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I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness for some hints in this chapter to an interesting work on "Self-Culture," by James Freeman Clarke.

RECREATION.

Recreation is another name for amusement. Both words express the same idea. Recreation means to create over again, the building up of the system when it is exhausted. Amusement primarily is said to be derived from the halt which a dog makes in hunting, when he pauses to sniff the air in order to see in which way the scent lies. Having done this, he starts off again with redoubled speed. Both these words in themselves suggest the place that the things which they signify should occupy in life. They are for the refreshing of our strength, in order to renewed effort.

Recreation is a necessary part of life.--There are two great laws under which we live: the law of work and the law of recreation. Man has to work, and to work hard, in order to live. Work also is necessary to happiness. "He that labors," says the Italian proverb, "is tempted by one devil; he that is idle, by a thousand." The industrious life, it is perfectly plain , is that which we should all follow. But recreation is as needful in its place as work. This is the teaching of nature. God has made us capable of enjoying ourselves, just as He has made us able to think, or talk, or work with our hands. The first sign of intelligence in the infant is a smile. The child's nature unfolds itself in play, and as man grows up, it develops itself in many forms. The universe also is full of joy and gladness. The sky is blue, the sea glistens, the flowers are strewn over the earth. We speak of the waves playing on the shore, of the shadows playing on the mountain side. All this indicates that there is "a certain play element" that rejoices in the world around us. This is the teaching of experience. Unvaried and unbroken toil becomes a sore burden; it breaks the spirit, weakens energy, and saddens the heart. "All work and no play," according to the proverb, "makes Jack a dull boy." There are men around us working so hard that they have no family life, no social life, no time for thought or for culture. They are simply cogs in a great wheel that is ceaselessly turning round and round--wearing themselves out before their time by excess of labor. This cannot be right. There is an interesting tradition of St. John, the disciple of our Lord, that while amusing himself with a tame partridge he was asked by a huntsman how he could spend his time in so unprofitable a manner. St. John replied, "Why dost thou not carry thy bow always bent?" "Because," answered the huntsman, "if it were always bent, I fear it would lose its spring and become useless." "Be not surprised then," replied the apostle, "that I should sometimes remit a little of my close attention of spirit to enjoy a little recreation, that I may afterwards employ myself more fervently in divine contemplation." It is said also of a most saintly man, Carlo Borromeo, that while engaged with some friends in a game of chess, the question was started, what they would do if they knew they were to die within the hour. "I would," said Borromeo, "go on with my game." He had begun it for God's glory, and in order to fit himself for God's work, and he would finish it. These anecdotes illustrate the truth that recreation is a necessary part of life, and may be engaged in with the highest object.

Recreation, therefore, is not to be regarded as an evil in itself--Men at different times have so regarded it. Those who have been termed ascetics in the Church of Rome looked upon every form of amusement as sinful. Even to smile or laugh was a fault needing severe penance. They were "cruel to themselves," denied themselves all earthly joy, and placed vice and pleasure in the same category. The Puritans also, in the time of the Stuarts, set their faces strongly against games and recreation of every kind. They denounced all public amusements, as Macaulay tells us, "from masques, which were exhibited at the mansions of the great, down to the wrestling matches and quoiting matches on the village green." In all ages there have been good men animated by the same feeling. Life has seemed to them so serious as to have no place in it for mirth. Even one so saintly as Archbishop Leighton said that "pleasures are like mushrooms--it is so difficult to distinguish those that are wholesome from those that are poisonous, that it is better to abstain from them altogether." Those views have something noble in them. They spring from hatred of sin and from realizing intensely that

Recreation is liable to abuse.--It often leads to evil. It was the unbridled gaiety of the age, with its selfishness and sensuality, that made the Puritans denounce amusement, though the austerity they enforced led to dreadful consequences. Repression passed into excess. "It was as if the pent-up sewerage of a mud volcano had been suddenly let loose. The unclean spirit forcibly driven out by the Puritans returned with seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and the last state of Stuart England was worst than the first." The history of that period shows us the mistake religion makes by frowning down all amusements as sinful. But that some may be so is equally clear. They are so when they are contrary to the express commands of the Word of God. There are pleasures which are in themselves unlawful, and which are condemned by the divine law. These, God's children will shun. They are forms of wickedness which they will ever hold in abhorrence. "The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life," with all that the words mean, though the world may regard them as pleasures, and engage in them as amusements, are evil before God. But not to dwell on this, which is evident, amusements are evil when they unfit for work. "The end of labor," said the Greek philosopher Aristotle, "is to rest." It is equally true that "the end of rest is to labor." Pleasures that tempt us from daily duty, that leave us listless and weary, are pernicious. Outdoor games, for instance, ought to strengthen the physical frame, they ought to make us healthy and strong and ready for work. But when carried to excess they often produce the opposite result, and become positively hurtful. If the Saturday's play unfit for the worship and rest of the Lord's day; if an employer, as has been stated, has been obliged to dismiss his clerks more than once because of their incapacity for work owing to football matches, cricket matches, and sports generally, it is clear that these have not been for their good; and the same may be said of the effect of other forms of amusement, especially when carried to excess. The amusements that send us back to toil with a lightened heart and a vigorous mind are those only that we should engage in; all others are detrimental, and should be shunned. It is necessary to say also that amusement in any form followed as the end of life becomes specially sinful. Even the heathen moralist, Cicero, could say "that he is not worthy to be called a man who is willing to spend a single day wholly in pleasure." How much more truly may a Christian feel that he "who liveth in pleasure is dead while he liveth." A life that is simply play, that is simply amusement, is no life at all. It is only a contemptible form of existence. "A soul sodden with pleasure" is a lost soul. To be a mere pleasure-seeker is not the chief end of man. Nothing grows more wearying than continuous amusement, and no one needs amusement so much as he who is always at it. He loses the power of real enjoyment. He has, like Esau, bartered his birthright for a mess of pottage. He is useless to man and guilty before God.

