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and her exertions had not been in vain. How well he repaid her for her kind care may be seen in the following story:

I leave the young stranger on his arrival in this Babylon, to wander without a friend? No, I point him to the office of "The British and Foreign Young Men's Society," where When about fourteen years of age, he beas a stranger, bearing with him testimonials came strongly inclined to go to sea, with a of good character, he may be informed of a view of enlisting in the service of "the moband of kindred spirits, who invite his ac-ther country," at that time engaged in a war quaintance, and solicit his presence and with France and Spain. co-operation in their weekly meetings for mutual improvement, and for general usefulness; and after directing him to a lodginghouse where all immorality is frowned on, the Committee will be found ready to furnish him with such further guidance as they may be capable of.

It was surprising that a youth so young, and who had been abroad so little, should have had the moral courage to quit country and friends, on a purpose so full of danger. But, so it was. He was resolved to go. Preparation had been made. A midshipman's berth had been procured for him on board a British man of war, then lying in sight of his mother's house; and even his trunk was on board.

Thus introduced, it is manifest that much has been done towards his preservation from evil, and the maturing of what is valuable in his character, from the advantages of a well- When the precise time arrived when he selected library, of public lectures, and of the was to go, he passed into the sitting-room of private meetings of the associations with his mother, to take his leave of her. She was which he becomes connected. But the bene-seated, and in tears. fits of the society do not cease when he takes his departure from the metropolis to a distant, or even foreign city. He is introduced to kindred societies; and when hundreds or thousands of miles from his father's roof, or his native shores, he may participate in many, if not all, the blessings with which he was favoured in this metropolis. Already Young Men's Societies exist in many of the principal cities of Britain and America; and it is the design of the society not only to correspond with such societies, but to increase

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He approached her, and putting his arms about her neck, affectionately kissed her. He was about to bid her "farewell;" but he hesitated. Her affection and affliction unmanned him. He was young and ambitious; and at that early day the spirit of patriotism, which so nobly characterized him in after life, in respect to his country, was stirring within him. Yet, the filial feelings of his heart were stronger than any other ties; and here, nobly sacrificing his pride and ambition, he relinquished his purpose, and stayed to comfort her who gave him birth.

It was a noble self-denial. And in the now more than forty years that the writer of this has been upon the stage, and watched the course of human events, he can bear his testimony to the uniform prosperity of such as have honoured father and mother. There is a promise recorded in favour of filial piety, and a God, who never forgets it, and never fails to fulfil it.

But my story is unfinished. The boat, which was conveying officers and men and baggage from the shore to the ship, continued to ply. At length, she returned on shore for the last time. A signal flag was hoisted to denote that all was ready.

ments.

OUR American friends have recently published a small volume of anecdotes of this George was standing, viewing the moveSeveral of his companions now envery extraordinary man, for the use of young persons, from which we extract the follow-tered the boat, which presently was urged ing instance of his affection for his mo- towards the ship by several lusty oarsmen.

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As they approached her, the signal gun for sailing was fired. The flash, followed by the report, was noticed by George; soon after which the sails rose majestically one after another.

George could no longer bear the sight with calmness, but turned away, and entered the room where his mother sat.

She observed the grief which sat upon his state; such as the "Principia" of Newton, countenance; upon which she said, "I fear, and the pyramids of Egypt; without reflectmy son, that you have repented your deter-ing on the gradual, continuous, I had almost mination to stay at home, and make me said creeping progress, by which they grew happy." into objects of the greatest magnificence in the literary and physical world. In the one case, indeed, we may fancy the chisel which wrought each successive stone, but in the other we cannot trace the process by which the philosopher was raised from one landing place to another, till he soared to his tower

"My dear mother," he replied, at the same time placing his arms about her neck, and giving vent to his feelings with a gush of tears, “I did strongly wish to go; but I could not endure being on board the ship, and know that you were unhappy." "Well, my dear boy," said Mrs. W., re-ing elevation: it seems as if the work were turning his embrace, "I deeply feel your tenderness towards your mother, and trust that God will not let your filial affection go unrewarded."

DR. CHALMERS'S ADVICE TO STUDENTS: -With respect to your habits of study, I shall not attempt to lay down the proportion of time to be devoted to the various subjects I have indicated; I have placed them in the order of importance; but must leave the rest to yourselves. I should not think it well if a monotonous and mechanical uniformity prevailed among you: many will rise above the general level, and it belongs to yourselves to determine in what walk you will attain the rank of mastership. But I consider it indispensable that each should make a distribution of time for himself, so that each hour may find its fixed and determinate employment; it must not be a ramble, but a routine. You will thus make ten times the progress; and have hours to spare for recreation. your age of buoyant hopes, I cannot imagine a more delightful alternation than that of successful study, and the converse of friends, or exhilarating walks.

