of the gospel, there is
little need, I am confident, to advise you; one thing, however, I
would say, that it is not difficult, and it is most beneficial, to
cultivate the habit of inwardly turning the thoughts to God, though
but for a moment in the course or during the intervals of our
business; which continually presents occasions requiring His aid
and guidance.

7. Turning again to ordinary duty, I know no precept more wide or
more valuable than this: cultivate self-help; do not seek nor like
to be dependent upon others for what you can yourself supply; and
keep down as much as you can the standard of your wants, for in
this lies a great secret of manliness, _true_ wealth, and
happiness; as, on the other hand, the multiplication of our wants
makes us effeminate and slavish, as well as selfish.

8. In regard to money as well as to time, there is a great
advantage in its methodical use. Especially is it wise to dedicate
a certain portion of our means to purposes of charity and religion,
and this is more easily begun in youth than in after life. The
greatest advantage of making a little fund of this kind is that
when we are asked to give, the competition is not between _self_ on
the one hand and charity on the other, but between the different
purposes of religion and charity with one another, among which we
ought to make the most careful choice. It is desirable that the
fund thus devoted should not be less than one-tenth of our means;
and it tends to bring a blessing on the rest.

9. Besides giving this, we should save something, so as to be
before the world, _i.e._ to have some preparation to meet the
accidents and unforeseen calls of life as well as its general
future.

Fathers are generally wont to put their better mind into counsels to
their sons. In this instance the counsellor was the living pattern of
his own maxims. His account-books show in full detail that he never at
any time in his life devoted less than a tenth of his annual incomings
to charitable and religious objects. The peculiarity of all this
half-mechanic ordering of a wise and virtuous individual life, was that
it went with a genius and power that 'moulded a mighty State's decrees,'
and sought the widest 'process of the suns.'

VI

MENTAL