TRUTH.

1. Statement of truth is brief. Demonstration of truth is long. Confutation of error is both long and arduous.

2. The masters of philosophy, those who propound the great thoughts on which human conduct hinges, are never prolix, never discursive. They are usually sententious, epigrammatic, delivering their lessons in aphorisms, proverbs or parables. They see truth so clearly, and value it so highly, that their principal anxiety is to announce it, and impress it upon mankind. They have not the time or patience to stop and argue.

3. The most solemn and profound truth that man can utter, and which has the greatest influence on his life, is expressed in four words. There is a God.

4. All the great lessons of life may be comprehended in a few simple propositions, understood by the simple, whilst the wise are lost in the maze of their own discussions.

5. The true office of discussion is to clear away error and establish truth.

6. Truth is simply that which is; error is the affirmation, or belief, of that which is not.

7. That which is may be either an existence, or The former continues; the latter happens

an event.

and is ended, becoming a thing of the past.

8. But existences, as well as events, may belong to the past, the present, or the future; to the natural, or to the spiritual (or moral) world.

9. He who sees through the phenomena of being most clearly, and appreciates that which is most substantial and enduring, most essential and important, has the clearest view of Truth.

VARIETY OF INTELLECTUAL CAPACITIES.

There is nothing more true than that to different persons the same words suggest different ideas. Words are used by men of all descriptions, characters and habits of association, and the peculiar circumstances of each man go to stamp the complexion of the ideas he attaches to words. Men of genius, who have many more ideas than other men, yet having only the same words to convey them, or represent them which they have, must necessarily attach many more ideas to the same term than others do. Some of these ideas are perhaps so evanescent and refined that other men are incapable of comprehending them. It is the prerogative of the man of enlarged capacity and ready wit, to comprehend and enjoy the most delicate and refined touches of sentiment, which the writings of genius contain, as well as the more gross and obvious conceptions of ordinary men.

There is, perhaps, not so much difference between educated minds as is generally estimated. A peculiar kind of talent or tact is required to succeed in the accumulation of wealth, honor and power. Not an extraordinary share of mind. Yet the possession of one or other of these external accidents is one of the commonest principles from which the world judges of the extent of a man's capacities. The truth is that every educated mind contains, in itself, a world of wondrous powers and capacities. The principles and springs of humanity, possessed in common by enlightened men, are in themselves an ocean, compared with which the differences between them dwindle into insignificance.

Like the arms and inlets of the sea, which

compared with each other may seem to present wide disparities, but each, in turn, claims to be connected with, and but a part of the boundless main. So with the differences between men. They may seem great, until we reflect that each is connected with the ocean depths of a common humanity, which, all alike, enjoy. The Andean summits do not all peer above the obscur ations of clouds and storms, but all rise far beyond the reach of animate nature. There is so much to admire and venerate in the resources of every immortal spirit that I dare not speak disparaging of any. The humblest son of science has so much in common with the most successful suitor of renown, that I dare not speak of the difference between them as worthy of comparison with the vastness of the mental capacities and resources of either.

WILL: SELF-CONTROL.

It is said by some philosophers that "the will is the man." It is this that determines our actions. Our actions determine our characters and destinies. What we are is answered by what we do. This distinguishes men from each other, the wise and prudent from the unwise and volatile-this distinguishes men from brutes.

The highest office of the will is self-control. Brutes are governed by their appetites and impulses. Savages are but little removed in this respect from brutes. Brutish men and coarse natures are mostly led by their impulses, appetites and passions. The true nobility of our nature is evinced by self-control, which restrains, governs and subdues the impulses, appetites, passions and desires.

Self-control, under the names "Eykpalɛia" and "Zwppoσvvy" in Greek and Temperentia, Continentia, Modestia in Latin, is ranked as one of the four cardinal virtues, Justice, Temperance, Courage and Fortitude. Of these the parent virtue is temperance, or self-control.

He that best controls himself in all things is most noble and God-like. "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city." (Pro. 16: 32). 'He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls." (Pro. 25: 28).

EXPERIENCE, OR SELF-IMPROVEMENT.

It is the duty and high privilege of every human being to endeavor to improve himself. Effort at selfimprovement is the definition sometimes given for religion. It may relate to our actions or to our convictions. In our actions we should aim at goodness; in our convictions, at truth. (This is the essence of the teachings of Confucius).

One of the best means of arriving at just conclusions, or truth, is to record our best thoughts. By clothing them in words we make them more precise, determined and fixed. For this purpose it is a good plan to keep a set of books somewhat analogous to the Journal, Day Book and Ledger of the tradesman. The Journal should be always at hand for recording the first rough form of our thoughts, including the suggestions, reasons and conclusions

which occur to our minds on any subject in which we take an interest, which may thus be caught and secured whilst fresh and before they are dissipated and forgotten, and perhaps forever lost. In certain moods and frames of mind we have glimpses of truth, which, followed out, may lead us to interesting conclusions, but which, once displaced by other things, can never again be recalled-at least, not with the same vividness and strength. The second book, analogous to the Day Book, is to be used for copying out, with abridgements or improvements, such of the rough entries in the Journal as, on subsequent reflection, seem to be worthy of the labor, collecting together under a single head all the observations which we have made on one subject. The third book, analogous to the Ledger, should be employed for a last and final recording, in the most accurate and finished form, of the thoughts and conclusions at which we ultimately arrive on a given subject or point, after having read and re-read the previous entries, and sought such other information and light from books and men as our opportunities have permitted.

By proceeding in this manner, and drawing the pen across the entries in the Journal and Day Book respectively as fast as they are used and carried forward into the succeeding book, a man of ordinary reading and reflection will, in the course of a few years, find that he has amassed a rich fund of experience, which, to him at least, will be of inestimable value. The result will be as near an approach to wisdom and truth as his opportunities and talents are capable of.