the whole of Goldsmith's "Deserted Village." He also became a local or lay preacher. When he was married, he felt the greater necessity to devote unremitting attention to his business; but while he was at work he noted any passing thought, a pen being by his side for the purpose. When the shop was shut in the evening, he endeavoured, in the midst of his family, to analyze the thoughts of the day. He had no study, no place to which to retire; he usually sat on a low nursingchair by the fire, with the bellows on his knees for a desk! His first literary venture was a reply to Paine's "Age of Reason," then newly published. He wrote several small pieces before he commenced his great work-"An Essay on the Immortality and Immateriality of the Human Soul." Subsequently he wrote his largest work-"An Essay on the Identity and Resurrection of the Human Body." After the publication of this work Drew retired from shoemaking, with the intention of entirely devoting himself to literature. His first work was in connection with Dr. Clarke, whom he assisted in completing his "Commentary on the Bible," and his "History of the West Indians." He also became a contributor to the Eclectic Review, and in 1812 competed for the Burnett prize on the “Being and Attributes of the Deity." He was not successful in wresting the first prize from Dr. Brown, Principal of Marischal College, or the second prize from Dr. Sumner, afterwards Bishop of Chester. Drew's essay, however, was published in two octavo volumes, and an edition of a thousand copies sold.

Drew's next labours were a "History of Cornwall," and a "Life of Dr. Clarke." He then became the editor of the Imperial Magazine. In 1821 the degree of A.M. was conferred upon him by Marischal College, Aberdeen. In 1831 the Council of the London University solicited him to allow himself to be nominated as Professor of Moral Philosophy in that institution; which honour he declined. His many close and thoughtful labours weakened his constitution and hastened his death, which occurred on March 29, 1833.

Drew, by his literary achievements, earned a distinguished place among England's greatest worthies. He left an example to the most desponding, surrounded by untoward circumstances; conclusively showing that if there is the will there is always the way to mental improvement and self-culture. What is wanted is the disposition and determination to labour; that attained, and there is no limit to achievement.

"Labour is life!-'tis the still water faileth;
Idleness ever despaireth, bewaileth;

Keep the watch wound, for the dark night assaileth;
Flowers droop and die in the stillness of noon.

Labour is glory!-the flying cloud lightens;

Only the waving wing changes and brightens ;

Idle hearts only the dark future frightens;

Play the sweet keys, wouldst thou keep them in tune."

IV.

Ways and Means of Self-Emprovement.

"By diligence I mean among other things—and very chiefly-honesty in all your inquiries into what you are about. Pursue your studies in the way your conscience calls honest. More and more endeavour to do that. Keep, I mean to say, an accurate separation of what you have really come to know in your own minds and what is still unknown. Leave all that on the hypothetical side of the barrier, as things afterwards to be acquired, if acquired at all; and be careful not to stamp a thing as known when you do not yet know it. Count a thing known only when it is stamped on your mind, so that you may survey it on all sides with intelligence."-CARLYLE.

AWA

answers.

HEN self-culture is resolved upon, the questions will arise, “What am I to learn? and how am I to learn?" Circumstances will be important factors in determining the It is evident that a mechanic will not be helped in his business by the study of the Greek and Latin languages. An architect would waste his time, so far as his profession is concerned, by devoting his attention to the laws of navigation. A sea captain, intelligently to understand his profession, must study the laws which regulate and control the wind, the tides, and the temperature of various parts of the globe; it is quite certain he would not be a more efficient sailing-master because he could plan a house and

calculate the cost of the materials used in its construction. It is evident, then, that that which we have need to use we have need to learn. All knowledge is needful and useful at some time and to some persons; but it does not follow that every description of knowledge should be pursued and sought. Such a course can only end in disappointment. In seeking to obtain that knowledge which will be useful in the position in which we have been placed by Providence, we act according to the dictates of wisdom; and there is no business or profession which does not present opportunities for the employment of all the faculties and mental powers, demanding unlimited and absorbing attention if success is to be attained.

Thinkers have always been masters. They learn what to do, and then they teach how to do it. The world is indebted to thinkers for railways taking the place of stage waggons and coaches; for steam-ships superseding the slow trader that started at certain times, "wind and weather permitting;" for the electric telegraph displacing signal-posts; and for the wonderful printing-machine which casts into the shade the first invented hand-press. The progress of the world is the result of thought. He who thinks the most, and uses his thought in the development of his business or profession, will find that he is the recipient of substantial rewards.

The wise employment and direction of thought is the surest method to secure the exercise and development of all the faculties. It will be admitted that the man

with his senses uncontaminated has greater enjoyment than he who, by accident or some course of folly, has dimmed or deadened them. The sensations of an habitual snuff-taker, when surrounded by a throng of perfume-exhaling flowers, cannot be compared to the exquisite enjoyment of the man who has not destroyed his organs of smell, when inhaling the odour of the rose. In a similar sense, the man who has cultivated his faculties has enjoyments of which the man with uncultivated faculties has no conception. It is the difference between power that is dormant and power that is in action, or, existing and living. The more the faculties are cultivated, the higher is the ascent; the less they are cultivated, the nearer is the approach to the animals, which are controlled and directed by instinct and not by reason. To the man whose understanding has been cultivated, and whose God-given faculties have been developed, every object of nature ministers to his enjoyment. For him trees have tongues, stones preach eloquent sermons, and the running brooks furnish books full of wise thoughts. Nature in her thousand moods teems with lessons: joyous if the spirit is cheerful and elastic; sad if the heart is heavy and desponding.

It is not true, therefore, that books are the only medium for the attainment of knowledge. They are a medium, and a most important medium, through which knowledge may be obtained; but they are not knowledge. They may and ought to teach the reader how to think; but thinking, to be of any value, must be