At

More is to be expected from laborious mediocrity, than from the erratic efforts of a wayward genius. There may be a harlequin in mind as well as in body; and I always consider him to have been of this character, who boasted that he could throw off a hundred verses while standing on one leg it is not to such a source as this we are indebted for good poetry. Demosthenes elaborated sentence after sentence; and Newton rose to the heavens by the steps of geometry, and said, at the close of his career, that it was only in the habit of patient thinking he was conscious of differing from other men. It is generally thought that men are signalized more by talent than by industry; it is felt to be a vulgarizing of genius to attribute it to anything but direct inspiration from Heaven: they overlook the steady and persevering devotion of mind to one subject. There are higher and lower walks in scholarship, but the highest is a walk of labour. We are often led into a contrary opinion, by looking at the magnitude of the object in its finished

produced at the bidding of a magician. But Newton has left as a legacy the assurance, that it was not power, but patience. He did not look down on the crowd, as though he born inspiration, out of the reach of many, had attained his elevation by dint of a heavenbut by dint of a homely virtue within the

reach of all.

It was a good reply of Dr. Johnson, when asked if a man should wait for an "afflatus" before he began to write; -" No, sir; he should sit down doggedly." Now if you wait for an "afflatus," the probability is it will never arrive; if deficient in your prescribed exercises, I shall hardly deem it a sufficient excuse, that you have had "afflatus." Such a life must be a delightful alternation of indolence and self-complacence. In his careless wanderings abroad, he might solace himself with the reflection

no

keep him at home. It would be a day of enjoyment, but a day without any result.

that he had no visit from his "afflatus" to

SUPERSTITION.-What we call a "falling star" (and which the Arabs term shiha'b) is commonly believed to be a dart thrown by God at an evil gin'nee; and the Egyptians, when they see it, exclaim, "May God transfix the enemy of the faith!" The evil gin'nees are commonly termed 'Efree'ts. The existence of 'efree'ts must be believed by the Moos'lim on account of the occurrence, in the Ckoor'an of these words, 'efree't from among the ginn answered" (chap. xxvi. ver. 39); which words Sale translates, "a terrible genius answered." They are generally believed to differ from the other ginn in being very powerful, and always malicious; but to be, in other respects, of a similar nature.

"An

A curious relic of ancient Egyptian superstition must here be mentioned. It is believed that each quarter in Cairo has its peculiar guardian-genius, or agathodæmon, which has the form of a serpent. The ancient tombs of Egypt, and the dark recesses of the temples, are commonly believed, by the people of this country, to be inhabited by 'efree'ts. I found it impossible to persuade one of my servants to enter the Great Py

me, from his having this idea. CHRISTIANITY MUST Way of the Arabs ascribe the erection of herands, and all the most stupendous remains of antiquity in Egypt, to Ga'n Ib'n Ga, and his servants, the ginn: conceiving t impossible that they could have been raised by human hands-Lane's Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians. 1836.

to have forgotten this.-Cecil.

UNDERGO A RENOVATION.-If God has sent his Son, and has declared that he will exalt him on his throne, the earth and all that it inherit are contemptible in the view of such a plan. If this be God's design, proceed it does, and proceed it will. Christianity is such a holy and spiritual affair, that perhaps all human institutions are to be destroyed to make way GOLDSMITH'S INDEPENDENCE AND DISfor it. Men may fashion things as they will; INTERSPEDNESS.-"A few months," writes Mr. Montague, "before the death of Dr. God on their institutions, they will remain but if there is no effusion of the Spirit of Scott, author of Anti-Sejanus and other poli-barren and lifeless. Many Christians appear tical racts in support of Lord North's administration, I happened to dine with him in company with my friend Sir George Tuthill, who was the doctor's physician. After dinner Dr. Scott mentioned, as matter of astosh.neat and a proof of the folly of men who are according to common opinion ignorant of the world, that he was once sent with a carte blanche from the ministry to Oliver Goldsmith to induce him to write in favour of the administration. I found him,' said the dector, in a miserable set of chambers in the Temple: I told him my authority; I told him that I was empowered to pay most liberally for his exertions, and, would you be lieve it! he was so absurd as to say,-I can earn as much as will supply my wants without writing for any party; the assistance there fore you offer is unnecessary to me, and so I left him," added Dr. Scott, in his gar

ret.'"

IDLERS. The idle levy a very heavy tax upon the industrious, when, by frivolous visitations, they rob them of their time. Such persons beg their daily happiness from door to door, as beggars their daily bread; and, like them, sometimes meet with a rebuff. A mere gossip ought not to wonder if we evince signs that we are tired of him, seeing that we are indebted for the honour of his visit solely to the circumstance of his being tired of himself. He sits at home until he has accumulated an intolerable load of ennui, and he sallies forth to distribute it amongst all his acquaintance.-Lacon.

