banking-houses, merchants' counting-houses, or lawyers' offices, imperatively need a considerable quantity of muscular exercise to preserve their bodies in health and strength, and who yet, in sheer ignorance, give up almost the only opportunity they have of taking such exercise; and instead of walking to and from their places of business, get into an omnibus, and ride, for the express purpose of avoiding a little fatigue: whereas their elder brethren, who have risen an hour before them, may be seen walking, and thereby availing themselves of the advantage of exercise. And many of these same persons, breathing during the whole day confined and impure air, emerge therefrom, and, with admirable sagacity, proceed straightway into the still more impure air of a theatre, or other crowded place!

"If individuals of this class knew their own interests, they would fix their habitations at a short distance (two or three miles) from town; and they would regard as an indispensable appendage to their dwellings a plot of garden-ground. These preliminaries arranged, they would be early risers; they would cultivate their gardens, and, whenever the state of the weather permitted, they would call in to their aid no other instruments of locomotion than those with which nature has furnished them. If such a plan as this were pursued, they would be able to resist the unhealthy influences to which they are in their daily pursuits exposed; and a blooming cheek and cheerful eye would be more common phenomena in the city of London than they at present are.

"And yet, though the persons composing this useful and respectable class are in general neglectful of exercise, there are every year not a few victims from among them to excessive muscular exertion. Most of them enjoy once a year a vacation of a few weeks-a resting from the cares and toils of business; and, as if to make up for their long confinement, many of these young persons determine to make the most of their short period of liberty, and set out on extensive pedestrian excursions. Ignorant or unmindful of the fact that the muscles, for want of due exercise, become weak and incapable of powerful action, and that, to be beneficial, it is necessary that exercise should be proportioned to the strength of the organ; their object is to accomplish the utmost of which their limbs are capable. Having heard that exercise is conducive to health, and knowing that, for the previous twelve months, they have had exceedingly little of it, they imagine their best plan is to take advantage of the present opportunity, and to lay up a stock of exercise for the twelve months to come. Unmindful of the monitions which their weary limbs afford, they march on to the end of their predetermined journey, and console themselves for the pain they suffer, by thinking that it is caused by exercise, and that it will eventually promote their health. No opinion can be more mistaken: this excessive fatigue weakens the body to such a degree as often to produce permanent debility, and lay the foundations of fatal disease; nay, it is sometimes the direct cause of death-as it was in the following case, cited by Dr. Combe:- A young gentleman was employed as a clerk in one of the banks in Edinburgh. He was closely confined to his desk during the summer, and towards the end of July had become weak and emaciated from deficient exercise in the open air. His strength continued to decline till the middle of August, when he went to shoot on Falkirk Moor. Friday and Saturday he was much fatigued by excessive and unusual exertion, and on Sunday evening was feverish and heated, and perspired very much during the night.' He was unable to return to business; and after

On

passing three months in a feverish and sleepless condition, he died in the beginning of November. He was previously of a healthy constitution.

"Now, all this mischief might have been prevented by attention to a very simple rule-namely, never to continue exercise after it has become painful. Our muscles, like the rest of our bodies, are made susceptible of pain, for the beneficent purpose that we may know that they are in danger, and may thus be excited to do everything in our power to remove them from it. It is a mistaken notion that exercise of all kinds, and under all circumstances, 'is beneficial. Unless it is adapted to the condition of the muscles, it will prove the agent of death, not the giver of health. As I have before remarked, exercise is most beneficial when in unison with the mental state; and if amusement or business can be combined with it, the same amount of exercise will be far more useful than if it were taken for the sake of the exercise alone. The effect of mental occupation in enabling persons to perform feats of strength, or to go through great muscular exertion, is matter of common observation."

CHEERFULNESS, COURAGE, CIVILITY.

says

All these spring from a healthy constitution of body and mind. They are also great weapons in civilized life, carrying all before them by a sort of moral fascination which nothing can resist. The first is a quality so necessary to the shopkeeper, that we cannot see how he possibly can get on well without it, and we think he who possesses it in a high degree will always command a fair share of public favour. "A gloomy melancholy man, the Reverend John Todd, "can never think of much except himself. He cannot forget so important a personage to attend to you. He may have cause for all his bad feelings, sufficient to excuse them; but you cannot count any of them as being very kindly towards others. For the purpose of appearing cheerful, you must be in good health. No one can feel cheerful with a severe toothach upon him, or while turning or tossing under a burning fever. Your health must be good, and kept good by a frugal diet, and a regular course of exercise. It is impossible for the mind to be cheerful,' and the spirits buoyant without this. No man ought to undertake to pass off in company, or expect to render himself even tolerably agreeable, for a single day, unless he has prepared himself by some suitable exercise. The cheerfulness and buoyancy of a hunting-party is proverbial; it is owing to the fact they are all taking an agreeable exercise without having an object before them of importance enough to do anything more than barely excite them. There is no real life but cheerful life; therefore, valetudinarians should be sworn, before they enter into company, not to say a word of themselves until the meeting breaks up."

