As our conduct and happiness in life depend materially upon the principles we imbibe and the habits we acquire in our youth; we should be careful while we are young and conscious of it, to confirm ourselves in those that are not meretricious, and such as will not forsake us when the decripitude and satiety of old age, shall have deprived us of the inclination or the power to enjoy with our early zest, the bustling scenes of the world and the morning pleasures of our existence.

There are principles which we imbibe and habits which we acquire, that although they may not appear to be absolutely, or essentially necessary to us in the decline of life, yet are so, when we reflect, that the peace of our latter days, is influenced much by the line of conduct which we have adopted; and that, in the evening, when the winds have subsided, and the heavens are serene, the safety of the vessel depends upon the manner in which she has weathered the storm.

There is one principle of quality of the mind, which in its various modifications is peculiarly necessary to a young man who is endeavouring to form or give a stability to his character; it is that which imparts to him, a proper reliance on himself, decision in judgment and firmness in action;—it is Courage.

When we recollect how great are the advantages gained by the possession of this quality; and how much we lose by the want of it; that without it we seldom venture to place ourselves in a situation in which we never were before, and that it is always the concomitant of great actions, but generally absent, in those that are mean; we shall acknowledge it is a subject which deserves our closest attention.—

Courage, or a proper Confidence, not only renders a man capable of placing himself in perilous situations, and conducting himself in them with propriety; but it enables a man to resist the fascinating temptations to indolence and vice, to repel the taunting shafts of ridicule, and to refuse to be a partner in those actions, which he feels are contrary to the dictates of his conscience, and which he would blush at in performing.