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How then fhall we avoid the extreme of a difpofition, which, in the due medium, is productive of the

opportunity of acquiring opulence fronts never intended. Difgufted without much difficulty or danger; with men and manners. he either and the infinite numbers who inhe-feeks retirement to indulge his merit this opulence, in order to passlancholy, or, weakened by continual away life with eafe, have recourfe to chagrin, he conducts himself with the various arts of exciting pieafure. folly and imprudence. The proft ffions of divinity and law leave fufficient time, opportunity, and inclination, to most of their profeffors, to purfue every amufe-moft falutary confequentes?, In this ment and gratification. The general plan of modern education, which, among the liberal, confifts of the ftudy of the poets and fentimental writers, contributes, perhaps more than all other caufes, to humanife the heart, and refine the fentiments: for at the period when education is commenced, the heart is moft fufceptible of impreffion.

excefs, as well as all others, reason must be called in to moderate. Sen, fibility muft not be permitted to fink us into that ftate of indoler e which effectually repreffes those manly fentiments that may very well confift with the most delicate. The greatest mildness is commonly united with the greatest fortitude in the true hero. Tenderness, joined with refolution, form indeed a finifhed character.

Whatever difpofition tends to foften without weakening the mind, must be cherished; and it must be The affectation of great fenfibility allowed, that delicacy of fentiment, is extremely common. It is, howon this fide the extreme, adds greatly ever, as odious as the reality is amiafo the happiness of mankind, by dif- ble. It renders a man contemptible, fusing an univerfal benevolence. It and a woman ridiculous. Inftead teaches men to feel for others as for of relieving the afflicted, which is themselves; it difposes us to rejoice the neceflary effect of genuine fymwith the happy, and, by partaking, pathy, a character of this fort dies to increase their pleafure. It fre- from mifery, to flow that it is too detently excludes the malignant paf-licate to fupport the fight of diftrefs. fions, which are the fources of the greatest miseries in life. it excites a pleafing fenfation in our own breaft, which, if its duration be confidered, may be placed among the higheft gratifications of fenfe. The only ill confequence that can be apprehended from it, is an effeminacy of mind, which may difqualify us for vigorous purfairs and manly exertions.

f he appearance of a toad, or the jolting of a carriage, will caufe a paroxyfm of fear. But it is remarkable, that this delicacy and tendernefs often difappear in folitude, and the pretender to uncommon fenfibility is frequently found, in the ab fence of witneffes, to be uncommonly unfeeling."

To have received a tender heart from the hand of nature, is to have received the means of the greatest bleflings. To have guidet it by the dictates of reafon, is to have heted up to the dignity of human nature, and to have obtained that happiness of which the heart was conftituted

In the moft fuccefsful courfe of life, obftacles will impede, and difagreeable circumftances dilguft. To bear thefe without feeling them, is fometimes neceflary in the right conduct of life; but he who is tremblingly alive all over, and whofe fenfibility approaches to forenets.fufceptible. May a temper, thus avoids the conteft in which he knows he must be hurt. He feels injuries never comatted; and refents at

audable in itself, never be rendered contemptible by afflétatioh, or useus by neglect.

THE

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Their fifter and their coufin were now employed for fome hours every morning in repairing the children's linen, or making up new againft their return to fchool, after thefe fhort holidays, but their walks were continued.

That of the first day after the boys' arrival was through woods, which were already nearly in leaf. The reluctant oak and the timid afh, no longer refifting the warmth of the fun, were flowly unfolding their fich teaves. The hedges and underwood were every where green, and afford concealment, and heiter to an uninite number of birds, now buy in building their nefts.

Litening to this wild concert, Mrs Woodfield repeated from Tuomion thofe lines in which he fo well defcribes it.

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uotes, given her the pre-eminence, and made the nightingale particularly the favourite of the poets."

