Plain Thoughts on the Art of Living; Designed for Young Men and Women (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1868 edition. Excerpt: ...of the bad trinity, before which all N the people bow down and worship. However sceptical some may be upon other subjects, there are few who do not pronounce this creed with a hearty sincerity. There is something appalling in the mad persistence with which men are rushing after these things. The great majority of people become infatuated with regard to them. All their views of life are distorted. There is no mental soundness in them. Their ruling passions so completely get the mastery of them, that they live as the fool liveth, --spending all their strength for naught, and gathering as the harvest of their lives nothing but things corruptible. You are about to enter the lists with these mad votaries of material and worldly good. You must follow their avocations, you must mingle in their society, and there is danger that you will come to adopt their views of life. And it seems to me that such a studious habit and purpose as I have suggested may help to keep your minds in a healthier condition. If you are wont to devote a portion of each day to the pursuit of useful knowledge, you will in that way secure for your minds rest and relaxation from the excitements and irritations of the worldly life. The tendency of material pursuits is to belittle the mind; the tendency of intellectual pursuits is to give it freedom and enlargement. The investigation of truth will lift you into a higher and purer atmosphere than that which you breathe in the marts and caucuses and saloons. Only the selfish propensities of your nature are cultivated in your worldly life, while the study of truth is wholly an unselfish pursuit, and in it the nobler parts of your nature will find discipline and culture. When you come back to your daily toil and companionship, after such..