And it is in youth that hope lends its cheering ray, and love its genial influence; and that our friends smile upon us, and our companions do not cross us, and our parents are still at hand to cherish us in their bosoms, and sympathize in all our young and ardent feelings. It is then that the world seems so fair, and our fellow-men so kind, that we charge with spleen any who would prepare us for disappointment; and accuse those of misanthropy who would warn our too confiding hearts. And though in maturer life we may smile at the romance of youth, and lament, perhaps, its aberrations, yet must we often regret the depth of our young emotions, the disinterestedness of our young affections, and that enthusiasm of purpose which, alas! we soon grow too wise to cherish.

Young women are peculiarly liable to enthusiasm of every kind. They are so gentle, and so tender, and so imaginative; and they have often so much leisure to indulge in reveries and ecstasies, that it is not to be wondered at that they should be oc casionally somewhat visionary. Yet their extravagance has contributed more than any thing else to bring discredit upon sentiment. Its affectation often sickens more even than its folly. It is so distressing to see a young woman sighing, and weeping, and dreaming away her existence; one moment in a hysteric, and another in a faint; always getting up a scene, or supporting a part, that one is almost prepared to accede to any tirade against sentiment, the caricature of which is so truly absurd. Young women should be taught the folly of sentimentalism. They should be taught, that though it is a very right thing, and a very serious thing, to feel, it is a very wrong thing and a very silly thing to be languishing and affected. They should learn to look at life through a faithful medium; to see its long perspective in all its true variety of light and shade, of what is beautiful and what is depressing. And if, even while they allow the preponderance to the latter, their eye will still seek out and linger on some few bright spots, and their young anticipations will scarcely submit to be sobered by any thing but by their own experience, they should, on this account especially, learn to stretch their view beyond this earthly prospect, to rest their sight upon a far distant land, where there is, indeed, every thing to transport, and every thing to satisfy; where there are scenes too vivid for imagination to paint, and pleasures too sublime for intellect to conceive.

CONCISE STYLE.

OF EDUCATION IN A REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT.-MONTESQUIEU.

It is in a republican government that the whole power of education is required. The fear of despotic governments rises naturally of itself, amidst threats and punishments; the horror of monarchies is favored by the passions, and favors them in its turn; but virtue is a self renunciation, which is always' arduous and painful. This virtue may be defined the love of the laws and of our country. As this love requires a constant preference of public to private interest, it is the source of all particular virtues; for they are nothing more than this very preference itself. This love is peculiarly proper to democracies. In these alone the government is intrusted to private citizens. Now government is like every thing else; to preserve it, we must love it. Has it ever been heard that kings were not fond of monarchy, or that despotic princes hated arbitrary power? Every thing, therefore, depends on establishing this love in a republic, and to inspire it ought to be the principal business of education; but the surest way of instilling it into children, is for parents to set them an example. People have it generally in their power to communicate their ideas to their children; but they are still better able to transfuse their passions. If it happens otherwise, it is because the impressions made at home are effaced by those they have received abroad. It is not the young people that degenerate: they are not spoiled till those of mature age are already sunk into corruption.

ON STUDIES.-LORD BACON.

Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business; for expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one: but the general coun

sels, and the plots and marshaling of affairs, come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies, is sloth; to use too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humor of a scholar : they perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are, like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man; and therefore if a man write little, he had need have a great memory: if he confer little, he had need have a present wit: and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know what he doth not. Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend; Abeunt studia in mores;' nay, there is no stand or impediment in the wit, but may be wrought out by fit studies; like as diseases of the body may by appropriate exercises; bowling is good for the stone and reins, shooting for the lungs and breast, gentle walking for the stomach, riding for the head and the like; so if a man's wits be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again; if his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the schoolmen, for they are Cymini sectores;' if he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call upon one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers' cases; so every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.

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DRY STYLE.

A MINUTE PHILOSOPHER.-BERKLEY.

Whether the principles of christians or infidels are truest, may be made a question, but which are safest, can be none. Certainly if you doubt of all opinions, you must doubt of your own and then, for aught you know, the christian may be true. The more doubt, the more room there is for faith; a sceptic, of all men, having the least right to demand evidence. But, whatever uncertainty there may be in other points, thus much is certain: either there is, or is not a God: there is, or is not a revelation: man either is, or is not an agent: the soul is, or is not immortal. If the negatives are not sure, the affirmatives are possible. If the negatives are improbable, the affirmatives are probable. In proportion as any of your ingenious men finds himself unable to prove any one of these negatives, he hath grounds to suspect he may be mistaken. A minute philosopher, therefore, that would act a consistent part, should have the diffidence, the modesty, and the timidity, as well as the doubts of a sceptic; not pretend to an ocean of light, and then lead us to an abyss of darkness. If I have any notion of ridicule, this is most ridiculous. But your ridiculing what, for ought you know, may be true, I can make no sense of. It is neither acting as a wise man, with regard to your own interest, nor as a good man, with regard to that of your country.

Tully saith somewhere, aut unlique religionem tolle aut usquequaque conserva: Either let us have no religion at all, or let it be respected. If any single instance can be shewn, of a people that ever prospered without some religion, or if there be any religion better than the christian, propose it in the grand assembly of the nation to change our constitution, and either live without religion, or introduce that new religion. A sceptic, as well as other men, is member of a community, and can distinguish between good and evil, natural or political. Be this then his guide as a patriot, though he be no christian. Or, if he doth not pretend even to this discernment, let him not pretend to correct or alter what he knows nothing of: neither let him

that only doubts, behave as if he could demonstrate. Timagoras is wont to say, I find my country in possession of certain tenets they appear to have an useful tendency, and, as such, are encouraged by the legislature: they make a main part of our constitution: I do not find these innovators can disprove them, or substitute things more useful and certain in their stead out of regard, therefore, to the good of mankind, and the laws of my country, I shall acquiesce in them. I do not say Timagoras is a christian, but I reckon him a patriot. Not to inquire in a point of so great concern, is folly, but it is still a higher degree of folly, to condemn without inquiring. Lysicles seemed heartily tired of this conversation. It is now late, said he to Alciphron, and all things are ready for our departure.

MORALS OF CHESS.-DR. FRANKLIN.

Playing at chess is the most ancient and universal game known among men; for its original is beyond the memory of history, and it has, for numberless ages, been the amusement of all the civilized nations of Asia, the Persians, the Indians, and the Chinese. Europe has had it above a thousand years; the Spaniards have spread it over their parts of America, and it begins to make its appearance in these States. It is so interesting in itself, as not to need the view of gain to induce engaging in it; and thence it is never played for money. Those, therefore, who have leisure for such diversions, cannot find one that is more innocent; and the following piece, written with a view to correct (among a few young friends) some little improprieties in the practice of it, shows, at the same time, that it may,, in its effects on the mind, be not merely innocent, but advantageous, to the vanquished as well as the victor.

Sev

The game of chess is not merely an idle amusement. eral very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired or strengthened by it, so as to become habits, ready on all occasions. For life is a kind of chess, in which we have points to gain, and competitors or adversaries to contend with, and in which there is a vast variety of good and ill events, that are, in some degree, the effects of prudence or the want of it. By playing at chess then, we learn,