Early Rising.
The habit of early rising is recommended by many considerations. In the first place, it contributes to health and long life—it invigorates the body and the mind, and it gives cheerfulness to the spirits. The fresh morning air is the best of medicines.
Early rising also contributes to pleasure. There is no part of the whole twenty-four hours so pleasing, so striking, so wonderful, as that in which the whole world wakes up from sleep, in which night gives place to day, in which the glorious fountain of life rises up as from a sea of darkness, and fulfils the bidding of the Almighty. God says, “Let there be light!” and there is light.
The habit of early rising contributes to thrift and success in the pursuits of life. The mechanic, the farmer, the merchant, or the manufacturer, who rises early in the morning, is almost certain to be successful in his business. This habit is also of the utmost importance to the student, as we shall readily see by glancing at the lives of certain great men.
John Quincy Adams has been for many years in the habit of rising at four o’clock in the morning; and it is doubtless owing to this practice, in a considerable degree, that he has attained his present eminence. He has been president of the United States; he has been the diplomatic representative of our government at various foreign courts; he has been for many years a member of congress; and all these stations he has filled with distinguished ability.
He is a profound statesman, a fine writer, an eloquent speaker. He is one of the most learned men that lives; and now, at the age of almost fourscore, he is the admiration of his countrymen, and the wonder of the age. Wherever he goes, the people crowd in flocks to see him; whenever he addresses the multitude, there is a deep and reverend silence, broken only by acclamations of applause. What a wonderful reputation has this man acquired, and in a great degree through that simple habit of early rising which is within the reach of all!
Let us look to other cases, and see what great things have been accomplished by early rising. Paley, who, in the early part of his college career, led an indolent life, was awakened one morning at five o’clock by one of his companions, who reproached him with the waste of his time and of his strong faculties of mind. Struck with the justice of the reproach, Paley, from that time forward, rose at five every morning. It is easy to see how such a course contributed to the celebrity of this great author of the Moral Philosophy and the Evidences of Christianity.
The celebrated Dr. Doddridge says, that it is to his habit of early rising, that the world is indebted for nearly all of his works. Sir Thomas More always rose at four o’clock, and wrote one of his most famous works by thus stealing time from his sleep.
The celebrated naturalist, Linnæus, rose generally at four o’clock, and at six he gave lectures to his scholars, which lasted till ten. Dr. Franklin was an early riser. Dr. Bowditch, the distinguished mathematician, of whom every American youth should know something, rose with the sun in summer, and at four o’clock in winter; and he used to remark, that to these morning hours he was indebted for all his mathematics. Zimmerman always wrote several hours in the early morning. Priestly was an early riser; and it is to hours gained in this way that we are indebted for many of the volumes of Sir Walter Scott.
Buffon, the celebrated writer on natural history, used to bribe his servant to wake him every morning at a certain hour, and he says, that to the perseverance of this man, the world is indebted for his well-known work on natural history. We may add to this list of great men, who have recommended early rising by their examples, the names of Sir Matthew Hale, Dr. Parkhurst, Bishop Burnet, Bishop Horne, Bishop Jewell, and many others.
Pope Julius II.
This extraordinary man was originally a fisherman, but his uncle, Sextus IV., being pope, and seeing that he possessed great talents, caused him to enter the church, where he soon obtained distinction. His ambition was vast, and reaching from point to point, he at last became pope, in 1503.
Although he professed to be the successor of St. Peter, who preached the gospel of peace, Julius did not hesitate to raise armies and make war; and, what is remarkable, he led his armies in person, and in battle displayed all the fierce courage and bold daring of the soldier. At the siege of Mirandola, in 1511, he exposed himself, at the head of his men, at any point of danger: when a breach in the walls was effected, he entered by a scaling ladder, sword in hand, being among the very foremost of the headlong assailants!
The great mind of Julius was occupied with many vast projects. In the first place, he desired to restore the see of Rome to its former power, and he made wars, fought battles, and intrigued with kings and princes, to effect this object. He did a good deal, as he thought, to strengthen the power of the popes, and establish, not only the spiritual, but temporal dominion of the church; but while he was pleasing himself with the idea of success in one direction, we shall see that he was laying the train, in another, by which his schemes were to be finally exploded, and the church itself shaken to its foundations.
Pope Julius II.
Julius was a lover of pleasure, and many tales are told of his vices and immoralities. He was also a lover of the fine arts—painting, sculpture, and architecture. Of these he became a patron, and many great artists, particularly Raphael and Michael Angelo, flourished in his time and under his auspices.
Julius did a great deal to improve and embellish the Vatican, which is the Pope’s palace, at Rome. This building is still one of the wonders of the world, and it would require a large book to describe its hundreds of rooms, and its treasures of art, in painting and sculpture.
Among other great projects, Julius determined to build a cathedral church, one of such majesty and splendor as was suitable to the city of Rome, the seat of the popes, the centre and head of that religion which had not only pervaded the civilized world, but claimed to be the perpetuation and completion of God’s dealings with man on earth. The stupendous and admirable church of St. Peter, still standing at Rome,—the wonder of the world and the triumph of art,—was the result of this grand conception.
Julius was a man of great energy—and he set immediately about his darling project. The greatest artists were employed, and the edifice was begun on the 18th April, 1506. It was hurried forward with such expedition, that the walls, after they were carried to a great elevation, cracked, and it required the wonderful genius of Michael Angelo to devise the means of remedying the difficulty, and of furnishing the stupendous plans for the final completion of the building.
St. Peter’s was not finished till more than a century after both Julius and Michael Angelo had gone down to their graves—so vain are both ambition and genius, in satisfying their own desires. And as to Julius, this very work, designed, no doubt, to hand down his name with glory to after times, resulted in a very different manner. His various schemes led him into many expenses, and in his need for money he granted the sale of indulgences for sins—causing it to be set forth that the money thus obtained, was to build the church of St. Peter. Julius seems to have thought it very desirable to erect this noble church; he, perhaps, regarded it as a very laudable and holy enterprise, though doubtless, some share of selfish ambition was mingled with other feelings. And, further, Julius seems to have thought, for such a great and good object, that he might deal in indulgences,—which were pieces of paper, sold for large sums of money, in which the pope declared that the sins committed by persons buying them, were remitted and forgiven of God!
This traffic being carried on to a great extent, roused the famous Martin Luther in opposition to the church of Rome, and the result was the Reformation, by which the power of the church of Rome was greatly abridged, and the popes themselves humbled. Thus the ambition of Julius resulted in disgrace to himself, and humiliation to the institution which he so eagerly sought to glorify.
A gentleman, one dark night, riding home through a wood, had the misfortune to strike his head against the branch of a tree, and fell from his horse, stunned by the blow. The animal immediately returning to the house which they had left, about a mile distant, found the door closed and the family retired to bed.
He then pawed at the door, till one of them, hearing the noise, arose and opened it, and to his surprise found the horse of his friend. No sooner was the door opened than the horse turned round, and the man, suspecting there was something wrong, followed the animal, who led him directly to the spot where his master lay on the ground in a state of insensibility.