Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

HINTS ON EARLY EDUCATION.

Truth and Sincerity.

NOTHING, perhaps, is more beautiful, or more rare, than a character in which is no guile. Guile insinuates

itself into our hearts and conduct to

a degree of which we are little aware.
Many who would be shocked at an
actual breach of truth, are notwith-
standing, far from sincere in manner
or conversation. The mode in which
they speak of others when absent, is
wholly inconsistent with their profes
sions to them, when present. They
will relate a fact, not falsely, but lean-
ing to that side which tells best for
themselves, they represent their own
actions in the fairest colours; they
have an excuse ever ready for them-
selves, and too often at the expense
of others. Such conduct, if not co-
ming under the character of direct
falsehood, is certainly a species of de-
ceit, to be severely condemned, and
strictly guarded against, not only in
ourselves, but in our children; for we
shall find them early prone to art.
and quick in imbibing it from others.
It is not enough, therefore to speak ||
the truth, our whole behaviour to
them should be sincere, upright, fair,
and without artifice; and it is expe-
rience alone that can prove the excel-
lent effects that will result from such
a course of conduct. Let all who are
engaged in the care of children, con-
sider it a duty of primary, of essential
importance, never to deceive them
never to employ cunning to gain their
ends, or to spare present trouble. Let
them not for instance, to prevent a fit
of crying, excite expectations of a
pleasure which they are not certain
can be produced; or assure a child
that the medicine he must take is nice.
when they know to the contrary. If
a question be asked them which they
are unwilling or unable to answer, let
them freely confess it and beware of
assuming power or knowledge which
they do not possess, for all artifice is
not only sinful, but is generally de-

[ocr errors]

tected even by children; and we shall experience the truth of the old proverb, "a cunning trick helps but once, and hinders ever after." No one who is not experimentally acquainted with children, would conceive how clearly they distinguish between truth and artifice; or how readily they adopt those equivocal expedients, in their own behalf, which they perceive, are practised against them.

Great caution is required in making promises, and in threatening punishment, but we must be rigid in the pertion of the other. If for example, formance of the one, and in the inflicwe assure a child unconditionally, that after his lessons, he shall have a op, or a ball, no subsequent ill behaviour on his part should induce us to the top must be his; and if it be nedeprive him of it. Naughty or good, cessary to punish him, we must do it in some other way than by breach of For our word once engagement.

passed, must not be broken.

HOW TO ESCAPE THE TORTURE.

Several soldiers of Montgomery's Highland regiment were taken prisoners by the American Indians. Allen Macpherson, one of them, witnessed the miserable fate of his fellows, who had been tortured to death by the Indians, and seeing them preparing to commence the same operations upon himself, made signs that he had something to communicate. An interpreter was brought. Macpherson told them that provided his life was spared a few minutes, he would communicate the secret of an extraordinary medicine, which if applied to the skin, would cause it to resist the strongest blow of a tomahawk or sword, and that if they would allow him to go to the woods with a guard, to collect the plants proper for this medicine, he would prepare it, and allow the experiment to be tried on his own neck, by the strongest and most expert warrior amongst them. This story easily gained upon the superstitious credu

lity of the Indians, and the request of nison, and mixed some rum and wathe Highlander was immediately com ter for his drink. When he was well plied with. Being sent into the refreshed, and had lit his pipe, Canaswoods, he soon returned with such setego began to converse with him : plants as he chose to pick up. Ha asked him how he had fared the many ving boiled these herbs, he rubbed his years since they had seen each other, neck with their juice, and laying his whence he then came, what occasionhead on a log of wood, desired the ed the journey, &c. Conrad answerstrongest man among them to strike ed all his questions; and when the at his neck with his tomahawk, when discourse began to flag, the Indian, he would find that he could not make to continue it, said, "Conrad, you the smallest impression! An Indian, have lived long among the white peolevelling a blow with all his might.ple, and know something of their cuscut with such force, that the head flew toms: I have been sometimes at Aloff to the distance of several yards.bany, and have observed, that once The Indians were fixed in amazement in seven days they shut up their shops, at their own credulity, and the address || which the prisoner had escaped the lingering death prepared for him but instead of being enraged at this escape of their victim, they were so pleased with his ingenuity, that they refrained from the inflicting further cruelties on the remainder of the prisoners.-Stewart's Sketches.