Hardly had the finished the fentence, when little Edward, who had wandered on before, came running back out of breath, without his hat, which he held in his hand, and in which, with delight sparkling in his eyes, he fhowed his brother a nest of young unfledged birds.

Edward. Oh, Harry! fee, my dear Harry, what a neft of birds! The boys there, that have taken them, fay they are nightingales. Mamma, tell me if I may buy them. They afk only fixpence for them.. I will give you half of them, Harry

Harry. Mamma, are they nightingales? May we have them?

Mrs. Woodfield. Indeed, 1,am afraid they are nightingales; and they are fo tender, that, you will never be able to raise them, fo that to take them feems to be wanton cruelty.

harry. But, mamma, thefe are taken already; and. I am fure, it they are the tendereft little things.in the world, my fifter Henrietta will nurfe them up. Don't you remem ber how the nurfed the young goldfinches, which the cat threw down from the almond-tree in the garden?

UTO" "Every cople Mrs. Wodfield. Poor, little, unforDeen tangled, tree i regular, and bush Bending with dev y moisture'er the heals tunate creatures! fee how they pant! Of the y qui ifters that lodge with in, I have no other objection to your Are proal of harmony. The shruth buying them my dear Harry, than And woodlari o'er the kind contending as I think it encourages idle boys to throng. [length Superior heard, run through the tweeted continue their cruel robberies ou Of notes; while liftening Philomela deigns the birds. But, however, as these To let them joy, and purpofs, in thought poor nightingales are prifoners, 1 beElate, to make her night excal their day." lieve we may refcue them out of "This, however, (added fhe) is worfe hands by taking them into not quite true; for it is certain that Can the boys there tell the nightingale fings like other birds where they took them from? rerduring the day, but is then not di-haps, after they are out of fight, we ftinguished fo much from the reft;may be able to put them back into it is the night-fong which, as Milton the tree where they were hatched, fays, the

"Warbles at eve, when all the woods are

ftill,"

that has, as much as her delicious

ours.

you

[The two bys go, though with fome little reluctance, and ask the prafant children to jhow them the pla.c.]

322

Edwar

Edward (returning to his mother).. Mamma, the boys fay they got this neft out of a bufh of black thorn and holly, quite in the very middle of the wood, almost a mile off; and they don't believe they can find the place again for ever fo much.

Mrs. Woodfield. Well, my loves, then pay for your purchase, and we will do the best we can with it. Your Jucklefs little captives will foon be hungry, and we shall find nothing to give them here; therefore I would have you, Henrietta, and your two brothers, go home, and find a fecure cage for your nightingales, which muft ftill, however, remain in the neft; and let your maid Rachael affift you in feeding them, as fhe is fond of fuch things, and underftands fomething of them. Caroline, Elizabeth and I fhall continue our walk, as I have fome business at the village of Woodhampton, with a woman who is fpinning for me.

r. [The children go back to the boufe.] Elizabeth. See how carefully little Edward fteps with his treasure.

Mrs. Woodfield. He will be an excellent nurfe to them, and so will Harry, as far as their judgment goes; but thefe unfortunate objects of childish tenderness are not unfrequently killed by kindness. Neither of my little fellows has that difpofition to cruelty which is faid to be inherent in human nature, and which I have fometimes thought really is fo, however degrading the idea may be.

Caroline. I am fure I have thought fo very often, when I have feen how cruel the lower people are to animals. Mrs. Wandpela. It is, indeed, not only humiliating, but is to my feel. ings fo diftreffing, that I feldom have paffed through the streets of London, Paris, or Bath, or almoft any great town, without feeing foine inftance of human cruelty and animal tuffering, that has dwelt upon my mind, and affected my fpirits for the rest of the day.

Caroline. And is it impoffible to punifu fuch horrid monsters?

