which has, from age to age, gone on debasing the human character, and blasting every rising effort of genius and virtue. Such are the scenes which history chiefly exhibits to our view. To the reader, therefore, who looks, perhaps, solely for amusement, and with no view to any specific instruction or advantage, such a picture of the debasement and misery of his fellow-creatures can afford gratification!" George Walker. THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND HAS been written by various hands, and, of course, with different degrees of ability and judgment; the merits of the leading historians of Britain are thus well described:-- "WHEN a narrator has any inferior object in view, the judicious and discerning are not long in discovering his aim. It was soon perceived, for instance, that Hume was too partial to the Stuarts, and that one of his objects in writing the previous history of England was to shew that the encroachments of the royal power were not without precedent in the reigns of the Tudors. Though the question might still be referred to prínciples of general policy and justice, yet if the mind should receive an undue bias from such representations, it may easily recover its bent by application to the narrative of Macauley, or if that be thought too favour. able to the republican party, every prejudice may be removed by perusing the pages of the patient and candid Rapin. It has been sarcas. tically observed by Voltaire, that the best history of England was written by a foreigner; but it should be recollected that this foreigner was a student of the English law, and previ. ously well acquainted with the principles of civil and religious liberty. Whether Henry's History of Great Britain may not wrest the laurel from Rapin, future ages will probably determine. Perhaps the principal defect in this excellent work may be too rigid an adhe. rence to a previously formed plan, which separates subjects naturally united, unnecessarily multiplies references, or occasions frequent and tedious repetitions."...J. Holland. STUDY OF HISTORY Is highly profitable to those who read its pages with a proper temper and disposition; separating the good from the evil, and referring every event to the agency of the supreme being. " CONSISTENT and regular students of his. tory will not, however, content themselves with reading the annals of mankind in detached portions. But whilst they pay a proper tribute of respect to the works of those writers who have selected striking periods for the la bour of their pens, they will endeavor to col. lect a just and complete idea of all the events, changes, and improvements, which have taken place in the world from the earliest ages of which there is any account down to the present day. That war should engross so much of the historian's attention may justly be lamented by the benevolent and humane. Yet whilst the faithful description of its incidents may render it still more an object of horror, it cannot be denied that, contrary to expectation, and in opposition to the efforts and opinions of the ambitious and tyrannical, it has, in various ways contributed to the progress of liberty and knowledge. In this sense, "Discord is harmony not understood, PROPRIETY J. Holland. Is an essential requisite to the female sex in every condition and department of life; in deed nothing can compensate the want of it. "PROPRIETY is to a woman, what the great Roman critic says action is to an orator; it is the first, the second, the third requisite. A woman may be knowing, active, witty, and amusing; but without propriety she cannot be amiable. It does not depend on any one per. fection, but it is the result of general excellence. It shows itself by a regular, orderly, undeviat ing course; and never starts from its sober orbit into any splendid eccentricities; for it would be ashamed of such praise as it might extort by any abberations from its proper path. When a man of sense comes to marry, it is a compa nion whom he wants, and not an artist. It is not merely a creature who can paint, and play, and dress, and dance; it is a being who can comfort and counsel him; one who can reason, and reflect, and feel, and judge, and act, and discourse, and discriminate; one who can as sist him in his affairs, lighten his cares, sooth his sorrows, purify his joys, strengthen his principles, and educate his children." Miss More. EXCESSIVE INDULGENCE HAS in its train a long series of evils; and children should be accustomed to early restraint, because it lays a foundation for future happiness. "BY the great attention that is paid to children's accommodation in every trifling parti. cular, they learn to attach an idea of impor tance to every personal indulgence, and consider ease and freedom from pain as their birthright. They are thus enfeebled by luxury from the very cradle, and rendered totally unable to cope with hardships and difficulties, which they may have to encounter in after-life. Should neither hardships nor difficulties be their lot, the evil will be still more serious; for the dispositions and habits of mind engendered by this attention to personal indulgence will then have nothing to counteract them, and complete selfishness must be the consequence." Miss Hamilton. THE DIVINE OMNIPRESENCE Is one of the most solemn and interesting attributes of Deity; even the heathens taught it, and it is strongly inculcated in some of their writings. "BY inculcating the doctrine of divine om. nipresence, I gave you a rule of action infi. nitely more valuable than all that philosophy ever framed; a rule that will regulate your reflections when you are in your closet, that will inspire you with virtuous singularity, when a multitude would draw you into evil, that will teach you justice to the meanest individual, and will give you fortitude and consistency before the proudest earthly tyrant. Shew me any other scheme of taition that can supply such an antidote against evil, or such a preservative of innocence." Mrs. West. SALUTARY RESTRAINTS, IN the first periods of life, must produce a good effect, by preparing the individual for the calamities that may befal him in his passage through this troublesome world. "EARLY impressions have a very powerful effect upon future conduct; habits long esta. blished have a still greater. It is, therefore, of infinite importance to future success, that our children be educated so as to enable them to encounter the inevitable vicissitudes of life with firmness and fortitude; and what is, per haps, still more essential to human comfort, to feel the inconveniences annexed to an unfavor able change of situation as little as possible. He who wishes to leave his children an inheritance of felicity, ought studiously to lay up for them as soon as he can, such a stock of restraints and refusals, as may, in due time, yield a seasonable and plenteous increase. Indulgence in the early part of life, is the sure source of future necessities; and an habitual gratification of what are called the good things of this world, the heaviest and most grievous tax that can possibly be laid on future tranquillity." Memoirs of Charles Macpherson, Esq. |