It is not easy to lay down distinct and definite rules in regard to recreation--to set down and catalogue those amusements which it is safe for us to follow, and those from which we should refrain. This has been attempted, but not successfully! and the reason is evident. What may be safe for one person may not be safe for another. If we are told that an amusement has been held to be wrong, we are ready to reply that the mere opinion of others is not binding upon us; and perhaps in our contempt for views which appear to us bigoted and straitlaced, we rush into the opposite extreme. The true guide in recreation is a Christian spirit. He who possesses it will need no list of what are lawful and unlawful made out for him. He will be better guided than by any carefully compiled code of duty set before him. All, therefore, that shall be attempted in this direction is to give a few general counsels which may be serviceable.

Those are hints which may be found useful. "Religion never was designed," it is said, "to make our pleasures less." Religion also, if we know what it means, will ever lead us to what are true, innocent, and elevating pleasures, and keep us from those that are false, bad in their influence, and which "leave a sting behind them." "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment." Let those who practise the first part of that text not forget the second.

BOOKS.

Books have an influence on life and conduct the extent of which it is impossible to estimate. "The precepts they inculcate, the lessons they exhibit, the ideals of life and character which they portray, root themselves in the thoughts and imaginations of young men. They seize them with a force which, in after years, appears scarcely possible." These words of Principal Tulloch will not appear too strong to any one who can look back over a long period of life. Such must ever feel that books have had a powerful effect in making them all that they are. There are many considerations that go to show the importance of books.

Books are the accumulated treasures of generations.--They are to man what memory is to the individual. If all the libraries in the world were burned and all the books in the world destroyed, the past would be little more than a blank. It would be a calamity corresponding to that of a man losing by a stroke the memory of past years. The literature of the world is the world's memory, the world's experience, the world's failures. It teaches us where we came from. It tells us of the paths we have travelled. Almost all we know of the history of this world in which God has placed us we know from books. "In books," as Carlyle says, "lie the creative Phoenix ashes of the whole past--all that men have desired, discovered, done, felt, or imagined, lie recorded in books, wherein whoso has learned the mystery of spelling printed letters may find it and appropriate it."

Books open to us a society from which otherwise we would be excluded.--They introduce us into a great human company. They enable us, however humble we may be, to hold converse with the great and good of past ages and of the present time--the great philosophers, philanthropists, poets, divines, travellers. We know their thoughts, we hear their words, we clasp their hands. The chamber of the solitary student is peopled with immortal guests. He has friends who are always steadfast, who are never false, who are silent when he is weary, who go forth with him to his work, who await his return. In the literature of the world a grand society is open to all who choose to enter it.

Books are the chief food of our intellectual life.--There are men that have, indeed, done great things who have read but little. These have had their want of mental training compensated by their powers of observation and experience of life. But they have been for the most part exceptional men, and it is possible they might have done better if they had studied more. To the great majority of men books are the great teachers, the chief ministers to self-culture. Books in a special manner represent intellect to those who can appreciate them. We cannot estimate in this aspect their importance. They are in regard to self-culture what Montaigne calls "the best viaticum for the journey of life." When we think of what we owe to them, we may enter into the feelings of Charles Lamb, who "wished to ask a grace before reading more than a grace before meat."

In regard to books, the practical questions that present themselves are, what we should read, and how we should read. The first question cannot be answered in any definite manner. The enormous number of books in the world forbids this. Let any one enter a library of even moderate size, and he will feel how almost hopeless it would be, even if it were profitable, to draw out a practicable list of what may be advantageously chosen for reading and what may well be cast aside. Still more does the infinite variety of tastes, circumstances: and talents, forbid the laying down of definite rules. Reading that might be profitable for one might not be so for another. Reading that would be pleasant to one would be to another weariness. Every class of mind seeks naturally its own proper food, and the choice of books must ultimately depend upon a man's own bias--on his natural bent and the necessities of his life. There are, however, one or two directions that may be given, and which may be profitable to young men.

Read then the great books of the world, and this book, the greatest of all.

See Appendix.

FAMILY LIFE.

