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"I entered," says Franklin, "upon the execution of this plan for self-examination, and continued it with occasional intermissions for some time. I was surprised to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined; but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish. On the whole, though I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it; as those who aim at perfect writing by imitating the engraved copies, though they never reach the wished-for excellence of those copies, their hand is mended by the endeavour, and is tolerable while it continues fair and legible. It may be well my posterity should be informed that to this little artifice, with the blessing of God, their ancestor owed the constant felicity of his life down to his seventy-ninth year, in which this is written. What reverses may attend the remainder are in the hand of Providence; but if they arrive, the reflection on past happiness enjoyed ought to help his bearing them with more resignation. To temperance he ascribes his long-continued health and what is left to him of a good constitution; to industry and frugality the early easiness of his circumstances and acquisition of his fortune, with all that knowledge that enabled him to be a useful citizen, and obtained for him some degree of reputation among the learned; to sincerity and justice the confidence of his country and the honourable employments it conferred upon him; and to the joint influence of the

whole mass of the virtues, even in the imperfect state he was able to acquire them, all that evenness of temper and that cheerfulness in conversation which make his company still sought for and agreeable even to his young acquaintances. I hope, therefore, that some of my descendants may follow the example and reap the benefit."

Well may they do so who are not his descendants; well would it be if all were to imitate Franklin's firmness and fidelity, his habits of endurance and perseverance, his patriotism and imperturbable kind feeling and good nature; and to be alike humble and happy whether in obscurity or on the loftiest pinnacle of fame. Well would it be if the maxims, truisms, and habits of "this wise old man" were remembered and practised, bringing forth fruits of goodness and fruits of usefulness. Then would it be said of such an one so remembering and practising, "He lived honoured and respected, because he did what he could to leave the world better than he found it."

But not only in morals, in business and domestic life, are correct and commendable habits of importance,— indispensable, in fact, to the attainment of true success in life,—but correct and carefully arranged habits of thought are not less needful. The majority of men do not think at all; thinking is hard work, and work is more generally shunned than courted. They suppose they think, they suppose dreaming and maudling to be thinking; and never, possibly, during life commit themselves to an effort of careful study of a subject

without prejudice and a foregone conclusion or intention. It is seldom remembered that opinion is a thing of time and place. It was at one time a commonly accepted belief that certain old women possessed the power to create wind and allay storms; and this belief was not confined to ignorant people. Sir Matthew Hale and other eminent judges have not hesitated to condemn to death poor old women on the charge of being witches. Knowledge, thought, and experience have dissipated this folly of belief; and now to-day we know that our ancestors believed in an impossibility. Is it not possible, is it not known, that there are forms of belief which are cherished equally as foundationless and as erroneous as a belief in witches? They have been adopted in consequence of some bodily condition or surrounding circumstances, and their truth has been accepted without question or inquiry. A modern writer has wisely said: "They allow the chance notion of things that first present themselves to take possession of their minds without question; and when these ill - assorted ideas have once cohered into a habitual train, they fancy they have made up their minds, and will listen to no explanation of the opinions of others. Their obstinacy, their self-conceit, their self-interest, their wish to please the party to which they have attached themselves, induce them to hold fast their original opinion, until time or experience in all likelihood wear it down and its absurdity is secretly pressed upon their notice."

Another habit which is almost universal is that of

accepting the opinions and statements of an author without examining the grounds of his reasoning. The result is that a man in opinion becomes what the last book which he has read has made him. Instead of an examining, thinking being, he becomes a creature merely receptive of other men's thoughts, without either thoughts of his own or possessing the power of their creation. "Blessings on books," said Paxton Hood, "and on the dear departed spirits that gave them to us! they are our companions, counsellors, guides, friends; but even on the best of them we will not lean to the surrendering up of our own proper mental and moral dignity; we will walk arm in arm with books, and chat with them friendly by the way, but we will not honour them as crutches."

The habit of acquiring a knowledge of one subject, rather than a smattering of many subjects, is more important, as it is most useful. This is secured by the attainment of the valuable habit of attention-being a whole man to one thing at a time. This habit generates and strengthens the memory; just as the attention is centred and fixed upon a subject, so will it be printed upon the memory. Joseph John Gurney relates an instance of one of his friends, an aged prelate, who was remarkable for a lively and unclouded mind, whose stores of literature appeared to be always at his command. With the utmost facility, as occasion required it, yet without any appearance of pedantry, did he quote his favourite passages from Sophocles or Pindar, from Horace or Tacitus, from the best English

poets, from Milton's prose works, or even from such authors as Erasmus and Grotius. He owed the treasures of his age mainly to the habits of his youth. When a boy at Winchester school, he undertook to commit to memory, within no very long period of time, twelve books of Homer's "Iliad," six books of Virgil's "Æneid," and several of Cicero's philosophical treatises. So completely did he succeed in the attempt, that at the expiration of the appointed time no dodging could puzzle him. On the repetition of any line or sentence in any of these writings, he could immediately repeat the next. He triumphed over his prodigious task by the resolute and habitual application of his undivided powers.

This habit of absorbing attention to one thing is the secret of much of the greatness of the most eminent men, whether they were devoted to the pursuits of literature, the development and unfolding of science, or to philanthropic labours. The habit of concentration is a noble faculty, without which no man ever occupied a deserved place in the rational and intellectual world. This faculty and habit was remarkably displayed in their several pursuits by Galileo, Newton, Milton, Porson, Howard, and Clarkson: had they dissipated or dispersed their powers, instead of concentrating them upon one subject, it is very doubtful whether their names would have been transmitted to posterity in connection with any important achievement.

The habit of reflection is all-important in deducing lessons and inferences, not only from the pages of books,

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