to run on indefinitely, so that, of course, they can never be fully kept.  For instance, one of you will resolve to rise earlier in the morning. You fix upon no definite hour, on any definite number of mornings, only you are going to “rise earlier.”  Morning comes, and finds you sleepy and disinclined to rise.  You remember your resolution of rising earlier.  “But then it is very early,” you say.  You resolved to rise earlier, but you didn’t resolve to rise just then.  And this, it may be, is the last of your resolution.  Or perhaps you are, for a few mornings, a little earlier; but then, at the end of a week or fortnight, you do not know exactly whether your resolution has been broken or kept, for you had not decided whether to rise earlier for ten days or for ten years.

In the same vague and general manner, a person will resolve to be more studious or more diligent.  In the case of an individual of a mature and well-disciplined mind, of acquired firmness of character, such a resolution might have effect.  The individual will really devote more time and attention to his pursuits.  But for one of you to make such a resolution would do no sort of good.  It would only be a source of trouble and disquiet.  You perceive there is nothing definite—­nothing fixed about it.  You have not decided what amount of additional time or attention to give to your studies, or when you will begin, or when you will end.  There is no one time when you will feel that you are breaking your resolution, because there were no particular times when you were to study more.  You waste one opportunity and another, and then, with a feeling of discouragement and self-reproach, conclude to abandon your resolution.  “Oh!  It does no good to make resolutions,” you say; “I never shall keep them.”

Now, if you would have the business of making resolutions a pleasant and interesting instead of a discouraging, disquieting one, you must proceed in a different manner.  Be definite and distinct in your plan; decide exactly what you will do, and how you will do it—­when you will begin, and when you will end.  Instead of resolving to “rise earlier,” resolve to rise at the ringing of the sunrise bells, or at some other definite time.  Resolve to try this, as an experiment, for one morning, or for one week, or fortnight.  Decide positively, if you decide at all, and then rise when the time comes, sleepy or not sleepy.  Do not stop to repent of your resolution, or to consider the wisdom or folly of it, when the time for acting under it has once arrived.

In all cases, little and great, make this a principle—­to consider well before you begin to act, but after you have begun to act, never stop to consider.  Resolve as deliberately as you please, but be sure to keep your resolution, whether a wise one or an unwise one, after it is once made.  Never allow yourself to reconsider the question of getting up, after the morning has come, except it be for some unforeseen circumstance.  Get up for that time, and be more careful how you make resolutions again.