Mrs. Woodheld. The sufferings of these miferable victims of human barbarity have not been, and therefore, I fuppofe, cannot be, fufficiently attended to by the legislature. An hackney-coachman may whip his galled and tired horfe with impunity, though the exhausted animal has not strength to execute the talk his brutal driver demands of him; for what pofitive law is there against a man's whipping his horfesè or how fhall his management of them be regulated? The monsters called bullock-hunters are fometimes fined; but it feems as if the horrid delight of fuch favages was greater than their tear of punishments for the evil has never been fined.:: Were I a man, I am perfuaded I-fhoud turn knight-errant in defence of the mere animal, againft what are improperly called reasonable beings. How beautifully does the inimitable Cowper treat this fubject! Speaking of the domeftic animals dependent on man, he fays,

They prove, too often, at how dear a rate He fells protection. Witness at his foor: The fpaniel dying, for fome veial fau1t, Under diffection of the knotted feurge; Drive: to the laughter, goaded. as he runs, Witness the patient ox, with stripes and ye a To madnefs; while the favage at his heels Laughs at the frantic fufferer's fury, fpeit Upon the guiltless paffenger 'estarowill He, too, is witnefs, nubieft of the train That wat on man, the flight-performing horie;

With unfufp: ting readiness he takes
Hs murderer on his back; and push'd all
[furife,
With bleeding fides, and flanks that heave

day,

To the far ciftant goal arrives-and dies, Does law, fojealous in the cause of man, Denounce no doom on the delinquest?— Note,"

And, alas! this is one of thofe evils that fatire, excellent and juft even as this, can do but little to correct; for, as fome periodical paper, (I think, the World,) in one of its clays, obferves, coachmen, draymers, carmen, and drovers, do not read eflays yet

might be done to foften the cruel hearts of the lower classes of people, if any perfon of abilities would adapt remouftrances to their comprehenfon, and teach them to fear hereafter fuch punishments as they now inflict, in dreadful retaliation.

I have often fancied that fomething | lefs delighted. An immediate confultation was held, as to the arrangements neceflary, and Mrs. Woodfield, leaving them to enjoy this antepaft of pleasure, (all that life's deceptions frequently allow us to afte, and which is at their ages to keenly tafted) went to infpect the little menagerie of the three younger children, lately increafed by their nightingales, about which they were all anxiously employed. It was more necellary to repiefs their ill-judged folicitude, than to reprove them for carelessness of their little charge. But defirous of teaching them to reflect, the made ufe of the prefent opportunity; when the eldest of the erro boys faid, "Mamma, I do not believe thefe little birds would be more comfort able if they were with their own mother."

They were by this time arrived at a village, whofe few straggling houfes edged the extenfive wood, and in a neat cottage found a decent ly dreffed woman, whole butband was a flax drefler, and who was employed by Mrs. Denzil to fpin for ber. She defired the woman to bring out fome flax in its raw flate; defcribed the process of making it into tow, fit for fpinning, and then made each of the girls endeavour to fpin a thread. Not far from thence, in the fame village, was a loom; they there faw it woven into fheeting, and other coarfe linen. Their walk home was defignedly varied. Mrs. Woodfield led them across a ruftic bridge, and along the banks of a rapid ftream that turned a papermill, into which they entered, and faw the whole operation of making feveral kinds of paper. She then explained to them the materials and means by which it was made; and bade them carry their imaginations back, from the stalk of the flax they had feen, bearing a blue and fimple flower trembling on its flender fummit through all its changes and modifications, till it contributes to make a feet of paper.

This fpeculation amufed them for the rest of their walk. On their arrival at home, Caroline and Elizabeth were agreeably furprised by a card they found upon their table, in viting the whole family to a ball, given by the officers of a regiment quartered in a neighbouring town.

Pleafure danced in the eyes of Caroline, when the found Mrs. Woodfield intended to return an anfwer that they would accept this invitation. Nor was Elizabeth'niuch

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Mrs. Woodfield. Admitting it to be fo, my dear Harry, (though of greatly fear it is not the fact) piay tell me what you think is the opinion of their own mother?

