and mother. It was hardly light, but she was out on the snow scrubbing out a wash-tub. 'That's the girl for me,' said I, when we had got out of her hearing. One of these young men came to England soon afterwards, and during the election came from Yorkshire to Preston to verify whether I was the same man. When he found that I was, he appeared surprised when I told him that those tall young men whom he saw around me were the sons of that pretty little girl that he saw scrubbing out the washing-tub on the snow in New Brunswick at daybreak."

The many instances and illustrations of the advantages of early rising will convince the most sceptical of its excellence, of the good which will result, and the evil which will be avoided. There are many who will now regret that they had not in early life formed the habit, and that they have lost and wasted so many hours in bed which might have been usefully and pleasantly employed. But "it is never too late to mend;" at any period of life the habit of early rising may be formed. For the young, however, for the youth just merging into manhood, the custom of early rising perseveringly continued will have a more enduring and valuable influence upon life, success in life, than an important legacy or gift of money. No doubt the habit will demand a struggle, not such a struggle as Buffon was subjected to, but still a struggle that may demand a considerable amount of courage and resolute determination. The Rev. John Todd said: "If you ever hope to do anything in this world, the habit

must be formed. If any money could purchase the habit, no price would be too great." Mr. Todd, practising what he preached, awoke himself in the early morning by an ingenious alarm attached to an old wooden clock; there is now, however, no necessity for the expenditure of ingenuity upon such a matter— alarm-clocks are sufficiently cheap to enable all to obtain one for the purpose of being awakened in the morning. But one thing is an absolute necessity-the moment the eyes are unclosed, and the time for rising has come, there must be no parleying, but out of bed at once. Stay in bed for a few minutes to consider how cold it is outside of the blankets and how warm within, and sleep and sluggishness have conquered. After winning the first battle all the rest should be easy. Dr. Barrow said appositely and truthfully: "By taking pains to-day, we shall need less pains to-morrow; and by continuing the exercise, within a while we shall need no pains at all, but perform the most difficult tasks of duty or of benefit to us with perfect ease, yea, commonly with great pleasure. What sluggish people account hard and irksome (as to rise early) will be natural and sweet, as proceeding from another nature raised in us by use.' The poet Thomson, in his charming "Seasons," asks:— "Falsely luxurious, will not man awake,

And, springing from the bed of sloth, enjoy
The cool, the fragrant, and the silent hour,

To meditation due, and sacred song?

For is there aught in sleep can charm the wise?

To lie in dead oblivion, losing half

The fleeting moments of too short a life-
Total extinction of th' enlightened soul !

Or else to feverish vanity alive,

Wildered, and tossing through distempered dreams.
Who would in such a gloomy state remain
Longer than nature craves, when every muse
And every blooming pleasure wait without,
To bless the wildly devious morning walk?"

Mrs. Tighe, whose sweet words were ever inspiriting and improving, who left the world better for having lived in it, wrote:

"Oh, you who murmur at the call of duty,

66

And quit your pillows with reluctant sloth,
For whom the Morn in vain displays her beauty,
While tasteless you can greet her smiles so loath,—

You cannot know the charm that, o'er me stealing,
Revives my senses as I taste her breath,

Which half repays the agony of feeling

A night of horrors, only less than death."

And Bishop Heber, whose grand missionary hymn, "From Greenland's Icy Mountains," has been sung by millions of rapt singers, and will be treasured so long as pure sentiment and inspired song find a dwellingplace in human hearts, feelingly wrote:—

"The God of mercy walks his round,

From day to day, from year to year,
And warns us each with awful sound,
'No longer stand ye idle here.'

"Ye whose young cheeks are rosy bright,

Whose hands are strong, whose hearts are clear,

Waste not of youth the morning light :

Oh, fools, why stand ye idle here?

"And ye whose scanty locks of gray
Foretell your latest travail near,
How fast declines your useless day,
And stand ye yet so idle here?

"One hour remains-there is but one;
But many a grief and many a tear
Through endless ages must atone

For moments lost and wasted here."

IX.

Successful Decision and Resolution.

"Muse not that I thus suddenly proceed;
For what I will, I will, and there an end."

SHAKESPEARE.

"Now from head to foot

I am marble-constant: now the fleeting moon
No planet is of mine."-Ibid.

"He is not worthy the honeycomb

That shuns the hive because the bees have stings:
That likes me best that is not got with ease,
Which thousand dangers do accompany."-Ibid.

UCCESS in life cannot be attained without the exercise of decision and resolution. The power rightly to resolve and decide is

not obtained by a momentary and spasmodic act of the will. It is a power which is germinated and conserved by habit, which derives much of its capability of endurance from the physical constitution and the healthy state of the body. A diseased, shaky, powerless body, will communicate its weakness to the mind; just as a well-knit frame, with a pulse "beating like a cannon-ball," indicating strength and energy, will tone and tune the mind to purpose and resolution. Wellington was called the "Iron Duke," and Napoleon "the

man of iron will." Both generals had splendid physical constitutions, that seemed to be impervious to fatigue or deprivation. Had these world-famed men possessed weakly, unstrung frames, they would never have survived to meet and contend on the field of Waterloo. Great statesmen, great orators, and authors, have been alike celebrated for physical health and constitutional energy; and had they not been so constituted and trained they could not have attained their eminence, and the world would not have been blessed with their labours. He, therefore, who desires to attain to the possession of decision and resolution must make strenuous efforts to secure a robust and healthy constitution. Dr. Johnson was accustomed to say that " a sick man was a rascal," a quaint way of saying that a sick or diseased man was unable, owing to his infirmity, to discharge the duties of life, and that he would shirk them altogether or imperfectly perform them. All have experienced the difference of meeting difficulties and completing difficult tasks under different states of the body. Under one state, when the body is full of life and energy, heavy tasks are undertaken with ease and eagerness; but when the body is suffering and depressed, the spirits lose their vivacity, and the smallest difficulty or trouble becomes "a lion in the way."

Good health being an important factor in the attainment of decision and resolution, no efforts should be omitted to secure a healthy condition of the body, so that it may become a perfect instrument, performing through a long life the will and behests of the mind.