Besides this general influence in enlarging the individual personality by the discovery of new and higher relations, the power of Art is seen, in a more palpable form, in the increase of practical power which it contributes to professional minds. Let us see how this is true. Art has a close and intimate relation to Nature. Music, painting, sculpture, poetry, every work of Art, has for its object to transcribe and express external or internal Nature. It is when the Artist has. communed with Nature until his inmost being is possessed and swayed by her spirit, that the work of Art appears which speaks to the universal race and lives as a positive power through all ages. It is through fidelity to Nature alone that a work of Art reaches the heart and affects the life.

It is plain, then, that by acquaintance and communion with works: of Art, we learn to know and express Nature; we possess ourselves. of the keys to the human heart; we are able to touch the springs of human action. From the study and communion of Art, therefore,. the professional man returns to his distinctive work, not merely refreshed and repaired, but possessed of a new power to control the actions and guide the wills of men. He knows more fully the nature of man, and in the power of this deeper knowledge, his professional lifebecomes more successful and productive. Those moments of largeand spiritual stillness, when the spell of high Art is upon him, will! pour their rich influences over all his practical life. All the organs of his life will be attuned to the vast universal harmony of Nature,. which unites him in friendly sympathies with all mankind. His eyewill beam with the fascination of a new intelligence, and his tonguebe clothed with a fresh and more magical eloquence.

We attempted at the outset of our essay, to state the true object of human life and activity as the ground and support of the opinions. and feelings which we were about to express. We next discussed,. with as much fullness as our limits would permit, the nature of profes-sional life and the peculiar dangers to which it is exposed. Lastly,. we have endeavored to show that in general culture we may find the most adequate defense against the evils of professional life, and to point out, by way of illustration, the more specific influences of a few of the sources of culture. If the vigor and intensity so naturall to the professional mind, be elevated into breadth and comprehension and subdued into sobriety and reverence by the ennobling and purifying influences of culture; if, to the essential dignity and inherent power of professional life, there be added the wealth of refinement and wisdom which is disclosed on all hands to a thoughtful and earnest

mind, what nobler result or more lasting success to crown our intellectual labors? 66 Every man," says Lord Bacon, "owes a debt to his profession;" but a more sacred debt is due to himself and to mankind. It is not by intense activity merely, even in the best cause, that this debt may be most wisely and fully discharged. In an exquisite harmony and balance of his powers, man reaches his highest intellectual success. His practical power is then greatest; for, in the fullness of his knowledge and the breadth of his sympathies, his words are wisdom and his presence is power.

The Self-Made Man.

THIS ambiguous character it is proposed to discuss, and gain, if may be, some fuller understanding of his native and acquired merits. For, as frequently employed, the phrase is an uncertain one, being applied to men in all conditions of life, and with very dissimilar developments of intellect and heart; and it is, moreover, sometimes used, less with reference to the mind-culture, than to the external means used in obtaining it. Thus, evidently, for truth's sake, it becomes necessary to define this character with strictness and care. It may be well, in the outset, to clear all obstacles from the path and tell who a self-made man is not.

An individual who comes into existence, not in affluence but in poverty, who receives, as his starting capital, firm moral principles, good natural powers, and a sound body, and who, by patient and toilsome industry, at length wins for himself a high name and bright reputation-an individual of such a character, if he be styled a self-made made man, is, we conceive, misnamed. Consider, for a moment, the strong influences that have been working on his mind, and how mateially they have affected it. If he has "worked his own way through College," on such a man the literary activities of a College life, the weekly debate, the daily communion with the greatest minds of present and past times, all have a very marked effect. Consciously or unconsciously, his mind is moulded and impressed by others. For four years, his mind is under the continual control and direction of others, and he thus carries away with himself, from the halls of his Alma

Mater, views fashioned by the disciplinary College course. On the other hand, though he may never have entered the walls of an University, his mental powers may have been developed by a well-selected course of reading, as truly as by the closer and more critical intercourse in the recitation-room. His mind is shaped, in no small measure, by his favorite author, and his newspaper colors his political opinions. Of this latter character was Franklin. His mind was cultured, in an eminent degree, by a careful study and pondering of the classic authors of England. The discipline he gained was not obtained in the generous atmosphere of an University; but in the private room of a student, striving to overcome, by present application, past deficiences.

