Page images
PDF
EPUB

What, silent all; and none consent?
Be happy then, and learn content;
Nor imitate the restless mind,

And proud ambition of mankind."

MORAL.

Every one thinks his own condition the hardest.

SUSPICION.

SUSPICION is no less an enemy to virtue, than to happiness. He that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious; and he that becomes suspicious, will quickly be corrupt. He that suffers by imposture, has too often his virtue more impaired than his fortune.

But as it is necessary not to invite robbery by supineness, so it is our duty not to suppress tenderness by suspicion. It is better to suffer wrong than to do it; and happier to be sometimes cheated, than not to trust.

He who is spontaneously suspicious, may be justly charged with radical corruption.

"Though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps

At wisdom's gate; and to simplicity

Resigns her charge, while goodness thinks no ill
Where no ill seems."

[graphic]
[merged small][merged small][graphic]

THE cricket to the nightingale
Once boasted of his song;
An insect, who the same dull chirp
Repeats the whole day long!
A boast like that before a bird
Of harmony the queen!
One wonders how the noisy fright
So foolish could have been.

"I do not want admirers,"

Said the little silly thing;
"For many folks in harvest time,
Will stop to hear me sing-

I do not want admirers,

And many come from far." The nightingale said, "Little one, Pray tell me who they are?"

"The pretty bugs and beetles, Sir,
And surely you must know,
That they are very knowing ones,
And here, are all the go."
"That may be very true,"
Replied, the modest little bird,
"But of their taste for music
I confess I never heard.

"So take advice, my little friend,
In future, be not vain ;
Nor anxious the applauses
Of the ignorant to gain
Your music, for a cricket,

Is the best I ever knew;

But it is not quite a nightingale's" And so away she flew.

[graphic]
[ocr errors]

THE FALLS OF NIAGARA.

THE thoughts are strange that crowd into my brain,
While I look upwards to thee. It would seem
As if God poured thee from his "hollow hand,"
And hung his bow upon thine awful front;
And spoke in that loud voice, which seem'd to him
Who dwelt in Patmos for his Saviour's sake,
"The sound of many waters ;" and had bade
Thy flood to chronicle the ages back

And notch His cent'ries in the eternal rocks.

Deep calleth into deep. And what are we,
That hear the question of that voice sublime?
Oh! what are all the notes that ever rung
From war's vain trumpet, by thy thundering side!
Yea, what is all the riot man can make
In his short life, to thy unceasing roar !

And yet, bold babbler, what art thou to Him,
Who drown'd a world, and heap'd the waters far
Above its loftiest mountains? —a light wave,
That breaks, and whispers of its Maker's might !

IMPATIENCE.

In those evils which are allotted us by Providence, such as deformity, privation of the senses, or old age, it is always to be remembered, that impatience can have no present > effect, but to deprive us of the consolations which our condition admits, by driving away from us those by whose conversation, or advice, we might be amused or helped; and that with regard to futurity, it is yet less to be justified, since without lessening the pain, it cuts off the hope of that reward, which he, by whom it is inflicted, will confer upon those that bear it well.

[merged small][merged small][graphic]

A MEDDLING Jackdaw was vain enough to imagine that he wanted nothing but the colored plumes to render him as elegant a bird as the Peacock. Puffed up with this wise conceit, he dressed himself in some of their most beautiful feathers, and in this borrowed garb, forsaking his old companions, endeavored to pass for a Peacock; but he no sooner attempted to associate with these elegant birds, than an affected strut betrayed the vain pretender.

The offended peacocks, plucking from him their

« PreviousContinue »