RIGHT USE OF TIME.

"Whose only labor was to kill the time,
Who sit and loll, turn o'er some idle rhyme,
Then, rising sudden, to the glass they go,
Or saunter forth with tottering step, and slow.
But this too rude an exercise they find,

Then straight on the couch their limbs they throw,
Where hours and hours they, sighing, lie :eclined,
And court the vapory god soft-breathing in the wind."

IME and labor are the two oars by which a man propels his life-boat toward the distant shores of achievement and fruition.

It is astonishing to think how much time is thrown away and wasted each year, and how much could be learned by those who felt disposed to use these spare moments in furthering the objects of their ambition. Purpose and persistent industry make a man sharp to discern opportunities, and turn them to account. To the feeble, the sluggish, and the indolent, the happiest opportunities avail nothing; but with perseverance the very odds and ends of time may be worked up into results of the greatest value. An hour every day withdrawn from frivolous pursuits, and profitably employed, would enable a person of ordinary capacity to go far in mastering a complete science. It would make an

ignorant man well-informed in ten years. Stephenson taught himself arithmetic and mensuration while working in an engine-room during the night shifts, and he studied mechanics during his spare hours at home; thus preparing himself for his great work, the invention of the passenger locomotive. Watt taught himself chemistry and mechanics while working at his trade.

Dalton's industry began from boyhood, and at twelve years of age he taught a little village school in the winter, and worked on his father's farm in the summer. This early habit of industry was continued until a day or two before he died. Dr. Mason Good translated Lucretius while riding in his carriage in the streets of London, going his rounds among his patients. Dr. Darwin composed nearly all his works in the same way, while driving about in his "sulky," from house to house in the country-writing down his thoughts on little scraps of paper, which he carried about with him for the purpose. Hale wrote his "Contemplations" while traveling on circuit. Dr. Burney learned French and Italian while traveling on horseback from one musical pupil to another in the course of his profession. Kirke White learned Greek while walking to and from a lawyer's office.

ODD MOMENTS.

Elihu Burritt attributed his first success in self-improvement, not to genius, which he disclaimed, but simply to the careful employment of those invaluable fragments of time, called "odd moments." While working and earning his living as a blacksmith, he

mastered some eighteen ancient and modern languages, and twenty-two European dialects. Withal, he was exceedingly modest, and thought his achievements nothing extraordinary. Like another learned and wise man, of whom it was said that he could be silent in ten languages, Elihu Burritt could do the same in forty. "Those who have been acquainted with my character from my youth up," said he, writ ing to a friend, "will give me credit for sincerity when I say that it never entered into my head to blazon forth any acquisition of my own. . All that

I have accomplished, or expect, or hope to accomplish, has been and will be by that plodding, patient, persevering process of accretion which builds the antheap-particle by particle, thought by thought, fact by fact. And if ever I was actuated by ambition, its highest and warmest aspiration reached no further than the hope to set before the young men of my country an example in employing those invaluable fragments of time called odd moments."

Daguesseau, one of the great Chancellors of France, by carefully working up his odd bits of time, wrote a bulky and able volume in the successive intervals of waiting for dinner; and Madame de Genlis composed several of her charming volumes while waiting for the Princess Orleans to whom she gave daily lessons. Jeremy Bentham and Melancthon arranged their hours of labor and repose so that not a moment should be lost. Ferguson learned astronomy from the heavens while wrapped in a sheepskin on the Highland hills. Stone learned mathematics while working as a journeyman gardener, and Drew became acquainted with the highest philosophy in the interval of cob

bling shoes. Locke carried a note-book in his pocket to to catch the scintillations of all the conversations which he heard. Pope, when not able to sleep, would get up and write. Dr. Rush studied in his carriage while visiting patients, and prepared himself to write not only upon professional but other themes, works which are still almost as useful as when first published. Cuvier, the father of Comparative Anatomy, also studied while passing in his carriage from place to place, and by his ceaseless industry did perhaps more for the physical sciences than any other man that ever lived.

Franklin stole his hours of study from meals and sleep, and for years, with inflexible resolution, strove to save for his own instruction every minute that could be won. Hugh Miller found time while pursuing his trade as a stone-mason, not only to read, but to write, cultivating his style till he became one of the most facile and brilliant authors of the day. Mr. Grote, the historian of Greece, whose work is by far the fullest and most trustworthy on the subject, and who also snatched time from business to write two large volumes upon Plato, was a banker. Sir John Lubbock, the highest English English authority on prehistoric archæology, has made himself such by stealing the time from mercantile pursuits. John Quincy Adams, to the last day of his life, was an economist of moments. To redeem the time, he rose early. "I feel nothing like ennui," he said. "Time is too short for me, rather than too long. If the day were forty-eight hours long, instead of twenty-four, I could employ them all, if I had but eyes and hands to read and write." While at St. Petersburg, he complained