"Cheerfulness is all well enough," say you, "but what, in the name of common sense, has courage to do with the trade of a shopkeeper?" Much; for it is the want of this quality that very frequently makes a man ridiculous in the eyes of the very parties he is desirous of pleasing. It is a great element in civility, for it requires courage to be civil in tens of thousands of instances in the common transactions of life. It is not of physical courage we speak, but of moral courage which dares the pain of mind alone, and which, by universal consent, is worthy of far higher admiration than that which strictly refers to bodily dangers. It is from a large possession of this quality that nearly all the social improvements of which we have any know

ledge have sprung. Its armour is reason and self-example. It preserves our sincerity, stimulates us to acts of justice, and evolves every virtue of which our breast may be the abode. All great moral reformers possess it in a high degree; and in proportion to its possession by the shopkeeper, should his mind take a proper direction, so shall his conduct be morally prudent and exemplary. On the other hand, its abrogation is the cause of much of the smaller crimes of society. When this is the case, shuffling and chicanery, falsehood and deceit, and unworthy exemplifications of meanness in business transactions, are often the result. And what can make a man sooner be despised than meanness and trickery in the smaller concerns of life? What can reduce him sooner to contempt in the eyes of his own servants_or_assistants than little acts of dishonesty, when they are seen by them, and when they must sooner or later become known. Such men often get a character for being clever in the common acceptation of the term, but such cleverness is apt to recoil upon the head of its possessor, rather than to help him a step higher in the ladder of honourable fame and independence. An anecdote, illustrative of one of these clever men, may here help to strengthen what we have said:

"A gentleman from the country placed his son with a dry-goods merchant in For a time all went on well. At length a lady came into the shop to purchase a silk dress, and the young man waited upon her. The price demanded was agreed to, and he proceeded to fold the goods. He discovered, before he had finished. a flaw in the silk, and pointing it out to the lady, said, 'Madam, I deem it my duty to tell you that there is a fracture in the silk.' Of course she did not take it.

"The merchant overheard the remark, and immediately wrote to the father of the young man to come and take him home; 'for,' said he, he will never make a merchant.'

"The father, who had ever reposed confidence in his son, was muck grieved, and hastened to the city to be informed of his deficiencies. 'Why will he not make a merchant?' asked he.

"Because he has no tact,' was the answer. Only a day or two ago, he told a lady, voluntarily, who was buying silk of him, that the goods were damaged; and I lost the bargain. Purchasers must look out for themselves. If they cannot discover flaws, it would be foolishness in me to tell them of their existence.'

"And is that all his fault?' asked the parent. 'Yes,' answered the merchant; he is very well in other respects.'

"Then I love my son better than ever, and I thank you for telling me of the matter; I would not have him another day in your shop for the world.'" We make no comments on the above. Whether such a trade as the merchant would make, is not rather taking advantage of the purchaser's ignorance than making the best use of one's knowledge, we leave to our readers to decide.

Civility is such a palpable qualification in the shopkeeper, that it seems superfluous to speak upon it. One would think that every person who has anything to sell, would be possessed of it; and yet with how many have we come in contact who seem even to be ignorant of the existence of such a quality! These do not seem to be aware that it costs nothing to carry about with them, whilst there is no attention, no kindness, no favour, that it has not the power to purchase. It is the key of the hearts of all men, and the buyer

of golden opinions. We learn from the Memoirs of Sir John Sinclair, by his Son, that the venerable baronet was deeply sensible of the advantage of systematic or universal civility. "His ancestors," says the biographer, "had acquired a right of superiority over the burgh of Wick, the county town; and in virtue of that right, he possessed a veto on the election of the provost and baillies. Considering the minority of their superior a favourable opportunity for an invasion of his rights, certain malcontents in the burgh and neighbourhood had recourse to intimidation, offering various insults to himself and his adherents. These outbreakings of local violence were met by proper firmness on the part of the young proprietor. He resolved that no concession should be wrung from him by threats; he sent a special summons to his own tenantry and those of his surrounding friends; and, assembling an array of twelve hundred persons, overawed the disaffected burghers so completely, that they abandoned their design of interrupting the election. From this affair Mr. Sinclair received a lesson which he never afterwards forgot. • One of the leaders in these disturbances,' he says, in his private memoranda, 'informed me that he was exasperated to oppose me by my neglect in not answering a letter. I was thence induced never to fall again into the same error. The biographer elsewhere makes the following statement:-" Sir John, when president of the Board of Agriculture, observed invariably a rule to receive with civility all visitors, whether they came to ask or to give intelligence. He knew how frequently the conductors of a public department consider themselves insulted by individuals presuming to advise them, as if advice implied aspersion on their sagacity or knowledge. For his own part, he made no pretensions to this official plenitude of wisdom. Even when the propositions made to him were manifestly absurd, he listened to his adviser with attention, and dismissed him with urbanity. A gentleman, who proposed to drain the kingdom with the broken china of the East India-house, was so pleased with his polite reception, as to offer, in return, his vote at the next election, either for Kent or Middlesex."

