state of things, it can hardly be called a danger at all. But the increase of other sorts of excitement has more than kept up with the decrease of this. The whole state of society is more exciting;-the great inventions which have been made in various ways enable men to do more than they could formerly, and in a much less time; that is, they enable them to live at a quicker rate; they also multiply pleasures, and put them more within our reach, thus accustoming us the more to crave for them. And in books this is exceedingly striking. We have heard of the story of that Grecian king who ordered a magnificent Persian feast to be served up side by side with the simple meal of his own countrymen, to contrast the luxury of the one with the plain and frugal habits of the other. So if we could place side by side the books which formed a boy's entertaining reading thirty or forty years ago, with those which are within his reach now, the difference would not be less extraordinary. Those whose experience does not reach so far back would hardly believe how simple was the feast, so to speak, which was set before their fathers, when compared with the variety and the richness of that which they now enjoy.

All this is not without its effect, nor can it be. The mind early begins to lose the keenness of its wonder, because it is so early made acquainted with such a variety of objects. Forty years ago,

the probability would have been, that out of a number of persons of the age of those who now hear me, very few would have travelled further than from their own homes to school, and all else would have been new to them. But now the exception would probably be of those who had not seen more than this; in most cases it would be much the contrary. Thus, manhood is in various ways anticipated in youth. Much that used to strike the mind at twenty, or five and twenty, with all the freshness of novelty, is now become familiar to it before that period; there is, therefore, a craving for something more, and it seems difficult to conceive what will be the effect twenty or thirty years hence, when those who have been brought up amidst all this excitement shall have passed the prime of life, and shall have exhausted in forty years more than those sources of interest which used formerly, under a more sparing distribution of them, to last out for our threescore years and ten.

that low excitement

course to be taken is

Again, with regard to spoken of in the text, the sufficiently plain. "Be not drunk with wine;"abstain, as you may do, from a vice so degrading and so fatal. But how can we say, "Be not led away by the excitement of our present state of society." How is it possible for you to escape it? Is it not around you on every side? And with

regard to books in particular, would it be wise, even if it were practicable, to advise you to content yourselves with such as amused your fathers? Here, then, is an excitement, of doubtful character indeed, yet still inevitable. The world is moving at a quicker pace, and we cannot help moving on with it. Yet two things we can do: the one to watch ourselves amidst this worldly excitement, and not allow ourselves to move faster than we must; the other to have recourse betimes, to begin early, and to go on late, with that other and divine excitement of which the Apostle speaks, and whose virtue, alike to kindle, to strengthen, and to soothe, keeps pace by Christ's appointment with the increased activity of what is of doubtful character, or of evil.

And first, let us watch ourselves amidst this worldly excitement, and not allow ourselves to move faster than we must. In this respect our studies here greatly help us. For, as it were foolish to bid you live out of your own time, and not to avail yourselves of its inventions and activity, so it is the happiness of our employments here that they hinder us from living in our own time exclusively. They acquaint us and oblige us to become familiar with a calmer and simpler beauty, with a less pretending and excited wisdom than that of our own age. And what the studies of this place do for us we may also now and here

after do for ourselves. We may, and should always, temper the draught of modern interests, and tastes, and passions, with the cooling and sobering study of those of past times. In this way it is possible to partake of the activity of the present without catching its feverishness; our very taste will shrink from what is over exciting, as the healthy appetite shrinks from over luxuriousness of living in matters of food. Again-although this undoubtedly is harder to practiseyet those who are entering upon life may in other ways also temper and moderate the vehemence of their progress. It may not be needful, or far less needful than formerly, to say, "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess;" but it is quite needful to warn against excesses of other kinds. I do not speak of things absolutely sinful, but of things over exciting. Excess of bodily exercise, to which consciousness of strength often tempts us; excess of intellectual exercise, whether in reading or in society, to which we are no less tempted by a consciousness of power of mind; excess even in our hours; for though it seems a little thing to speak of, yet it is really not so: and the habit of sitting up during a great part of the night is essentially injurious, let the hours thus unnaturally gained be employed as they will. I well know that to all these things there are abundant temptations; but do you suppose that,

forty or fifty years ago, the temptations were less to the grosser excitement of drunkenness? And if every one would say that it would have been our duty, then, to struggle against that temptation, shall we not confess also that it is our duty to strive against those temptations of our own days, wherein there is excess also, though of another kind; excess and excitement opposed to that happiest of all tempers, the temper of Christian sobermindedness?

But most of all, whilst we strive to lessen our worldly excitement, let us begin early and go on late with that divine excitement of which there is no fear of drinking in over measure. I am not forgetting the evils of fanaticism; but is the spirit of fanaticism indeed the Spirit of God? and is not the Spirit of God as truly a spirit of peace and wisdom as it is a spirit of love and of power? Truly we need put no caution, no restraint on the Apostle's command, "Be ye filled with the Spirit." Study the things of God in their depth and in their simplicity, and then see how they realize that seemingly impossible problem, at once to excite and soothe. I spoke of exhausting subjects of human interest, of having accustomed our taste and feelings to such varied indulgences from early years, that ere the vigour of manhood was over they would have lost all healthful activity, and crave the strongest excitements to awaken them.