The habits of study and of intellectual improvement, which you acquire at Oxford, you should carry with you into the vacation. During the vacation, you may, perhaps, take more time for society--the society especially of your own immediate family--and more for relaxation; but still do not _waste_ your time; still consider yourself as responsible for the right employment of it. Make sure of the ground which you gained during the term, by going over by yourself, what you then read with your tutor. Improve your acquaintance with the standard writers of our own country, and acquire some knowledge of modern history. In short, make the most of your leisure. Read Bishop Home's sermon on redeeming the time, and the papers in the Spectator and the Rambler to which he refers. Read, _and learn by heart_, what is said on the loss of time in the second of Young's Night Thoughts: "Part with it as with money, sparing; pay No moment but in purchase of its worth." But my letter grows long, and (you will say) tedious. I remain, My dear Nephew, Your affectionate Uncle. FOOTNOTES: [62:1] Vol. I. No. 14. [66:1] John Duncan, Esq. and Philip Duncan, Esq. of New College. LETTER VI. PUNCTUALITY. MY DEAR NEPHEW, I ventured to give you some advice respecting the employment of your time; perhaps I ought to follow up that letter with a few remarks upon PUNCTUALITY. Unless you acquire the habit of punctuality, you will be apt, not only to lose your own time, but to make unjustifiable inroads upon the time of other persons. Endeavour, therefore, to _keep to your time_ in every appointment, whether the appointment be made by yourself or by others, (the college authorities for instance,) whether it be with a superior, an equal, or an inferior. Whether it be in a matter of business or in a matter of pleasure, try always to be true to it. Let this be your system and your habit. Some deviations from punctuality may now and then be unavoidable; but do not let them occur unless they _really are_ unavoidable in fairness and reason. If you have yourself made an appointment, your word is, to a certain degree, pledged to your keeping to it. The case is in some measure the same, when, though the appointment is actually made by others, you have acceded to it.