pleasant flow of mental thought. When books are out of their proper places; when all the means of study are in disorder, it would be strange indeed if the operations of the mind could proceed in as smooth and unobstructed a manner as if the external circumstances were different.

Make a point, then, of keeping every thing in your study in a state of perfect neatness and regularity. Whether your books be few or many, keep them in their proper places, and in perfect order. Let all your manuscripts be so arranged as that you shall be able to lay your hand upon any one of them in a moment. Tie your pamphlets in bundles, in a certain order, understood by yourself, and as soon as may be get them bound in convenient volumes. Fold, label, and deposit in proper drawers, all loose papers, so as to be at no loss to find any one of them whenever called for. And, in general, let every thing in your study bear the marks of order, system, and perfect neatness. You can have no conception, without having made the experiment, how much time and trouble will be saved by the adoption of this plan. When you are tempted to think that you have not time to put a book or paper which you have been using into its proper place, ask yourselves whether it may not cost you an hour or more afterwards to search for that which half a minute would have sufficed to deposit in its appropriate situation? Let me advise

you also to preserve and file copies of all your letters, and especially those on any kind of business; and when you cannot find time for this, to keep at least a distinct memorandum of the dates, principal contents, conveyance, &c., of all such letters. You will, in the end, save more time by this regularity than you can now easily imagine. Among the many omissions in my early life, I have a thousand times lamented my having omitted, for many years, to keep copies of my business letters, and to preserve and file, in proper order, other important papers, so as to have them accessible at any time without the loss of a moment. How much time I have lost, and how much trouble I have incurred by this failure, no arithmetic at my command can calculate.

Some of the most eminent men, for wisdom and usefulness, that the world has ever seen, were remarkable for their attention to the subject of this letter. Washington, the father of his country, from his early youth, was distinguished for his perfect method and neatness in every thing.— During the whole of his public life, we are told, he was punctual in filing and labeling every paper, however small, or apparently trivial, which related to any concern or act of his life; even notes of ceremony; not knowing what measure of importance any such paper might afterwards assume. So that no written document could be called for, re

lating to his official life, which he could not at any time produce.

Let no student say, that his papers can never be so important as were those of Washington; and that, therefore, there cannot be the same inducement to preserve, and keep them in order. It is, indeed, by no means probable that your papers will be as important to the public, as those of that illustrious man were; but they may be of quite as much importance to yourself; and no man can tell of how much interest they may be to your country. Peculiar and unexpected circumstances may invest them with a degree of importance which you can not now anticipate. At any rate, disposing them in proper and convenient order, and depositing them where they may be found in a moment, will occupy but little time, and may, long afterwards, serve purposes which you little imagined.

The celebrated Mr. Whitfield, that "prince of preachers," in the last century, was greatly distinguished, from early life, for neatness in his person, for order in his apartment, and for regular method in his affairs. He was accustomed to say, that a minister should be "without spot;" and remarked, on one occasion, that he could not feel comfortable, if he knew that his gloves were out of their proper place. The advantages of establishing such habits are too numerous to be specified. They

save time; and the degree of comfort they give cannot be easily measured.

The biographers of the late celebrated Mr. Wilberforce, tell us, that that great and good man was rather remarkably careless in regard to regularity and order in his study, While he was indefatigably diligent in his labours for the public, his books and papers were always in disorder, lying in heaps, and frequently giving rise to perplexity and delay in searching for that which was wanted. On more than one occasion, important papers, when called for by some of the most elevated persons in the kingdom, were out of their proper place, and not to be found; and gave rise to an agitation and loss of time not a little painful.

Good farmers and mechanics, tell us, that it is important to have "a place for every thing, and every thing in its place." This maxim is quite as applicable and important to the student as to any one else. The punctual observance of it not only saves time, as the slightest consideration will evince, but it tends to preserve tranquillity of mind; and, what in many cases is still more important, it may prevent the entire loss of papers, books, or other articles left out of their proper places.

It is well known that the greater part of the students in our colleges belong to families in very moderate, and not a few of them in straitened circumstances, insomuch that many of them find it extremely difficult to meet the expenses of the institution; and to some it would be impossible without the aid of charitable funds. If we could go through all the classes in these institutions, and examine the real circumstances of each individual, we should find many parents subjecting themselves and their families to the most pinching economy, really denying themselves some comforts which many would call indispensable, for the sake of sustaining their sons through a course of education. In other cases we should see sons subjecting themselves to a rigour of economy truly severe, and