study would be equally proper for all minds,) to close this letter with a few general remarks. If your _spirit_ be as stout and pure as your letter indicates, you require little advice beyond that which you will find within the walls of your University. A brave and pure spirit is more than "_half the battle,_" not only in preparing for life, but in all its conflicts. _Take {35} it for granted, that there is no excellence without great labor._ No mere aspirations for eminence, however ardent, will do the business. Wishing, and sighing, and imagining, and dreaming of greatness, will never make you great. If you would get to the mountain's top on which the temple of fame stands, it will not do _to stand still_, looking, admiring, and wishing you were there. You must gird up your loins, and go to work with all the indomitable energy of Hannibal scaling the Alps. Laborious study, and diligent observation of the world, are both indispensable to the attainment of eminence. By the former, you must make yourself master of all that is known of science and letters; by the latter, you must know _man_, at large, and particularly the character and genius of your own countrymen. You must cultivate assiduously the habits of _reading_, _thinking_, and _observing_. Understand your own language grammatically, critically, thoroughly: learn its origin, or rather its various origins, which you may learn from Johnson's and Webster's prefaces to their large dictionaries. Learn all that is delicate and beautiful, as well as strong, in the language, and master all its stores of opulence. You will find a rich mine of instruction in the splendid language of Burke. His diction is frequently magnificent; sometimes too gorgeous, I think, for a chaste and correct taste; but he will show you all the wealth of your language. You must, by ardent study and practice, acquire for yourself a _mastery_ of the language, and be able both to speak and to write it, promptly, easily, elegantly, and with that variety of style which different subjects, different hearers, and different readers are continually requiring. You must have such a command of it as to be able to adapt yourself, with intuitive quickness and ease, to every situation in which you may chance to be placed--and you will find no great difficulty in this, if you have the _copia verborum_ and a correct taste. With this study of the language you must take care to unite the habits already mentioned--the diligent observation of all that is passing around you; and _active_, _close_ and _useful thinking_. If you have access to Franklin's works, read them carefully, particularly his third volume, and you will know what I mean by _the habits of observing and thinking_. We cannot all be _Franklins_, it is true; but, by imitating his mental habits and unwearied industry, we may reach an eminence we should never otherwise attain. Nor would he have been _the Franklin_ he was, if he had