ny
other. But it is also true that even the former, almost without
exception, can command a small portion of their time every day, for the
purposes of mental improvement, if they are determined on it. Few
individuals can be found in the community, who have not as much leisure
as I had during the summer I have mentioned. The great point is to have
the necessary disposition to improve it; and a second point, of no
small importance, is to have at hand, proper means of instruction. Of
the latter I shall speak presently.

The reason why laboring men make such rapid progress in knowledge, in
proportion to the number of hours they devote to study, appears to me
obvious. The mental appetite is keen, and they devour with a relish.
What little they read and understand, is thought over, and perhaps
conversed upon, during the long interval; and becomes truly the
property of the reader. Whereas those who make study a business, never
possess a healthy appetite for knowledge; they are always cloyed,
nothing is well digested; and the result of their continued effort is
either a superficial or a distorted view of a great many things,
without a thorough or practical understanding of any.

I do not propose, in a work of this kind, to recommend to young men
what particular books on any subject they ought to study. First,
because it is a matter of less importance than many others, and I
cannot find room to treat of every thing.

He who has the determination to make progress, will do so, either with
or without books, though these are certainly useful. But an old piece
of newspaper, or a straggling leaf from some book, or an inscription on
a monument, or the monument itself--and works of nature as well as of
art, will be books to him. Secondly, because there is such an extensive
range for selection. But, thirdly, because it may often be left to the
reader's own taste and discretion. He will probably soon discover
whether he is deriving solid or permanent benefit from his studies, and
govern himself accordingly. Or if he have a friend at hand, who will be
likely to make a judicious selection, with a proper reference to his
actual progress and wants, he would do wrong not to avail himself of
that friend's opinion.

I will now mention a _few_ of the particular studies to which he who
would educate himself for usefulness should direct his attention.

1. GEOGRAPHY.

As it is presumed that every one whom I address reads newspapers more
or l