his neighbors, especially by those who know him best—­or one who has fallen into disgrace and ruin; who has, lost his character, his health, his happiness, and become an outcast and vagabond,—­let them not fail to learn what his habits have been.  Look at them carefully and critically.  Ponder well the effect they have had upon him.  And then strive to avoid them.  Shun them as the poisonous viper whose sting is death.  Let them wind not a single coil of their fatal chains around the free spirit of the young.  The same appalling consequences will be visited on every youth who indulges them, that have fallen on those whose condition excites Loth pity and loathing in their breasts.

In youth, habits are much easier formed and corrected, than at a later period of life.  If they are right now, preserve, strengthen and mature them.  If they are wrong—­if they have any dangerous influence or tendency—­correct them immediately.  Delay not the effort an hour.  The earlier you make the attempt to remedy a bad habit, the easier it will be accomplished.  Every day adds to its strength and vigor; until, if not conquered in due time, it will become a voracious monster, devouring everything good and excellent.  It will make its victim a miserable, drivelling slave, to be continually lashed and scourged into the doing of its low and wretched promptings.  Hence the importance of attending to the habits in early life, when they are easily controlled and corrected.  If the young do not make themselves the masters of their passions, appetites, and habits, these will soon become their masters, and make them their tool and bond-men through all their days.

Usually at the age of thirty years, the moral habits become fixed for life.  New ones are seldom formed after that age; and quite as seldom are old ones abandoned.  There are exceptions to this rule; but in general, it holds good.  If the habits are depraved and vicious at that age, there is little hope of amendment.  But if they are correct—­if they are characterized by virtue, goodness, and sobriety—­there is a flattering prospect of a prosperous and peaceful life.  Remember, the habits are not formed, nor can they be corrected, in a single week or month.  It requires years to form them, and years will be necessary to correct them permanently, when they are wrong.  Hence, in order to possess good habits at maturity, it is all-important to commence schooling the passions, curbing the appetites, and bringing the whole moral nature under complete control, early in youth.  This work cannot be commenced too soon.  The earlier the effort, the easier it can be accomplished.  To straighten the tender twig, when it grows awry from the ground, is the easiest thing imaginable.  A child can do it at the touch of its finger.  But let the twig become a matured tree before the attempt is made, and it will baffle all the art of man to bring it to a symmetrical position.  It must be uprooted from the very soil before this can be accomplished.  It is not difficult to correct a bad habit when it commences forming.  But wait until it has become fully developed, and it will require a long and painful exertion of every energy to correct it.