of God's creations; but studied as a mere congeries of facts, all
sciences are alike worthless; and from the mousings of the mere
antiquarian to the dredgings of the student of the shelly coverings of
the Mollusca, all end in naught.

When a person's employment is one that does not require a constant
exercise of the thoughts, there is the greater need of a constant supply
of nutritious food for the mind, that it may be growing all the time by
reflection, and thus be saved from falling into a morbid state, such
as too often results from long confinement to an occupation demanding
little exertion of its powers. The farmer at his plough, the mechanic at
his bench, the seamstress at her needle, and a host of others, too
often suffer the thoughts to wander into realms of morbid egotism and
discontent, when, if they would turn them upon moral or intellectual
themes, they might be growing wiser and better every day.

It may be objected, that those who are obliged to work hard through the
whole week cannot, on the Sabbath, take enough intellectual food to last
them for Thought during the week. Every person can, if he will, find
time for a chapter in the Bible every day, and therein lies wisdom, that
all humanity combined can never exhaust, and which ever opens richer
stores the more it is wrought upon. Then the human race are everywhere
around us, and every individual is a volume to be read. We are vexed,
and perhaps tormented, by the vices or foibles of those with whom we
are thrown in contact. Let us not stop in vexation, but study our own
hearts, and see if there is not some kindred vice or foible in ourselves
that perhaps troubles our friends quite as much as this disturbs us; for
it is often the case that our own vices, when we meet them in others,
are precisely those which irritate us most; and we are almost always
more irritable through our vices than through our virtues. Again, we