The New Hampshire Gazette And Historical Chronicle

TIME is invaluable, its loss irretrievable!

The remembrance of having made an ill use of it, must be one of the sharpest tortures to those who are on the brink of eternity! and what can yield a more unpleasant retrospect, than whole years idled away in an irrational insignificant manner! examples of which are continually before our eyes. Look on every day as a blank sheet of paper put into your hands to be filled up; remember the characters will remain to endless ages, and can never be expunged; be careful therefore not to write any thing but what you may read with pleasure a thousand years hence. I would not be understood in so strict a sense as might debar you from any innocent amusement suitable to your age, and agreeable to your inclination. Diversions properly regulated, are not only allowable, they are absolutely necessary to youth, and are never criminal but when taken to excess; that is, when they engross the whole thought, are made the chief business of life, give a dictate to every valuable employment; and by a sort of infatuation leave the mind in a state of restless impatience from the conclusion of one till the commencement of another. This is the unfortunate disposition of many: guard most carefully against it; for nothing can be attended with more pernicious consequence.

A little observation will convince you that there is not, amongst the human species, a set of more miserable beings than those who cannot live out of a constant succession of diversions: these people have no comprehension of the more satisfactory pleasures to be found in retirement. Thought is insupportable to them, and consequently solitude must be intolerable; they are a burden to themselves, and a pest to their acquaintance, by vainly seeking for happiness in company where they are seldom acceptable. I say vainly, for true happiness exists only in the mind, nothing foreign can give it. The utmost to be attained by what is called a gay life, is a short forgetfulness of misery to be felt with accumulated anguish in every interval of reflection. This restless temper is frequently the product of a too eager pursuit of pleasure in the early part of life, to the neglect of those valuable improvements which would lay the foundation of a more solid and permanent felicity,

Youth is the season for diversions; but it is also the season for acquiring knowledge, for fixing useful habits, and laying in a stock of such well-chosen materials, as may grow into a serene happiness, that will increase with every added year of life, and bloom in the fullest perfection at the decline of it. The great art of education consists in assigning to each its proper place, in such a manner that the one shall never become irksome by intrenching on the other.

One half-hour either before, or immediately after breakfast, I would have you constantly give to the attentive perusal of some rationally pious author, or some part of the new-testament; which last, and indeed the whole scripture, you ought to make yourself perfectly acquainted with, as the basis on which your religion is founded. This practice you will reap more real benefit from than can be supposed by those who have never made the experiment. The other hours may be divided amongst those necessary and polite acquisitions which are suitable to your sex, age, and rank in life. Study your own language thoroughly, that you may speak correctly, and write grammatically. Do not content yourself with the common use of words, which custom has taught you from the cradle, but learn from whence they are derived, and what are their proper significations.

Acquire a good knowledge of history; that of your own country first, then of other European NATIONS.

Read them, not with a view to amuse. but to improve your mind; and to that end make reflections on what you have read, which may be useful to yourself, and render your conversation agreeable to others. Learn so much of geography, as to form a just idea of those places you read of; this will make history more entertaining to you. It is necessary for you to be perfect in the four first rules of arithmetic; more you can never have occasion for, and the mind should not be burthened with needless application. Music and drawing are accomplishments well worth the trouble of attaining, if your inclination and genius lead to either: if not, do not attempt them: for it will be only much time and great labour unprofitably thrown away; it being next to impossible to arrive at any degree of perfection in those arts, by the dint of perseverance only, if a good ear and a native genius are wanting. The study of natural philosophy you will find both pleasing and instructive; pleasing from the continual new discoveries to be made of the innumerable various beauties of nature, (a most agreeable gratification of that desire of knowledge wisely implanted in the human mind); and instructive, as those discoveries lead to the contemplation of the great author of nature, whose wisdom and goodness so conspicuously shine thro' all his works, that it is impossible to reflect seriously on them, without admiration and gratitude.