Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

8. But if he sees you at a billiard-table, or hears your voice at a tavern, when you should be at work, he sends for his money the next day, and demands it before he can receive it in a lump.

9. It shows, besides, that you are mindful of what you owe; it makes you appear a careful, as well as an honest man, and that still increases your credit.

10. Beware of thinking all your own that you possess, and of living accordingly. It is a mistake that many people who have credit fall into. To prevent this, keep an exaet account, for some time, both of your expenses and your in

come.

11. If you take the pains at first to mention particulars, it will have this good effect; you will discover how wonderfully, small, trifling expenses, mount up to large sums, and will discern what might have been, and may for the future be saved, without occasioning any great inconvenience.

12. In short, the way to wealth, if you desire it, is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on two words, industry and frugality; that is, waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality, nothing will do, and with them, every thing will do.

13. He, who gets all he can honestly, and saves all he gets, (necessary expenses excepted) will certainly become rich; if that Being who governs the world, to whom all should look for a blessing on their honest endeavours, doth not, in his wise providence, otherwise determine.

PARENTAL AFFECTION. STORY OF THE BEAR.

THE white bear of Greenland and Spitsbergen is considerably larger than the brown bear of Europe, or the black bear of America. This bear is often seen on floats of ice, several leagues at sea. The following is copied from the journal of a voyage, for making discoveries towards the North Pole.

2. Early in the morning, the man at the mast-head gave notice that three bears were making their way very fast over the ice, and directing their course towards the ship. They had probably been invited by the blubber of a sea-horse, which the men had set on fire, and which was burning on the ice at the time of their approach.

3. They proved to be a she bear and her two cubs; but the cubs were nearly as large as the dam. They ran eagerly to the fire, and drew out from the flames part of the flesh of the sea-horse, which remained unconsumed, and ate it voraciously.

4. The crew from the ship threw great pieces of the flesh, which they had still left, upon the ice, which the old bear carried away singly, laid every piece before her cubs, and, dividing them, gave each a share, reserving but a small portion to herself. As she was carrying away the last piece, they levelled their muskets at the cubs, and shot them both dead; and in her retreat, they wounded the dam, but not mortally.

5. It would have drawn tears of pity from any but unfeeling minds, to have marked the affectionate concern manifested by this poor beast, in the moments of her expiring young. Though she was sorely wounded, and could but just crawl to the place where they lay, she carried the lump of flesh she had fetched away, as she had done the others before, tore it in pieces, and laid it down before them; and when she saw they refused to eat, she laid her paws first upon one, and then upon the other, and endeavoured to raise them up. 6. All this while it was piteous to hear her moan. When she found she could not stir them, she went off, and when at some distance, looked back and moaned; and that not availing to entice them away, she returned, and smelling around them, began to lick their wounds.

7. She went off a second time, as before; and having crawled a few paces, looked again behind her, and for some time stood moaning. But still her cubs not rising to follow her, she returned to them again, and with signs of inexpressible fondness, went round one and round the other, pawing them, and moaning.

8. Finding at last that they were cold and lifeless, she raised her head towards the ship, and growled her resent

ment at the murderers, which they returned with a volley of musket balls. She fell between her cubs, and died licking their wounds.

9. What child can read this interesting story, and not feel in his heart the warmest emotions of gratitude, for the stronger and more permanent tenderness he has experienced from his parents; while, at the same time, he feels his displeasure arising towards those who treat with wanton barbarity any of the brute creation!

THE VICTIM. AN INDIAN STORY.

A CHOCTAW Indian, having one day ex

pressed himself in the most reproachful terms of the French, and called the Collapissas their dogs and their slaves, one of this nation, exasperated at his injurious expressions, laid him dead upon the spot.

2. The Choctaws, then the most numerous and the most warlike tribe on the continent, immediately flew to arms.They sent deputies to New-Orleans, to demand from the French governour the head of the savage, who had fled to him for protection.

3. The governour offered presents as an atonement, but they were rejected with disdain; and they threatened to exterminate the whole tribe of the Collapissas. To pacify this fierce nation, and prevent the effusion of blood, it was at length found necessary to deliver up the unhappy Indian.

