Now, my young friends, though you have had a treatise on many pleasing and important subjects, yet there is one remains, and that one should not be forgot. Therefore I shall introduce a descant on Time; and this I hope will meet with your approbation; for the sole intent of this little book is to furnish you with such lessons as may improve your understanding, and ripen your judgment.
You have just been informed by the poet, that Time is a wonder-worker, and truly it may well be called so. It is an awful revolutionist, for it brings strange things to pass, and occasions innumerable vicissitudes in the world. Though it is continually moving on, yet its advancements are so slow and progressive, that we frequently disregard its course. But, that time is uncertain, and Death may cut you off, even in your youth. Therefore improve the present hour, for you know not what the next day may bring forth. Slow as it seems to be, it steals upon us, and gently leads us from childhood to old age. When we arrive at our three-score years, then we begin to think that time runs on apace, and wish we had employed the fleeting hours to more advantage. Here, my young friends, is the fatal error which thousands experience to their cost; for they pursue their foolish vanities, and never consider that time is given us for the express purpose of preparing for eternity. Let me admonish you to think better, and always bear this truth in your minds.
On Learning.
It is impossible to enumerate all the advantages which are derived from education, or learning. It qualifies us for every station, and never fails to prove an invaluable ornament to its possessor. But the Dunce appears in a very different light; for he is the scoff of society, and must of necessity drudge through a life of ignorance and slavery.
On Business.
It is of little consequence what your calling is, provided you fulfil your station with honesty and integrity, for that is the true source of contentment: and if you are satisfied with that state in which God hath placed you, not even kings can desire, or be possessed of more, perhaps not so much; because the higher the station, the greater the cares.