Harry. Perhaps flie may be a little forry, when she comes back and finds" the neft gone.

Mrs. Woodfield. Harry! how do you think I fhould feel, if, on my return from a journey where I had been to procure money to pay for the fubfiftence of my children, I found my houfe vacant; and that fonie tyrant, whom I could not parfue or punish, had taken them from nie, and condemned them to imprifonment or death? Tell me, Harry; and do you, Edward, tell me, how do you think your mamma would feel?

Harry (looking earnefily and forrowful). Certainly, mamma, you would cry, and be very unhappy.

Mrs. Woodfield. Juft fo mult the mother bird feel, when the returns and finds the vacant bough from which her neft has been torn. But, to imprefs this more forcibly on your memory, Harry, you shall write thefe lines in your copy-book:

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My WIP min's convenience, health, Or fafery, interfere, his righ sand claims Areparamoung, and must extinguish the re; Elf they are an, the maneft things but

are,

As fe to live, and to enjoy that life,
As God was free to form them at the firit,

Wan, in his fovereign wildom, male them,

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ye, therefore, who love mercy, teach your

To love it too."

And now, my dear boys, you must release yourfister Henrietta; for the is going out to morrow evening, and I fancy has fome little preparation to make. My dear Henrietta, follow

.nie...

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[ A_room above stairs-Caroline and Elizabeth confulting about their dress.]

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* Ost, when returning with her loaded bill,' Th' aftorita'd mother finds a vacant nest, By the hard hands of unrelenting clowns Rabb'd; to the ground the way provision Lll-i fcarce Her Minions ruul, and, low drooping, Can bear the mou r to the poplar fhad:" Edward (with tears starting in his eyes). Mamma, if I had thought about what the old bird muft feel, I would have made the boys I bought thefe of, put the nett back again. M. field. If you had done fo, my dear little boy, it would hardly, in this cafe, have anfwered your hu mane intention; for thofe idle boys, as foon as you were out of fight, would have taken the neft again, and have fold the poor birds to fome other perfon. What I mean is, not only to induce you to take care of them, fince they now depend on you, but to engage you, in every cafe, to put yourfelf in the place of whatever creature you are about to injure or opprefs; that you may acquire an habit of faying to yourfelf, How Mrs. Woodfield (entering). "What fhould I like to be treated thus? they wear!" There is no term in What fhould I fuffer, if I were in the whole cant of frivolity that is the place of the cat we are wantonly half fo difgufting to me as that. ffo hunting with our terriers? of the Who are they, my dear Caroline, to rooks which we are wounding with whofe mode of drefs you are deterour arrows of the ducks we are mined to pay fuch obfequious defefetting the fpaniels at? Whoever rence? learns early in life to make thefe reflections, will never have a reproach to make himfelf on the fcore of humanity, either towards the animal or the human fpecies.

Caroline. I dare fay I fhall look as horribly old-fashioned as poffible; it is five months fince I have feen any creature who could tell me what they

year.

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311

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Heary. But, mamma, grown people hunt, and shoot, and fish, and do not feem to think there is any cruel-odd names, that you give to the folks ty in it!

11

you ufually meet with in the counMrs. Woodfield. So far as it be- try. Tell me now, Caroline, if it comes neceffary to kill, for our fup- would not have afforded you great post, the animals Providence has al-pleafure, had you known of this lotted to us, there is nothing crimi- ball foon enough, to have written nal in it; but to prolong their tor-flily to your fashionable friend, mifs tures is highly fo, or wantonly to deltoy any living creatures that are innoxious. For to morrow's talk, Edward hall write out for me thefe fines, on the fubject of inferior animals, and even reptiles and infects:

Freemantle, to have fent you down fome very whimfical drefs, with a new name, fuch as, you imagine, having never been feen in this country, would make people stage

Caroline. I thould not have ventured

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