A TEXT BOOK FOR SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES. BY LAFAYETTE C. LOOMIS, A. M., M. D., PRESIDENT OF WHEELING FEMALE COLLEGE. NEW YORK: J. W. SCHERMERHORN & CO., HARVARD COLLEG LIBRARY By exchange Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1887, BY J. W. SCHERMERHORN & CO., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. New York: J. J. Little & Co., Printers, 10 to 20 Astor Place, PREFACE. WHAT are the means by which my mental faculties may be best developed and strengthened? What is the most successful mode of study? How much, and when, and how? How shall I learn the principles of politeness, of personal accomplishment of rendering myself agreeable ? What are the errors into which I am most liable to fall? what the habits I should seek to avoid? These are questions that come home to every youth, but on which instruction has been greatly neglected. With no word of counsel in his whole course of instruction, the youth is expected to develop for himself mental success and social excellence. To present the leading principles of mental and social culture, is the object of this work. The first thirteen chapters, excepting the eighth, are abridged from Dr. Watts' inestimable Improvement of the Mind. Many of the maxims and rules of conversation and politeness are from Chesterfield's Letters to his Son. A few paragraphs have been taken from other standard authors. For the remainder of the work, as well as for its general arrangement, the author alone must be responsible. INTRODUCTION. WHEN we are asked any simple question, as, “What will the weather be to-morrow?" or, "How much is four times thirteen ?" that which does the work of finding or preparing an answer is called The Mind; it is that part of our being which does our thinking. Of its substance we know nothing; we call it Spirit. We have, however, some knowledge of the principles upon which it acts. Like the body, it is under the control of fixed and definite laws, which govern its growth and activity. We well know that if we would attain to proficiency in any manual art, the hand must be trained. If we would become expert upon any musical instrument, not only must the hands be made to run over the keys hour after hour, and day by day, but this must be done in accordance with the laws of muscular growth and discipline. In like manner, if we would attain to mental excellence, it must be by an observance of the laws of the mind. We are constituted in our natures social beings: much of our lives is spent in the companionship of others, and much of our happiness is derived from them. Hence our mental improvement must be considered in this twofold aspect,-first, the action of the mind by itself; second, its action in connection with others. |