THE WIXTER JJ.1V.
Is it in mansions rich and gay,
On downy beds or couches warm,
That A'titurv owns the IVintry Day,
And shrieks to hear the howling- storm ?
Ah! no!
Tis on the black and barren heath,
"Where mis'ry feels the shaft of death,
As to the dark and freezing arrive
Her children, not a friend to save,
Unheeded go !
Is it in chambers, silken drcst.
At tables with profusion's heap ;
Is it on pillows soft to rest
In dreams of long- and balmy sleep ?'
Ah ! no !
ther thev do not possess certain advau-
lages, which some even 01 tne more
enlightened European nations cannot
bojst.
We are very far from being the pan
egyrists of the Chinese : their govcrn-
. i it l i
tnent we believe 10 ue pracucauy u uuu
one, and their religioa worse ; the one,
we think, renders them selfish and dis
trustful : the other superstitious and
hypocritical ; yet, unamiable as they
certainly are, and cold and repulsive
as they necessarily must be, where wo
men are wholly excluded from socie
ty, we cannot help thinking that a dar
ker shade has been cast over some parts
of their character than they really de
serve. We will even go a step larther,
and add that, reflecting on the circum
ed by his countenance, that he was suf-j has much spirit and much understand- joiced at the prospect of martyrdoms
fering very -severely from want and ing, will probably make a great and il- Raising our eyes to the splendid firma
weariness, directed the hostess to sup- lustrious character: he, who has little ment, we exclaimed with the poet
ply mm with what ne wisneu, ana en- s
gaged to pay the bill himself- She did
so. When the Indian had finished his
supper, he turned to his benefactor ;
thanked him ; and assured him, that he
should remember his kindness, and
whenever he was able, would faithful
ly recompense it. For the present, he
observed, he could only reward him
with a story; which, if the hostess
would give him leave, he wished to tell.
The hostess, whose complacency had
been recalled by the prospect of pay
ment, consented. The Indian ad
dressing himself to his benefactor,
said, " 1 suppose you read the Bible."
Tis in the rushy hut obscure
"Where poverty's low sons endure,
And, scarcely daring" to repine,
On a straw pallet, mute, recline,
O'crwhclm'd with woe !
Is it to flaunt in warm attire,
To laugh and feast and dance and sing,
t- ,And crowd around the blazing fire,
And make the rooms with revels ring ?
Ah! no!
Tis on the pvison8 flinty floor,
'Tis where the deaf 'ning whirlwinds roar,
5Tis when the sea-boy on the mast,
Hears the waves bounding to the blast,
And looks below !
Is it in chariots gay to ride,
To crowd the splendid midnight ball ?
To revel ia luxurious pride,
While pamper' J vassals wait your call ?
Ah! no!
'Tis in a cheerless, naked room,
"Where mis'ry's victims wait their doom !
Where a fond mother famish'd dies,
While forth a frantic father flics,
Man's desp'rate foe !
Is it where, prodigal and weak,
The silly spendthrift scatters gold,
Where eager folly hastes to seek
The sordid, wanton, false and bold ?
Ah! no!
Tis in the silent spot obscure,
Where, forced all sorrows to endura,
Pale Genius learns, oh lesson sad !
To court the vain, and on the bad
False praise bestow !
Is it, where gamesters flocking round,
Their shining heaps of wealth display ?
Where fashion's giddy tribes are found
Sporting their senseless hours away ?
Ah! no!
sTis where neglected genius sighs,
Where hope exhausted silent dies ;
Where merit starves by pride oppressed,
Till every stream that warms the breast
Forbears to flow !
