Improvement of the Mind.
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No truth in science or morals, nor any skill or accomplishment which a man obtains, is ever lost to him. Some time in his life he will find it useful. Youth is the season ofacquirement — and maturer years the time of action; and the action of maturer years will be perfect or imperfect, in an exact ratio with our earlier acquirements.
As but few young men venture upon the uncertain experiment of business immediately on becoming of age, most of them have several years of freedom from its absorbing cares, and an opportunity for study, in which many things may be learned, that will, some time in after-life, be found of great importance. The character of these studies should be governed very much by the particular calling in which a young man is engaged. As, for instance, if he has chosen commercial pursuits, he will find in an acquirement of a knowledge of the modern languages a very important means of future advancement. If honest and competent as a clerk, he may be selected as best fitted, from his acquaintance with German, French, or Spanish, to conduct a voyage as supercargo, which will not only materially increase his income, but give him an opportunity of seeing foreign nations and coming into actual business contact with them — that most important means of enlarging our ideas, correcting false impressions, and maturing our judgments in those matters of the world that are so essential to success. And so of every other pursuit or calling in which a young man may be engaged. Some particular branch of information will be found to aid materially his advancement therein, and secure his future well-doing. How to direct aright his efforts, every one must decide for himself, from the circumstances of his own position.
But even where no means of using the information proposed to be obtained is presented to the mind, every opportunity for improvement should be embraced, and those branches of knowledge cultivated, which accord best with the tastes and inclinations. One or two hours of well-directed study, each day, will furnish the mind, in a few years, with a vast amount of information on all subjects, not a single item of which will be valueless, but, sometime in life, be of use to the possessor.
Books of facts and books of principles should make by far the larger portion of a young man's reading, and works of imagination and fiction be resorted to only as mental recreations, or the means of improving the taste. The first are essential to the formation of his rational mind; they contain the food by which it is nourished, and from which it grows into maturity and vigor. If, instead of this kind of reading, mere fiction is resorted to — a puny intellectual growth will be the consequence, and, instead of there being the soundness of true mental force and discrimination, there will be only the weakness of a trifling sentimentality.
History, biography, and travels, furnish the mind with the main facts to be obtained by mere reading, while the abstruser facts of science, even more necessary than these to be known, must be acquired by something more than this superficial mode — by patient and laborious study; but this patience and labor receive a rich reward.
Another and equally important branch of reading is that of mental and moral philosophy. There is danger here of acquiring false views; for these abound in nearly everyphilosophical work extant. History records the naked facts that have transpired; biography tells the story of a man's life; and the book of travel opens up to us the manners, customs, and peculiarities of other nations. We read them all, and form our own conclusions from the facts stated.
But books of philosophy come to us as serious teachers, with precepts for our government in actual life. They assume to understand the constituents of the human mind, and to lay down laws for its government. Of these books, there are many, and all with systems more or less variant with each other. They cannot all be true, of course. "What, then, am I to do? Who is to lead me into a true system of philosophy?" we hear asked; and we answer, "Your own reason, guided by an earnest desire for the truth for its own sake." Prove all things, and hold fast that which is good.
This, at first sight, may seem very unsatisfactory kind of advice; but it is the only advice we can conscientiously give. No man can truly believe anything that he does not understand; and, therefore, nothing can be truth to him, which does not come within the scope of his own reason. Systems of philosophy, when presented to him, ought to be examined; but nothing that they advance should be received as truth, unless his own rationality approves. The test of all truth is its ability to lead to good. To take a thing for granted because it is gravely stated as truth by a man who has the reputation of being a great philosopher — is the worst of folly. Even if the proposition is true, it is a truth to no one unless it is rationally perceived. A man may assent to it, but it is not a living, but only a dead assent. He is none the wiser.
As the precept, "Man, know yourself," is to all one of vital importance, and as no man can properly know himself unless he understands something of his mental and moral nature — we will make a few plain statements on the subject, from which anyone may derive clear ideas, and be able to understand his own mental operations, and the laws that govern them. Such a knowledge will enable him to separate the wheat from the chaff in books, and store up the wheat in the garner of his innermost thoughts.
Man's study of himself, aided by certain data in the outset, is full of interest, and fraught with the most important results. He who carefully observes the operations of his own mind, is soon able to correct false views, and soon acquires a soundness of thinking on all subjects. He makes a stronger impression on society; his influence widens daily.
Very many considerations might be urged upon young men by which to make them feel the importance of improving their minds in every possible way; the highest consideration we can urge is that of man's duties to common society, and the impossibility of his discharging them efficiently, unless every power of his mind is cultivated to the extent of the opportunities afforded him. But too few are able to feel so unselfish a consideration as this, and they must be moved by the baser influences of respectability, eminence, or the possession of wealth, all or some of which are the rewards that follow the cultivation of man's intellectual ability.
An ignorant man may get rich, but he cannot rise into intellectual society; he can never be anything in the world except a mere money-maker, nor be esteemed for anything but his wealth. He contributes nothing toward the world's true advancement; he is, after all, but a drone in the social hive; and when he dies, his memory soon perishes with him, unless he provides for having it inscribed upon some imposing edifice, built by the money he could no longer use for his own selfish purposes — to no truly great man an enviable fame.
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