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1. THAT is undoubtedly the wisest and best regimen, which takes the infant from the cradle, and conducts him along, through childhood and youth, up to high maturity, in such a manner as to give strength to his arm, swiftness to his feet, solidity and amplitude to his muscles, symmetry to his frame, and expansion to his vital energies.

2. It is obvious that this branch of education comprehends, not only food and clothing, but air, exercise, lodging, early rising, and whatever else is requisite to the full development of the physical constitution. The diet must be simple, the apparel must not be too warm, nor the bed too soft.

3. Let parents beware of too much restriction in the management of their darling boy. Let him, in choosing his play, follow the suggestions of nature. Let them not be discomposed at the sight of his sand-hills in the road, his snow-forts in February, and his mud-dams in April; nor when they chance to look out, in the midst of an August shower, and see him wading, and sailing, and sporting along with the water-fowl.

4. If they would make him hardy and fearless, they must let him go abroad as often as he pleases, in his early boyhood, and amuse himself by the hour together in smoothing and twirling the hoary locks of winter. Instead of keeping him shut up all day with a stove, and graduating his sleeping-room by Fahrenheit, they must let him face the keen edge of a north wind, when the mercury is below cipher, and, instead of minding a little shivering and complaining when he returns, cheer up his spirits and send him out again. 5. In this way, they will teach him that he was not born

a Physical education; development of the bodily functions, as separate from the mind. b Fahrenheit, (Fä'ren-hite;) a Prussian, born at Dantzic, the inventor of Fahrenheit's thermometer. By metonymy, the name of the inventor is here used for the instrument.

to live in a nursery, nor to brood over the fire; but to range abroad, as free as the snow and the air, and to gain warmth from exercise. I love and admire the youth, who turns not back from the howling wintry blast, nor withers under the blaze of summer; who never magnifies "mole-hills into mountains;" but whose daring eye, exulting, scales the eagle's airy crag, and who is ready to undertake anything that is prudent and lawful, within the range of possibility.

6. Who would think of planting the mountain oak in a greenhouse? or of rearing the cedar of Lebanon" in a lady's flower-pot? Who does not know that, in order to attain their mighty strength and majestic forms, they must freely enjoy the rain and the sunshine, and must feel the rocking of the tempest?

LESSON XXXI.

ADVANTAGES OF TEMPERANCE.

HITCHCOCK.

1. TEMPERANCE promotes clearness and vigor of intellect. If the functions of the brain be not in a healthy and vigorous state, equally unhealthy and inefficient must be those of the mind. History will bear us out in asserting, that the highest and most successful intellectual efforts have ever been associated with the practice of those general principles of temperance in diet for which we plead.

2. It is the mighty minds that have grappled most successfully with the demonstrations of mathematical, intellectual, and moral science, that stand highest on the scale of mental acumen and power; and it is such minds that have found strict temperance in diet essential to their success. Let us advert to the history of a few of the master spirits of the human race.

a Leb'a-non: a range of mountains in Syria, the highest summit of which is 11000 feet.

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3. Foremost on the list stands Sir Isaac Newton. The treatise of his, that cost him the mightiest intellectual effort of all his works, was composed while the body was sustained by bread and water alone. And in spite of the wear and tear of such protracted and prodigious mental labor as his, that same temperance sustained him to his eighty-fifth year. 4. The celebrated John Locke," with a feeble constitution, outlived the term of threescore years and ten, by his temperance. "To this temperate mode of life, too, he was probably indebted for the increase of those intellectual powers, which gave birth to his incomparable work on the human understanding, his treatises on government and education, as well as his other writings, which do so much honor to his memory."

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5. Another intellectual philosopher, who saw fourscore years, was the venerable Kant.c By this commendable and healthy practice," early rising, says his biographer, "daily exercise on foot, temperance in eating and drinking, constant employment, and cheerful company, he protracted his life to this advanced period;" and we may add, acquired the power for his immense labors of mind.

