EST

THE point can be no more of right and duty,
Only of power, and of the opportunity.

That opportunity, lo! it comes yonder,

Approaching with swift steeds; then with a spring
Throw thyself up into the chariot seat,

Seize with firm hands the reins, ere thine opponent
Anticipate thee, and himself make conquest
Of the now empty seat. The moment comes;

It is already here, when thou must write

The absolute total of thy life's vast sum.

SCHILLER'S Wallenstein.

No great and estimable improvement will spring unsolicited or flourish uncultivated; and as we perceive that the world, and life and time, will mould us, whether we will or not, if left to their influence, it is supremely worth our care that we be not fatally and irretrievably spoiled.

JOHN FOSTER.

WE see men are more curious what they put into a new vessel than into a vessel seasoned; and what mould they lay about a young plant, than about a plant corroborate; so as the weakest terms and times of all things, use to have the best applications and helps. And will you hearken to the Hebrew Rabbins? Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: say they, Youth is the worthier age, for that visions are nearer apparitions of God than dreams. And let it be noted that.... the ancient wisdom of the best times did always make a just complaint, that STATES WERE TOO BUSY WITH THEIR LAWS, AND TOO NEGLIGENT IN POINT OF

EDUCATION.

LORD BACON.-Adv. of Learning.

WHAT then remains? To seek

Those helps, for his occasions ever near,
Who lacks not will to use them; vows renewed
On the first motion of a holy thought.

Vigils of contemplation, praise and prayer;

A stream which from the fountain of the heart

Issuing however feebly, nowhere flows

Without access of unexpected strength.

EXCURSION.

CHAPTER XII.

The beginning of Character-Infancy and Childhood—Parental Teaching by Character and Example-Instinctive Discernment of Character by children-Responsibility for the influence of our character and habits upon others-How it is to be unerringly traced.

"I REMEMBER," says John Foster, "when once, many years ago, musing in reflective indolence, observing the vigorous vegetation of some shrubs and plants in spring, I wished that the powers of the mind too could not help growing in the same spontaneous manner. But this vain wish instantly gave place to the recollected, sober conviction, that there is a simple and practicable process, which would as certainly be followed by the high improvements of reason, as the vegetable luxury follows the genial warmth and showers of spring."

Well! the powers of the mind cannot help growing, they do grow, inevitably. They grow, and the habits of the mind with them, spontaneously for evil, if neglected, if they are not kept under careful, affectionate training, that they may grow prayerfully and laboriously for good.

Foster adds, "How fertile in everything wise and useful would be that life, the early part of which should be the sole reservoir

to supply opinions and virtues to all the rest." But it is a reservoir, and in every man's life must be; not always and inevitably the sole reservoir, but often sadly such; often left empty of good, often filled with evil. And then how fertile in everything foolish and worthless must be such a life, out of such a fountain! For the beginning is most generally the prophecy of the end, and what a man soweth, that shall he also

reap.

There is not a principle in the universe more just and inexorable than this. It commends itself to the inmost conscience of mankind, which universally proclaims the justice and the certainty of retributive consequences on spontaneous and chosen courses. The nature itself of things is not more certain than the consequences of our voluntary character and actions. What is already passed is not more fixed, than the certainty that what is future will grow out of what has already passed or is now passing. Responsibility is inevitable, omnipresent, and eternal. It is also connected, mutual, and reciprocal for ourselves and for others, inasmuch as we are inseparable from an indissoluble and eternal train. We are acted upon and we act upon others, continually, and we shall do so forever.

The moment an immortal being is born, its character begins to be formed. The light falls upon its frame; the air of heaven and of human existence breathes over it; it receives care and nourishment from others; it sees human beings. Speedily it receives moral impressions and influences. The forms, faces, manners, words of others begin to act upon it; and as they are, so they act. Character acts. A man cannot stand before a child, and get its notice, but an aura or emanation of the man's nature, if I may so speak, acts upon the child. The child catches

the expression even of the invisible soul, and observes the subtlest

marks and breathings of character. These things fall upon the opening blossom of immortality as silently, softly, surely, as the light, the air, and the invisible dew surround and fall upon the petals of a daisy that has just opened by the way-side. And the influence in the one case is as constant and certain as in the other.

The character of the child begins to be formed by the ministrations of others. The moment it is born, it is as a piece of new soil, in which men begin to sow for the harvest. The evil and the good are both thrown in. Men begin their work of sowing with little children, mothers with infants. The child is thrown of God upon the responsibility of others. What does it know? What can it do? The all-wise and merciful Creator only knows when the period of moral agency begins, the period of moral volition, and of course of moral accountability. He only knows the degree in which it is exercised. But begin when it may, the child's first moral impressions are the work of others, and the responsibility is that of others.

Now, if all these earliest moral ministrations were holy, if angels had the training of infants, if all the fixtures and influences of our world in these first years were holy, we know not when, nor how soon, the evil of the race would appear, that always does appear; we know not how long it might be kept dormant. A perfectly holy education would do much for such a being on the trial of its character, but could not do everything. It could do nothing effectually without God's grace, but it would certainly have God's grace accompanying it. We may be perfectly sure that if parents from the outset, performed their whole duty, God would, at a very early time, answer prayer, and perform His whole promise. But the experiment has never once been made,