s which can occur
but seldom in the course of a life. And even then the attention will
from time to time relax, and the freshness of mental zeal and activity
give way, though perhaps, after the lapse of a few minutes they may be
revived and brought into action again.

In the ordinary series of human existence it is desirable that, in
the course of the same day, a man should have various successive
occupations. I myself for the most part read in one language at one part
of the day, and in another at another. I am then in the best health and
tone of spirits, when I employ two or three hours, and no more, in the
act of writing and composition. There must also in the sixteen hours
be a time for meals. There should be a time for fresh air and bodily
exercise. It is in the nature of man, that we should spend a part of
every day in the society of our fellows, either at public spectacles and
places of concourse, or in the familiar interchange of conversation
with one, two, or more persons with whom we can give ourselves up to
unrestrained communication. All human life, as I have said, every day
of our existence, consists of term and vacation; and the perfection
of practical wisdom is to interpose these one with another, so as to
produce a perpetual change, a well-chosen relief, and a freshness and
elastic tone which may bid defiance to weariness.

Taken then in this point of view, what an empire does the man of leisure
possess in each single day of his life! He disposes of his hours much
in the same manner, as the commander of a company of men whom it is his
business to train in the discipline of war.

This officer directs one party of his men to climb a mountain, and
another to ford or swim a stream which rushes along the valley. He
orders this set to rush forward with headlong course, and the other
to wheel, and approach by circuitous progress perhaps to the very same
point. He marches them to the right and the left. He then dismisses them
from the scene of exercise, to furbish their arms, to attend to their
accoutrements, or to partake of necessary refection. Not inferior to
this is the authority of the man of leisure in disposing of the hours
of one single day of his existence. And human life consists of many
such days, there being three hundred and sixty-five in each year that we
live.

How infinitely various may be the occupations of the life of man from
puberty to old age! We may acquire languages; we may devote ours