ADVICE TO A STUDENT OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY IN A SERIES OF LETTERS.

LETTER III.

DEAR FRIEND,

THE termination of an old and the beginning of a new year naturally suggest THE EMPLOYMENT OF time, as an appropriate topic for my present letter.

You lately remarked, that your college life appeared rapidly passing away. I was pleased with the observation, as it led me to hope, that you find your studies both pleasant and profitable. It is always considered an unfavorable symptom for a student to complain of the tediousness of time. It gives reason to suspect him of negligence, if not of irregularity.

But permit me, my young friend, to observe, that you have yet to learn the true value of your present golden opportunities.

"We take no note of time but from its loss."

When a few more years have passed over your head, you will the more forcibly realize the truth of this remark; you will the more sensibly perceive the swift flight of time.

That you may review your life with as little regret, as possible, let me importunately urge you to consecrate the fleeting moments, as they pass, to some useful end.

To this purpose it is not however necessary, that you should be always poring over your books. Meditation on what you read is equally important. When you study, be careful to fix your attention. This is of greater consequence, than is generally imagined. You often hear scholars highly extolled for genius, because they appear to acquire much by little study. The true secret of their improvement is, they abstract their minds, when studying, from every thing else, and intensely pursue the subject before them. The sum of their mental application is probably as great, as

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those employ, who devote more hours to attain the same knowledge.

Do not then felicitate yourself, that your advances in literature will be necessarily proportioned to the time, you are engaged in study. Your mind may be inactive; or it may wander; or you may study injudiciously. In either of these cases your time will be as really lost, as if you were professedly devoting it to amusement.

This habit of fixing the attention I the more earnestly recommend, as it may be best established in youth; and as, if not then formed, it will be with much greater difficulty attained, as you advance in years.

You complain of the number and the variety of your studies. But I will venture to assure you, that, by the economical and methodical employment of time, you may even find leisure for other inquiries, besides performing your daily task.

Would you accomplish this, you must first accustom yourself to early rising. It is incalculable, how many precious hours are lost by devoting more time to rest, than nature demands. It is well ascertained by accurate observers, that seven hours' sleep is sufficient for healthy adults. Resolve then, that you will spend no more, than these in bed. But, should you happen to encroach on your morning hours, determine always to deduct from the ensuing night, what you have thus unfortunately lost.

I would not however exclusively recommend nocturnal studies. They are favorable to meditation; but they gradually injure the eyes, and exhaust the animal spirits. If you habitually improve it, you will find the morning the best season for study, as it respects both health and improvement.

But "it is vain for you to rise early, and to sit up late," if you do not guard throughout the day against unnecessary interruptions. The hours, you devote to study, you must re

solve to make your own. You will have to struggle with many temptations; but, resolutely determined, you may surmount them all.

The swarms of idlers, which always infest the University, will give you the most trouble. But there are various methods, by which you may avoid frequent interruption from them. You may bar your doors against them; or, should they accidentally gain admission, you may be soon relieved by refusing to join in their vain conversation, and by calling their attention to the studies, which you are pursuing. It is however to be hoped, that you will not cherish such familiarity with the indolent, as will embolden them to frequent your society.

Besides diligence, you must employ method in study, would you improve time to the most valuable purpose. "Method" was with great propriety denominated by the ancients" the soul of science." To neglect of this is it greatly owing, that so many hard students make but small advances in knowledge. They are injudicious both in the selection and the perusal of authors. They study without a plan. Their minds resemble an irregular and ill assorted store house, where are many commodities, of which the possessor cannot readily avail himself. They gain much impertant knowledge, but they cannot easily bring it into use. Fix then upon a regular plan of study.

Let college exercises occupy your first care. You have already heard many arguments against their utility. You are told, that much more useful knowledge may be gained by consulting the library, and by contenting yourself with a superficial attention to your stated lessons, than by pursuing the mode of study, which your instructers have prescribed. But be assured, that this is the language of inexperienced youth. Recollect, that your exercises are appointed by those, who have already. ranged the fields of science, and who have learned to distinguish between the useful and the superficial.

To prejudice you against such diligence, as I now recommend, the idle will tell you, that it betrays a total want of genius. They will point you to those, who, with very little attention to books, have been highly renowned for lit rary acquisitions. Such language demands your utmost

caution. There is a kind of magic in the very sound of the word genius, which has captivated and deluded many a thoughtless, yet aspiring student. There have been those, who have neglected their exercises, or have endeavored to conceal attention to them, lest they should be charged with want of genius. Nay, to acquire the proud, yet deceptive honor, which reputation for genius confers, some have even run into the most ridiculous excesses, because eminent scholars have been sometimes known to be dissipated char

acters.

But take heed, that you be not led astray by such a foolish ambition. Genius is indeed a rich and inestimable boon; but little will it avail without diligent application. With the considerate they must certainly be allowed to deserve the most honor, who are indebted for their literary attainments more to their own industry, than to the bounties of

nature.

Besides, if you candidly inquire, you will be satisfied, that those, who have attained the highest distinction in science, have been uniformly diligent students. You will also find, that they are often in the number of those, who in their youth were represented, as deficient in genius. So that the observation of one of your classical authors must still remain

true;

"Qui studet optatam cursu contingere metam,
"Multa tulit fecit que puer, sudavit et alsit.”

To fit you for such a degree of application, and to support you under it, I must beg you daily to indulge exercise of body and amusement of mind. By contrary habits students are liable to contract a long train of diseases too numerous to be mentioned.

Social intercourse with literary friends is an exercise both useful and pleasant. In the choice of such companions be sure to select persons of pure morals as well, as enlightened minds. With these it is not necessary always to dwell on abstruse topics. You may occasionally have recourse to the sprightly sallies of wit and of mirth. You may thus unbend

your mind, and prepare it for more vigorous application. I have no objection to the sentiment, which Horace expresses to Virgil, if fairly constructed;

Misce stultitiam consiliis brevem, "Dulce est desipere in loco,"

Even your vacations should not be mispent. I would not however advise you to immure yourself in your study, and thus be wholly secluded from the world. In this way you would contract an unbecoming rust, which is too apt to attach itself to unsocial students. You may at such seasons devote a part of every day to society; and by a proper selection of companions you may improve your mind, while the exercise and amusement will essentially conduce to your health, Such a practice will also tend to refine your manners, and thus prepare you to make the knowledge, shall acquire, most useful to the world.

you

"Hast thou no friend to set thy mind abroach?

"Good sense will stagnate. Thoughts shut up want air,
"And spoil, like bales unopened to the sun,

"Speech ventilates our intellectual fire.
"Speech burnishes our mental magazine;

"Brightens for ornament; and whets for use."

I cannot close my letter, without earnestly entreating you to devote a portion of each day to perusal of the scriptures, and to devout meditation, and to prayer. Especially on the Sabbath, besides regular attendance on public worship, be employed in serious reading, conversation, and reflection.

You will perceive, my young friend, that it is not my aim to captivate you by the beauties of language; but rather to arrest your attention to the importance of what I recommend. I give you these plain hints, not so much with reference to the profession, you contemplate, as with a sincere desire, that you may be diligent, virtuous, useful, and happy in this life; and that you may lay a foundation for endless felicity beyond the grave.

Your affectionate PHILOS.