I made a little book,[12] in which I allotted a page for each of the virtues. I rul'd each page with red ink, so as to have seven columns, one for each day of the week, marking each column with a letter for the day. I cross'd these columns with thirteen red lines, marking the beginning of each line with the first letter of one of the virtues, on which line, and in its proper column, I might mark, by a little black spot, every fault I found upon examination to have been committed respecting that virtue upon that day.
_Form of the Pages_ +------------------------------+ | TEMPERANCE. | +------------------------------+ | EAT NOT TO DULNESS. | | DRINK NOT TO ELEVATION. | +--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | S.| M.| T.| W.| T.| F.| S.| +--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ |T.| | | | | | | | +--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ |S.| * | * | | * | | * | | +--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ |O.|* *| * | * | | * | * | * | +--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ |R.| | | * | | | * | | +--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ |F.| | * | | | * | | | +--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ |I.| | | * | | | | | +--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ |S.| | | | | | | | +--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ |J.| | | | | | | | +--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ |M.| | | | | | | | +--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ |C.| | | | | | | | +--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ |T.| | | | | | | | +--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ |C.| | | | | | | | +--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ |H.| | | | | | | | +--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
I determined to give a week's strict attention to each of the virtues successively. Thus, in the first week, my great guard was to avoid every the least offence against _Temperance_, leaving the other virtues to their ordinary chance, only marking every evening the faults of the day. Thus, if in the first week I could keep my first line, marked T, clear of spots, I suppos'd the habit of that virtue so much strengthen'd, and its opposite weaken'd, that I might venture-extending my attention to include the next, and for the following week keep both lines clear of spots. Proceeding thus to the last, I could go thro' a course compleat in thirteen weeks, and four courses in a year. And like him who, having a garden to weed, does not attempt to eradicate all the bad herbs at once, which would exceed his reach and his strength, but works on one of the beds at a time, and, having accomplish'd the first, proceeds to a second, so I should have, I hoped, the encouraging pleasure of seeing on my pages the progress I made in virtue, by clearing successively my lines of their spots, till in the end, by a number of courses, I should be happy in viewing a clean book, after a thirteen weeks' daily examination.