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Oh! how unlike the bloody bed

Where pride and passion seek to lie;
Where faith is not! where hope can shed
No holy tear of sympathy!

Where withering thoughts shall drop around,
In dampness on the lonely mound.

On Jordan's weeping willow trees,
Another holy harp is hung;

It murmurs in as soft a breeze,

As e'er from Gilead's balm was flung,
When Judah's tears in Babel's stream
Dropt, and when "Zion was the theme."

So may the harp of Gabriel sound,
In the high heaven to welcome thee,
When, rising from the holy ground
Of Nazareth and Galilee,

The saints of God shall take their flight
In raptures to the realms of light.

AVOID EXTREMES.

THERE is nothing in human conduct we ought more carefully to avoid than running into extremes. All the moral virtues lie between two extremes. The virtue of temperance lies between gluttony and abstinence; the virtue of courage between rashness and cowardice; the virtue of liberality between prodigality and parsimony; and so of the rest.

True virtue consists in moderation, in the restraining of our passions, and keeping us from running into excess; the middle course is that which we ought always to choose, as being the most likely to lead us to virtue and happiness. And as it is much easier to fall into extremes, than

to keep the medium; those, therefore, who wish to obtain health and happiness, must shun every kind of excess, or they will infallibly subject themselves to difficulty and dis

asters.

PROVERBS.

If it were not for hope the heart would break.
In a calm sea, every man is a pilot.

Alms-giving never made any man poor, nor robbery rich, nor prosperity wise.

A liar is not believed when he speaks the truth.
Forget other's faults, by remembering your own.

It costs more to revenge injuries than to bear them.
Never be weary of well doing.

One ill example spoils many good precepts.

REVENGE.

REVENGE is usually conceived in anger but often executed with coolness, and sometimes even in the dark. Whatever injuries you may receive, never allow yourself for a moment to meditate a purpose of retaliation. Never, under any circumstances of provocation, depart from the golden rule; never form a desire, nor form a wish to return evil for evil.

Nothing is more noble than to be able to forgive an injury, instead of inflicting injury again. You remember that most beautiful and touching instance, in which the Saviour, in death, commended to the forgiveness of his Father, his enemies and murderers. Who ever doubted that the imitation of such an example would not confer true dignity of character ?

THOUGHTS AT SEA.

HERE is the boundless ocean, there the sky

O'erarching broad and blue,

Telling of God and heaven, how deep, how high,

How glorious and true!

Upon the wave there is an anthem sweet,

Whisper'd in fear and love,

Sending a solemn tribute to the feet

Of Him who sits above.

God of the waters! Nature owns her king!
The sea thy sceptre knows;

At thy command the tempest spreads its wing,
Or folds it to repose.

And when the whirlwind hath gone rushing by,
Obedient to thy will,

What reverence sits upon the wave and sky,
Humbled, subdued and still!

THE PRESENCE OF GOD.

In all companies and in all places, remember the presence of God. God is everywhere present. He is with us in our daily actions to preserve us, in our recreations to restrain us, in our public actions, to applaud or approve us, in our private actions to observe us, in our sleep to guard us, in our watchings to refresh us.

Everything we see represents to us the presence, the excellency and the power of God; and if we walk with God in all his ways, as he walks with us in all ours, we shall find perpetual reasons to enable us to keep that sacred rule, "Rejoice in the Lord always!"

CHINESE WOMEN.

FEMALES in China do not hold that rank, nor enjoy those privileges, which, in more cultivated nations are conceived to be their due. They are generally very ignorant, their instruction being principally in domestic affairs. A learned lady is so uncommon, that her attainments are a theme of discourse; she is immortalized in odes, and her fair resemblance is magnificently illuminated on fans, screens, &c., for the admiration of posterity.

The poorer classes are engaged in various menial offices; while those of rank employ their time in music, smoking, and other similar accomplishments. A lady of fashion, is of course, supposed guiltless of any manual labor, and consequently, the nails are permitted to acquire an enormous length, particularly that of the little finger.

These ladies smoke much, and their pipes usually formed of slender bamboo, the bowl of silver, or white copper, and the mouth-piece of amber, or valuable stone, are, in many instances, singularly elegant. The pieces of bamboo used for the stems, are valuable according to the regularity and beauty of the wood, the evenness of the joints, and the clearness of the bore, For the most perfect in these respects, high prices are given,

Music is a favorite recreation, and guitars of various kinds, with other musical instruments of extraordinary shape and tone, are indispensable appurtenances to the boudoir of a Chinese belle. In such trifling employments, the lives of these imprisoned beauties glide away with little variation, while those of the lower classes is one perpetual scene of labor and exposure.

They perform, not only all those offices which are assigned them in other countries, but on them and their children principally devolves the task of navigating the multitudes of small boats, which cover the Chinese rivers. They are the moving power of these floating houses, for such in fact they are; born and dying in them, never living on shore, and possessing nothing but the boats and their contents.

These women, from continual exposure to the sun and wind, become very dark, lose all that soft listlessness of expression, and delicacy of form, for which the higher classes are distinguished, and resemble in their exterior, another people. They acquire masculine strength and manners, and from early habit, become perfectly inured to the laborious occupation of rowing, or sculling the heavy boats in which they live.

Women of the poorer classes go into public places, without the least reserve; but no female, whose means permit it, ever goes abroad, except in a palankeen, or sedan chair, most of which are furnished with curtains, which effectually conceal the occupant. In fact, so few of the Chinese women have any pretensions to personal beauty, according to our idea of it, and those who have, are so covered with paint, that, farther than

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