ry galaxy with Newton,
and pace along the celestial coast to the great harmony of numbers and
unlock the mighty secret of the universe? When of a winter's night,
I can pass through all the belts of climate, and all the grades of
civilization on our globe; scan its motley races, learn its diverse
customs, and hear the groaning of lonely ice-fields and the sigh of
Indian palms? When, with Bacon, I can explore the laboratory of nature,
or with Locke, consult the mysteries of the soul? When Spenser can lead
me into golden visions, or Shakespeare smite me with magic inspiration,
or Milton bathe me in immortal song? When History opens for me all the
gates of the past,--Thebes and Palmyra, Corinth and Carthage, Athens
with its peerless glory, and Rome with its majestic pomp?--when kings
and statesmen, authors and priests, with their public deeds and secret
thoughts are mine? When the plans of cabinets, and the debates of
parliaments, and the course of revolutions, and the results of battle,
are all before my eyes and in my mind? When I can enter the inner
chamber of sainted souls, and conspire with the efforts of moral heroes,
and understand the sufferings of martyrs? Say, when all these deep
experiences-these comprehensive truths-may be acquired through merely
one privilege, is life but a dream, or a breath of air? Thus, too,
do immeasurable experiences flow in to me from nature,--from planet,
flower, and ocean. Thus, too, does more life come to me from contacts
in the common round of action. And, I repeat, every truth thus gained
expands a moment of time into illimitable being,--positively enlarges
my existence, and endows me with a quality which time cannot weaken or
destroy.

Consider, again, how much we really live in cherishing good affections,
and in performing noble deeds. We have the familiar lines of the poet,
to this point:

"One self-approving hour whole years outweighs
Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas."

It is true. There is more life in one "self-approving hour,"-one act of
benevolence,--one work of self-discipline,--than in threescore years and
ten of mere sensual existence. Go out among the homes of the poor, lift
up the disconsolate, administer comfort to the forlorn; in some way, as
it may come across your path, or lie in the sphere of your duty, do a
deed of kindness; and in that one act you shall live more than in a year
of selfish indulgence and indolent ease,--yea, more than in a lifetim