But it may be said, that even admitting this, yet such a man is selfmade, because he selects his own books, and thus becomes, partially at least, his own teacher. Yet this is not the fact. Such a person as we are endeavoring to describe, has a simple love of truth, as distinguished from a foolish desire of originality. One good book will invariably lead to others, and the influences thus started will cease-when or where?

Leaving now this negative defining, let us determine, more precisely, who a self-made is. He is one who boasts of having done all his own thinking, who decries that dependence on authority and example which is one of the surest safe-guards for a manly and upright character, both in religious and political life. He has solved for himself all the hard problems of Church and State, and has worked out, to his own satisfaction, the most complex intricacies of Law and Government; and with no regard to the opinions of others, announces his views and proclaims, as a virtue, that they are self-made, and entirely uninfluenced by those of other men,-wiser and better than himself, though this fact he would carefully conceal. In every emergency, beliefs which he has himself made, are propounded and urged loudly and impetuously. Such, we conceive, is a self-made man; a character totally opposed to a conservative. As indicated by his name, he is one who would hold together whatever of good the world may, in time past, have learned or achieved. He exercises the extremest caution in admitting new principles; he honors the great and good of past ages, and almost idolizes those who hold the governmental power with mildness and strength; he despairs of finding the summum bonum if it has not not been already discovered, but still esteems each age for the truth which it contains, while at the same time he deplores, with sincere sorrow, its mistakes and wanderings.

A self-made man is known by his intolerance. Though this may

seem strange, yet experience abundantly proves it. The self made man's opinions are all his own, and from one constituted as he is, nothing can be expected save low vituperation and bitter impeachment of motives. He speaks, in vaunting words, of a manly independence, while it can be easily shown, that he is himself a slave to appearances. Having given out that his views are views of his own thought, independent of others, he will endeavor to so carry himself before the world, that he will maintain the name of an independent thinker, and all the while he is in fear, lest some false step or unlucky act may impair or destroy his reputation. Thus every word and deed will be carefully scanned and subjected to a jealous scrutiny. And, on the other hand, mark the conservative. Here there is no vain originality to support; there is a willingness to say things that have been said even hundreds of times before; for it is truth; and to his mind truth, like wine, loses none of its force by age, but each year it becomes stronger and more enlivening.

It has already been remarked, that in the formation, his opinions were uninfluenced by those of others, and so, after they have been formed, he clings to them with steadfast tenacity. And if other views are being promulgated, if his own pre-conceived prejudices happen not to harmonize with them, he will frequently set up a vigorous opposition, if for nothing else than to preserve intact his reputation for eccentricity and oddity. In his eyes, one man's thoughts are as good as those of another, and, moreover, thinking is a common right, to be used according to each one's taste, like suffrage, and not an important duty, with truth for an object. And, viewed in this manner, it is the height of folly for one man to do another's thinking.

We have endeavored to point out the absurdity of regarding, as a self-made man, one who "pays his own way through College," or one who studies in the privacy of a poor man's room; while, on the other hand, we have tried to make stricter and juster in its application, the term "self-made;" and have endeavored to apply it to internal culture as well as to merely external means; considering a truly self-made man, as one who has done everything pertaining to himself, for himself, and by himself.

H. P. B. us

On Reading Webster's Plymouth Rock Oration.

I.

When first their sail the Fathers furled,

They deemed not that their deed should be
A people's birth, nor that a world

Should triumph in their victory;

Cold was the wave before them flowing,
Bitter the tempests round them sweeping;
Tears were the dew that wet their sowing,
But joy the harvest of their reaping.

II.

Though ill was nurtured in the storm
Of sufferings and of toils they bore,
The good o'ercame; their hearts were warm,
Though hard and cold the guise they wore;

Well shall a nations' love, still glowing,
Guard them forever, calmly sleeping;

Tears were the dew that wet their sowing,
Glory the harvest of their reaping.

Base-Ball vs. Boating.

It is now a little more than three years since the Faculty wisely abolished foot-ball playing; a game, at its best, the noblest of athletic sports, but which, at the time of its suppression, had degenerated into a daily scuffle, an annual contest of brute force, between classes. Since that period, the exercise allotment of the students' time has been divided between Boating and the field sports of Cricket and BaseBall. I propose to compare, in some measure, the two classes of exercise, and enumerate particularly some of the advantages of the Base-Ball System. It is evident to all that there is need of active out-door exercise in College, such as the Gymnasium, with all its conveniences, cannot supply; exercise which, for its full and even medium effects, must be enjoyed in the open air. Which of the two systems, Boating or Base-Ball, will best guarantee to the larger body of stu