The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-01-19 00:00:00

, as it.were, a new era. To it, unquestion

.teh were all

was very

little doubt, from the evidenee:tha‘t APGill had given the
property to the other prisoner, as she had access to the

chen. I

he prisoners

VERPOOL MENTAL IMPROVEMENT
SOCIETY'S ANNUAL SOIREE.

...cu. 'Jura Lunt menus ut tile werpool mental improve-
ment Society, was held at the Royal Assembly Rooms,
Great George-street, and on no previous occasion do we
remember to have seen that capacious apartment present
a more pleasing appearance. The number present would
amount to nearly three hundred, and amongst them was

whose presence gave a cheerful and enlivening tone to
every proceeding. On the platform we observed Mr. G.
Holden and Mr. H. 11. Singlehurst, delegates from the
-Literary and Scientific Society of the Mechanics' Insti-

Athenaeum

of the Essay

and Discussion Class of the Manchester
Mr. Samuel, Mr. Hogg, and .'many of the
leading members of the society.
At about seven o'clock the chair was taken by
Dr. HonGsoN, who in opening the business of the meet-
ing, stated his reasons for supporting societies of the kind.
He said—The first thing that strikes me is the improving
associations to which they lead. At a time of life when
need of society is granted, and is most felt, it is surely im-
portant that the bond of union should be of an elevating,
not a degrading, kind. There is little likelihood of any
one joining suc societies who does'not feel a love of men-
tal progress, and who is not conscious of the true ends of
life. Contrast, for a moment, the intimacies formed at
notels and billiard-rooms, and other places, not perhaps
vcaoenirieloyf w
evil,
vi mustbsu
evil in themselves, but without any marked upward ten-
dency, with such friendships as are here likely to arise,
cfheelsoticliaettießs'erdeeism
teonelyoubl warmesty wayofperne:
undtisou
ragement. Nor is their spirit merely t. • The
good
.nega negative.
good dispositions which each brings•
a with him are strength-
ened by sympathy and combination;
good of all, alternately giving and receiving
shares in the
good resolutions, which in solitude might iayegioaoid. i 'f'h7
and died away, are here conjoined into consistent habits
by the silent power of example and unanimity of feeling,
compared with which the most serious and solemn
didactic exhortation is but a sorry teacher of morality.
Good of evcry kind becomes animated with congenial

Pleasing v

And furthe

thips which endure thr

life are those which are based on good. Evil div

less than it corrupt

benation succeeds to suc

as exists among the vicious ; and even when the yoke is
shaken off, there is a bitterness not to be escaped in the
remembrance of confidence iiiisgiven, time wasted, and
powers abused. Friendships, on the other hand, which
have taken root and sprung up will not fail to blossom
and bear fruit through after life. Again, by such societies
as these a purpose and an object are given to private
reading and study. Persons designed for certain profes-
sions, such as the bar, have a definite course of study
marked out,. from which they must not depart ; but to the
great majority of young men who are designed fOr busi-
ness life, the whole field of literature is open—the whole
world of thought is before them, where to choose. " but

without a ProVidence to guide." Or if the lighter sorts
of literature be not systematically preferred—if history,
and biography, and philosophy, find not unwilling stu-
dents, the reading is sure to be desultory and discursive,
having no point at which to aim. It thus becomes, at
best, an intellectual dissipation, a higher order of trifling,
a literary lounge, a shelter from one's own tedium, a sup-
port for one's own weakness—which, again, it tends to in-
crease, not to diminish. Very different is the effect of
systematic and continuous reading on a given subject. e
a certain V- Al

ame, and for a certain purpose. The mind is
more acute, and active, and on its guard ; it sifts and
compares statements which before it might have received
implicitly or rejected without inquiry ; it adds fact to fact,
and thought to thought, in an orderly and close connec-
tion ; and the ideas are no longer an undisciplined rabble,
but a compact,well-armed, and well-drilled phalanx,ready
for action at the time•of need. Reading thus becomes a
mental gymnastics, and ceases to be a pleasant dream, from
which one wakes with a.chaos of confused and indistinct im-
pressions. But again—the power of uttering thought, so as
to transform it intb'the mind of another, or still better,
so as to stimulate another's independent thought, is a pos-
session which it is as important as it is difficult to ac-
quire. Practice—practice--practice is the only recipe.
He who will-mat speak. till he knows precisely how to.