“ Idleness, extravagance and folly are productive of poverty, wretchedness and shame; while on the contrary, industry, prudence and economy tend directly to wealth and honorable distinction. In short, all the vices, however popular, degrade their votaries, and sink them in the scale of beings, even in their own estimation. Time moves on with a steady pace, while events transpire that discover the secrets of hearts black with infamy and crime. ”

“ A round of duties, a succession of events, of causes and effects, have filled up the history of the past year and left the contemplative mind to profit by experience, or the one of no reflection to rush forward in uncertainty, as much as if philosophy were never the study of man, or effect never followed a cause. Hence the wretchedness and woe incident to the human family.—Man does not reflect, he heeds not the teachings of experience ”

“ If we would not live in vain, but profit by every day's experience, we are as necessarily led to the conclusion that our duty to ourselves, to our friends, to the community in which we live, and to our God, require that we occasionally take a retrospective view of what has passed, as well as to look forward with pleasing anticipations to coming events. ”