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squander their health in vicious pleasures. Indeed, I am fully convinced, my dear I cannot allow myself to suppose that G- , that many a young man, whose you feel any inclination to do either; better knowledge of his moral obligations but the result may, perhaps, take place would have kept him safe from this confrom being imperceptibly led on to it by tagion, and would have armed him the influence of association-and hence against its infection, by referring him to it becomes as indispensable, I had al- the first impressions of duty which he most said more so, for a young man to had received from a good education, has be careful whom he chooses for the com- been gradually seduced into this destrucpanions of his leisure hours of relaxation, tive insensibility by an unwary associaas he admits he ought to be of those tion with individuals of his own standing from whose communications he expects and condition, who, having failed to apinstruction in the graver pursuits of life. ply aright the same opportunities, have, A man is more readily known by his in the low subtilty of their impure expleasures than by any other part of his perience, deliberately planned their triconduct the character of his mind is umph over his happier ignorance of the more clearly unfolded; he acts less un- existence of vices which they have been der the controul of reserve, and the sen- long hackneyed in-and I am sorry to timent of his heart pours out itself in all add a too notorious fact in support of the flow of natural feeling. Nothing, this assertion, that there is not a more therefore, can be more essential to a prolific source of such characters than a young man, than that his pleasures mercantile house. The hours of labour, if should be so constituted, as neither to labour it can be called, are few-the debase the dignity of his nature, nor time at their own disposal is consideracommit his character to the reproach of ble; and it unfortunately happens, that others or of his own conscience. Re- the season of their leisure is in that part laxation cannot, then, be sought in plea- of the day when all the places of evening sures that debilitate the body, or in amusement are open; and it is thought amusements that enervate the mind; by these "careless ones" a justifiable for as the heart is principally concerned appropriation of their gains to squander in our enjoyments, so it can neither find them upon the most seductive of all virtuous satisfaction nor useful improve- amusements, those of the theatre, where ment in such degrading gratifications. they are seen lounging in the lobby, a Indeed, the evil is not merely of a nega- place which may most justly be called tive kind, since, such is the effect of all the vestibule of vice-they soon become corrupt indulgence of the senses, that it familiar with scenes, which to the disnot only vitiates our purer inclinations, grace of our police, are tolerated, as, but dispossesses us even of the power to what has been shamelessly termed preserve them from its contaminating in- necessary evil"-and the restraints of fluence, until, as our Milton has strong- virtuous reflection, too weak to resist the ly expressed it,

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torrent of temptation, are borne down by the tide of depraved custom; the moral warnings of early precept and parental caution are forgotten, the checks of conscience repulsed, and the boy boasts of intimacies to which nothing but infamy can be attached, and makes those violations his vaunt which have been the ruin of hundreds of young men in character and constitution, by rendering them regardless of the opinion of the world" They care not what people say of them-they are their own masters, and are not bound to give an account to

So coin grows smooth in traffic current pass'd, any one."-But they frequently find this

'Till Cæsar's image is effac'd at last!"

latter assertion to be a very mistaken one

212

Letters to a Son on Business and Amusements.