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6. Few men have more fully established their claims to intellectual superiority of a very high grade than President Edwards. But it was temperance alone that could carry him through such powerful mental efforts. "Though constitutionally tender, by the rules of temperance, he enjoyed good health, and was enabled to pursue his studies thirteen hours a day."

7. The same means enabled Martin Luther, though his days were stormy in the extreme, to make the moral world bend at his will, and to leave for his posterity so many pro found literary productions. "It often happened," says his biographer," that for several days and nights he locked him

a Sir Isaac Newton; an eminent philosopher and mathematician of England. b John Locke; a noted intellectual philosopher of England. c Kant; an intellectual philosopher, born at Konigsberg, Prussia. d President Edwards; an eminent theologian of Connecticut, and President of Princeton College. e Martin Luther; a distinguished German divine.

self up in his study, and took no other nourishment than bread and water, that he might the more uninterruptedly pursue his labors."

8. The records of English jurisprudence contain scarcely a name more distinguished than that of Sir Matthew Hale." And it is the testimony of history, that "his decided piety and rigid temperance laid him open to the attacks of ridicule; but he could not be moved." In eating and drinking, he observed not only great plainness and moderation, but lived so philosophically that he always ended his meal with an appetite.

9. Perhaps no man accomplishes more for the world than he who writes such a commentary on the Scriptures as that of Matthew Henry. And it is, indeed, an immense literary labor. But the biographer's account of that writer's habits shows that temperance and diligence were the secret of his

success.

10. Few men have accomplished more than John Wesley;* and it is gratifying to learn that it was "extraordinary temperance which gave him the power to do so much, and to live so long."

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11. In reading the works of Milton, we are not so much delighted with the play of imagination as with the rich and profound, though sometimes exceedingly anomalous views, which he opens before us. The fact is, he was a man of powers and attainments so great as justly to be classed among the leading intellects of his generation. Nor were such powers and attainments disjoined from temperance.

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12. Europe, as well as America, has been filled with the fame of Franklin; and no less wide-spread is the history of his temperance. Early in life he adopted a vegetable diet; and thus he not only gained time for study, but "I made the greater progress," says he, "from that greater clearness of head and quickness of apprehension which generally attend

a Sir Matthew Hale; an English judge, of brilliant talents and great piety. b Matthew Henry; an eminent English divine. c John Wesley; a distinguished English divine, and founder of the denomination called Methodists. d Milton; one of the greatest of the English poets. e Franklin; one of the greatest of philosophers, born in Boston, 1706.

temperance in eating and drinking." The habit of being contented with a little, and disregarding the gratifications of the palate, remained with him through life, and was highly useful.

LESSON XXXII.

ASTRONOMY.a

WIRT.

1. Ir was a pleasant evening in the month of May, and my sweet child and I had sauntered up to the castle's top, to enjoy the breeze that played around it, and to admire the unclouded firmament, that glowed and sparkled with unusual luster from pole to pole.

2. The atmosphere was in its purest and finest state for vision; the Milky Way' was distinctly developed throughout its whole extent; every planet and every star above the horizon, however near and brilliant or distant and faint, lent its lambent light or twinkling ray to give variety and beauty to the hemisphere; while the round, bright moon seemed to hang off from the azure vault, suspended in midway air; or stooping forward from the firmament her fair and radiant face, as if to court and return our gaze.

3. We amused ourselves for some time in observing through a telescope the planet Jupiter, sailing in silent majesty with his squadron of satellites along the vast ocean of space between us and the fixed stars, and admired the felicity of that design by which those distant bodies have been parceled out and arranged into constellations; so as to have served not only for beacons to the ancient navigators, but, as it were, for landmarks to astronomers at this day; enabling them, though in different countries, to indicate to each other with ease the place

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a The most ancient observations upon astronomy which have come down to us are those of the Chinese and Chaldeans. b Milky Way; a bright belt or zone encompassing the heavens, supposed to be composed of stars, of which our sun is one. c Jupiter; the greatest of the gods among the Greeks and Romans, after whom this planet was named

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