circumstances and ours, as to render a meaner taste, and lower objects of pursuit reasonable in us their descendants?

To young people just awaking from the dreams of childhood, and becoming capable of observation and reflection, is not this fair world with the interesting phenomena of nature, in fact, as new as it was to its first inhabitants? Have not they also every thing to see, to investigate, and to admire? True, this earth has now existed nearly six thousand years; and the works of nature have been explored and admired by the intellectual of mankind, in every successive generation. Yet, to the youth of this generation, it is as it were a new creation: the young are new to themselves; and all that surrounds them is novel. The language of Adam, describing his emotions upon the first starting into being, may be adopted by every truly intelligent young person, in reference to the time when they first began to think and to observe.

"Straight toward heaven my wondering eyes I turned,
And gazed awhile the ample sky:-

-About me round I saw

Hill, dale, and shady woods, and sunny plains,
And liquid lapse of murmuring streams; by these
Creatures that lived and moved, and walked or flew ;
Birds on the branches warbling; all things smiled;
With fragrance and with joy my heart o'erflowed.
Myself I then perused."

And happy they, who like him, discerning the great
Creator in his works, sum up all by exclaiming,

"Tell me how I may know him, how adore!"

But is it not equally strange and lamentable, when, so far from admiration being awakened, and curiosity excited by the beautiful and sublime objects of creation, and the great secrets of nature, the mind is satisfied with the most trifling pursuits and childish amusements?-when alternate attention to dress, visiting, and superficial acquirements, are suffered to engross all the time, or at least to engage all the interest?

If Milton had represented our mother Eve, when not occupied by the concerns of the domestic bower, as devoting her leisure hours to binding flowers in wreaths and garlands, wherewith to adorn herself if he had told us that she and Adam spent their evenings in playing with pebbles, dancing on the turf, or in idle conversation; and that they rose and retired to rest without any devout acknowledgements to their Maker; we should certainly have considered it a most absurd, unfair, and degrading representation, even after they had fallen from their first estate. Yet how many of their descendents are there, even in the most civilized and evangelized parts of the globe, whose time is spent to no better purpose! A young lady who rises without prayer, or with only a heartless and formal performance of it, who spends her morning in preparing ornaments of dress, or in pursuits equally trifling, and devotes her evening to gay amusements, or even to the

more creditable recreation of sober visiting, and returning weary or dissipated, forgets to call upon God, is surely no less unmindful of the dignity of her nature, and the great ends of her existence.

Perhaps the subjoined stanzas may serve to illustrate our subject, by exemplifying the difference between a trifling and an intellectual taste.

It was a pleasant winter's night;

The sky was clear and the stars were bright,
The air was fresh and cold;

But all within was warm and tight;

And the fire-flame cast a flashing light

On the carpet red, and the ceiling white,
And on the curtain-fold.

Here Anne and Martha idly sit,
Because the candles are not lit,

And both are tired of play;

And Anne was tired of Martha's chat,

About the trimming to her hat,

For her mother had said (she was sure of that)
She would trim their hats that day.

So rising as quickly as she could,

Anne went to the window, and there she stood:
The sash, which reached the floor, displayed
To view the pleasant garden-shade;
For the curtains were not drawn.

And she was pleased to stand and see
The moon shine on the laurel tree :-
How, when the wind the foliage heaves,
It sparkles on the glossy leaves;

And what soft light and shade were shed
On every bush and every bed;

And what a sheet of light was spread
Over the level lawn.

Then roved her eye from star to star,
And soon her thought had fled as far:
For thought has neither chain nor bar,
It ranges fair and free :

And as she had not wings to fly
Amid the starry realms on high,
She marvelled that a mortal eye
Those distant worlds could see.

Their gentle mother enters now,
And pleasure gladdens Martha's brow;
For lo! on either hand she bears
With tender touch, these hats of theirs;
While in her basket store is seen
Some glossy yards of ribbon green;
And having now unrolled it—

She forms the bow, she twines the band;
Behold, with light and dexterous hand;
And there does eager Martha stand,
Suggesting this, approving that,
And all her soul is in her hat
(Full large enough to hold it.)

Nor think that thoughtful Anne defers
To thank her mother, too, for her's:
She came, and with a grateful look,
And duteous word, her hat she took,
And bore it to its place:

Yet that fair ribbon, bright and new,

Scarce cared she if 't was green or blue :
For now her mind was braced with thought,
Some nobler happiness it sought

Than 'ere, with nicest art, was wrought

With ribbon, pearl, or lace.

As years increased, still Anne inclined
To train and cultivate her mind,
At reason's nobler voice:

While Martha strove, with equal care,
To deck her person light and fair:
Now, reader, these pursuits compare,
Compare--and make your choice.

XII.

SOLILOQUIES OF THE OLD PHILOSOPHER AND THE YOUNG LADY.

"ALAS!" exclaimed a silver-headed sage, "how narrow is the utmost extent of human knowledge! how circumscribed the sphere of intellectual exertion! I have spent my life in acquiring knowledge, but how little do I know! The farther I attempt to penetrate the secrets of nature, the more I am bewildered and benighted. Beyond a certain limit all is but confusion or conjecture: so that the advantage of the learned over the ignorant consists greatly in having ascertained how little is to be known.