panionship, some beautiful examples; and among such, by the time that middle-age has scattered grey hairs in their locks, a few, there may be, who fill the world's ear, and are prominent in a nation's eyes: nor will the speculation to which these eminent and brilliant examples give rise, be the less curious and anxious that, perhaps, duller, and more unpromising characters did not exist than these were universally considered to be by tutors and fellow pupils, so long as they were subject to academical discipline and exertion. "Ah, such a one was a lucky fellow,-fortune smiled upon him, in spite of himself!" is a species of solution, however, that will never satisfy the inquiring or the reflecting mind. But I am not about to lay down rules "How to Observe;" my vocation at present is merely to note certain general facts, -facts which are the subject of trite remark.
It may not occur at first to every one, however, that it is in the very nature of first rate scholastic institutions of academies and of colleges, which are richly endowed both in regard to privileges and teachers, to beget all the wide distinctions in manhood as well as during boyhood and youth, that have been alluded to. Anxious and prolonged education of the better sort is essentially an artificial process, ―a controuler, perhaps often the master or tyrant over nature,--a perfect remodeller of many individuals. While it makes the student a new creature, so to speak, it opens up to him such undefined scope for future action, and plants him amid such a number of stimulating influences,-competing and emulating elements, that the wonder perhaps ought to be, so few sanguine, sensitive, and highly cultured beings are not sacrificed in the after tumult, and solicitudes, and temptations of life. The peasant, the mere tiller of 1 ground, and such like, who mechanically follow the footsteps of ancestors, may well preserve an undeviating path, if the ordinary comforts of animal existence be not denied them . They are comparatively in a state of nature. But the schooled and the scholar-like are far differently situated ; and the more contemplative and intellectual these are, the more critical it is to be feared is the adventure of life, the more mysterious its destinies.
In the retrospective and prospective classification of my numerous schoolmates, the distinctions between early talent or worth, and later fortune, have been broad. But there were among the number of my associates some whose character and promise demanded closer inspection,-their capacities and tastes were naturally and by training more subtle. This held true