a A I I - . & mi.!! ' - - A l
stances we have mentioneu, oi uie i ne man assenicu. " vcu, saiu me
truth of which there can be no doubt, Indian, " the Bible say, God made the
we are disposed to fancy that a closer world ; and then he took him, and look-
ixiiimacy migut iiiiiiii - , .... - uj , ..j u. j o
a somewhat more favourable opinion Then he made light ; and took him,
of them than we have hitherto ventur- and looked on him, and say, Its all ve
ed to avow. Unhappilv, however, the ry good !' Then he made dry land
nature of their internal policy, hostile anu water, ana sun ana moon, ana
to all international connections, and a grass and trees; and took him, and
language unlike any other on the face looked on him, and say, 4 Its all very
of the elobe, forbid all hope of a more good.' I hen lie made beasts, ana
enlarged intercourse than that which at birds, and fishes; and took him, and
present subsists, and which, as every looked on him, and say, 4 Its all very
one knows, is limited to a single out- good.' Then he'made man ; and took
norK on the verv skirts of this irreat him. and looked on him, and saw Its
J 7 w ' J ' CJ - '
empire, where a few commercial com- all very good.' Then he made woman,
panies, like our own, are merclv tolera- and took him, and looked on him, and
1 . - . . - - .i. " i l i i j 'rou
ted lor the sake ot facilitating an ex- ne no uare say one sucn woru. ne
change ot a tew articles ot luxury, lor lnaian having toia nis story, wun-
Nankins. Bohea and Contro. 1 drew.
In speaking of the government as a Some years after, the man, who had
bad one, we mean the practical admin- befriended him, had occasion to go
istration of it, by the subordinate ofU- some distance into the wilderness be-
cers : for the sovereign of China is ve- tween Litchfield, then a frontier settle
ry far from being a despot. It is, of ment, and Albany, where he was taken
course, impossible for us to penetrate prisoner bv an Indian scout, and car-
into the arcana of the Chinese court ; ried to Canada. When he arrived at
but we shrewdly suspect, from all that the principal settlement of the tribe,
we have seen and heard, that the on the Southern border of the St. Law-
Great Emperor is little more than a rence, it was proposed by some of the
puppet in the hands of a lew great offi- captors that he should be put to death.
cers, and that he enjoys, in tact, no During the consultation, an old Indian
more real power than was possessed woman demanded, that he should be
by the successors of Darius, while they given up to her, that she might adopt
unconsciously promulgated, as their him in the place or a son, whom she
own, the irrevocable decrees of the Se- had lost in the war. He was accord-
ven Princes of Persia. Be this as it ingly given to her, and lived through
may, the Emperor of China, ejood man, the succeeding winter in her family,
never appears in any other light than experiencing the customary effects of
as a benevolent agent, always ready to savage hospitality. The following
palliate the crimes, to mitigate the pun- summer, as he was at work in the for
ishments and alleviate the sufferings of est alone, an unknown Indian came up
his people. To them he frequently ap- to him, and asked him to meet him at
peals; and, on all occasions of nation- a place which he pointed out, upon a
al calamity, publicly confesses his cr- given day. The prisoner agreed to
rors, and acknowledges his misconduct the proposal, but not without some ap
to be the cause of the divine dipleasure. prehensions that mischief was intend-
lAteirovy "Extracts, &c.
Variety's the very spice of life,
That gives it all its flavor.
CHINA.
China swallows up about one-tenth
part of the habitable globe ; and con
tains, at the lowest estimation, one
fourth of the population of the whole
earth. Yet, so we get our tea com
fortably for breakfast, we seem to trou
ble our heads as little pbout the Chief
of this vast empire and his two hun
dred millions of subjects, as he and
they perhaps do theirs, about us.
We have not much to say of ourselves
but the Chinese, notwithstanding
this mutual indifference, are a shrewd,
an industrious, and an ingenious people,
far superior to all other oriental na
tions, whether Pagan or Mahometan,
however low we may be pleased to
place them on our scale of civilization.
If wTe were asked in what the Chinese
excel the rest of the Asiatics, our re
ply would be, in every respect in arts,
manufactures, and agriculture; in the
civil polity, in literature and in morals.
