Diligence, and proper improvement of time, are material duties of the
young. To no purpose are they endued with the best abilities, if they
want activity for exerting them. In youth the habits of industry are
most easily acquired.--In youth the incentives to it are the strongest;
from ambition and from duty, from emulation and hope, all the prospects
which the beginning of life affords.
Industry is not only the instrument of improvement, but the foundation
of pleasure. He who is a stranger to it may possess, but cannot enjoy;
for it is labour only which gives relish to pleasure.--It is the
indispensible condition of our possessing a sound mind in a sound body.
We should seek to fill our time with employments which may be reviewed
with satisfaction. The acquisition of knowledge is one of the most
honourable occupations of youth. The desire of it discovers a liberal
mind, and is connected with many accomplishments, and many virtues. But
though our train of life should not lead us to study, the course of
education always furnishes proper employments to a well-disposed mind.
Whatever we pursue, we should be emulous to excel.
Generous ambition and sensibility to praise, are, especially at the
youthful period, among the marks of virtue. We never ought to think that
any affluence of fortune, or any elevation of rank, exempts us from the
duties of application and industry: industry is the law of our being; it
is the demand of nature, of reason, and of God.
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