merely as the generic and abstract "love to being in general," but also as the more familiar grace of "love to some beings in particular." It should be drawn not merely from "systematic treatises on theology, written in schools and garrets and cloisters, many of them by those bearing the title of bachelor in divinity, and the character of bachelor in humanity too;" but from the Bible, which is full of sympathy with common life, and which not only permits but directs us to all things which are pure and lovely and of good report to all in social life which makes the intellect more pliant and versatile, the manners more polished and affectionate and winning, the man more human, and the entire life more joyous and blessed.

And besides all this, we should mount still higher in the scale. Truth and duty-for these we should ever and earnestly seek, that we may know the one and do the other. Every wrong propensity we should strive to subdue--every evil habit to lay aside-every good one to cherish. Conscience and principle we should enthrone within us, and ever hearken to their voice. Often should we ask as to our nature and destiny as immortal beings; and, bound as we are to a future and invisible world, and to a deathless existence, we should seek, as the gospel directs, to prepare for the scenes that are before us. Nowhere has self-cultivation so glorious a field as when she whispers of our destiny-as when she reminds us that we are to live for ever—as when she unfolds the idea of God and of duty, clearly and livingly within us; moving us to reverence and love and obey him, to hunger and thirst after his likeness, to be a blessing to ourselves and to all around us, and thus to make progress in the noblest growth whether of human or angelic natures. And never do we appear so noble, so like the bright intelligences of heaven, as when we are thus bound to God in deep and holy affection, in joyful obedience and heavenly hope; when religion sits enthroned on our brow, and pride has given way to meekness, and benevolence reigns within us, and glows in our looks, and breathes in our words, and lives in our conduct;— when our whole life is one continual process of self-elevation and improvement-when principle regulates every act, and all our plans take hold on eternity, and when all around us feel that religion has made us nobler and better and happier. Such we may be; and to our progress here, by God's grace, there is no assignable limit. The pathway before us takes hold on eternity; and in it we may eternally ascend, rising with a holier

ardor and a swifter progress, and moving with a diviner energy for ever and for ever!

Such is a brief and imperfect glance at the various departments of self-cultivation. It should commence with self-knowledge, self-rule and self-formation; and by it we should seek to improve and perfect ourselves as physical, intellectual, social, moral and religious beings. In all these self-cultivation is possible; for in all these we have capacity for growth; and in all it is demanded by our nature, that we may be useful and happy here, and worthy of our high destiny both here and hereafter, that we may meet the high obligations which God has placed upon us, fully to rise to which, demands the highest possible perfection of our being.

III. Some of the MEANS of self-cultivation-some of the aids to progress in it. Here the field is well nigh endless. A brief glance is all that will be attempted.

1. We must feel that all of which we have spoken, and even more than this, is possible. Impossibility is the death of effort. But when a prize is before us, the possibility that it may be ours, should rouse us to the greater effort to grasp it. We are to feel then of self-cultivation, that it is not a dream, but that it has its foundation in our own natures; that others have made vast progress in it, and that we may do the same. We are not to permit our minds, like the caged-up eagle, to pine away and starve by being confined to that which is just about us and already ours; but we are to feel as a reality, that we may make progress to the very end of our being; that we may for ever be growing in the high and inspiring consciousness of constant self-improvement. Faith in our own powers, and in the possibility of their growth-faith in the power of effort-faith in God's assistance, that he will ever help us if we help ourselvesthis faith, living in the atmosphere of truth, and ever catching glimpses of a distant and divine perfection, will give wings to the soul, on which she may rise for ever. We are to feel, then, as a first principle, that there is no limit to the range of our growth-no goal to the progress of the immortal spirit with

in us.

2. We are also to feel that self-cultivation is important. We are to feel that our dignity and usefulness, and influence and happiness, that our all is involved in it; that without it we are nothing; that with it we may be every thing. Well hath the philosopher remarked of man, that "if he neglecteth himself,

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if he forgetteth the mighty spirit and the godlike soul within him, he stoopeth himself from the converse of angels, to the insects of a day, and the brutes that perish." And applicable to all is the remark made by the poet respecting woman, that when in her he thought he had found

he has

The fulness of that holy light,

That makes earth beautiful and bright,

turned and wept to find

Beneath it all a trifling mind.