INDIAN HOSPITALITY. The following story as related by Conrad Weiser, an interpreter of the Indian language, a considerable time anterior to the American revolution, is copied from doctor Franklin's Essays. The contrast between the hospitality of the original natives of this country, and its present "civilized inhabitants," is strikingly portrayed by the "Savage" Canassetego, both in his treatment to Weiser, and his relation of his journey to Albany.

CONRAD WEISER had been naturalized among the Six Nations, and spoke well the Mohuck language. In going through the Indian country, to carry a message from the governor to the council at Onondaga, he called at the habitation of Canassetego, an old acquaintance, who embraced him. spread furs for him to sit on, placed before him some boiled beans and ve

[ocr errors]

and assemble all in the great house; tell me what it is for? What do they do there ?" "They meet there," says Conrad, "to hear and learn good things," "I do not doubt," says the Indian, "that they tell you so, they have told me the same: but I doubt the truth of what they say, and I will tell you my reasons. I went lately to Albany to sell my skins and buy blankets, knives, powder, rum, &c. You know I used generally to deal with Hans Hanson; but I was a little inclined this time to try some other merchants. However, I called first upon Hans, and asked him what he would give for beaver. He said he could not give more than four shillings a pound: but, says he, I cannot talk on business now; this is the day when we meet together to learn good things, and I am going to the meeting... So I thought to myself, since I cannot do any business to day, I may as well with him. There stood up a man in go to the meeting too, and I went black, and began to talk to the people very angrily. I did not understand what he said: but perceiving that he looked much at me, and at Hanson, I imagined he was angry at seeing me there; so I went out, sat down near the house, struck fire, and lit my pipe, waiting till the meeting should break up. I thought too that the man had mentioned something of beaver; I suspected it might be the subject of

their meeting. So when they came out, I accosted my merchant, Well, Hans, says I, I hope you have agreed to give more than four shillings a pound." "No," says he, "I cannot give so much, I cannot give more than three shillings and sixpence." "I then spoke to several other dealers, but they all sung the same song, three and sixpence, three and sixpence. This made it clear to me that my suspicion was right; and that whatever they pretended of meeting to learn good things, the real purpose was to consult how to cheat Indians in the price of beaver. Consider but a little, Conrad, and you must be of my opinion. If they met so often to learn good things, they would certainly

have learned some before this time. But they are still ignoraut. You know our practice. If a white man, in travelling through our country, enters one of our cabins, we all treat him as I do you; we dry him if he is wet, we warm him if he is cold, and give him meat and drink, that he may allay his thirst and hunger; and we spread soft furs for him to rest and

sleep on: we demand nothing in return. But if I go into a white man's house at Albany, and ask for victuals and drink, they say, Where is your money? and if I have none, they say, Get out, you Indian dog. You see they have not learned those little good things that we need no meetings to be instructed in, because our mothers taught them us when we were children; and therefore it is impossible their meetings should be, as they say, for any such purpose, or have any such effect; they are only to contrive the cheating of Indians in the price of beaver."

countries, hospitality bas been allowed as * It is remarkable that in all ages and

the virtue of those, whom the civilized were pleased to call barbarians; the Greeks celebrated the Scythians for it. The Saracens possessed it eminently, and it is to this day the reigning virtue of the wild Arabs. St. Paul too, in the relation of his voyage and shipwreck, on the island of Melita, says, "The barbarous people shewed us no little kindness; for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold."-FRANKLIN.

FOR THE MASONIC REGISTER.
MIDNIGHT STANZAS.

"Tis night-and in darkness the visions of youth
Flit solemn and slow o'er the eye of the mind,
The hope, that excited, hath perished, and truth
Laments o'er the wreck it is leaving behind.

'Tis midnight-and wide o'er the regions of riot,

Are spread deep in silence the wings of repose, And man, sooth'd from revel, and lull'd into quiet, Forsakes in his slumbers the weight of his woes.

How gloomy and sad is the scowl of yon heaven, Whose azure the clouds with their darkness invest, Not a star in the shadowy concave is given,

To omen a something like hope to the breast.

Ah! where are the friends in whom was my trust, Whose bosoms with mutual affections did burn? Alas! they are gone to their homes,"in the dust, And the grass rustles drearily over their urn!

While I in a populous solitude languish,

Mid foes who surround me, and friends that are cold, Oh! the pilgrim of earth, oft has found, in his anguish, The heart may be wither'd before it is old.

