* * * * *

In regard to this whole subject of the selection of associates, I would earnestly counsel the young to listen respectfully to the advice of their parents, guardians, and elder friends.  They should not be headstrong, nor wise in their own conceits; but should yield to the counsel of others.  Your parents are far better calculated to judge of associates than themselves.  You are liable to be blinded to their defects, and deceived by specious appearances.  But parents scrutinize them from a different position.  They have been through the school of experience, and are much better prepared to judge of character.  Listen, O ye youthful! to their warning voice.  They are moved by love for you—­they speak for your good.  When they entreat you to avoid the society of certain individuals, and escape their influence, heed their exhortations.  Your own heart will tell you, that your father and mother would not speak, simply to thwart your feelings; but that they see danger hovering around you, and would snatch you away, as the bird from the fowler’s snare!  That is a wise and promising son—­a prudent and hopeful daughter—­who pays respectful deference to the counsel of parents, and yields a cheerful compliance with their wishes!

    “So live, that when thy summons comes, to join
     The innumerable caravan, that moves
     To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take
     His chamber in the silent halls of death,
     Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
     Scourged to his dungeon; but, sustained and soothed
     By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
     Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
     About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams!”

LECTURE IV.

Habits and Amusements.

    “Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be
    established.”—­Prov. iv. 20.

There is not a youth present this evening, who will not acknowledge this to be sound and wholesome advice.  Were you walking in a slippery, dangerous way, amid the darkness of midnight, you would give the strictest heed to the friendly precaution—­“Ponder the path of thy feet.  Be careful where you step.  When you put your foot down, see to it, that it rests on something well-established—­some rock, some spot of earth, that is firm and solid.”  This advice would be heeded, because of your consciousness that by stepping heedlessly, you would be in danger of stumbling into a pit, or falling over a precipice, where your limbs would be broken, or life destroyed.  Simple discretion would bid you beware, under such circumstances.  The youthful should fully realize that they are walking in a pathway, which to them is wholly untried and unknown.  It is a road surrounded by many dangers, unseen by the careless traveller; where he is liable to be lured aside to ruin, by a thousand fascinations and temptations, and where multitudes