Newspapers / Western Carolinian (Salisbury, N.C.) / July 16, 1822, edition 1 / Page 4
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it Imi mam njuv nion mi. iooi ixiiumiu i;umii li:. VUr, ITALIAN'S I'AttKW KI.L. r.4!'iv. ell to thee, Land of ltiy llirth ! l'artfUi'll to t'ny Woods and llty viavcs! l hv eities '.lie ftr. of carlo ' thy -n -:,(. l n of !v ! uVr many a. land I roam, Those still nm U Ik dearest to me ; 1'ut never wiil ! (I'l l :t home V) here man has fiji-jfot to lc free. Still rninjflL the dance atul tlie soiijj Ilcncath tliy voluptuous skies And sweetly thy echoes prolunjf ' The lover1! harmonious sighs : tout irmtc be thy lyre and the shell Where conquerors list to the strains. Ami shame on the cowards who tell Thi-ir love to the clank of tluir chains. 0 ! hitter my panga when I leave The land where my fathers bore sway, But hcttct in exile to grieve, Than see thee a foreigner prey t Far better that sorrow should hurst My bosom untainted and free, Than daily and hourly he curst, The !iamc of thy children to see. Vet, if but one trumpet note cull Thy sons from the mountain and plain To burst from their tyrannous thrall, And combat for Freedom ajfaiu It BMiinds will be wafted to me, Far ever the desolate wave, Anil fioii with thy boldest I'll be, And make the my home or my (-rave. ZAUACM. EAITLK 80NT-, Of a Civiian S'AJifti Lttiiii. Co forth '.like the un in bis mijfbt ; (io forth ! like the dawning of day ; Slay the plume on thy helm be the star of the fight, And thy brand he the flash of the fray ! 1 love thee yet ne'er be it laid, That love did thy spirit restrain ; 1 would ratherj'ehold thee a hero and dead, Than a coward in life to remain. Then "forward and fear not!" the battle cry be ; With glory return, or return not to me ! t .rtiiljt in.; '.. ititr nH;' ,twinrtl tiw ffni4 JVJ WV ...IJ V WIVI, J .VW. Should wash the red wounds death hail made ; Tor each crimson gash like a ruby appears, On the front if it be but diaplayed! But O ! my soul never could bear The thought that thou flcdst from the foe ; One scar on thy back would awaken despair, And jrive to my heart its death blow j Then " forward and fear not !" thy battle try be'; With glory return, and in welcome to me ! Vitemry IYxAyiacIs, Sec. Variety's tlie very spice of life, That give it all its flavor. rat wiuo iLnits oaiiTiiunr. THE MOCKING ItlKD. The plumage of the .Mocking Bird, thi'iieh none of the homeliest, has nothing gaudy or brilliant in it ; and, had he nothing else to recommend him, would scarcely entitle him to notice ; hut bis figure is well proportioned, nnd even handsome. 1 he ease, ele gance, ai.d rapidity of his movements, the animation ! rus eve, and the in telligence he displays in listening, and living up lessons Irom almost every spcct-'S of the feathered creation with in hi hearing, are really surprising, and mark the peculiarity of his genius. To these qualities we may add that of a vottr full, strong, and musical, and capable of almost every modulation, from the clear mellow tones of the Wood Thrush, to the savage scream of the IVild Eagle. In the measure an,i accent, he faithfully follows his originals. In force and sweetness of expression, he greatly improves upon them. In his nauve groves, mounted on the top of a tall bush or half-grown tree, in the dawn of a dewy morning, while the woods are already vocal with a multitude of warblers, his admira ble song rises pre-eminent over every competitor. The car can listen to his Tnusic alone, to which that of the oth ers seems a mere accompaniment. Neither is this strain altogether imita tive. His own native notes, which are easily distinguishable by such as are well acq j-inted with those nf our va rious sons; birds, are bold and full, and varied seemingly beyond all limits. They consist of short expressions ol 2,3, or at the most J or 6 syllables,' generally interspersed with imitations, and all of them uttered w-ifh great em phasis and rapit ity, and continued with undiminished ardour for half an hour, or an hour, t a tiine. His ex panded wings and tail glistening with white, aiid the buoyant gaiety of his actiou arresting tire eye, ns his song most irresistibly does the far, he sweeps round with enthusiastic ecst i tyhe mounis and descends as his song swfiU or the away , and, aa my iVicntl Mr. Bartntm has beautifully expressed it, 41 he bounds aloft with the celerity of