Affection can soothe but her votaries an hour,
For soon as the flame it has raised, it departs,
But, Ah! disappointment has poison, and power
To ruffle and sour the most patient of hearts.

Too oft 'neath the barb-pointed arrows of malice,
Has merit been destined to bear and to bleed,
And he who of pleasure has emptied the chalice,
Has found that the dregs are full bitter indeed.

But let the storms of adversity low'r-'tis in vain ;

Though friends should desert me, and foes should combine: Such may kindle the breasts of the weak to complain, It only can teach resignation to mine.

For far o'er the regions of doubt, and of dreaming,
The spirit beholds a less perishing span,

And bright in the heavens the rainbow is gleaming,
The sign of forgiveness from Heaven to man.

CONCERT OF ANIMALS. The abbot of Baigne, a man of wit, and skilled in the construction of new musical instruments, was ordered by Louis XI, king of France, more in jest than in earnest, to procure him a concert of swine's voices. The abbot said that the thing could doubtless be done, but that it would take a good deal of money. The king ordered that he should have whatever he required for the purpose. The abbot, says Bayle, then "wrought a thing as singular as ever was seen. For out of a great number of hogs of several ages, which he got together, and placed under a tent, or pavillion, covered with velvet, before which he had a table of wood painted, with a certain number of keys, he made an organical iustrument, and as he played upon the said keys with little spikes, which pricked the hogs, he made them cry in such order and consonance, he highly delighted the king and all his company.

IMPERIAL BON-MOT.

Charles V, who had so long distínguished himself as a persecutor of all who differed from the orthodox faith, appears in his retirement to have come to his senses on the subject of intolerance. He had thirty watches on his table, and observing that no two of them marked the same time, he exclaimed, "How could I imagine that in matters of religion I could make all men think alike. A servant carelessly entering his cell, threw down all the watches. The emperor laughed, and said, "You are more lucky than I, for you have found the way to make them all go together."

From the Hudson Balance. DESPERATE ASSASSINS. A couple of desperadoes are traversing our country, and making dreadful havoc of property and lives of old and young. They have alrea

to ours, may fill their station with equal, perhaps with superior propri

dy slain more of the inhabitants than were slain in battles, and perished in prison ships, during the Americanety. On nothing is mistake so general as an observer.

war; and, at the same time, they have wasted more substance than would pay the national debt. Their strength is invincible. The method

of attack is to strike people on the head, then instantly they trip up their heels, pick their pockets, and continue their blows on the head until they have quite beat out their brains.Though they infest public houses chiefly, they are also at privatę closets of private houses, in workshops of mechanics, and in the fields of farmers. In some instances whole families have fallen victims to these murderers; nay, whole towns have beeen ravaged and ruined by them One poor man hereabouts, that had formerly been an industrious, thriving mechanic, has very lately been murdered by them in a manner too shocking to relate; and there are several others in the vicinity who have been daily attacked by them, robbed of their money, smitten on the brain pan, khocked down, and in all respects so violently handled that an alarming stupor had succeeded, and they are already brought to death's door. In a word, the country is in imminent danger from a couple of outlandish miscreants, who mock at reason, trample upon the precious rights of man, and equally bid de fiance to the law and gospel. The names of these two ruffians are RUM and BRANDY.

"Let us not exult unnecessarily over human deficiencies. The more we know of our own defects, the more candid shall we become tow ards those of others-and certainly a good mind will always regard them rather with sorrow than contempt.--Let us also consider that "the thou sands" with whom we have but little sympathy, may often be prepared by

the wisdom of Providence for other friendships; and, in a different sphere

To CORRESPONDENTS.

Since the suspension of the Register. we have received a great number of communications, on various subjects, for which we return our grateful thanks.

and which shall all be attended to in their turns.

make an attack on the new wind-mill DON QUIXOTTE" had much better

in Rivington-street, than to attempt to convert the Masonic Register into a vehicle of scurrility, or a machine to answer the views of any political party.

"DECIUS," though well written, smells too strong of powder. We are "friends of peace."

"CHARLES," on Pride, is rather too personal, and gives some unjustifiable allusions.

[ocr errors]

Honor and shame, from no condition rise,

Act well your PART, there all the honour lies."

The son of a "ferryman," or the nephew of a man who “peddles gingerbread," whose heart is possessed of the

milk of human kindness," and disdains a mean action, is as far superior to a dissolute prince, as the angel Gabriel is superior to an oyster.

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]
« AnteriorContinuar »