“It is an Ideal Character, however, a character perfectly harmonized with his destinies as a soul, and his condition as a citizen, that is the most important armour in the panoply of the Canadian.  Purity and elevation of the national character must be held sacred as the snowy peaks of Olympus to the Greek.  And as those celestial summits could never have risen to their majesty without foundations of more humble rocks and earth; so we must lay foundations for our finer aspirations by the acquirement of certain basal habits:” 

“The Habit of Industry.”

“The Habit of Economy.”

“The Habit of Progress.”

“The Habit of Seriousness.”

“In other words the habits of honestly acquiring, keeping and improving, all good things, material, intellectual and moral, and of dealing with the realities of things.”

“The Habit of Seriousness may seem strange to insist upon, but one has only to mark the injury to everything noble, of an atmosphere of flippancy and constant strain after smart language.  There is nothing in flippancy to have awe of—­any one can learn the knack of it—­but it is foolish and degrading, while seriousness is the color of truth itself.”

“As to the Habit of Industry, there is no other way that can be depended upon for becoming wealthy in goods, or learning, or in good deeds.  Materially, if we can learn to employ all our available time at something, we shall be the richest of nations.  Why have we so many men idling about the villages?  Why do so many women simply live on a relative?  How different the country would look if the man spent his waste moments in building a gallery, an oriel window, or an awning, to his house, and the idle girl practised some home manufacture.  The prosperity of certain Annapolis valley farmers once struck me.  ’Do you know why it is?’ said a gentleman who was born there.  ’The forefathers of these people were a colony of weavers, and there is a loom in every house.’”

“The Habit of Economy is simply making the best use of our possessions and powers.”

“The Habit of Progress, or of constantly seeking to improve, is to be deeply impressed.  It alone will bring us everything.  It is never time to say, ‘Let us remain as we are.’”

“We could attend to some minor habits with benefit.  How the popular intelligence would be improved, for instance, by:—­”

“A habit of asking for the facts.”

“A habit of thinking before asserting.”

“A mean between liberality and tenacity of conviction.”

“Now one more piece of equipment, but it is the highest:  The Canadian, if he is to live a life thoroughly scaled on the scale of the reasonable, must place the greatest importance on those interests which transcend all his others, his future fare beyond this make-shift existence; his relations to the unseen world; and how to lay hold on purity and righteousness.  Think what he may of them, life should at any rate think.  Let him set apart times to ponder over these matters:  and for this, I say that to be a lofty and noble nation, we must all borrow the rational observance of the Sabbath, not as a day merely of rest and still less of flighty recreation, but a necessary period devoted to man’s thought upon his more tremendous affairs.”