Page images
PDF
EPUB

gladly lead good ones, but know not how to make the change. They have frequently resolved and endeavoured it, but in vain be cause their endeavours have not been properly conducted. To exhort people to be good, to be just, to be temperate, &c. without shewing them how they shall become so, seems like the ineffectual charity mentioned by the apostle, which consisted in saying to the hungry, the cold, and the naked, be ye fed, be ye warmed, be ye clothed,' without shewing them how they should get food, fire, or clothing! Most people have naturally some virtues, but none have naturally all the virtues. To acquire those that are wanting, and secure what we acquire as well as those we have naturally, is the subject of an art. It is as properly an art as painting, navigation, or architecture. If a man would become a painter, navigator, or ar chitect, it is not enough that he is advised to be one, that he is convinced by the arguments of his advisers that it would be for his advantage to be one, and that he resolves to be one, but he must also be taught the principles of the art, be shewn all the methods of working, and how to acquire the habits of using properly all the instruments, and thus regularly and gra dually he arrives by practice at some perfection in the art. If he does not proceed thus, he is apt to meet with difficulties that discourage him, and make him drop the pursuit. Christians are directed to have faith in Christ, as the effectual means of obtaining the change they desire. It may, when sufficiently strong, be effectual with many for a full opinion that a teacher is infinitely wise, great, and powerful, and that he will certainly reward and punish the obedient and disobedient, must give great weight

to his precepts, and make them much more attended to by his disciples. But many have their faith in so weak a degree, that it does not produce the effect. The Art of Virtue may therefore be of great service to those whose faith is unhappily not so strong, and may come in aid of its weakness. Such as are naturally well disposed, and have been carefully educated, so that good habits have been early es tablished and bad ones prevented, have less need of this art, but all may be more or less benefitted by it."--Dr. Franklin.

BUSINESS AND RETIREMENT,

ALTERNATELY enjoyed, contribute greatly towards the happiness of human life. Duly apportioned, it has been found the source of no inconsiderable pleasure and satisfaction.

"The inherent dignity of the soul makes it sometimes disdain petty occupations, and love to retire into the proud state of meditation. There it enters into the operations of omnipo. tence, and the views of infinite wisdom, looks with delight through the infinite gradations of beings, and with amazement round the boundless system of creation! It exults at feeling it. self an intelligent spectator of such a majestic scene, and in the arrogance of its reasoning, and the pride of its reveries, wonders how it could ever condescend to the low commerce of ordinary life, and says to itself: It will for the future dream of state! But Alma, by the mo. ther's side, a poor mechanic, satiated with the long idleness of a summer's holiday, again cries out for her shop and her tools, leaves the abstracted beings the life of meditation, and wisely

says: Her business lies chiefly where she can add to the comfort and happiness of her fellow creatures! However, my lord, do not imagine that I think less than you do that a pleasing retirement may improve the virtue of your pos terity, by drawing them sometimes from busy to contemplative life. In a sweet retirement, I imagine, the mind keeps time to the music of the spheres, its movements are not affected by prejudices or bad examples, but keep even and true measure with reason and its appointed duties. In the bustle of the world we are often impelled to what is wrong, diverted from what is right, and carried about in the whirl of fashion and predominant opinions !--Mrs. Montague.

MAN

STANDS at the head of this lower creation. This accords with the account of Moses the Jew. ish legislator, and is confirmed by observation and history.

"MAN holds a legitimate dominion over the brute animals which no revolution can destroy. It is the dominion of mind over matter, a right of nature founded upon unalterable laws, a gift of the Almighty, by which man is enabled at all times to perceive the dignity of his being; for his power is not derived from his being the most perfect, the strongest, or the most dexterous of all animals. If he had only the first rank in the order of animals, the inferior tribes would unite and dispute his title to sovereignty. But man reigns and commands from the superiority of his nature. He thinks, and therefore he is master of all beings who are not endowed with this inestimable talent. Material bodies are

likewise subject to his power, to his will they can oppose only a gross resistance or an obstinate inflexibility, which his hand is always able to overcome by making them act against each other. He is master of the vegetable tribes which, by his industry he can with pleasure augment or diminish, multiply or destroy! He reigns over the animal creation, because like them he is not only endowed with sentiment, and the power of motion, but because he thinks, distinguishes ends and means, directs his actions, concerts his operations, overcomes force by ingenuity, and swiftness by perseverance."-Buffon.

COLUMBUS.

THE following singular description of the per. son and character of this great navigator and discoverer of America, is worthy of attention; it is drawn by his son, Don Ferdinand Columbus.

"THE Admiral was well shaped, and of a more than middling stature, long visaged, his cheeks somewhat full, yet neither fat nor lean, he had a hawk nose, his eyes white, and his complection was white with a lovely red. In his youth his hair was fair, but when he came to thirty years of age, it all turned grey. He was always modest and sparing in his eating, drinking, and his dress. Among strangers he was affable, and pleasant among his domestics, yet with modesty and easy gratuity. He was so strict in his religious matters, that for fasting, and saying all the divine offices, he might be thought professed in some religious order. great was his aversion to cursing and swearing, that I protest I never heard him swear any other oath but by St. Ferdinand, and when in

So

the greatest passion with any body he would vent his spleen by saying God take you for doing or saying so! When he was to write, his way of trying his pen was by writing these words Jesus cum Maria sit nobis in via,' and that in such a character as might well serve to get his bread. In his tender years he applied himself so much to study at Pavia, as was suffi⚫cient to understand cosmography (or geography) to which sort of reading he was much addicted, for which reason he also applied himself to astronomy and geometry, because these sciences are so linked together, that the one cannot subsist without the other. And because Ptolemy, in the beginning of his cosmography, says, that no man can be a good cosmographer unless he be a painter too, therefore he learned to draw in order to describe lands, and set down cosmographical bodies plain or round."

ANXIETY OF PARENTS

Is natural and proper, but it ought to be regulated and controlled; it cannot be repressed, but it must be thrown into its appropriate channel.

"THE future prospects and condition of our children afford a wide field for imagination, and give the auxions parent many alternate hours of uneasiness and pleasure. To picture in our minds their future advancement and happiness, their success in the acquisition of fame, wealth, honours, respect, or learning, just as suits our ideas of what is good and right; to fancy we behold in them the friends of mankind, the amiable patterns of conjugal life, or the learned instructors of future times, repays us in some

« PreviousContinue »