Page images
PDF
EPUB

12. The book of nature is always open to our view, and we may study it at our leifureTis elder fcripture, writ by God's own hand." "The earth, the air, the fea, the rivers, the mountains, the rocks, the caverns, the animal and vegetable tribes are fraught with inftruction. Nature is not half explored; and in what is partly known there are many myfteries, which time, obfervation and experience muft unfold.

13. Every focial library, among other books, fhould be farmifhed with thefe of natural philosophy, botany, zoology, chymistry, hufbandry, geography and aftronomy; that enquiring minds may be directed in their inquiries; that they may fee what is known and what ftill remains to be discovered; and that they may employ their leifure and their various opportunities in endeavoring to add to the flock of fcience, and thus enrich the world with their obfervations and improvements.

14 Suffer me to add a few words on the ufe of spirituSous liquor, that bane of fociety, that deftroyer of health, morals and property. Nature indeed has furnished her vegetable productions with spirit; but flie has fo combined it with other fubftances, that unless her work be tortured by fire, the fpirit is not feparated, and cannnot prove pernicious. Why fhould this force be put on nature to make her tyield a noxious draught, when all her original preparations are falutary ?

15 The juice of the apple, the fermentation of barley, and the decoction of fpruce are amply fufficient for the refreshment of man, let his labor be ever fo fevere, and his perfpiration ever fo expanfive. Our forefathers, for many years after the fettlement of the country, knew not the ufe of filled fpirits.

16. Malt was imported from England, and wine from the Western or Canary lands, with which they were refreshed, before their own fields and orchards yielded them a fupply. An expedition was once undertaken against a nåtion of Indians, when there was but one pint of strong wa-ter as it was then called) in the whole army, and that was referved for the fick; yet no complaint was made for want of refreshment.

17. Could we but return to the primitive manners of our ancestors, in this refpect, we fhould be free from maBy of the diforders, both of body and mind which are

now experienced. The difufe of ardent fpirits would f tend to abolith the infamous traffic in flaves, by whofe la bor this baneful material is procured.

18. Divine Providence feems to be preparing the way for the deftruction of that deteftable commerce. The infurrec tions of the blacks in the Weft-Indies have already frea defolation over the moft fertile plantations, and greatly raifed the price of thofe commodities which we have been used to import from thence.

19. If we could check the confumption of diftilled fi rits, and enter with vigor into the manufacture of maple fugars, of which our forefts would afford an ample fupply, the demand for Weft-India productions might be iminifhed; the plantations in the islands would not need fresh recruits from Africa; the planters would treat wish humanity their remaining blacks; the market for Alaves would become lefs inviting; and the navigation, which is now employed in the most pernicious fpecies of commerce which ever difgraced humanity, would be turned into fome other channel.

20. Were I to form a picture of happy fociety, it would be a town confifting of a due mixture of hills, vallies, and ftreams of water. The land well fenced and cultivated; the roads and bridges in good repair; a decent inn for the refreshment of travellers, and for public entertainments, The inhabitants mostly husbandmen; their wives and daughters domeftic manufacturers; a fuitable proportion of handicraft workmen, and two or three traders; a phyfician and lawyer, each of whom should have a farm for his fupport.

A clergyman of good understanding, of a candid difpofition and exemplary morals not a metayhysical nor a polemic, but a ferious and practical preacher. A fehool mafter who should understand his bufinefs, and teach his pupils to govern themselves. A focial library, annually encreafing, and under, good regulation.

22. A club of fenfible men, feeking mutual improve. ment. A decent musical fociety. No intriguing politician, houfe jocky, gambler or fot; but all fuch characters treated with contempt. Such a fituation may be confide red as the most favorable to focial happiness of any which this world can afford.

CONJUGAL AFFECTION.

Baron Haller, on the death of his wife, from "Curiosi ties of Literature."

1.

"SH HALL I fing thy death, Marianne ? What a theme! When my fighs interrupt my words and one idea flies before the other! The pleafures thou didst beftow on me, now augment my forrows. I open the wounds of a heart that yet bleeds and thy death is renovated to me.

2. But my paffion was too violent-thou didst merit it too well; and thine infage is too deeply engraven on ny foul, to permit me to be filent. The expreffions of thy love revivify, in fome degree, my felicity; they afford mea tender recollection of our faithful union as a remembrance 'thou wouldst have left to me.

the artificial which escape Yes, I am go

3. Thefe are not lines dictated by wit: complaints of a poet. They are purturbed fighs from a heart not fufficient for its anguifh. ing to paint my troubled foul, affected by love and grief, not only occupied by the moft diftreffing images, wanders in a labyrinth of affiction.