hiv arrow, as if to re cover or recall his very soul, expired in the hist elevated strain." While exerting himself, a bystander, destitute of bight, would suppose that the whole feathered tribe had assembled togeth er on a trial of skill, each striving to produce his utmost effect, no perfect are his imitations, lie many times deceives the sportsman, and sends him in search of birds that perhaps arc not within milts of him, but whose notes he exactly imitates : even birds them selves are frequently imposed on by this admirable mimic, and ore decoy ed by the fancied calls of their mate ; or dive, with precipitation, into the depth of thickets, at the scream of what they suppose t-J be the Sparrow Hawk. The Mocking Bird loses little of its power or energy of his song by con finement. In his domesticated state, when he commences his career of song, it is impossible to stand by un nterested. lie whistles for the dog; Ca-sar starts up, wags bis tail, and runs to meet his master. He squeaks out like a hurt chicken, and the hen hur rics about with hanging wings and bristled feathers, clucking to protect her injured brood. The barking of the dog, the mewing of the cat, the creaking of a passing wheel-barrow, follow with great truth and rapidity. He repeats the tune taught him by his master, fully and faithfully. He runs over the quiverings of thc'Canarv, and the clear whistling of the Virginia Niffhtinirale or Kedbird, with such su perior execution and effect, that the 1 . i . . i . t ....: mortiiieu songsters icei mcir .- in feriority and become altogether silent, while be seems to triumph in their de feat by redoubling his exertions. 'I his excessive fondnes for variety, however, in the opinion of some, in jures his songIits elevated imitations of the Brown Ihrush are frequently interrupted by the crowing of cocks; and the warblings of the Blue Iiird, which he exquisitely manages, are mingled with the screaming of swal lows, or the cackling of hens ; amidst the simple melody of the Robin, we are suddenly surprised by the shrill reittrations of the Whip-poor-will ; while the notes of the Jay, Martin, and several others, succeed with such imposing reality, that we look round for the originals, and discover, with astonishment, that the sole performer in this singular concert is the admira ble bird now before us. During this exhibition of his powers, he spreads' his wines, expands his tail, and throws i himself around the cage in the testacy of enthusiasm, seeming not only to sing, hut to dance, keeping time to the measure of his music. Both in his native and domesticated state, during i the olcmn stillness of night, as soonid'.ngly a most solemn procession was as the moon rises in silent majesty, he i made to the mill-pond where both ac begins liis delightful solo ; and scrcn- cusers and accused were stripped, ades us the livelong night with a full (saving only to the women's shifts) display of his vocal powers, making were bound hand and foot and sevcr- the whole neighborhood ring with his inimitable medic v. lann Tiir. miioml o'Titte. Vv'e publish this morning, a cu rious account of a trial fur witchcraft in New-Jersey, in days of yore. It reminds us of the following title of a work bound up with othcrtracts in the noble library of Harvard University, (Mass.) uThe Wonders of the Invisible World, being an account of the Try- als rf several witches lately executed in New England, artd of several re - markahle cuiiosittcs therein occurring, Together with I; Observation upon the nature, the number, and the oper .u'u.iis of tlie UcviU. II. A short nar rative of a late outrage committed by a knot of witches in Swede land, very much resembling, nnd so far rxplain irg that under which New Kngland has laboted. III. Some councils di recting a due improvement of the ter rible things lately done by the unusual and amazing range of Lv'il oirit.i in .'eiv England. IV". A brief dis course upon those temptations that are the more ordinary devices of S- ,an By Cotton Mather, Publish, ci by the special command of 1 1 is Fx cellenrythe Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Printed first at Boston, nt'd irprititul in England." New KngUir.d was rot die only part of this continent where the existence ot witches was believed : About for V j ' , h. niis.s, the prcut Mhenhm RemTul, he years after the famous witchcraft in; ic- asked liethrr he