YOUTH LEAVING HOME.-The pain which is felt when we are first transplanted from our native soil, when the living branch is cut from the parent tree, is one of the most poignant which we have to endure through Akin to the disinterestedness which in-life. There are after griefs which wound duced him to refuse the proposal from the more deeply, which leave behind them scars ministry, the following story is told. Having never to be effaced, which bruise the spirit, received for the Deserted Village a note and sometimes break the heart: but never for one hundred guineas, he was wid by a do we feel so keenly the want of love, the friend whom he met when returning rom necessity of being loved, and the sense of the bookseller, that it was a large su or a utter desertion, as when we first leave the short performances and seeming to be of he haven of home, and are, as it were, pushed same opinion by the reward chara was of upon the stream of life.-Southey. more perhaps than the honest ma vaid ford" de planned and deng To

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A FAULT OF THE ENGLISH.-There is one great vice in English society, not indeed eculiar to them, but yet strongly marked.

CHOICE OF Creviers-Say his own tests under a specious name, and at first ale never to be dead that would seem to be an axiom in morals, or

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Che social relations. They express it as folPs. Let every one know and keep his own Adve" But, when interpreted by its exem

icacions, it may generally be taken as nowrig in the mouth of him who uses it, wg ke this: "Let every one who is amber me, stay there. Let him not * 20 aspire." Thus every class cone keep down those who are below Co's Four Years in Great Britain,

1341

Ludgate-Hill.

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your places, and perform your parts, "Youth," says

THE IMPORT OF THE APPELLATION, in its busy scenes.

66 YOUNG MEN."

Dr. Johnson, "is the time from fourteen to twenty-eight." Within this privileged enclosure, and on this envied elevation, you stand. What a

YOUNG MEN, in commencing my remarks with this appellation, I desire, not merely to specify the class I propose to address, but also to possess rich distinction above the rest of soyou with an idea of the high import ciety! What a bright and boundless of your distinctive name. As human prospect all around! What gratitude beings, you are distinguished from all should fill your hearts to the gloother orders of sentient existence; rious Being who has conferred that you belong to a race whose nature distinction, and lighted up that prosallies you to the dust and to the pect! As young men, you are disDeity, whose moral relations reach tinguished from those who have atto the throne of God, whose eventful tained the meridian of life; they, for history resounds through the uni- the most part, have chosen their staverse, and whose unknown capabili- tions, and occupy the spheres, in ties require the amplitude of other which they are likely to end their worlds, and the ages of eternity, to days; while you, to a certain extent, evolve and employ. As men, you have "the world before you where are distinguished from about one half to choose." Between you and the of your own species; you constitute aged the difference is still greater. a sex,—that sex on whose head God" When we say a man is young," has been pleased to place the crown says Locke, "we mean that his age of sovereignty, and on which de- is yet but a small part of that which volves, by necessity of nature, the usually men attain to: and when we active duties of public life, and all the denominate him old, we mean that great movements of society. As young his duration is run out almost to the men, you are distinguished from all end of that which men do not usually those of your own sex who are still exceed." We mean, especially, that in the age of childhood and ado- whatever the privileges and possibililescence. The appellation implies, ties of life may be, the old man has that one stage of your life is passed had them; and that, whether he has already you have been children, improved them or not, he is about to but, in a literal sense, you can be quit them for ever; while the young such no more. You have "put away man is only beginning to possess childish things," and have assumed them." the toga virilis. You are crossing

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Young Men-it is a title, the the threshold of active life, to take highest title in the gift and heraldry

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and spiritual affair, that perhaps all human institutions are to be destroyed to make way for it. Men may fashion things as they will; but if there is no effusion of the Spirit of God on their institutions, they will remain barren and lifeless. Many Christians appear to have forgotten this.-Cecil.

IDLERS. The idle levy a very heavy

visitations, they rob them of their time. Such persons beg their daily happiness from door to door, as beggars their daily bread; and, like them, sometimes meet with a rebuff. A mere gossip ought not to wonder if we evince signs that we are tired of him, seeing that we are indebted for the honour of his visit solely to the circumstance of his being tired of himself. He sits at home until he has accumulated an intolerable load of ennui, and he sallies forth to distribute it amongst all his acquaintance.-Lacon.

YOUTH LEAVING HOME.-The pain which is felt when we are first transplanted from our native soil, when the living branch is cut from the parent tree, is one of the most poignant which we have to endure through life. There are after griefs which wound more deeply, which leave behind them scars never to be effaced, which bruise the spirit, and sometimes break the heart: but never do we feel so keenly the want of love, the necessity of being loved, and the sense of utter desertion, as when we first leave the haven of home, and are, as it were, pushed off upon the stream of life.-Southey.

A FAULT OF THE ENGLISH.-There is one great vice in English society, not indeed peculiar to them, but yet strongly marked. It exists under a specious name, and at first sight would seem to be an axiom in morals, or in the social relations. They express it as follows: "Let every one know and keep his own place" But, when interpreted by its exemplifications, it may generally be taken as meaning, in the mouth of him who uses it, something like this: "Let every one who is ole or under me, stay there. Let him not resume to aspire." Thus every class con

s to keep down those who are below Colton's Four Years in Great Britain,

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