The words Family--Home--Household--all express one idea. They imply a relationship existing between certain individuals, a circle or sphere separate from the mass of human beings, within which there are special duties to be performed and a special life has to be lived. It is not necessary to define particularly what is meant by the word Family, for it is well understood by all of us.

Family life is peculiar to man.--The lower animals have nothing in all respects resembling it. In some particulars their mode of life occasionally approaches it, but not in all. The birds of the air, for instance, care tenderly for their offspring, but when these come to maturity the relation between them and their parents comes to an end. The family relation on the other hand lasts through life, and is only broken by the hand of death, if even then. The family has been instituted by God for the welfare of man. The condition in which we come into the world requires it--our training for the work of life demands it--it is specially adapted to promote the great ends of human existence.

Family life is that which most truly leaves its mark upon us.--In the family habits are formed which make us what we are for the rest of our life. Home influences accompany us to the very end of our journey. Let any one ask himself what are the chief sources of his virtues, and he will feel that a large proportion of them are derived directly or indirectly from association with his fellow-creatures in the family. The training of parents, the affection and influence of mothers and sisters, powerfully and lastingly affect our intellectual and moral nature. From a wise father we learn more than from all our teachers. When a celebrated artist, Benjamin West, was asked "What made him a painter?" his reply was, "It was my mother's kiss." "I should have been an atheist," said a great American statesman, "if it had not been for one recollection, and that was the memory of the time when my departed mother used to take my little hand in hers, and caused me on my knees to say, 'Our Father, who art in heaven.'" On the other hand, those who have been so unfortunate as to have had an unhappy home rarely emancipate themselves from the evil effects of their upbringing. If they do, it is after the severest struggle. "The child," it has been said, "is the father of the man," and it is in the family the child receives his first impressions for good or for evil. The world he first lives in is his home.

Family life supplies a great test of character.--When Whitefield was asked whether a certain person was a Christian, he replied, "I do not know. I have never seen him at home." People are often one thing in the world and another in their own family. In the close intercourse of the home circle they exhibit themselves in their true colors. A man who is a good son or a good brother is generally found to be a good man. If he is a source of evil in his own home, in his intercourse with the world he will, sooner or later, be found wanting.

It is beyond the scope of this book to dwell at length upon the duties incumbent on the various members of a family. It may be sufficient to indicate generally the feelings which should animate the young persons who belong to it. Probably most of those into whose hands this manual will come are members of a family. What should therefore be their conduct at home is a question that well deserves their consideration.

From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs, That makes her lov'd abroad, rever'd at home.

Dr. James Martineau.

CHURCH.

In this chapter we use the word church in the fourth sense, as representing a particular congregation of Christians. To such a community every young man should belong, and in connection with it he is called to discharge certain special duties. There are four aspects in which the life of the Church, in this sense, may be regarded.

We may now glance at some of the special duties incumbent upon those who are connected with the Church, and particularly upon young men.

The subject of "The Church, Ministry and Sacraments" is to be fully dealt with in a Guild text-book by the Rev. Norman Macleod, D. D. We only refer in this chapter to those phases of Church life that are more immediately connected with Life and Conduct.

CITIZENSHIP.

As the state is the larger family, the duties of those who compose it correspond with those belonging to the members of a household.

Breathes there the man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land, Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned, As home his footsteps he hath turned, From wandering on a foreign strand.

It only remains to say in a word that our citizenship should be the outcome of our religion. Without that, citizenship loses its high position. He who fears God will honor the king, and he who "renders to God the things that are God's" will "render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's." He will give "to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor." Religion thus becomes the strength of the state, and "righteousness exalteth a nation."

HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

RELIGION AND MORALS.

The Bible. Socrates or Plato and Xenophon. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus' Meditations. Epictetus Seneca. The Hitopadion and Dialogues of Krishna. St. Augustine's Confessions. Jeremy Taylor. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Martineau. Aesop's Fables.

POETRY AND FICTION.

Homer. Virgil. Dante. The Niebelungen Lay. The Morte D'Arthur. Chaucer. Shakespeare. Spenser. Goethe--Faust, Meister, and Eckermann's Conversations. Milton. Pope. Cowper. Campbell. Wordsworth. Walter Scott. Burns. Charles Lamb. Dean Swift, "Tale of a Tub" and "Gulliver's Travels." Tennyson. Browning. Don Quixote. Goldsmith, "Vicar of Wakefield." George Eliot. Dickens. Robinson Crusoe. Andersen's Fairy Tales, "Mother Bunch." Grimm's Popular Songs and Ballads, especially Scotch, English, Irish and German.

FINE ARTS.

Ferguson's History of Architecture. Ruskin. Tyrwhitt.

POLITICS AND POLITICAL ECONOMY.

De Tocqueville. John Stuart Mill. Fawcett. Laveleye. Adam Smith. Cornewall Lewis. Lord Brougham. Sir J. Lubbock.

SCIENCE AND PHILOLOGY.

VOYAGES AND TRAVEL.

In every variety; especially the old collections.

LIST OF WORKS.

The following is a list of works upon topics treated in this text-book, which have been consulted in its preparation, and which may be useful to students:

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