would choose to marrv his New England, we find in the public newspapers of that time an account of the trial by water of a supposed mi- ard and witch in the then province or New-Jersey, which I have copied from the Pennsylvania Gazette for Oc tober 22, 1730, printed in this city by B. Franklin. BURLINGTON', OCT. 12. Saturday last, at Mount Holly, about 8 miles from this place, near 800 peo ple were gathered together to see an experiment or two tried on some per sons accused of witchcraft. It seems the accused had been charged with nuking their neighbors sheep danct j in an uncommon manner, and with causing hogs to speak, sing psalms, he. to the great terror and amusement of the good and peaceable subjects in this province, and the accusers being very positive that if the accused were weigh ed in scales against a Bible, the Bible would prove too heavy for them ; or if they were bound up and put in the river, they would swim ; the said ac cused, desirous to make their inno cence appear, voluntarily offered to undergo the said trials if two of the most violent of their accusers would be tried with them. Accordingly the time and place was agreed on, and advertised about the country ; the accusers were one man and one wotvun, and the accused the same. The parties being met, and the people got together, a great consulta tion was held before they proceeded to trial, in which it was agreed to use the scales first ; and a committee of men were appointed to search the men, and a committee of women to search the women, to see if they had any thing of weight about them, par ticularly pins. After the scrutiny was over, a huge great bible, belonging to the justice of the place, was provided, and a lane through the populace w as made, from the justice's bouse to the scales, which were fixed on a gahows erected for that purpose, opposite to the house, that the justice's wife and the rest of the ladies, might see the trial without coming among the mob, and after the manner i(. thc-Moor-fields, a large ring was made. Then came outnf the house a grave tall man carrying the Holy writ before the sup posed witch, ?cc. (as solemnly as the sword bearer of London before the Lord Mayor.) The wizard wa3 first put into the scales, and over him was read a chapter out of the boo'; of Moses, and then the bible was put in to the other scale, (which being kept down before,) was immediately let go, but to the great surprise of the spec tators, flesh and blood came down plump and outweighed the great good book in abundance. After the same manner, the others were served, and their lumps ot mortalilv sever.ulv were too heavy for mosct and all the proph ets and apostles. This being over, the accusers and the rest of the mob, not satisfied with this experiment would have the trial bv water; accor ally placed in the water, .lengthwise, from the side of a barge or flat, hav ing for security only a rope about the middle of each, which was held by some in the flat. The accuser man being thin and spare, with some diffi culty began to sink at last ; the rest every one of them, swam very light upon the water. A sailor jumped out upon the back of the m.ui accused, thinking to drive htm dow n to the bot- 'torn : biit the person bound, without an help, came up some time before the 'other. The w oman accuser being told (that if she did not sink, she would be iducked a second time, swam a-rain as light as before, upon which she de clared the accused had bewitched lu r to make her so fight, and that she would be ducked again a hundred times but she would duck the devil out of her. The accused man being surprised at his own swimming, was notsoconft dent of his ow n innocence as before, but said, f I am a witch, it is more than I knoM. The more thinking part ci the spectators were of opinion that any person so bound and placed in the wa ter (unless they were skin and bones) would swim until their breath was irone, nnd their lungs filled with water. But it being the general belief of the populace that the women's shifts and the garters with which they were bound helped to support thorn it is said they are to be tried again the next warm weather naked. daughter to an inditfrnt man of merit, or to a Mirthless man of great rstiitc, replied, that ha should pn ler a man without nn estate, tu an es tute iuioiil a man, COIXCHJUNflir.S. most Tim wisnisuTus eirr ht.ui. It is pleasing to