But who can
hold himself up to an exact fulfilment of his intentions for a whole
term? I do not wish to discourage you. The drift of my argument is, not
that you should make no aim, but that you should fix your aim _high_,
and that you should then keep yourself up to your good resolutions, as
long and as closely as you possibly can.

2. In the next place, remember that no excellence is ever attained
without self-denial. Wisdom's ways are indeed ways of pleasantness. The
satisfaction of having done well and nobly is of a certain ravishing
kind, far surpassing other enjoyments. But to obtain this high and
satisfying pleasure, many minor and incompatible pleasures must be
foregone. You cannot have the pleasure of being a first-rate scholar,
and at the same time have your full swing of fun. I am not opposed to
fun. I like it myself. No one enjoys it more. Nor do I think the
exercise and enjoyment of it incompatible with the highest scholastic
excellence. But there is a place for all things, and school is not the
place for fun. If you enjoy in moderation out of school the relaxation
and refreshment which jokes, wit, and pleasantry give, you will be all
the more likely to grapple successfully with the serious employments
which await you here. Still do not forget that your employments here are
serious. Study is a sober business. If you would acquire really useful
knowledge, you must be willing to work. You must make up your mind to
say "no" to the thousand opportunities and temptations to frivolous
behavior that will beset you in school. You must not be content with
being studious and orderly merely when the eye of authority is upon you.
This is to be simply an eye-servant and a hypocrite. To have a little
pleasantry in the school-room, to perpetrate or to join in some witty
practical joke, may seem to you comparatively harmless. So it would be
but for its expense. You buy it at the cost of benefits which no money
can measure, and no future time can replace. There are seasons of the
year when the farmer may indulge in relaxation,--may go abroad on
excursions of pleasure, or may saunter away the time in comparative
idleness at home. But in the few precious weeks of seedtime, every day,
every hour is of moment. This is your seedtime. Every hour of
school-time that you waste in trifling is an injury and a loss to your
future. Remember, then, that you cannot reach high excellence in school,
or that pure and noble enjoyment, which