FESTINA LENTE.

PERHAPS there is no saying more fitted for Americans than this. We are likely to mistake bustle for business, precipitation for progress. In her struggle for equality with nations that have had the maturity of centuries, America has partially lost sight of the dignity which is one of their leading characteristics. Not that we accomplish nothing by the spirit of progress, which is proverbial in us, and which has so often astonished even ourselves; but what we gain, we get frequently at a disadvantage. There is much to praise, but also something to condemn in despatch. It is liable to deteriorate, and result in hurry and confusion, which seldom succeed, even under favorable circumstances. Foreigners notice especially the fast way in which our business men get through life. As though the fund of energy from which they draw were inexhaustible, they overwork the mind by continuous and intense toil; driving through life with an anxious, careworn look, and without consideration, giving themselves up to labor, so that middle age finds them with the work of life accomplished; worn out, and unable to obtain enjoyment from the pleasures which might be theirs. Among one class of students an idea prevails which is productive of no good. Without doubt, honestly feeling that they should improve their time while in college, they conscientiously study when it would be far better to take recreation. If they sit down to spend a quiet hour in reading, they endeavor to get over as much ground as possible, and an evening walk is the cause of pangs of conscience. A feeling seems continually to possess them, that they must do something, lest some opportunity should pass unheeded. Unsatisfied while a moment is left unoccupied by study, they too often lose the good they strive to win.

We would not decry the attempts of those who wish to make the most of college life, - such an object is most praiseworthy, - but, if we mistake not, they are defeating their own purposes, detracting from their own happiness, by such a course. They forget that not college life, but real life, is before them.

Every mind and every body has its maximum of energy; up to this point one can go with impunity, but to attempt further advance is to fail. As the machine lasts in proportion to the use or abuse of it, and as its power depends partly upon the care taken of it, so the mind and body, if subjected to continual strain, so much the sooner break down.

Every one begins life with a certain capital, to last through life; some have more, some less, but all have their individual stock in trade; the quicker it is disposed of, the sooner one finds himself bankrupt in mind and body, and, what is of more importance, without the means of recovery.

How much better to be moderate in business and study, as in other things! We might well copy, in this respect, the more staid and phlegmatic English and Germans; to be sure, these have their faults, but the most certain way to gain any end is by a safe and thoughtful process, rather than by a violent, hasty action; and the straightest path to success in study is not by excessive application, but by a judicious and reasonable division of one's time between diligence and diversion.

W.