[VOL. 2 -for the repeated irregularities of their the force of example and the habit of criminal course not unfrequently bring association. We insensibly adopt the them into involvements out of which sentiment and the manners of those with they seldom or never extricate them- whom we keep up a daily intercourse; selves, but with the loss of their repu- and however ungentlemanly a young tation, and the forfeiture of the respect man, at his first entrance upon his career, of those on whose favour their future may deem it to be to appear drunk at a prospects generally depend.-I have a theatre, or whatever effort it may cost higher idea of your prudential estimate him to overcome the natural diffidence of the value of character to a young man of youth so far as to make a prominent who has nothing else to depend upon, figure in a theatrical riot, yet when he than to suppose these vulgar irregulari- has once enrolled himself in a corps of ties can attract your concurrence-and such impertinents, the chacun a son tour, I do not suppose that you would very sooner or later, brings him to the breach; readily lend yourself to their views of and what he would have blamed as the ill-bred intrusion upon common deco- disreputable act of another, yesterday, rum as to be seen strolling from box to to-day he boasts of as a monstrous good box, to the annoyance of the more so- joke, and quite a glorious achievement ber-minded part of the audience, or in himself. It is a well known circumparading the lobby with its degraded stance, that, in nine cases out of ten, the female occupants, or taking a part in an disturbances at our metropolitan theaO. P. row, or even joining in a precon- tres are originated by the insolence and certed phalanx of would-be critics to audacity of young clerks in offices, boys support or condemn a new production who have just escaped from the rod of or performance, according to their igno- the pedagogue, and the sum of whose rant standard of judgment and capricious accomplishments amounts to little more decisions of personal favoritism or dis- than the rudiments of the Latin Gramtaste. I am not inclined to think it pos- mar, a few badly pronounced French sible that you would venture to the thea- phrases collected from novels, barely suftre in a state of intoxication, or that you ficient acquaintance with their own lanwould feel it to be a manly indication of guage to write and spell a letter correctsuperior acumen to proclaim your opin- ly, and just knowledge enough of music ion of the merits or demerits of an actor to pick out one of Moore's Irish Meloby making one of a party who insolently dies upon the piano-forte or flute, with a take upon themselves to determine for few quotations from Shakspeare, or cant the rest of the audience, whether such a phrases from some modern playwright. I debutant shall be allowed a second trial, do not, however, mean to assert, that or such a performance be permitted to there are not to be found in a counting reach the second act. No, G-! I house young men of well-educated minds am sure you would shun these unwar- and well-regulated manners, which place rantable presumptions of levity and ig- them far above the level of such illiterate norance, and will readily allow, with me, pretenders; but I would be understood that there cannot be witnessed a more as describing those who choose the lobby despicable, though ludicrous, character as the medium of their play-house recrethan a counting-house and office critic, ations, or who intrude themselves among who has just emerged from the tram- the more sober-minded frequenters of the mels of boarding-school discipline, and pit whenever they promise themselves slipped into manhood by the mere lapse the gratification of a row, as they knowof time, presuming to dictate to the town ingly term it. You will tell me, that the quantum meruit of a performer or the association of these two orders is an author who has conceived himself very rare, and that nothing can be more capable of contributing to its amusement. low and vulgar than the conduct of the Such impudent trespasses upon modesty latter but I am afraid, G——, that the and decent deportment I am not prepar- indiscriminate mixture of the bad and ed to expect from you; yet so it is, good in every great city not unfrequently G, that we are seldom proof against blends all the distinguishing shades of

VOL. 2.]

On the Amusements of Young Men.

213

virtuous and vicious character in one courage enough to put in practice. general blot of contamination. If I am There certainly is a seeming injustice in mistaken, my error originates in that re- such a criterion; yet as it is the cusport which professes to convey the com- tom of society, which can only judge mon repute of such situations. Howev- according to what it sees of the behaviour er, I will conclude that you are not emu- of any one of its members, the best methlous of that questionable fame which the od of escaping the judgment is to avoid more depraved part of such employès so all appearance of evil, and to shun the anxiously pursue, at the risk of their company of those whose habits may be reputation, their health, and their ap- tray us into it. One night's confinement pointments and that you have too high in a watch-house, for even an unpremieda sense of what is due to yourself to itated implication in a street broil, will commit your character and credit to a be related and recorded to the prejudice similar hazard. There is a very good of a young man, when his regular apstory told us, G- -, by way of fable, pearance at church will never be thought about a pigeon and three cranes-the of. Illiberal as this may be considered, former took a casual flight, with the lat- yet it has some reason on its side; for ter, and on his first essay was unluckily he who does his duty does no more than seized as the companion of the latter, he is expected to do, but he who violates who were caught in the mischievous it disappoints this expectation; and the trespass of a predatory excursion-the violation is therefore more marked than pigeon, who, it seems, had but a little the performance of it. If I have formbefore trusted to his wings, and had ed a warrantable estimate of your conbeen deemed by the maternal bird able science, my dear G———, I would conto fly alone, had only the day before clude, that in all such irregularities you left his domesticated dove-cote-greatly will not look for what may be justly delighted with the unrestrained range termed Relaxation-since whatever tends and expansive course of his bold asso- to degrade the man can never delight the ciates, he followed where they led, and in an evil hour was taken in the snare of the fowler, who answered the exculpatory pleadings of the inexperienced bird by an old adage that has served on many such an occasion-"Evil communications corrupt good manners, a man is judged according to the company that he keeps."--The reply, perhaps, is rather trite; but we may suppose that the man possessed common sense enough to parry the evasion of his captive, and that the latter had not sufficient to reflect, that the world in general forms its estimate of character more commonly from the plain evidence of conduct, than from the abstract principles of better know- There is, however, one possibility which ledge which may be possessed by those I must guard you against, as it relates to who have not sufficient resolution to ad- that effervescence of youthful gaiety in here to them and hence it unfortunate- which a young man's prudence is somely happens, that one lapse from moral times suffered to evaporate. Young prudence in a youth, who allows him- men in subordinate stations are in the self to act in opposition to the dictates habit of forming a species of fellowship of his conscience and the precepts of his in their pleasurable pursuits, and by education, is taken as the stamp of his way of relaxing their minds from mind, and fixes the currency of public the graver burdens of duty, institute opinion as to its intrinsic worth, sooner clubs, at which they meet to dine than a hundred virtues which he has not upon peculiar occasions, and those