We do not make this assertion from
vague report, but from personal knowl
edge, and indisputable facts and obser
vations. The lr immense population,
for instance, is fed, clothed, and lodg
ed, exclusively, from the produce of
their own soil; fed (and this is no
slight degree of distinction) from ta
bles, and seated on chairs ; clothed for
the most part in cottons, and decently
covered from head to foot ; and a twen
tieth part of their number, or about
ten millions, splendidly habited in em
broidered silks and satins. If to these,
ve join the moral obligation, (so ex
tensively carried into practice, as to
relieve the community from the pub
lic maintenance of paupers,) which
compels the younger branches of a
family to support their nged relations;
and the almost universal education, as
far as reading and writing go, we may
perhaps be induced to concede to the
Chinese not only that superiority which
we have claimed for them over the rest
of the Asiatics ; but even to doubt whe-
pirit and little sense, may prov
honest, useful, and happy man : but he,
who is so unfortunate as to have a great
deal of spirit, and a small share of un
derstandings must ever be mischievous
to others, and miserable in himself.
As a man of sense can usually out
wit a fool, because his designs are in
conceivable to his adversary's under
standing ; so a fool will sometimes be
too cunning for a wise man, for the ve
ry same reason ; that is, because he
will conceive schemes, which could
never enter into a wiser head than his
own. Counter-plotting an absurd fel
low is like fighting a left-handed fen
cer ; you receive a wound, because it
comes in a direction from whence you
had no reason to expect it, and he gains
a victory merely by his awkwardness.
Were all men honest, the world
would go on much more happily than
it does at present ; but were all men
wise it would not go on at all: so greatly
preferable is honesty to understanding.
Every year, as we grow older, ap
pears shorter than the preceding, and
the reason of it is this ; all our ideas
of time must be derived from that por
tion of it, in which we have alreadv
existed, and that must be the standard
by which we measure it ; as this stan
dard therefore extends itself by our liv
ing longer, so every period must ap
pear shorter in proportion to it : thus
when we have lived ten vears, one
year is the tenth part of the duration
of our whole existence ; but when we
have lived eighty, it is then but the
eightieth part of the same term.
Women are certainly not at all infe
rior to men in resolution, and perhaps
expanse.
One hopeless, dark idolater of chance,
"Who mould'ring' earthward, reft of every trust,
In joyless union wedded to the dust,
Could all his parting energy dismiss
And call this barren world sufficient bliss ?u
We exulted that such besotted folly
was not ours ; uwe tiMnked God that
we were not" as the benighted heathen,
as the grovelling sensualist, or as the
impious and gloomy atheist. But a
moment's reflection, a single efFort at
self-examination, let us down from our
transient elevation and sunk us in the
deepest self-abasement. We felt that
it was a poetical, rather than an evan
gelical flame on which we had risen.
We took a retrospect of the past week ;
we asked of its hours "what report
they had borne to heaven r" We ex
amined the register of our thoughts ;
recalled the emotions of our heart :
Every hour had been employed in the
service of the world ; every thought
engrossed by the concerns of this mor
tal life ; and in vain did we examine
the emotions of our heart, hoping to
find among them, that " hungering and
thirsting after righteousness," that ha
bitual aspiration after holiness, which
might witness our spirit to be born of
God. We felt that while the earth is
cursed with but few, who have so far
smothered the Divinity within them
as boldly to deny the existence of a
4t Great jirgt cause," the Christian
world, nay, the Christian Church em
bosoms innumerable multitudes of the
" fools who say- in their hearts there is
no God," and who, by their lives, deny
his existence, or calumniate his attri
butes and brave his power. Let us
then, fellow-christians, habitually, yea,
continually, cherish the consciousness,
that an omnipresent, holy God, is ev-
private cliarac grec, as to dissuade him, effectually, gbd 0rit). repHcd the miller; 'now let us
liously exhibit- from fulfilling his engagement. Soon T . ' , . , c ,
. . f r , u. , hear, John, what you do know. ( I know,
i amiable point after the same Indian found him at his , , . . .
much less in courage, than is common- er among us, and will demand a strict
ly imagined : the reason they appear account of the time, talents and va-
so is, because women affect to be more rious blessings which his goodness
afraid, than they really are, and men lends to prepare us for the enjoyment
pretend to be less. of his immediate presence the sight
jjjjju OI ms unclouded glory. Filled wTith
I rhic rnncptnncnpcc t f cVtoli ttV1 tr
ANECDOTE. wi.w.w...., w uuuu,
'A well known simpleton, who had for labour in our various avocations, keep
many years been employed in carrying . r .J ,
' ... r , u end of our existence; we shall "use
corn to mill For a poor house in the town . . , , , . . ,, .
