For some persons the inevitable mode of improvement will be by

substituting the milder drugs for the stronger--beer for spirits, weak
tea for beer
For some persons the inevitable mode of improvement will be by
substituting the milder drugs for the stronger--beer for spirits, weak
tea for beer. The exact extent to which the milder poisons are injurious
has not yet been scientifically settled. Tea, for instance, if very weak
and used moderately, is, presumably, not injurious to any marked degree
to healthy persons. The trouble is, however, that sensitive people do
not keep moderate. In fact, the natural tendency of drug-craving is in
the opposite direction, from weak drugs to strong ones, as from beer to
spirits. In actual fact, it is much easier to abstain than to be
moderate. It should also be noted that the lax spirit in which many
people make an exception to the rules of health in favor of some mild
indulgence is very likely to lead to the making of many other exceptions
until they are, without knowing it, carrying a heavy load made up of
scores of little items of harmful indulgence. Moreover, experiments at
the Pasteur Institute have shown that the long-continued use of very
minute doses of poison ultimately produces appreciable harm. Each person
must decide for himself how far he chooses to depart from previous
habits or common customs for the sake of physical efficiency. The object
here is to state exactly what, in our present state of knowledge, is
believed to be the truth.

And, gentlemen trustees and citizens of Bernardston, may I not

personally and especially invite you to consider the importance of a
fixed standard of admission and a careful examination of candidates?
This course is essential to the improvement of your district and village
schools
And, gentlemen trustees and citizens of Bernardston, may I not
personally and especially invite you to consider the importance of a
fixed standard of admission and a careful examination of candidates?
This course is essential to the improvement of your district and village
schools. It is essential to the true prosperity of this seminary, and it
is also essential to the intellectual advancement of the people within
your influence. You expect pupils from the neighboring towns. Your
object is not pecuniary profit, but the education of the people. If your
requirements are positive, though it may not be difficult to meet them
in the beginning, every town that depends upon this institution for
better learning than it can furnish at home will be compelled to
maintain schools of a high order. On the other hand, negligence in this
particular will not only degrade the school under your care here, but
the schools in this town and the cause of education in the vicinity will
be unfavorably affected. Nor let the objection that a rigid standard of
qualifications will exclude many pupils, and diminish the attendance
upon the school, have great weight; for you perform but half your duty
when you provide the means of a good education for your own students.
You are also, through the power inherent in this authority, to do
something to elevate the standard of learning in other schools, and in
the country around. What harm if this school be small, while by its
influence other schools are made better, and thus every boy and girl in
the vicinity has richer means of education than could otherwise have
been secured? Thus will tens, and hundreds, and thousands, of successive
generations, have cause to bless this school, though they may never have
sat under its teachers, or been within its walls.

NOT A WILL, BUT WILLS

NOT A WILL, BUT WILLS.--First of all we need to remember that, just as
we do not have a memory, but a system of memories, so we do not possess
a will, but many different wills. By this I mean that the will must be
called upon and tested at every point of contact in experience before we
have fully measured its strength. Our will may have served us reasonably
well so far, but we may not yet have met any great number of hard tests
because our experience and temptations have been limited.