4. I fee thee yet, fuch as thou waft at death. I approached thee, touched by the moft lively defpair. Thou didft call back thy laft ftrength to exprefs one word, which I yet afked from thee. O foul, fraught with the pureft fentiments, thou didst only appear difturbed for my afflictions; thy laft expreffions were only those of love and tenderness; and thy laft actions only thofe of refignas

tion.

5. Whither fhall Ify? Where fhall I find in this contry, an afylum, which only offers to me objects of terror ? This houfe in which I loft thee; this facred dome in which repofe thy afhes; thefe children-Ah! my blood chills at the view of thofe tender images of thy beauty, 'whofe artlefs voices call for their mother-Whither fhall I dy Why cannot I fly to thee?

6. Does not my heart owe thee the fincere tears Here thou hadft no other friend. but me. It was I who fnatched thee from the bofom of thy family; thou' dift quit them to follow me. I deprived thee of a country where thou waft loved by relatives who cherished thee, to condnet thee, alas, to the tomb!

7. In thofe fad adieus with which "thy fifter embraced thee, while the country gradually fading from our eyes, the loft our glances; then with a foftened kindness, mingled with a tender refignation, thou didft fay, I depart with tranquillity; what can I regret? My Haller accompanies me.

8. Can I recollect without tears, the day that united me to thee. Yet even now, foftened pleafure, mingles with my forrows, and rapture with my affliction. How tenderly loved thy heart! that heart which could forget every thing, birth, beauty and wealth! and which notwithftanding the avowal I made of my fortune, only valued me for my fentiments.

9. Soon thou didst refign thy youth, and quit the world, to be entirely mine! Superior to ordinary virtue, thou waft only beautiful for me. Thy heart was alone attached to mine: careless of thy fate thou waft alone troubled with my lighteft forrows, and enraptured with a glance that expreffed content.

10. A will, detached from the vanity of the world, and refigned to heaven: content and a fweet tranquillity, that neither joy nor grief could difturb; wifdom in the education of thy children; a heart overflowing with tendernels, yet free from weaknefs; a heart made to footh my forrows; it was this that formed my pleasures, and that Forms my griefs.

II. And thus I loved thee-more than the world could believe more than I knew myfelf. How often in embracing thee with ardor, has my heart thought with trembling, Ah! If I fhould lofe her!-How often have f wept in fecret!

12. Yes, my grief will laft, even when time fhall have dried my tears; the heart knows other tears than thofe which cover the face. The first flame of my youth, the fadly pleafing recollection of thy tendernefs, the admiration of thy virtue, are an eternal debt for my heart.

13. In the depth of the thickeft woods, under the green hade of the beach, where none will witnefs my complaints, I will feek for thy amiable image, and nothing fhall diftra& my recollection. There I fhall fee thy graceful mein, thy fadnefs when I parted from thee, thy tenderness when I embraced thes, thy joy at my return.

14. In the fublime abode of the celeftial regions I will follow thee; I will feek for thee beyond the ftars that roll beneath thy feet. It is there that thy innocence will fhine in the fplendor of heavenly light; it is there that with new strength thy foul fhall enlarge its ancient boundaries.

15. It is there that, accuftoming thyfelf to the light of divinity, thou findeft thy felicity in its councils; and, that thou mingleft thy voice with the angelic choir, and a prayer in my favor. There thou learnest the utility of my affliction. God unfolds to thee the volume of fate! thou readeft his defigns in our feparation, and the clofe of my

career.

16. O foul of perfection, which I loved with fuch arder, but which I think I loved not enough, how amiable art then in the celeftial fplendor that environs thee! A lively hope elevates me; refufe not thyfelf to my vows; open thy arms, I fly to be united eternally with thee.

I

IN

STORY OF LOGAN, A MINGO CHIEF.

N the fpring of the year 1774, a robbery and murder were committed on an inhabitant of the frontiers of Virginia by two Indians, of the Shawahefe tribe. The neighboring whites, according to their cultor, undertook to punish this outrage in a fummary way. Colonel Cre. fap, a man infamous for the many murders he had commit ted on thofe much injured people, collected a party, and proceeded down the Kanhaway, in quest of vengeance.

2. Unfortunately, a cance of women and children, with one man only, was feen coming from the oppofite fhore, unarmed, and unfufpecting any hostile attack from the whites. Crefap and his party concealed themselves on the bank of the river; and the moment the canoe reached the fhore fingled out their objects, and, at one fire, killed every perfon in it.

3. This happened to be the family of Logan, who had long been distinguished as the friend of the whites. This unworthy return provoked his vengeance. He accordingly finalized himself in the war which enfued.

4. In the autumn of the fame year, a decifive battle was fought at the mouth of the Great Kanhaway, between the

« PreviousContinue »