retnaik the proofs supplied by the history and custom'; of nations, that they have all descended from the same stock. It h not the least remarkable of the facts which tend to establish this point, that all na tions have concurred, from the remo test antiquity, in giving to the heaven ly bodies the same whimsical divisions. The Iroquois Indians,'m North-America, and the oldest nations of Asia, give the name of the Great Bear to the same constellation. It is singular, too, that the names of the planets are so generally applied to the days of the week. This custom is found to be the same among the ancient and modern Kgypthns, Indians and Chinese. Our names follow' the same arrangement. SW-day, J50-day, Tuesday from Tuisco, the Saxon name of Mars; Wednesday, from IVoJcn Mercury; Thursday, from 7jsr Jupiter ; Friday, from Freija, Venus; and Saturday, from Saturn. This arrangement has no apparent reason, hut is altogether arbitrary. The existence of similar tradition ary accounts of remarkable events, proves the same general fact. In al most every nation, for instance, how ever barbaroul or remote, some tradi tionary liints 'f tlie deluge have been discovered. By two or three of the ancient writers, and pimirulirly by Ovid, the deluge and the re-peopling of the earth are described in terms, which arc mingled, imbed, with some fable, but, on the whole, correspond remarkably with the account in Gene sis. The future destruction of tlie world by Cre is another '.vitit on which heathen traditions are found to agree with the predictions of Scripture. Ci cero and Seneca mention it; the Sy bils and Druids taught it ; and the be liefif it is found among the people of Siam, ihe Canary Islands, and various parts of America. 0 v i ds :y sj "Namqiiec!iseinftisrpmiiiisitiira(llirctempii, tluuin rmire, f-imni ttIlns,corrept.i (jne rejjia cu1 li,anltat." Met. I.. t. "IN'inrtiiherintr in the files ft time to come, When scj and hnd and airahovc must burn. And all this veil turned world to ruin turn." Ltician also, says: (Lib. 1.) " That ttay will come, that d.iv w ill siiri ly rime, Wlirn gilded skies shall from their treasure pour A liquid fire; when all drvouiiiig flames, Hy laws unbounded, shall destroy the earth. And u hat's above it ; all slnll Vjoi .h then, The watenrf the deep shall turn to smoke, The earth shall cease to nourish trcrs, tlie air, Iatcad of bearing up the birds, shall burn." These works were written before the New Testament was penned"; and these bints must have been received from tradition. The Jews asscit, that Adam predicted the destruction of the world by fire. If traditions on such subjects have been transmitted, and are found in different parts of the world, how much more probable is it not, on rational principles only, that the knowledge of the true God was handed flown, until men became vain in their imaginations ; and not liking to retain God in their knowledge, are K it without excuse, for their idolatry and wickedness ? Mi-nlaly at necessary as lhdhj I'osd. As soon as children begin to talk freely, they discover a desire to know tvery thing around them, and to be acquainted with the cause of every ef fect which arises in their presence. Curiosity and a thirst for knowledge seem to be natural to man. The gnat art of early education, th-n, consists in supplying this curiosity with such a series of gratifications, as is calculated to keep the principle alive, and to de posit at the same time those seeds which cannot fail to produce useful and valu able fruit in future life. motiiui'tiT. Slit ISAAC NKWTON. Sir Isaac Xcwton, the celebrated English philosopher and mathemati cian, and one of the greatest geniuses that ever appeared in the world, was descended from an ancient family in Lincolnshire, where he was born in the year 1042. His powers of mind were wonderfully comprehensive and pene- I tratmg. l ontcnelle says ol him, that in .carninr: the mathematicks le did not studv Euclid, who seemed to hiuTj too plain and simple, and unworthy of taking up his time. He understood hun almost before he read him : a cast of h'i3 eye on the contents of the the orems of that great mathematician, seemed to be sufficient to make him master of them.' Several of hit works mark a profundity of thought and re, flection that has astonished the most learned men. He was highly esteemed by the university of Cambridge ; and was twice chosen to