There is nothing more essential to the young than to accustom themselves to mature reflection, and practical observation, in regard to the duties of life, and the sources of human enjoyment.  This is a task, however, which but few of the youthful are inclined to undertake.  The most of them are averse to giving up their thoughts to sober meditation on the consequences which accrue from different courses of conduct, or to practical observation on the lessons taught by the experience of others.  The Present!—­the Present!—­its amusements, its gayeties, its fashions, absorbs nearly all their thoughts.  They have little relish to look towards the future, except to anticipate the continuance of the novelty and joyousness of the spring-time of life.  The poet utters a most salutary admonition in his beautiful lines: 

    “The beam of the morning, the bud of the Spring,
     The promise of beauty and brightness may bring;
     But clouds gather darkness, and touched by the frost,
     The pride of the plant, and the morning are lost. 
     Thus the bright and the beautiful ever decay—­
     Life’s morn and life’s flowers, oh, they quick pass away!”

I would not cast one unnecessary shadow on the pathway of the young; but they should be often reminded, that the season of youth, with its romance and light-heartedness, soon, too soon, departs!  Spring, with its budding beauties, and fragrant blossoms, does not continue all the year.  It is speedily followed by the fervid summer, the mature and sober autumn, and the dreary snows of winter.  In order to have thriving and promising fields in summer, rich and abundant harvests in autumn, and bountiful supplies for comfort and repose in winter, “good seed” must be sowed in the spring.  So, also, if you would have the summer of life fruitful of prosperity—­its autumn yield a rich and bountiful harvest, and the winter of old age made comfortable and peaceful—­the good seed of pure habits, and sound moral and religious principles, must be carefully sowed in the rich soil of the heart, in the budding spring-time of youth.

Due observation and reflection will enable the young to sow the right kind of seed at the right time.  There is much in this.  Those who sow late will be likely to have their harvest blighted by chilling rains and nipping frosts.  The earlier the seed is cast into the ground, the greater the certainty that it will produce an abundant crop.  Reflection and discrimination are all-essential to the youthful.  Those who think deeply will act wisely.  They will detect and avoid the dangers which beset their pathway, and into which the thoughtless so easily fall.  They will readily penetrate the specious appearance, the harmless aspect, the deceptive veil, which vice and immorality can so readily assume.  They will understand the old maxim, that “all is not gold that glitters.”  This is a simple truth, and yet how few of the young practise upon it.