in mind! A high sense of honor—a determination never to take a mean advantage of another-an adherence to truth, delicacy, and politeness, towards those with whom you mingle, or may have dealings—are the essential and distinguishing characteristics of a gentleman."

CHAPTER VIII.

CULTIVATING THE MIND.

That there is a striking distinction between the capabilities of mankind and those of animals, is a self-evident truth. The cause of this vast disparity, consists in the endowments bestowed by the creative Hand, for the guidance of the different races. Instinct is the highest capacity possessed by the brutes. Through its influences, they are enabled to obtain food for the sustenance of the body, and also to take measures to secure themselves from threatening danger. These being the only wants of the animal races, the powers of instinct are amply sufficient to afford every needed supply; and the Creator has thus granted them all they can ask in consistency with their nature and scale of being. But man has been endowed with the higher and more diversified powers of Mind. These crown him lord of this world—these form the grand, and indeed, the only distinction between him and the brute world—these enable him not only to supply all

the wants of his body, but also to rule over the animal creation, and convert them to his purposes.

The human mind, who can describe ?—who can fathom its capabilities?—who can measure its mighty powers?—who can mark the limit of its upward flight toward infinite Perfection? Wonderful faculties! which annihilate time, and enable us to live in a moment, as it were, through a thousand ages of the recorded Past, or of the imagined Future! Inscrutable powers! which enable us to overleap space, and in an instant, to traverse the earth from pole to pole, and from meridian run the vast circle to meridian !—which enable us to soar aloft to the bright stars of heaven, and to stray from planet to planet, and from system to system, throughout the azure fields of ether! Incomprehensible mind! guided by faith, on swift expanded wing, it can urge its flight up, far, far up, through illimitable extent, and bow in gratitude and love before the very throne of omnipotent Goodness!

What has not been accomplished by the human mind? It has not only sought out means by which every luxury has been procured for the body—it has not only improved and expanded its own powers, and elevated the human race from ignorance and barbarity, to civilization and the possession of an immensity of knowledge—but it has made the elements its servants; it has penetrated deep into the properties and operations of nature's laws, and ascertained to no inconsidera

ble extent, the perfect principles upon which the Mighty One upholds and directs the works of his hand! Yet, amid all its deep researches, amid all its surprising discoveries, the mind has not yet fathomed its own wonderful capabilities; it can not yet even conceive of the unmeasured extent, the vast height and depth, the length and breadth, verging to infinity, of the knowledge its far-reaching powers are capable of grasping! Truly has man been created in the image of his God—truly is his intellect a transcript, an emanation, of the Infinite Mind!

Young men, should the powers of that heavenly mind with which you have been endowed, be overlooked, neglected, forgotten? With the invaluable cluster of mental faculties which you possess, and which only need exercise, to gush forth in streams of pure, high, holy enjoyment, will you pass them by, as unworthy your attention, and join with the brute, in a career of low, bodily gratification? Every manly and ennobling impulse within you, cries out against such a dishonorable course!

There is not only a wide distinction between the powers of instinct and of mind, but also in their natures. In instinct there is no perceptible improvement. All its powers are imparted at once. The bird builds its nest, the bee seeks its delicious nectar, the beaver constructs its hut and its dam, with the same unerring precision on the first effort, as after years of practice. Neither is

there any improvement in their races. The bird, the bee, the beaver, indeed all animals, perform their various avocations with no more perfection now, than when they came forth from the ark of Noah. Instinct, it is true, is susceptible of a very limited improvement in some animals, when aided by man's reason. But it does not possess within itself, the least power of improvement. But the mind of man is constituted on principles entirely different. Of all living beings, none, probably, are more ignorant and helpless, than the new-born infant. The barking whelp of the same age, evinces much more knowledge, than the feeble offspring of man, a few days or weeks old. But in that cradled nursling slumber the faculties and energies of a mighty mind, which, under proper cultivation, can be improved to an extent now incomprehensible! Thus instinct exercises its power without cultivation; but man must improve and exercise his mental faculties, before he can enjoy the high advantages they are capable of bestowing.

The Creator has seen proper so to constitute the human mind, that it much resembles the rich soil of a garden. When destitute of cultivation, it will be overgrown by the weeds and briars of ignorance—useless in themselves, and the source of great evil with here and there, perhaps, a sickly plant of knowledge, struggling for existence, amid choking thorns and thistles. And the more powerful the natural capabilities of minds