studied, not confined to an empty and barren theory, but reduced to practice, and daily applied, in words, actions, business, undertakings of every kind, studies and observations, become a sort of universal, philosophical, moral, and essentially practical code, and furnish a compass and rudder for steering with safety among the rocks that are scattered over the ocean of life. 110 THE ART OF EMPLOYING TIME. ANALYTICAL TABLE Of the GENERAL LAWS proposed as the foundation of Methods of every kind, and as susceptible of an infinite number of practioat applications in the Arts, Sciences, general Philosophy, and the Conduct of Life. 1. Law of the Point of Support.-A point of support is requisite in every thing. 2. Law of Causes.-There is no effect without cause. 3. Law of the Chain.-All things are connected. 4. Law of Gradation.—All is series and gradation. 5. Law of Division and Re-union.—It is necessary to divide and re-unite, in order to create-Division and re-union are two generating principles, which must be combined in order to be productive. 6. Law of Exchanges and Concurrence.-There is nothing but exchange between men and all other beings-Exchanges are a necessary principle of creation. Concurrence, the result of exchanges, is a principle of power. 7. Law of Equilibrium—A just medium should be observed in all things. 8. Law of Action and Re-action, or of the Alternate Motion. -In nature all is action and re-action. 9. Law of the Universal Mixture of Good and Evil.-All human things are a compound of good and evil. 10. Law of Obstacles rendered beneficial.-Every obstacle is capable of being converted into a medium of success, or at least of affording certain advantages to those who understand the art of turning them to account. 11. Law of Proportions.-All things are relative. 12. Law of Aims.—In all things there must be an aim. THE ART OF EMPLOYING TIME. "Time wasted is existence, used is life." I. OF HAPPINESS :---THE GRAND AIM OF EDUCATION, AND LIFE --OF THE ELEMENTS OF WHICH IT IS COMPOSED. THE universal tendency to well-being or happiness is an absolutely general principle in the moral world, as the law of gravity in the physical world: but, while the physical law impels all bodies toward one common centre, the object toward which the moral law attracts all animated beings, appears not to be determined with the like precision. It is not encompassed by a narrow circle which might prevent the imagination from going astray, nor bounded by limits clearly defined and established for all mankind. It varies with individuals, according to their inclinations, passions, and dispositions, their different degrees of reason and intelligence, and the different influences by which they are actuated. Hence the frequent deviations in the moral order, while the physical order of nature is in many respects constant and invariable. It is therefore expedient, nay even necessary, to obtain a firmer point of support for human weakness, a more solid base for the edifice of morality, for the felicity of mortals on earth, for the chief and most important of sciences-the science of happiness. It is requisite to determine in a fixed, evident, irrevocable, and almost uniform manner, for all men, the essential character and nature of the aim toward which they ought to tend; the elements of which real happiness consists; the exact limits which circumscribe it; and the surest and easiest means by which it may be attained. Happiness, or well-being, is the universal aim of education and life with the human species in general, and with each individual in particular: but though all men necessarily tend toward this aim, either by reflexion or by instinct, and though there is no rational being but desires to be happy, yet the greater number know not in what happiness really consists, and pay dearly for this baneful ignorance. Some, agitated by restless passions, or misled by seductive illusions, weary themselves in a toilsome, distant search of it, when they might easily find it in their very path. Others, by a still more pernicious mistake, employ the means of ruin and misery alone for their conservation and felicity they destroy while they would preserve themselves; they embitter their lives in seeking to render them happy. Observation, experience, and reason, seem to point out three essential and necessary elements of happiness: health of body, elevation of soul or morality, and cultivation of mind or knowledge. These three elements are the fundamental bases, but not the only instruments of felicity. Several other means of happiness, secondary and accessory, though highly important in themselves, are connected with, and necessarily dependent on, these three primary causes. Fortune, for example, the object of such ardent desire, and frequently' reputed the highest good, must at first have been the lot of him only who knew how to acquire it by his labour and his talents, by the twofold exertion of body and mind, by the esteem and confidence which his moral qualities had inspired. If it has been transmitted by inheritance, it cannot be preserved but by discreet conduct, |