4. The Sieur Ferrand, commander of the German posts on the right of the Mississippi, was charged with this melancholy commission. A rendezvous was, in consequence, appointed between the settlement of the Collapissas and the German post, where the mournful ceremony was conducted in the following manner.

5. The Indian victim, whose name was Mingo, was produced. He rose up, and, agreeably to the custom of the people, harangued the assembly to the following purpose.

6. "I am a true man; that is to say, I fear not death; but I lament the fate of my wife and four infant children,

whom I leave behind in a very tender age. I lament too my father and my mother, whom I have long maintained by hunting. Them, however, I recommend to the French, since, on their account, I now fall a sacrifice."

7. Scarcely had he finished this short and pathetick harangue, when the old father, struck with the filial affection of his son, arose, and thus addressed himself to his audience.

8. "My son is doomed to death: but he is young and vigorous, and more capable than I, to support his mother, his wife, and four infant children. It is necessary, then, that he remain upon the earth, to protect and provide for them. As for me, who draw towards the end of my career, I have lived long enough. May my son attain to my age, that he may bring up his tender infants. I am no longer good for any thing; a few years more or less are to me of small importance. I have lived as a man. I will die as a man. I therefore take the place of my son.

9. At these words, which expressed his parental love and greatness of soul in the most touching manner, his wife, his son, his daughter-in-law, and the little infants, melted into tears, around this brave, this generous old man. He embraced them for the last time, exhorted them to be ever faithful to the French, and to die rather than betray them by any mean treachery unworthy of his blood. "My death," concluded he, "I consider necessary for the safety of the nation, and I glory in the sacrifice."

10. Having thus delivered himself, he presented his head to the kinsmen of the deceased Choctaw, and they accepted it. He then extended himself over the trunk of a tree, when, with a hatchet, they severed his head from his body.

EXTRACT FROM THE SPEECH OF THE IRISH ORATOR PHIL

LIPS, PREVIOUS TO PROPOSING AS A TOAST, AT A PUB-LICK DINNER IN IRELAND, "THE IMMORTAL MEMORY OF GEORGE WASHINGTON."

THE mention of America has never failed to fill me with the most lively emotions. In my earliest infancy,

that tender season, when impressions, at once the most per manent and the most powerful, are likely to be excited, the story of her then recent struggle raised a throb in every heart that loved liberty, and wrung a reluctant tribute even from discomfited oppression.

2. I saw her spurning the luxuries that would enervate, and the legions that would intimidate; dashing from her lips the poisoned cup of European servitude, and through all the vicissitudes of her protracted conflict, displaying a magnanimity that defied misfortune, and a moderation that gave new grace to victory. It was the first vision of my childhood, it will descend with me to the grave.

3. But if as a man I venerate the mention of America, what must be my feelings towards her as an Irishman! Never, while memory remains, can Ireland forget the home of her emigrant, and the asylum of her exile. No matter whether their sorrows were real or imaginary, that must be reserved for the scrutiny of those whom the lapse of time shall acquit of partiality.

4. It is for the men of other ages to investigate and record it, but surely it is for the men of every age to hail the hospitality that received the shelterless, and love the feeling that befriended the unfortunate. Search creation round, where can you find a country that presents so sublime a view, so interesting an anticipation?

5. The oppressed of all countries, the martyrs of every creed, the innocent victim of despotick arrogance or superstitious frenzy, may there find refuge; his industry encouraged, his piety respected, his ambition animated; with no restraint but those laws which are the same to all, and no distinction but that which his merit may originate.

6. Who can deny that the existence of such a country presents a subject for human congratulation! Who can deny that its gigantick advancement offers a field for the most rational conjecture! Who shall say that when, in its follies or its crimes, the old world may have interred all the pride of its power, and all the pomp of its civilization, human nature may not find its destined renovation in the new.

7. For myself, I have no doubt of it; I have not the least doubt that when our temples and our trophies shall have mouldered into dust, when the glories of our name shall be

« AnteriorContinua »