mind, for none but the habitually vicious
can find pleasure in vice.—I will not,
therefore, even suspect you of being, by
any possibility of your own choice, at
any time likely to be involved in such
unworthy implications.-Your own dis-
crimination between right and wrong, I
doubt not, has anticipated my present
caution; and were I indeed to feel any
doubt, I should adopt the language of
the poet,

"Whene'er an equal poise of hope and fear
Does arbitrate th' event, my nature is,
That I incline to hope rather than fear,
And gladly banish squint suspicion."

MILTON'S Comus.

214

Otto von Kotzebue's Voyage round the World.

(VOL. 2

who are supposed to be best able to returned, you will remember those lines afford the expense are admitted into their of Cowper,

woe."

party. This sort of association is very « Save me from the gaiety of those apt to attract the buoyant spirits of Whose headaches nail them to a noon-day bed; youth-but as the difficulty of main- From guilt that fills the bones with pain, taining the influence of moderation is The mouth with blasphemy, the heart with usually considered too great a task for exertion, it now and then occurs that -Now I presume you will admit, that the recreation which this letter has in temperance is turned out of the room: and in the absence of this virtue, (which view, can scarely be found in a waste of all have agreed in ranking among the time, of health, and purse, so senseless most amiable qualities of youth) the as this is.-Well then, you will tell me reins are given to the passions, and the that an hour or two spent in sobermindmind is carried away in their impetuous edness at the theatre, to see a good play course beyond all the bounds of moral and a good actor, cannot be objected to circumspection. And when all things upon any such grounds-since it affords turn round with us, G, no wonder information and entertainment so well if the judgment stumbles :-from the blended as to recreate the mind and body table, an adjournment is usually made to at the same time-the intellect and the the theatre, and there all that I have animal spirits are both assisted and rehinted at takes place; or if their revel- freshed. Do not suppose that I wish to lings should be carried to a length that deny this-but I am not bound to addisqualifies the party for this continu- mit too large a multiple of your "hour ance of them, they usually terminate in or two"--and in my next letter I will quarrels among themselves, or disorder- tell you why. In the mean time, my ly conduct in the streets, and their jo- dear G, assure yourself, that while vial career finishes in a watch-house. I do not wish to see you numbered Then follows the customary exposureamong those who bail must be found-to obtain which, some friend must be applied to-then the magistrate's summons must be attended to and they are placed at the bar of I am ready to allow you a right to seek justice, with the rest of the delinquents remission from the fatigues of business of the night, who, whatever may be the in those scenes of pleasurable indulgence greater degree of their criminal turpitude, which may always preserve a uniformity are, for the time, their fellows. This is of keeping, with the brightest prospects a result which certainly cannot have any of your life. That these may be realiz thing to do with the rationale of recrea- ed to your hopes, and to the justification tion; and if ever you should unhap- and accomplishment of my present anxpily be brought into this dilemma, by ieties, is the sincere wish, and will be allowing your complacency to cheat you the happiest experience, of

of your prudence, I have little doubt

but that, when your recollection shall be

----------“ know no fatigue But that of idleness, and taste no scenes But such as art contrives,”

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Your affectionate Father,

W.

OTTO VON KOTZEBUE'S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD.

