Page:Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse.pdf/110

 employed, or the mind directed to the acquisition of knowledge, time passes pleasantly, and we enjoy the consciousness of not having lived in vain. Habitual, well-directed activity will shut out the intrusion of melancholy, and close many of the avenues by which vice in the hour of idleness may enter. Indolence enfeebles both the body and the mind; unfits them for exertion, and deprives us of many rational pleasures. We are not formed for it; and when we permit its influence, the whole animate and inanimate creation appears to address us with the voice of reproof. All nature is active around us. Day and night succeed each other; seasons change; the globe on which we exist continually revolves. One generation passes away, and on its ruins another arises; this also is swept away and forgotten "time waiteth for no man." In this world of changes, in this scene of activity, shall we be as idle spectators? Let us look within ourselves, and observe the powers of our own minds; active, intuitive, capable of progressive improvement. Were these powers entrusted to us for no valuable purpose; were these given to be buried in the earth? No! they are a part of the works of Him, who has made nothing in vain. To each of us a part is given to perform; and since we have now a season for improvement, let us, as an incitement to activity, remember that our life is short. "What thine