represent that place in parliament, lie was also fa vored by queen Anne, and by George the first. The princess of Wales, af terwards queen consort of England, who h:id a turn for philosophical in quiries, used frequently to propose: questions to him. This princess had a great regard for him ; and often de clared, she thought herself happy to live at the same time he did, and to have the pleasure and advantages of his conversation. This eminent philosopher was re markable for being of a very meek dis position, iind a great lover of peace, lie would rather have chosen to re main1 in obscurity, than to have the se renity of Ids day.i disturbed by those storms and disputes, which genius ami learning often draw upon those who are eminent for tlretn. We find hint reflecting on the controversy respect ing his optic lectures, (in which he hal U'e.i almost unavoidably engaged,) in the following terms : 1 1 blamed my own imprudence, for parting with so real a blessing as my quiet, to run after a hli.tdow.' The amiable quality of modesty stands very conspicuous in the charac ter of this gre.it man's mind and man ners. He never spoke, either of him self or others, in such a manner as O give the most malicious censurcrs the least occasion even to suspect him of vanity. lie was candid and affable ; and he did not assume any airs of su periority over those with whom he a--sociatc-d. lie never thought either hi merit, or his reputation, sufficient to excuse him from any of the common n Aires of social life. Thourji he wai firmly attached to,the Church of Eng land, he was averse to the persecution of the Nonconformists. lie judged of nienby their, conduct laud the true sUnstnaticks. in his opinion, were the vicious and the wicked. This liber ality of sentiment did not spring from the want of religion j for he was thor oughly persuaded of the truth of Rev elation ; and amidst a great variety tf books which he had constantly before him, that which he loved the best, and studied with the greatest application, was the Bible, lie: was, indeed, a truly pious man : and his discoveries concerning the frame and system of the Universe, were applied by him to demonstrate the being of a God, anil to illustrate his pow er and wisdom. He also wrote an excellent discourse to prove that the remarkable prophe cy of Daniel's weeks, was an express prediction of the coming of the Mes siah, and that it was fulfilled ia Jesu3 Christ. The tfstimony of the pious and learned Dr. DoddriJge. to the most interesting part of this great man' character, cannot be omitted on the present occasion. According to th best information,' says he, 4 whether public or private, I could ever obtain, his firm faith in the Divitif Hevcl.uion discovered itself in the most genuine; fruits of substantial virtue and piety; and consequently gives us the justrst reason to conclude, that he is rejoicirp; in the happy effects of it, infinitely more than in all the applause which hit philosophical works have procured, though tkey have commanded a fa me, lasting as tbe world.' He departed this life in the eighty fifth year of his age ; and, in his prin ciples and conduct through life, has left a strong and comfortable evidence, that the highest intellectual powers harmnnie with religion and virtue ; and that there is nothing in Christian ity but what will abide the scrutiny cl' the soundest ntl most etilaro-rd under standing. How great and satisfactory a confir mation is it to the sincere, hunibh ChriMinn,Bnd w hat an insurmountabl barrier does it present to the infidel, to perceive, in the list of Christian be leivers, the exalted and venerable names of Bacon, Boyle, Locke, New ton, Addison and Littleton! men who must be acknowledged to be ornaments of human nature, when we consider the wide compass of their abilities, th: great extent of their learning and knowledge, and the piety, integrity, and beneficence of their lives. These eminenf characters firmly adhered to the; belief of Christianity, after the most diligent and exact researches into the life of its founder, the authentici ty of its records, the completion of it prophecies, the sublimity of its doc trines, the purity of its precepts, and tlie arguments of its adversaries.
Western Carolinian (Salisbury, N.C.)
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July 16, 1822, edition 1
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