LESSON XLV

STUDIES

Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability.  Their chief use for delight is in privateness; for ornament, in discourse; and for ability in the judgment and disposition of business.

To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules is the humor of a scholar.

Crafty men contemn studies; simple men admire them; and wise men use them.  Read not to contradict and confute, or to believe and take for granted, or to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider.

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.

Reading makes a full man; conference, a ready man; and writing, an exact man.

SELECTION XV

  A PSALM OF LIFE

  Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
    “Life is but an empty dream!”
  For the soul is dead that slumbers,
    And things are not what they seem.

  Life is real!  Life is earnest! 
    And the grave is not its goal;
  “Dust thou art, to dust returnest,”
    Was not spoken of the soul.

  Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
    Is our destined end or way,
  But to act, that each to-morrow
    Find us farther than to-day.

  Art is long, and Time is fleeting;
    And our hearts, though strong and brave,
  Still, like muffled drums, are beating
    Funeral marches to the grave.

  In the world’s broad field of battle,
    In the bivouac of life,
  Be not like dumb, driven cattle,
    Be a hero in the strife.

  Trust no future, however pleasant;
    Let the dead past bury its dead: 
  Act,—­act in the living present,
    Heart within, and God o’erhead.

  Lives of great men all remind us
    We can make our lives sublime,
  And, departing, leave behind us
    Footprints on the sands of time.

  Footprints, that perhaps another,
    Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
  A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
    Seeing, shall take heart again.

  Let us then be up and doing,
    With a heart for any fate;
  Still achieving, still pursuing,
    Learn to labor and to wait.

  H.  W. Longfellow.

LESSON XLVI

RULES OF BEHAVIOR

Every action in company ought to be done with some sign of respect to those present.

In presence of others, sing not to yourself with a humming noise, nor drum with your fingers or feet.

Speak not when others speak; sit not when others stand; speak not when you should hold your peace; walk not when others stop.