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Many men, many minds though a common saying, is yet a striking truth, and its correctness can be easily tested by a superficial glance of the imagination over the diversified course of the human race. Should we do this, how various would we find, their employments? – How pleasant in the eye of ever one, is his own calling, and how unengaging is that of another? – We should find, that every one adheres to his vocation, with and anxious solicitude, that he surmounts encounters dangers, and surmounts difficulties, that he may persue the favourite direction of his own mind. And however flattering prospects may appear in other occupations, yet they are not sufficiently strong to entice him from his fixed employment. To verify this subject, let us glance over a few instances. – View the weather beaten sailor, to him, nothing is so pleasant as the wellriged and swift sailing ship, with expanded sails. – The height, to which his ambition aspires, is the name of the able mariner. – In the persuit of this, he encounters waves rolling high as mountains; he exposes himself to danger and hardhip; yet he moves to differant parts of his ship, with as much composure, as the farmer would on his farm. So united is he to his labour, that neither the independent persuit of husbandry, nor the enriching revenue of a profession, can induce him to forsake the boisterous ocean.

The husbandman persues the desire of his mind, with equal constancy. To him independance lies in a productive farm. He fells trees, and follows the plough with delight. The quality of land, and it different uses, the time of ploughing and planting, the indication of the seasons in regard to crops, and the manner of harvesting are the favourite topicks of his conversation. The powers of his mind, are

deligently engaged in planing means, for obtaining his desired object ------

The ruling passion of another, lies in mental culture, and professional practice. – To the student the cultivation of the mind is super rior to all others. To become acquanted with the literature of the ancients, and the scienses of the mord moderns are objects of this high ambition. To obtain these, he makes [ardous] mental efforts. He serches the ancient classics with increasing perseverance, and reads the works of the moderns assiduity, that hereafter he fill a place in the senate, the bar or the pulpit.

E. Mitchell

“quot capitum vivunt, to tidem studiorum Millia.”

Dartmouth Coll. Composition No. 1^th

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