THE

From the Literary Gazette, July 1817.

HE Berlin Gazette gives the follow- 14° of latitude, and 144° of longitude. ing account of this expedition, To these islands he gave the names of which has been received from Kamt- Romanzow (the author and equipper of schatka. Letters of an earlier date, the whole expedition.) Spiridow (an which, after having doubled Cape Horn, Admiral under whom Kotzebue formerhe sent from the coast of Chili, have ly served several years,) and Krusenstern been lost, or at least are not yet come to (with whom he made his first voyage hand. Mr. V. Kotzebue discovered round the world.) Besides these he three new islands in the South, Sea, in discovered a long chain of islands in the

VOL. 2.]

Otto Von Kotzebue's Voyage round the World.

215

same quarter, and two clusters of islands of horses, by two strong oxen. I could in the 11th degree of latitude, and 190th not help laughing when I saw a whole degree of longitude. (It is not specified row of these smart equipages arrive fillwhether the latitude is N. or S. or the ed with ladies; but the surprise is very longitude E. or W.) These he called pleasant, when one sees crawling out of after his ships Rurik's Chain; the two these ugly cages well-educated and latter Kutusow's Cluster (a group) and handsome young ladies, who are not at Suwarrow's Cluster. All these islands all inferior to the European ladies either are very woody, partly uninhabited, and in the elegance and taste of their dress, dangerous for navigators. The discov- or in the politeness of their behaviour. erer has sent to Count Romanzow a The quantity of their shining diamonds great many maps and drawings. On would be envied by many an European the 12th of July O. S. Kotzebue design- lady. At three in the afternoon all my ed to sail from Kamtschatka to Behring's boats were ready at the beach to receive Straits, according to his instructions. my guests. My ship was in the greatest He hoped to return to Kamtschatka in order, and richly furnished with all sorts September 1817. On the whole voy- of refreshments, but the number of the age from Chili to that place he had not a guests was too great to entertain them all single person sick on board. He touched at once on board the little Rurik (the at Easter Island; but did not find the name of the ship.) Accordingly my inhabitants so friendly as La Peyrouse boats remained in constant activity, to describes them. He thinks that some- carry those on shore again whose curiosthing must have happened since that ity was satisfied, and to bring others in time which has made them distrustful their place. of the Europeans: perhaps it may be At sunset the company left the ship to the overturning of their surprisingly large dress for the ball, The Rurik was adstatues, which Kotzebue looked for in mired by all of them. The Governor vain, and found only the ruins of one of remained the last on board. The crowd them near its base, which still remains. of the ladies amused him very much, beHe saw no fruits from the seeds left by cause there were but a few gentlemen; La Peyrouse, nor any sheep or hogs, in fact the women are here ten times as which by this time must have multiplied numerous as the men. As the Goverexceedingly. A single fowl was brought nor left the ship I saluted him with eight him for sale. It seems we may hope guns, which were immediately answered much from this young seamen, who is by the fort. On shore I had transformnot yet 30 years of age. He was obliged a great magazine into a ball-room, ed for many reasons to leave the learned and ornamented it with many trees. As Dane Wormskrold behind in Kamt- it was brilliantly illuminated, nobody schatka.

Extract from the Journal of the
Circumnavigator Отто VON
KOTZEBUE, sent to his Father,
---Communicated by the latter.
Talcagnano, on the Coast of Chili,

3d of March, 1816,

At

perceived that they were in a great corn magazine. In two places were transparencies, which were symbolical of the friendship between the two powers. eight o'clock the hall began; there was much dancing; refreshments of all kinds were in abundance, and the company seemed very cheerful. In another house, This was the day on which the curios- which was only separated by a garden ity of the ladies of the town of Concep- from the ball-room, the guests went to tion was to be satisfied. Yesterday and supper, and were surprised by a firethis morning there arrived many out of work, at which they seemed very much that town; and the ladies who did not pleased. At two o'clock in the mornlike to ride so long a way on horseback, ing the ball became more animated, and came in an odd kind of carriage; four- was kept up with great spirit till six cornered boxes quite like our dog-ken- o'clock. The sun was already high nels, which rested upon immensely large when I accompanied sone of my princiwheels made of boards, drawn, instead pal guests honie. In the town they had

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