rious departments of industry, and many of the failures that are
constantly occurring among business men, are justly attributable to the
fits of attention and the irregular modes of study they became
habituated to in their school-boy days. Hence the mischief of long
vacations, and the evil of beginning studies before the age at which
they may be understood. Parents and teachers should hence, at an early
period, impress indelibly upon the minds of their children and pupils
the ever true and practical sentiment, that _what is worth doing at all
is worth doing well_. Although, at first, their progress may _seem_ to
be retarded thereby, still, in the end, it will contribute greatly to
accelerate their real advancement, and in after life, whether employed
in literary or business pursuits, will be a means of augmenting their
happiness and increasing their prospect of success in whatever
department of labor they may be engaged.

In physical education most persons seem well aware of the advantages of
repetition. They know, for instance, that if practice in dancing,
fencing, skating, and riding is persevered in for a sufficient length of
time to give the muscles the requisite promptitude and harmony of
action, the power will be ever afterward retained, although rarely
called into use. But if we stop short of this point, we may reiterate
practice by fits and starts without any proportional advancement. The
same principle is equally applicable to the moral and intellectual
powers which operate by means of material organs.

The impossibility of successfully playing the hypocrite for any
considerable length of time, and the necessity of being in private what
we wish to appear in public, spring from the same rule. If we wish to be
ourselves polite, just, kind, and sociable, or to induce others to
become so, we must act habitually under the influence of the
corresponding sentiments, in the domestic circle, in the school-room,
and in every-day life, as well as in the company of strangers and on
great occasions. It is the private and daily practice of individuals
that gives ready activity to the sentiments and marks the real
character. If parents or teachers indulge habitually in vulgarities of
speech and behavior in the family or in the school, and put on
politeness occasionally for the reception and entertainment of
strangers, their true character will shine through the mask which is
intended to conceal it. The habitual association t