3. We must resolve upon it. "Resolution," says another, "is omnipotent." And if we will but solemnly determine to make the most and the best of all our powers and capacities, and if to this end, with Wilberforce, we will but "seize and improve even the shortest intervals of possible action and effort," shall find that there is no limit to our advancement. Without this resolute and earnest purpose, the best aids and means are of little worth; but with it, even the weakest are mighty. Without it, we shall accomplish nothing; with it, every thing. A man who is deeply in earnest, acts upon the motto of the pick-axe on the old seal: "Either I will find a way, or I will make one." He has somewhat the spirit of Buonaparte, who, when told on the eve of battle that circumstances were against him, replied: "Circumstances! I make or control circumstances, not bow to them." In self-cultivation, as in every thing else, to think we are able is almost to be so; to resolve to attain is often attainment. Everywhere are the means of progress, if we have but the spirit, the fixed purpose to use them. And if, like the old philosopher, we will but take as our motto: “Higher -for ever higher," we may rise by them all. He that resolves upon any great end, by that very resolution has scaled the chief barrier to it; and so he who seizes the grand idea of self-cultivation, and solemnly resolves upon it, will find that idea, that resolution, burning like living fire within him, and ever putting him upon his own improvement. He will find it removing difficulties, searching out or making means, giving courage for despondency, and strength for weakness; and, like the star in the east to the wise men of old, guiding him nearer and still nearer to the sum of all perfection. If we are but fixed and resolute-bent on self-improvement, we shall find means enough to it on every side, and at every moment; and even obstacles

and opposition will but make us like the fabled "spectre ships, which sail the fastest in the very teeth of the wind."

4. We are to go to it by degrees-with patient and persevering effort. Many, when circumstances have turned their attention to self-improvement, and while the glowing picture is before them, often make excellent and sometimes prodigious resolutions. But because they do not, as by a leap, at once become perfect, they are soon ready to give up the effort in despair. For such, for all, it were well to remember, that self-cultivation is a matter of slow progress, of patient and persevering effort, and that in little things, from day to day and from hour to hour. It is the fixed law of the universe, that little things are ever the elements-the parts of the great. The grass does not spring up full grown. It rises by an increase so noiseless and gentle, as not to disturb an angel's ear, and not to be seen by an angel's eye. The rain does not fall in masses, but in drops, or even in the breath-like moisture of the fine mist, as if the world were one vast condenser and God had breathed upon it. The planets do not leap from end to end of their orbits; but in their ever onward progress, inch by inch, and line by line it is that they circle the heavens. with self-improvement. It is not a thing of fits and impulses and explosions, but of constant watchfulness, and patient and unwearied effort, and of gradual and ceaseless advancement. There is no royal road to it,-no vaulting to it by a leap. Like the wealth of the miser it must be heaped up piece by piece; and then at length, like the wealth of the miser, it may almost be without limit. Like the coral reefs of the ocean, it must grow by small but constant additions; and then it will finally be like those reefs, admirable in all its parts, and rivalling the very mountains in size. Here is the secret of what are technically, and we had almost said nonsensically known as self-made men: -as if they had made themselves without means or opportunity; when the truth is, every one of them, will be found on investigation to have improved all his time, to have made the most of every opportunity, to have been making effort, and of course making progress at every passing moment. "Never to have an idle moment," was the motto of one of this character, and probably of most like him.

5. We should reverence our own nature. We should remember that we were made for every thing that is high, or noble, or excellent. We are to feel that our rational and immortal

nature is worth more than all the material universe, and that we may make it worth far more than it now is. We are to feel that we are men, and that God's image is upon us; and we are to cultivate ourselves, because we are men, and because that image is upon us--because we are for ever to exist, and because we may rise higher and shine brighter for ever.

6. We should seek the intercourse of superior minds. Not that we should depend on those; for our own activity and effort are essential to our progress. But we should rouse, and inform, and stimulate our own minds by frequent contact and intercourse with those whose minds are superior to our own. Many such we may find in the walks of every-day life, in the lectureroom, or the social circle. But especially may we have communion with the great, and the wise, and the good of every age, in books, where their voices echo to us down through the stillness of time. Here it is that we may hold converse with the mightiest minds of the past-with Milton, " in his glorious old age, when his thoughts, like the ravens of the prophet, brought him heavenly food;" and Shakspeare, with his lofty imaginings, and his deep knowledge of the human heart; and Bacon, with his profound and far-reaching thought, "like the old Greek poets, half sage and half seer;" and Cowper, with his sweet and tender instructions. And far more, here it is that the prophets, and apostles, and the Redeemer himself are our companions; giving us their most precious thoughts-pouring their very souls into ours-making us the daily associates of the noblest, and wisest, and best, that earth has ever seen. By the habit of well-directed reading we may shut out the present bustling world; and, as by a touch of the resurrection, may wake up from our book-shelves the dead of every age, and gather them to our companionship and instruction. And this habit, if we will but cherish it, will ever be to us, not only a strong safeguard from folly and vice, and a source of the highest enjoyment, but the sure means of self-improvement. Nothing can supply the place of books. The wealth of the Indies should not tempt us to be without them. We should seek, then, not always those that the wise recommend, because they have found them good, but those that best waken and rivet our attention and interest; those that best unfold ourselves, and lead us to think, and rouse us to the consciousness of our own powers. We are not, however, to depend on books, but to exercise our own judgment freely and manfully upon all that comes before