬ 
ency to the powers of intellect, and to supply materials for thought 
and contemplation; and the pleasures peculiar to our intellectual 
nature, rise as high above mere sensitive enjoyments, as the rank of 
man stands in the scale of existence above that of the fowls of the 
air, or the beasts of the forest. Such pleasures are pure and refined ; 
they are congenial to the character of a rational being; they are 
more pemanent than mere sensitive enjoyments ; they can be en¬ 
joyed when worldly comforts are withdrawn, and when sensual gra¬ 
tifications can afford no delight; they afford solace in the hours of 
retirement from the bustle of business, and consolation amid the ca¬ 
lamities and afflictions to which humanity is exposed ; and the more 
we acquire a relish for such pleasures, the better shall we be pre¬ 
pared for associating with intelligences of a higher order in a future 
world. 
THE IGNORANT MAN. 
Before proceeding to the more particular illustration of this topic, 
let us consider the state and enjoyments of the man whose mind is 
shrouded in ignorance. He grows up to manhood like a vegetable, 
or like one of the lower animals that are fed and nourished for the 
slaughter. He exerts his physical powers, because such exertion 
is necessary for his subsistence ; were it otherwise, we should most 
frequently find him dosing over the fire, or basking in the sun, with 
a gaze as dull and stupid as his ox, regardless of every thing but the 
gratification of his appetites. He has perhaps been taught the art 
of reading, but has never applied it to the acquisition of knowledge. 
His views are chiefly confined to the objects immediately around 
him, and to the daily avocations in which he is employed. His 
knowledge of society is circumscribed within the limits of his parish, 
and his views of the world in which he dwells are confined within 
the range of the country in which he resides, or the blue hills which 
skirt his horizon. Of the aspects of the globe in other countries— 
of the various tribes with which they are peopled—of the seas and 
rivers, continents and islands which diversify the landscape of the 
eai th—of the numerous orders of animated beings which people the 
ocean, the atmosphere, and the land,—of the revolutions of nations, 
and the events which have taken place in the history of the world, 
he has almost as little conception as the animals that range the fo¬ 
rest, or bound through the lawns. In regard to the boundless re¬ 
gions that lie bt yond him in the firmament, and the bodies that roll 
there in magnificent grandeur, he has the most confused and inac¬ 
curate ideas ; and he seldom troubles himself with inquiries in rela¬ 
tion to such subjects. Whether the stars be great or small, whe¬ 
ther they be near us or at a distance, or whether they move or stand 
still, is to him a matter of trivial importance. If the sun give him 
light by day, and the moon by night, and the clouds distil their wa¬ 
tery treasures upon his parched fields, he is contented, and leaves 
all such inquiries and investigations to those who have little else to 
engage their attention. He views the canopy of heaven as merely 
a ceiling to our earthly habitation, and the starry orbs as only so 
many luminous studs or tapers to diversify its aspect, and to afford a 
glimmering light to the benighted traveller. Of the discoveries 
which have been made in the physical sciences in ages past, of the 
wonders of creation which they have unfolded to view, of the instru¬ 
ments which have been invented for exploring the universe, and of 
the improvements which are now going forward in every department 
of science and art, and the prospects that are opening to our view, 
he is almost as entirely ignorant as if he had been fixed under the 
frozen pole, or chained to the surface of a distant planet. He con¬ 
siders learning as consisting chiefly in the knowledge of grammer, 
Greek and Latin; and philosophy and astronomy as the art of tell¬ 
ing fortunes and predicting the state of the weather; and experi¬ 
mental chemistry, as allied to the arts of magic and necromancy. 
He has no idea of the manner in which the understanding may be 
enlightened and expanded, he has no relish for intellectual pursuits, 
and no conception of the pleasures they afford ; and he sets no va¬ 
lue on knowledge but in so far as it may tend to increase his riches 
and his sensual gratifications. He has no desire for malting improve¬ 
ments in his trade or domestic arrangements, and gives no counte¬ 
nance to those useful inventions and public improvements which are 
devised by others. He sets himself against every innovation, whe¬ 
ther religious, political, mechanical or agricultural, and is determin¬ 
ed to abide by the “ good old customs” of his forefathers, however 
irrational and absurd. Were it dependent upon him, the moral 
world would stand still as the material world was supposed to do in 
former times; all useful inventions and improvements would cease, 
existing evils would never be remedied, ignorance and superstition 
would universally prevail, the human mind would be arrested in its 
progress to perfection, and man would never arrive at the true dig¬ 
nity ol his intellectual nature. 
It is evident that such an individual (and the world contains thou¬ 
sands and millions of such characters) can never have his mind ele¬ 
vated to those sublime objects and contemplations which enrapture 
the man of science, nor feel those pure and exquisite pleasures, 
which cultivated minds so frequently experience ; nor can he form 
those lofty and expansive ideas of the Diety which the grandeur and 
magnificence of his works are calculated to inspire. He is left as a 
prey to all those foolish notions and vain alarms which are engen¬ 
dered by ignorance and superstition ; and he swallows, without the 
least hesitation, all the absurdities and childish tales, respecting 
witches, hobgoblins, spectres, and apparitions, which have been 
handed down to him by his forefathers in former generations. And 
while he thus gorges his mind with fooleries and absurdities, he 
spurns at the discoveries of science as impositions on the credulity 
of mankind, and contrary to reason and common sense. That the 
sun is a million of times larger than the earth, that light flies from 
his body at the rate of two hundred thousand miles in a moment of 
time, and that the earth is whirling round its axis from day to day, 
with a velocity of a thousand miles every hour, are regarded by him 
as notions far more improbable and extravagant than the story of 
the “Wonderful Lamp,” and all the other tales of the “Arabian 
Nights Entertainments.” In his hours of leisure from his daily 
avocations, his thoughts cither run' wild among the most grovel¬ 
ling objects, or sink into sensuality or inanity, and solitude and re¬ 
tirement present no charms to his vacant mind. While human 
beings arc thus immersed in ignorance, destitute of rational ideas, 
and of a solid substratum of thought, they can never experience 
those pleasures and enjoyments, which flow from the exercise of the 
