It  is  fortunate,  however,  that  yet  more  can  be  done,  and  th&t,
in  addition  to  forging  the  tools  with  which  the  great  workofedn-
cation  is  to  be  accomplished,  the  Institution  is  able  to  teach  tbeir
use,  and  to  give  its  pupils  that  discipline  of  mind  and  that  initia-
tion into  the  principles  of  different  branches  of  knowledge  whicb
shall  be  to  them  a  guide  in  all  future  study,  and  enable  them  to
enter  intelligently  upon  the  business  of  life.
And  even  if  tbere  were,  therein,  no  practical  utility  bearing  upon
the  future,  the  reflex  influence  of  different  studies  upon  the  acqui-
sition  of  language  would  be  sufficient  to  justify  their  adoption.
The  mind  cannot  be  strained  in  one  direction  continually  witbont
injury  to  its  powers.  Rotation  is  as  much  a  principle  in  its  cal-
tivation  as  in  agriculture,  and  a  vigorous  exercise  of  intellect,
applied  to  one  study,  fits  it  for  the  more  rapid  acqukition  of
another.
Besides,  the  study  of  different  sciences  gives  a  knowledge  of
terms,  and  of  the  varying  structure  of  sentences,  which  could  not
be  obtained  from  attention  to  a  single  one.  A  work  on  mental  or
moral  philosophy  has  altogether  a  different  phraseology  from  one
on  history,  and  the  grammatical  construction  of  ita  sentences  is
also  different.  In  the  one,  we  have  the  present  tense  with  hypo-
thecated and  conditioned  assertion ;  in  the  other,  we  see  predomi-
nating the  preterite  tense  of  the  indicative.  So  universal  is  the
application  of  this  principle,  that  we  find  our  best  writers  and

makers  among  those  whose  attention  has  been  directed  to  a  gre&t
iber  of  differing  subjects,  and  this,  not  merely  on  account  c:'
fertility  of  illustration  which  it  furnishes,  but  on  account  of
mperior  mastery  over  our  language  which  it  imparts.
