THE FIRST STEP TO GREATNESS.

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He best performs his duty to God and man who, taking reason for his guide, and listening to that "still small voice within," strives manfully in the station which circumstances have placed him to live a blameless life-and to fulfil his obligations as a parent, a neighbour, and a citizen-to do his duty to his God, and to do to others as he would be done by.

"There is no consideration in life," says an eminent philosopher, "that excludes a wise man from discharging his duty;" for he knows that there is not any duty to which Providence has not annexed a blessing-not any temptation that is not subject to our reason-nor any passion or affliction for which Virtue has not provided a remedy; so that it is our own fault if we FEAR or COVET anything, which Two AFFECTIONS are the ROOT of all our miseries.

Man's duty to God and man's duty to man are the hinges upon which man's happiness depends-the corrosion of one is the canker of the soul-a flaw in the other imperils man's happiness.

Duty is the first step to greatness-the helm that steers man safely over the billows of life. If we fail in our duty, we bid farewell to the land of promise-to the haven of hope. Man's honourable occupation is gone.

Let youth engrave upon his mind that DUTY is twin-brother to honesty that duty is a fundamental law of nature, the observance of which she rigidly exacts from the children of prosperity. A disregard to duty mars prospects, blasts hopes, and bars success in life.

How many young men can trace their rise in life to a strict observance of their duty in regard to time-in being not only careful of their own time, but scrupulously faithful of the time

of their employers. The tide in the affairs of youth is punctuality; and if not attended to, how many floods of fortune glide away.

There is an old story on record, and, no doubt, there are many at the present day unrecorded, of a certain citizen who took a pleasure in looking after the interests of his men, and more particularly young men, whom he deemed deserving from their punctuality, steadiness, and industrious habits.

"Smart young fellow, that," said a friend, pointing to one of the apprentices.

"Aye, aye!" said the old man, "clever lad; but he nibbles the kernel."

"The kernel; what's that?"

"The kernel-don't know what the kernel is, and born in a wood, too," said the old man, ironically. "Did you ever give yourself a great deal of trouble in reaching a nut, and after you had nearly broken your teeth upon it, found that a worm had been there before you?"

"What has that to do with that clever-looking lad?"

"Why, I'll tell you. Imagine my office a nut, and guess what I call the kernel of that nut-you can't. Why, man, it's TIME; and, notwithstanding the pains I have taken with that young lad, he is always nibbling at my kernel whenever an opportunity occurs. By nibbling at kernels boys throw away many chances in life."

PUNCTUALITY is a sterling coin-passes current, though not the best-looking nor the brightest, and is one on which all masters place a high value. Punctuality, patience, and industrious habits, secure wealth, wisdom, and worth; while ability or genius without it will be found grovelling in the mire.

Be careful of time; and, above all, that time which is not your own, let it be spent diligently.

TIME.

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THE EMPLOYMENT OF TIME.

Chesterfield, in his advice to his son, very shrewdly remarks:"How little do we reflect on the use and value of time! It is in everybody's mouth, but in few people's practice. Every fool, who slatterns away his whole time in nothings, frequently utters some trite common-place sentence to prove at once the value and fleetness of time. The sun dials all over Europe have some ingenious inscription to that effect; so that nobody squanders away their time without frequently hearing and seeing how necessary it is to employ it well, and how irrecoverable it is if lost. Young people are apt to think that they have so much time before them, that they may squander what they please of it, and yet have enough left; as great fortunes have frequently seduced people to a ruinous profusion. But all these admonitions are useless, where there is not a FUND of GOOD SENSE, and REASON to suggest rather than receive them.

"Time is precious, life short, and consequently not a single moment should be lost. Sensible men know how to make the most of time, and put out their whole sum either to interest or pleasure; they are never idle, but continually employed either in amusements or study. It is an universal maxim that Idleness is the mother of Vice. It is, however, certain that laziness is the inheritance of fools; and nothing can be so despicable as a sluggard.

"Take care of the pence, for the pounds will take care of themselves,' was a very just and sensible reflection of old Mr. Lowndes, the famous Secretary of the Treasury under William III., Anne, and George I. I therefore recommend to you to take care of minutes, for hours will take care of themselves. Be doing something or other all day long; and not neglect half-hours and quarters of hours, which, at the year's end, amount to a great sum. For instance, there are many short intervals in the day, between studies and pleasures; instead of sitting idle, and yawning at those intervals, snatch

all on haver de t. ever rear and with more fan de ting & a ime: mi ʼn reading ins book, do hot sun i ve arendar, meni very passage twice over; at least. to not ass ni il pu áuroughly undertand the irst. 17 de kok al ju me master of the subject: for missa is you may malin trough, and 16t zementer The Enters frira week."

Depatch is de wal of business; and nothing entributes more a lesparen han medici Lay down a method for everything, and sick a = prcatly, as far as mexpected incidents may alov. Fx me terrain our and day in the week for your accounts. and keep them together in their proper order: by which means they will require very Ettie time, and you can never be much cheated. Whatever letters and papers you keep. ceket and tie them up in their respective classes, so that you may brandy have recourse to any one. Lay down a method also for your reading, for which you allot a certain share of your mornings, let it be in a consistent and consecutive course, and act in that desultory and immethodical manner in which many people read scraps of different authors, upon ferent subjects. Keep an useful and short common-place book of what you read, to help your memory only, and not for pedantic quotations.

Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination; never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day. That was the rule of the famous and unfortunate Pensionary De Witt, who, by strictly following it, found time not only to do the whole business of the Republic, but to pass his evenings at assemblies and suppers, as if he had nothing else to do or think of

History records the value that great men placed upon time—

that TIME was beyond price-it was out of the reach of Fortune, as no gold could recall the past.

When King Alfred was asked how he found time for all the variety of his occupations, his answer was that "he FOUND TIME BY NEVER LOSING IT."

The great and principal rule for the ECONOMY of TIME is to set a value upon it, watch it, and systematize it. Alfred, whom historians agree in characterizing as, perhaps, the wisest, best, and greatest King that ever reigned in England, was a remarkable ECONOMIST of his TIME. Asser relates the method he took for dividing and keeping an account of it. He caused six wax candles to be made, each twelve inches long, and of as many ounces weight. The inches were regularly marked, and having found that one of them burnt exactly four hours, by this means he regulated his studies.

This Prince, we are told, was twelve years of age before a master could be procured in the Western Kingdom to teach him the alphabet. Such was the state of learning when Alfred began; but to show the result of DETERMINATION, feeling the misery of ignorance, he resolved on rivalling Charlemagne in the encouragement of literature. He is supposed to have appointed persons to read lectures at Oxford, and is considered to have been the founder of that University. He diffused knowledge throughout his dominions; nor was this end promoted more by his countenance and encouragement than by his own example and his writings; for, notwithstanding the lateness of his education, he had acquired extraordinary erudition, and had he not been illustrious as a king he would have been famous as an author.

PHILOSOPHERS hold it as a sacred truth-that he who WOULD BE HAPPY must place a full value on his time.