, , 1 . . , this world as not abusing it ; 7 whatev-
where he lived, was one day accostea by e , h , ,
thcmiller,in the following manner: 'John, us the same we shall do unto them;
they say that you are a fool that you accounting ourselves4' unprofitable ser-
don't know any thing.' Ha ha ! (said vants," we shall place our whole trust
John,) that can't be true, for I do know in God, looking unto him, through
some things, though I may not know oth- Jesus Christ, who is the author and
er things. But I can tell you what I do Eisner oi our xaun ; ana, "tne grace
w, and what I don't know.' 'I am oa abounaing m us, we snail be
thoroughly htteu lor every good word
and wrork.
If our religion be genuine it will be
felt ; and if it be felt, it will influence
not only our external conduct, but the
The natural consequence of this is an ed him. During the interval, these
univeisal love and respect for the per- apprehensions increased to such a de- i,nn
son, wno, wnaiever ills private cnarac
ter may be, is thus stud
eu to his suniects in an amiaoie n
of view. Insurrections against his au- work again, and very gravely reprov- answcrecl John, 'that the miller's hogs
thority are partial and of rare occur- ed him for not performing his promise. Srow fat-' ' VeiT welI that's true, John ;
rence; the disturbances that occasion- The man apologized, awkwardly e- now please to inform me what" you don't thoughts of our minds, and the affec-
ally happen originate generally from a nough, but in the best manner in his know.' I don't know,' said John, scratch-1 tions of our hearts. To our thoughts
scarcity of provisions; they are mere power. 1. he Indian told him that he ing his head, ' whose corn they are fed on.' 11 W1" impart steadiness, purity, and
rebellions ot the belly, and are as spee- should be satisfied, if he would meet elevation ; to our affections that tender-
dily suppressed by a removal of the him at the same place on a future day ; TVeAvimiS I ness and heaven-born sanctity which
cause which produced them, as the which he named. The man promised breathed in every emotion expressed
slow movements of a cumbrous and to meet him, and lulhlled his promise. REFLECTION'S FOR SATURDAY fa e. bv the divine nersonacre. who for us
I i i j i
When he arrived atJie spot, he found JvXVG. became "a man of sorrows and ac-
are to believe that human nature and the Indian provided with two muskets, "Bless the Lord, o my soul! o Lord mylquainted with crrief. But the con-
human feelings are pretty nearly the ammunition for them, and two knap- God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with tern plation of an object far distant can
same in all countries, modified only sacks. The Indian ordered him to honor and majesty, who coverest thyself with but feebly affect us ; our offerings of
by education and habit, we must admit take one of each, and follow him. light as with a garment : who strctchest out the worship must be made to a God whose
that a government, which, for three The direction of their march was to heavens like a curtain : who layeth the beams I presence we recognize, or they will not
thousand years or more, has been able the south. 1 he man followed, without GI cnamucrs in uie waters : wno makett the proceed f? om the heart. I his recog
W keep together undergone bond of the least knowledge of what he was to clouds his chariot : who walketh upon the .wings nition of the Divine presence must be
union, the largest mass of population do, or whither he was going ; but con- f die wind." Psalsi CIV. habitual, or it can have no real exist-
which any nation on the face of the eluded, that, if the Indian intended Sitting down to rest, at the close of ence, or, at least, no salutarT influence.
