A GOLDEn rule.

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advice is applicable chiefly to new books, or books whose position in literature is still dubious. What follows applies to all books: Examine them chapter by chapter; close the book, and see if you have the plan of the whole work distinctly and fully in your mind. Do not proceed till this is done. After you have this map all distinctly drawn in the mind, get the first chapter vividly before you, so far as the contents will enable you to do it. Then proceed to read."

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Beginning at the beginning-As the boy so the man-Wolcot and the boy Opie-Napoleon's boyhood-Illustrations from the boyhood of great men-Newton, Pascal, Joinville, Sir Philip Sidney, and others-Great achievements of young men-Disraeli quoted-The men who succeed are the boys who have striven-Difficulties which have least sway in their early years-Story of Thomas Simpson-Lord Macaulay's boyhood and its lessons-A schoolboy's letter-Franklin's boyhoodFaraday's boyhood-Hugh Miller and his early experiences-His faculty of observation-Self-education-An English gentleman-Boyhood of George Hughes-"Putting down" a bully-A gymnastic feat-A Rugby boy's letter-A father's letter to his son-Boyhood of Frederick Perthes-A lesson of progress-James Montgomery quoted -Urgent necessity of our turning our boyhood to good account-Boyhood of Sir Thomas Lawrence-Story of Ferguson, the astronomerBoyhood of the poet Cowper-Alexander Murray-Self-taughtLearning languages-Sir Walter Scott in his boyhood-His love of reading-A good example-Robert Blake's boyhood-Mozart, the young musician-His wonderful precocity-Boyhood of Tytler, the historian-His favourite books-Story of Lieutenant Smith - The shipwreck-The young commander-A lesson of heroism-Teaching by example-The lessons of experience-Look before you leap

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OUR DUTY TO OURselves.

Story of the Eastern dervise-Thomas Whitehead's boyhood-Early piety-Charles Kingsley's boyhood-His earliest verses-His achievements-Robbing the hawk's nest-Bewick's boyhood-Thorwaldsen's boyhood-An anecdote and an illustration-F. W. Faber, the Church poet-Influence of scenery on his imagination-Michael Angelo's boyhood-An anecdote-The "Sleeping_Cupid "-A hard worker-Sir Christopher Wren's boyhood-Young Jervis--" He would be a sailor " -Adam Smith's boyhood-Sir Isaac Newton as a boy-His mechanical tastes-Gibbon's boyhood-His love of historical reading-Reading and studying The Latin classics - Dr. Arnold's boyhood - His recreations-His juvenile books-His character-Abraham Lincoln's boyhood-His perseverance-Concluding remarks.

T is said of Addison, the prince of English essayists, that he employed his first years in the study of the old Greek and Roman writers, whose language and manner he caught at that time of life as strongly as other young people gain a French accent or a genteel air. Boyhood is the season for study; while the memory is fresh and strong, it retains with ease whatever we commit to its charge. The records of the lives of the good and great always "begin at the beginning;" that is, we find in their diligent and persevering youth the fit prelude to their successful manhood. All rules are liable to exceptions, but that the boy is father to the man is a rule of almost universal application. As we sow, so we reap; and if we suffer the proper sowing-time to pass by, can we expect other than a poor and unsatisfactory harvest, or indeed any harvest at all? These are truths which our moralists have thundered in the ears of successive generations of boys, too often without effect. If I repeat them now, it is, I hope, to an audience who will take them to heart and seek to put them in practice. Many boys seem to me to trust to their parents and teachers for their future in some mysterious way; their care is to supply every defect, remedy every negligence, even to compensate for idleness and ignorance; but the hope is vain. We make our own fate; we are what we choose to be; and all manhood must necessarily prove the reflex and sequel of our boyhood. Metastasio, the Italian poet, in his early years, sang extemporaneous verses about the streets. Opie, the painter, began to exercise his artistic tastes while still a lad. The story of Wolcot's discovery of this uneducated genius is well known, but will bear telling again :-

OPIE THE PAINTER.

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"Being on a visit to a relative in Cornwall, I saw either the drawing or print of a farmyard in the parlour, and, after looking at it slightly, remarked that it was a busy scene, but ill executed. This point was immediately contested by a she-cousin, who observed that it was greatly admired by many, and particularly by John Opie, a lad of great genius. Having learned the place of the artist's abode, I immediately sallied forth, and found him at the bottom of a saw-pit, cutting wood by moving the lower part of an instrument which was regulated above by another person. [In other words, he was sawing!] Having inquired, in the dialect of the country, if he could paint'Can you paient ?'-I was instantly answered from below in a similar accent and language that he could 'paient Queen Charlotte and Duke William [of Cumberland] and Mrs. Somebody's cat.' A specimen was immediately shown me, which was rude, incorrect, and incomplete. But when I learned that he was such an enthusiast in his art that he got up by three o'clock of a summer's morning to draw with chalk and charcoal, I instantly conceived that he must possess all the zeal necessary for obtaining eminence. A gleam of hope then darted through my bosom, and I felt it possible to raise the price of his labour from eightpence or a shilling to a guinea a day." For this purpose Dr. Wolcot provided him with pencils, colours, and canvas, and gave him some instruction. Opie persevered, acquired dexterity of manipulation and a knowledge of colouring, removed to London, rose into great repute as a portrait-painter, and eventually became Professor of Painting at the Royal Academy. A characteristic saying of his has been handed down to us. When asked by a young man of more presumption than perseverance with what he mixed his colours, he replied shortly, "With brains, sir!" And, no doubt, these two words embody the secret of all successful work. It must be done "with brains"-with all the energy, resolution, and courage that we can bring to bear upon it.

Napoleon, when a schoolboy at Brienne, throwing up fortifications of frozen snow, and marshalling his comrades into two armies of attack and defence, is, as everybody sees, the prototype (so to speak) of Napoleon the great conqueror, the hero of Austerlitz, Jena, and Freidland. So, too, we perceive in the boyhood of Linné, the great botanist, the appropriate introduction to his useful manhood. While at school he was