relations to it, our own true aims and endeavors in it, may also become clearer. This is the age of machinery, in every outward and inward sense of that word; the age which, with its whole undivided might, forward, teaches and practices the great art of adapting means to ends. There is a gradual advance toward harmony, between man's mental nature and the condition of his existence. The tendency of the utilitarian element is, to teach man's perceptive faculties the use of implements and instruments, the use of tools; by which all material departments of nature and society are to be subdued and brought into systematic harmony with man's immediate moral and spiritual advance ment. Who drives the bolt, who shapes the steel, May with a heart as valiant, smite, As he who sees a foeman reel In blood before his blow of might! Let labor, then, look up and see His craft no pith of honor lacks; The soldier's rifle yet shall be Less honored than the woodman's ax! Can compensate the worth that lies In tastes that breed their own delight. And may the time draw nearer still, When men this sacred truth shall heed: And we from truth to truth shall go, Till life and death are understood. PART SEVENTH. SCIENCE OF LIFE. MAN IS DESTINED TO OUTGROW ERROR AND DISCORD. The science of life in its understanding requires the study of nature in all departments of thought. It consists in knowing how to take care of yourself, your health and your morals, how to make use of people, how to make the most of yourself, and how to make your way in the world. Man is the indefinite world, because subsisting between. things and ideas, between the finite and the infinite. The spiritual element in man is not yet unfolded. There is no attraction outside of man superior in strength to that which pervades within. As we come to know ourselves, we shall understand what will satisfy our wants. A child is never ready for knowledge until its soul is moved to put forth questions. Every system of education not based on this principle is irksome to youth, because it is essentially erroneous and fundamentally unadapted. The faculties of the young mind should be awakened quietly, and only as they ask questions, until the season has arrived when physical industry and mental discipline become both natural and necessary. Every mode of instruction should coincide with nature. There must exist a unity in education and a progress in administering instruction to the young. Education, both primary and scientific, needs to be essentially changed; there should not exist so many dissimilar modes of impress ing the mind with doctrine instead of practice; a more qualifying culture is demanded. Training in every department must tend toward naturalness and practical effort. If we would teach a child or youth a lesson in music, reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar or any other study, we should impress upon its mind the benefit to be derived as a reward for the task of learning, inducing thereby a cheerful state of mind. Cheerfulness and hopefulness are necessary to mental expansion and true development. A better system of didactics should be instituted. First, make the youth happy in the thought that there is a compensation to follow the performance of the mental task. Let the child look ahead to an active stage of manhood or womanhood, to a true nobility of soul, and it will put forth almost superhuman efforts to attain the end in view. Let the child become imbued with the necessity of labor, and that it will never detract from the dignity of his brain power. Culture should not be bound by the demands of ordinary work. All prolonged mental effort in any direction gives power and fixes habit, but the effect may be so narrowing that the discipline becomes an evil in proportion to its thoroughness, and the mind is then in a state of thralldom. To produce the harmonization of the individual, to develop the whole nature, it is necessary to study the different groups or classifications of the sciences. Science is a comprehensive term; it means various groups of sciences, which exercise the intellect in widely different ways. A discipline may be scientific and still be partial and deficient. The study of each science necessitates a new order of ideas, which will call out different forms of mental exercise; thus the discipline becomes comprehensive and varied. Limited portions of the sciences are inadequate for that complete mental training which is the object of the higher education. The mind is biased by some peculiar habit or course of thought. Right thinking in any matter depends very much on the habit of thought. Habit of thought, partly natural, depends, in part, on the artificial influences to which the mind has been subjected, or particular kinds of mental activity. Each man's habits of thought influence his judgment on any question brought before him. A fit habit of thought is all important in the study of sociology, and can be acquired only by the study of the sciences at large, as each class of the sciences gives an indispensable discipline to the intellect. By the mathematics of superior minds, many truths are demonstrated. By an established principle of science, it is found that chemical action alters the constitution of bodies, just as mechanical re-action changes their form and position. An electric influence is excited and propagated by every muscular effort, every chemical change within us, every variation in the state of health, and especially every mental effort. No thought can pass through the mind which does not alter the physiological, chemical and electric condition of the brain, and, consequently, of the whole system. It is evident that when the will excites the vocal or mental organs, there is a communication of positive power constituted of more perfect particles than those previously pervading the same organs. When the organs are thus excited, they become mediums for the descension of the will. Men of real merit have the governing motive within. Freedom and purity are commensurate and inseparable. Man should ennoble his mind by thoughts of purity and moral beauty. If honesty and virtue were not the rule, all the noble charities as well as material comforts would take their departure from the world. There is a law of justice which evermore overcomes evil with good. The unity of truth fixes the unity of causes. The mind should become more diffusive and comprehensive, particular and penetrative. A belief in the necessities of relation is to be gained only by studying the abstract sciences, logic and mathematics. Abstract concrete sciences carried on experimentally give clearness and strength to consciousness of causation. The concrete sciences yield conceptions of continuity, complexity and contingency. Culture of the sciences in general is needful, and above all the culture of the science of life. TRIALS AND MISERY ARE THE EFFECTS OF TRANSGRESSIONS. Violation of nature's laws constitutes man's only source of disease to body and soul. It is a growing necessity that every human being should have a perfect knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the human system, and all the laws and conditions of physical life and health. Prevention of disease and crime is more important to human welfare than their cure. To be cheerfully reconciled to the unavoidable, to be satisfied with the best we can do, is wise and beautiful; but it is worse than folly, it is criminal, to be content with imperfection and evil within the sphere of our influence or control. God gave us hands, one left, one right; The first to help ourselves-the other To stretch abroad in kindly might, And help along a suffering brother. Then if you see a sister fall, And bow her head before the weather, Cast her not off-altogether! Society rests upon the principles of necessity and reciprocity. If society wishes to rest on a safe foundation, it T |