"Let us awhile the war suspend, And reason as from friend to friend." "A truce," replies the wolf, "'t is done." "How can that strong, intrepid mind, “Friend,” says the wolf, "the matter weigh, MORAL. An open foe may prove a curse, But a pretended friend is worse. CONDUCT TO YOUR OWN FAMILY. NEVER quarrel with your brothers and sisters; but live in peace and unity. Use kind and courteous language towards all the domestics. Never be domineering nor insulting, for it is the mark of an ignorant and ill-natured child. DEATH OF AN INFANT. DEATH found strange beauty on that cherub brow, On cheek and lip; he touched the veins with ice, Forever. There had been a murmuring sound His seal of silence. But there beam'd a smile PROVERBS. "Much falls between the cup and the lip." This proverb warns us from placing too sanguine a dependence upon future expectations, though very promising; intimating, that the fairest hopes are often dashed in pieces by the intervention of some unforeseen and unexpected accident. "A rolling stone gathers no moss.' This proverb is indicative of the ill consequences of fickleness and inconstancy. Persons of unsettled and restless tempers are never happy; they are always busily beginning to live, but by reason of love of change and impatience, never arrive at a way of living. "'Tis too late to spare, when all is spent." This proverb enjoins frugality and providence, and forbids excesses and luxury. It likewise admonishes us not to defer important duties, lest we should find, too late, that there is not time enough left in which to perform them. "The more haste t'e less speed." This proverb reprehends too precipitate and hurrying tempers, and shows the value of calmness and sedateness, in the management of business. "One swallow does not make a summer." This proverb teaches us not to consider ourselves or others good, from the practice of one single virtue, and that the right way of judging is to take into consideration, the whole character and conduct. "Nothing venture, nothing have." This proverb, though it does not license an inconsiderate rashness, in running hazards against all probability of success, yet is a spur to industry, enterprise and resolution in any honest undertaking. DOMESTIC REPROVED. ONE of the domestics of Frederick the Great, one day came to wait upon him in an elegant flesh colored coat, thinking to please the king by his dress, because it was his favorite color. Frederick, however, pretended not to observe him. The servant then perceiving the mistake he had made, slipped out, and put on a coat more suitable to his station. The king noticed the change, and with great affability said to him, "Tell me, friend, who was that coxcomb that appeared here just now, in a flesh colored coat? HONOR DEARER THAN LIFE. AN American officer, during the war of Independence, was ordered to a station of extreme peril, when several around him suggested various expedients, by which he might evade the dangerous post assigned him. He made them the following heroic reply: "I thank you, my friends, for your solicitude -I know I can easily save my life, but who will save my honor, should I adopt your advice?'' TO AN INFANT AT ITS BIRTH. HAIL! little tender flower So beautiful and bright, Midst storms thou 'st shown thy head; Array'd like threat'ning hosts. DISCRETION. THERE are many more shining qualities in the mind of man, but there is none so useful as discretion; it is this which gives a value to all the rest, which sets them at work in their proper times and places, and turns them to the advantage of the person who is possessed of them. Without it, learning is pedantry, and wit impertinence; nay, virtue itself looks like weakness. Discretion not only shows itself in words, but in all the circumstances of action; and is like an under agent of Providence, to guide and direct us in the ordinary chances of life. KEEPING SECRETS. THE reply of Charles the Second, when importuned to communicate something of a private nature, deserves to be engraven on the heart of every man. "Can you keep a secret?" asked the subtle monarch. “Most faithfully,” returned the nobleman. "So can I," was the laconic, and severe answer of the king. AGE. PIETY is the only proper and adequate relief of decaying man. He that grows old without religious hope, as he declines into imbecility, and feels pains and sorrows incessantly crowding upon him, falls into the gulf of bottomless misery, in which every reflection must plunge him deeper, and where he finds only new gradations of anguish, and precipices of horror. He that would pass the latter part of his life with honor |