earth could ever boast can hardly be him harm he would have dispatched the week, from our little labours, we It is that cold assent to the belief on
considered as a bungling or fortuitous him at the beginning, and that at the were involuntarily led to meditate on which rests all our hope, that distance
macnine ; out ope ratner tnat nas witn- worst he was as sale wnere ne was, as niM wno " in six days maue the heav-irom uoa, mat practical atheism, wmcn
in it certain corrective movements and he could be in any other place. With- en, the earth, the sea, and all that in
self-protecting springs, by which its in a short time, therefore, his fears them is. The Psalmist's exclama-
regulations are governed and its dura- subsided ; although the Indian observ- tion : ' Bless the Lord, O my soul !
tion preserved. Shiartcrhj Review ed a profound and mysterious silence O Lord my God, thou art very great ;
concerning the object of the expedi- thou art clothed with honor and ma-
T .i l ' i v . i l: J i n , i i
INDIAN G15ATITUDK. lion, in tne aay ume uiey snot sucn jcsiv , gioweu in our neart anu uuisi
From the Travels of President Dwight. New game as came in their way; and at lrom our lips. We vowed to dedicate
Haven, 1821. night kindled a fire by which they slept, to his immediate service the evening
Not many years after the county of After a tedious journey of many days, of that day, in which God finished the
Litchfield began to be settled by the they came one morning to the top of work of Creation by forming ' man in
English, a stranger Indian came one an eminence, presenting a prospect of his own image,' breathed into him an
day, into an Inn, in the town of Litch- a cultivated country in which was a immortal soul, and endowed him with
field, in the dusk of the evening, and number of houses. The Indian asked capacities to enjoy eternal blessedness,
requested the hostess to furnish him his companion whether he knew the and be an heir of everlasting glory,
with some drink and a supper. At the ground. He replied eagerly that it The creation, the fall of man, the gio
same time, he observed, that he could wns Litchfield. His tmide then, after rious redemption, the effusion of the
cuule then, alter rious reuemp
pay for neither, as he had had no sue- reminding him that he had so many Holv Spirit, the Scriptures of truth,
cess in hunting ; but promised pavment years before relieved the wants of a the spread of the gospel, the blessings
as soon as he should meet with better famishing Indian, at an Inn in that we enjoy in this world, connected with
fortune. The hostess refused him town., subioined, "lam that Indian: the promise of eternal life hereafter,
both tne drink and the supper ; called now I pav vou : tro home." Having kindled into our bosom a flame of
U '. loTf flvnnlo. 1 - 1 ' I , 1 1 I" 1.1 t 1 " i 1 ' 1 C I 1
uiiii .i ia,uiuiiMru, yuuu ior noining saia this, ne uaae nim auieu ; anu tne
fellow; and told him, that she did not man joyfully returned to his own house.
work so nam nerseit, to throw her
earnmcrs upon such creatures as he SELECTION'S.
was. A man, who sat by, and observ- Much spirit and little, sense are the
ed that the Indian, then turning about worst ingredients of which a human
to leave so inhospitable a place, shew-1 creature can be composed; he, who!
adoration that raised us far above the
paltry . cares and delusive pleasures
which usurp the empire of our souls,
and alternately occupy the precious
moments of existence. While under
the influence of these feelings, we
could have smiled at torture, and re-
we carry to the sauctuary, nay, to the.
very table of the Lord, which exposes
our lives to all the error and all the
ravages of sin ; and our hearts to all
the pollution of unholiness, and all the
wretchedness of a life without hope
Had the awful sword of justice flamed
in the sight of our first parents over
the forbidden tree ; would they have
plucked its deadly fruit ? Or had the
beneficent Jehovah, or the smiling
ministers of his love been ever pres
ent to their corporeal senses, could they
have transgressed ? To brave the
terrors of Omnipotence seems easier
than fo rebel while surrounded by the
ministers of his love ; of these the
earth is full : Not a cloud that flies,
not a shower that falls, not a bird that
skims the air, not a flower that unfolds
its beauties to the sun, but bears to man
some message of His love who form
ed them all. Let us then endeavor to
keep our ears ever open to the heavenly
messengers ; our hearts ever hallowed
to divine impressions ; and our eyes
fiver watchful to perceive God in every
things Christian Visitant