abit of Seriousness."

"In other words the habits of honestly acquiring, keeping and improving,
all good things, material, intellectual and moral, and of dealing with
the realities of things."

"The Habit of Seriousness may seem strange to insist upon, but one has
only to mark the injury to everything noble, of an atmosphere of
flippancy and constant strain after smart language. There is nothing in
flippancy to have awe of--any one can learn the knack of it--but it is
foolish and degrading, while seriousness is the color of truth itself."

"As to the Habit of Industry, there is no other way that can be depended
upon for becoming wealthy in goods, or learning, or in good deeds.
Materially, if we can learn to employ all our available time at
something, we shall be the richest of nations. Why have we so many men
idling about the villages? Why do so many women simply live on a
relative? How different the country would look if the man spent his
waste moments in building a gallery, an oriel window, or an awning, to
his house, and the idle girl practised some home manufacture. The
prosperity of certain Annapolis valley farmers once struck me. 'Do you
know why it is?' said a gentleman who was born there. 'The forefathers
of these people were a colony of weavers, _and there is a loom in every
house_.'"

"The Habit of Economy is simply making the best use of our possessions
and powers."

"The Habit of Progress, or of constantly seeking to improve, is to be
deeply impressed. It alone will bring us everything. It is never time to
say, 'Let us remain as we are.'"

"We could attend to some minor habits with benefit. How the popular
intelligence would be improved, for instance, by:--"

"A habit of asking for the facts."

"A habit of thinking before asserting."

"A mean between liberality and tenacity of conviction."

"Now one more piece of equipment, but it is the highest: The Canadian,
if he is to live a life thoroughly scaled on the scale of the
reasonable, must place the greatest importance on those interests which
transcend all his others, his future fare beyond this make-shift
existence; his relations to the unseen world; and how to lay hold on
purity and righteousness. Think what he may of them, life should at any
rate think. Let him set apart times to ponder over these matters: and
for this, I say that to be a lofty and noble nation, we must all borrow
the rational observance of the Sabbath, not as a day merely of r