. But the astronomer, having
by an observation fixed the place of a star, by so simple an expedient
as waiting six months, and then repeating his observation, contrived
to put the diameter of the earth's orbit, say two hundred millions of
miles, between his first observation and his second, and this line
afforded him a respectable base for his triangle.

All our arts aim to win this vantage. We cannot bring the heavenly
powers to us, but, if we will only choose our jobs in directions in
which they travel, they will undertake them with the greatest pleasure.
It is a peremptory rule with them, that _they never go out of their
road_. We are dapper little busybodies, and run this way and that
way superserviceably; but they swerve never from their foreordained
paths,--neither the sun, nor the moon, nor a bubble of air, nor a mote
of dust.

And as our handiworks borrow the elements, so all our social and
political action leans on principles. To accomplish anything excellent,
the will must work for catholic and universal ends. A puny creature
walled in on every side, as Daniel wrote,--

"Unless above himself he can,
Erect himself, how poor a thing is man!"

but when his will leans on a principle, when, he is the vehicle of
ideas, he borrows their omnipotence. Gibraltar may be strong, but ideas
are impregnable, and bestow on the hero their invincibility. "It was
a great instruction," said a saint in Cromwell's war, "that the best
courages are but beams of the Almighty." Hitch your wagon to a star. Let
us not fag in paltry works which serve our pot and bag alone. Let us not
lie and steal. No god will help. We shall find all their teams going the
other way. Charles's Wain, Great Bear, Orion, Leo, Hercules: every god
will leave us. Work rather for those interests which the divinities
honor and promote,--justice, love, freedom, knowledge, utility.

* * * * *

=_202._= RULES FOR READING.

Be sure, then, to read no mean books. Shun the spawn of the press on the
gossip of the hour. Do not read what you shall learn without asking, in
the street and the train. Dr. Johnson said, "he always went into stately
shops;" and good travelers stop at the best hotels; for, though they
cost more, they do not cost much more, and there is the good company and
the best information. In like manner, the scholar knows that the famed
books contain, first and last, the best thoughts and facts. Now and
then, by ra