nishes a suggestive instance of the possibility of doubling life by doubling the work done in its existence. Many scholars would have deemed years well expended in reading the whole of the works of Josephus in the original Greek-Scott accomplished the task in nine months! In a letter to his sister, dated September 1773, he wrote:

"I have for some time pursued my studies with assiduity, but I have only lately got to pursue them with method. I am now about three hours in the day engaged in Hebrew. The books I use are a Hebrew Bible, grammars and lexicons, the noted Septuagint or Greek translation, and a commentary. I began at the first chapter of Genesis, and I intend to go through the whole Bible in that manner. You will see the manifold advantages of thus reading the Scriptures. The original text, a Greek translation two thousand years old and above, our translation, and comments, read carefully and compared together word by word, cannot fail to give a deep insight into the sense of the Scriptures; and, at the same time, two languages are unitedly improving. The same I am doing in Greek and profane history. I am reading old Herodotus in the original, in Latin, and in English. For each book read, whether ancient or modern history, I have my maps laid before me, and trace each incident by the map, and in some degree also fix the chronology; so that the languages seem my principal study. History, geography, and

chronology go hand in hand.

Neither is logic neglected.

I find my taste for study grow every day. I only fear

I shall be, like the miser, too covetous. In fact, I really grudge every hour that I employ otherwise. Others go out by choice, and stay at home by constraint; but I never stay at home by constraint, and go out because it is necessary. In every other expense I am grown a miser. I take every method to save; but here I am prodigal. No cost do I in the least grudge to procure advantageous methods of pursuing my studies. Of the Hebrew, some twenty weeks ago I knew not a letter; and I have now read through one hundred and nineteen of the psalms, and twenty-three chapters of Genesis; and commonly now read two chapters in the time above mentioned, tracing every word to its original, unfolding every verbal difficulty."

But Scott was not unmindful of the duties of his calling. He generally wrote two sermons in the week, in addition to his other voluntary studies. These studies prepared him for labours which he cheerfully undertook-to take charge of the instruction in languages of persons intending to visit distant parts of the world as missionaries. In these labours Scott was eminently successful.

"With all my other engagements," he wrote, "I am actually, in addition to what I before taught the missionaries, reading Susoo and Arabic with them. The former we have mastered without difficulty, so far as the printed books go, and hope soon to begin translating some chapters into the language. But as to the latter, we make little progress; yet so far, that I have no doubt of being able to read the Koran with them, should they continue here. It is in itself a most

difficult language, but my knowledge of the Hebrew gives me an advantage."

These labours were undertaken, not in the prime and vigour of manhood, but when he was approaching the period assigned generally for the termination of life. When seventy years of age, and suffering severely from chronic complaints, he was as energetically employed in his literary labours as at any period of his life. At the age of seventy-two he wrote: "I never studied each day more hours than I do now. Never was a manufactory more full of constant employment than our house. Five proof-sheets of my Commentary a week to correct, and as many sheets of copy to prepare." For forty-six years of his useful life he studied eight, ten, and sometimes fourteen hours a day. He spent thirty-three years in the composition of his Commentary on the Scriptures, and seven years in perfecting the marginal notes and references. During his life-time the works which proceeded from his pen realized two hundred thousand pounds! an enormous sum for the literary labours of a man who spent seven of his most important years tending and shearing sheep. Scott not only penetrated the secret of doubling his own life, but doing the work of many lives-of blessing the people among whom he lived, and of leaving the results of his life to instruct and improve future generations.

XIII.

Living in Earnest.

"Earnestness alone makes life eternity."-CARLYLE.

“There is no substitute for thorough-going, ardent, and sincere earnestness."-DICKENS.

"If life be heavy on your hands,

Are there no beggars at your gate,
Nor any poor about your lands?
Oh, teach the orphan boy to read,

Or teach the orphan girl to sew;
Pray Heaven for a human heart,

And let your selfish sorrow go."-TENNYSON.

T is assumed-and the assumption is a factthat no man can be happy, and therefore misses "success in life," without work. But he that has work to do, and loves his work, providing that the work is needed, useful work, is on the highroad to happiness. It is quite possible that the results of earnest work may not be seen, and that the labourer who labours in teaching and instructing may not realize the good of his work. Despite the apparent want of success, he is happy whose inclination accords with duty, and works on, satisfied that an all-ruling Providence will take care of results. Every man," says Fichte, "should go on working, never debating

within himself, nor wavering in doubt, whether it may succeed, but labour as if of necessity it must succeed." A modern author has written not less wisely: "Assure yourself that employment is one of the best remedies for the disappointments of life. Let even your calamity have the liberal effect of occupying you in some active virtue; so shall you in a manner remember others till you forget yourself." Shakespeare says that mercy is twice blessed,

"It blesses him that gives, and him that takes."

So may it truthfully be said of labour, of wise employment. The man who labours for others is not less wisely labouring for himself. Gray says: "To be employed is to be happy." And the famous physician Galen wrote: "Employment is nature's physician, and is essential to human happiness." And the martyr Jerome was accustomed to say: "Be always employed about some rational thing, that the devil find thee not idle." What is needful in the pursuit of any humane purpose, however dark and unpromising the pursuit may seem, is hearty, cheerful, sunny endeavour. Such efforts are not without results. Philosophers tell us that since the creation of the world not one particle of matter has been lost. It may have passed into new shapes, it may have combined with other elements, it may have floated away in vapour; but it comes back some time in the dewdrop or the rain, helping the leaf to grow and the fruit to swell. Through all its wanderings and transformations Providence watches over