This is what civility does. Every shopkeeper, therefore, ought to assume it, if he have it not. He ought to cultivate it systematically until it becomes so identified with his very nature that he cannot be uncivil, even if he would.

GOOD ADDRESS.

Let your appearance be ever so personable; let you be as handsome as Apollo, and as beautiful as Venus, if you be awkward or vulgar in speech, low in your ideas and meagre in knowledge, you will in the eyes of all intelligent men appear little more than a merely animated statue. Learn, therefore, to attain to a correct, if not an elegant pronunciation of your own vernacular tongue. What can be more absurd than to hear some of the inhabitants of London pronounce the following sentence: "A fellow broke the window, and hit Isabella on the elbow as she was playing a sonata on the piano." They do not pronounce it as written; but thus: "A fellor broke the windor, and hit Isabellar on the elbor, as she was playing a sonartar on the pianor," Others adopt the contrary plan, and leave out the r as often as they can. There are magistrates of high pretentions to education, who would say, "The conduct of the prisna' and his general characta' render it propa' that he should no longa' be a memba' of this community."

Equally glaring is the taking away of h from places where it is required, and

giving it where its absence is desirable. The termination of words ending in ing with a k, as somethink, is not less inaccurate or less disagreeable. It is worth while to point out these errors, as many must be disposed to correct them, on being made aware of their existence, for they by no means form a graceful part in a good address.

To enlarge your knowledge, cultivate habits of observation. From the excessive application to business which the custom of this country demands, there is not much spare time left to the shopkeeper to increase the store of his ideas or enlarge the boundaries of his knowledge by the slow and laborious process of careful reading; he, therefore, of all mankind, ought to be continually making observations, and thus filling his mind with that kind of knowledge which, because of its originality and practicability, becomes the most valuable. Few think how much there is to be learned by a proper use of their eyes and ears; if they did they would not keep them both so often shut. "Dr. Franklin," says Mrs. Barbauld, “would not cross a street, without making some observation beneficial to mankind." Who that has read them, can ever forget his essays? where a knowledge of men and things is discovered, which could only be the result of close and extensive observation. Books may teach much; but observation in some respects teaches more. That practical knowledge so useful in the progress of life that tact in business so desirable to possess—can be gained only in this way. Observation, as a mode of study, is the cheapest and most convenient of all. It may be carried on almost anywhere and everywhere, because in nearly all places in which we are there is something to be learned, if we are disposed to receive instruction. Observation is connected with curiosity; the one sharpens the other, and they produce a mutual influence. Let not false pride, lest we should betray ignorance, prevent us from asking a question, when it can be answered. How much knowledge do we often lose, by wishing to appear wiser than we really are. Mr. Locke, on being asked how he had contrived to accumulate a mine of knowledge so rich, deep, and extensive, replied, "that he attributed what little he knew to the not having been ashamed to ask for information; and to the rule he had laid down, of conversing with all descriptions of men on those topics chiefly that formed their own professions and pursuits;" and it was also a maxim of the great Sir William Jones, never to neglect an opportunity of improvement.

Above all kinds of knowledge, however, to the shopkeeper, a knowledge of figures in conjunction with all that appertains to his trade, is the most indispensable. He must not only be a correct, but a rapid arithmetician. What is more irksome to a customer, after he or she is served, than to see a fat, red раш, with a pencil in it, labouring to cast up an account of a few paltry sums; jotting down, blotting out, and marking in again with a deliberation worthy of a chancellor's budget? It is enough to give anybody the fidgets; therefore no shopkeeper should put up a sign, or offer wares to sell, unless he is, at least, tolerably quick at figures. Make this, then, a particular study, for it is one of the very first qualifications in the education or address of a shopkeeper. Besides it has a tendency to give clearness to our habits of thinking, by driving the understanding to seek for a conviction in all its deliberations.

INTEGRITY.

This word in its moral application to character, signifies entireness. It comes from in, not, and tango, I touch; meaning character free from touch