after a lawsuit had brought them their money, were ready to trust him again, and he was as ready to buy. The same farce was played over and over, until now the end of these things has come; and, poor fellow, he is turned out in the wide world, without a friend, save a wife and six miserable babes.

I asked the constable for a sight of the execution, and he showed it to me. It was issued by young squire Bell, and I could not but recollect how different was the history of this man to that of Timothy. Young Bell was a poor boy; commenced his life with nothing but health and trade; but he adopted as a sacred maxim, "pay as you go ;" and he frequently told me, he found little dif ficulty in sticking to his text. The necessaries of life are few, and industry secures them to every man; it is the elegancies of life that empty the purse; the knickknacks of fashion, the gratification of pride, and the indulgence of luxury, that makes a man poor. To guard against these, some resolution is necessary; and the resolution, once formed, is much strengthened and guarded by the habit of paying for every article we buy, at the time. If we do so, we shall seldom purchase what our circumstances will not afford.

This was exactly the manner in which Jack Bell proceeded. Habit, strengthened by long continuance, and supported by reason, became second nature. His business prospered; his old purse became filled with Spanish dollars; all his purchases, being made for cash, were favourable, and by always knowing how he stood with the world, he avoided all derangement in his affairs. He is now the squire of a little village, with a good property, a profitable business, and the respect of all who know him.

Young reader, who hast not entered on the stage of business, when you come forward in the world, go and do likewise, and you shall have like reward.

VIII. SUICIDE.

[National Advocate. New-York.]

WITHIN a week two suicides have been committed in our city, one of which was under the pressure of commercial embarrassments. This is a shocking example to a moral world. Much has been said and written against this crime, the denunciations of holy writ, the anathemas of inspired writers, the opinion of the wise and just, the frowns of society; still we find men so weak, so rash, yet timid, unable to bear up in a manly manner against the frowns of fickle fortune, rushing into the presence of their God, uncalled for, "unanointed, unanealed." If the obligations which are due to the divine author of our existence are thus sported with; if the obligations due to society are disregarded; if the world to come, if future fame and honour, and the life everlasting, are held thus light, and trivial, what is to become of us?

Men, when they enter into public life, or pursue any business of hazard, should ever be prepared to meet the reverses with fortitude and resignation. There is scarcely any pursuit which has not its corresponding risks and dangers. A gale of wind drives a vessel on shore, and destroys the hopes of the adventurer; a fire consumes the warehouse of the merchant; a pestilence stops his trade; a friend fails, owing him money; these are the natural consequences which may happen in trade. Shall we then joyfully participate in the blessings of a golden harvest, yet shrink appalled from the frowns of fate? If we are to believe that our destinies are in the hands of an all-seeing Providence, and “that they are, all nature cries aloud," why rebel against his will, why attempt to resist his decree? Submit humbly to his dispensations, and with chastened humility and grateful feelings bow before the supreme arbitrator of the universe. Apart from the immoral effect and pernicious tendency of suicide, there is something cowardly in the act itself. Man fears to face misfortune, and shrinks from trouble and calamity. He resorts to the pistol or poison for relief, as the intemperate man flies to liquor to assuage his woes.

Suicide, committed to avoid the importunity of creditors, is dishonorable. If you cannot pay your debts, there is a moral obligation for you to live, in order to labour for that purpose. The life of a debtor is the property of his creditor, and the worst kind of fraud, is, to deprive him of it. In this state, an unfortunate man in business is never driven to despair. If he fails, owing to any cause, he has only to call his creditors together, and share among them all that is left, and be a free man again. The walls of a prison have no terrors in such cases, as the inmates of our prison are the poorest class, and confined for the most trifling sums. There is no terror in the law, which can drive a man to despair. We have daily instances of the fickleness of fortune, which smiles to day, and frowns tomorrow. With as much reason may we plunge into the sea, because the sun does not shine, as to commit suicide, because we have no money to pay our debts. Weak minds may be victims to such despair, but firmness in adversity, and mildness in prosperity, qualify a man for all the changes" that flesh is heir to."

IX. AMBITION.

[Courier. Charleston.]

AMBITION is the noblest and most powerful stimulus to action. Compared with this, either in the sublimity of its objects, or the grandeur and extent of the means it employs to attain them, every other passion dwindles into insignificance. To him, who considers human actions and their causes, the necessity of ambition to produce any thing great or excellent, will be immediately obvious. This passion is peculiarly characteristic of a noble mind. By inculcating the precept" nil mortalibus arduum esse," it teaches its votary to disdain inferiority, and to aspire to superiour eminence. It dispels the empty fears of cowardice, and gives even valour to the brave. To ambition, we are indebted for the exercise of those faculties, that exalt the human above every other species, and assimilate man to his God. Its effects are every where visible, and universally beneficial. This produc

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es the learned speculations of philosophy, and the power ful charms of eloquence; the heroic courage of the warrior, and the brilliant metaphors of the poet. To what other motive than this, do we owe the productions of genius, and, consequently, the diffusion of knowledge? This has reared the stately fabric of science; it has given it a base, as durable as time, and an apex as high as the heavens. This animates genius, that without it were inert, and gives energy to the mental faculties, without which they were useless. From its power over the mind are derived inestimable advantages. Analyze every good quality of the heart, and you will find its source to be ambition.

As ambition is the most powerful of the passions, so it has the longest duration. Love, if not soon destroyed by caprice, perishes at the approach of old age, and its extinction is more speedy as its commencement is more violent. Hatred, although more durable than love, is generally of short duration, necessarily yielding to the ravages of time. Revenge is only excited occasionally, and is soon satiated with its object. But ambition is coeval with life itself. No misfortune can impair its energy, or lessen its exertions.

The other passions are weakened by the absence of their objects; but ambition is more vehement as its object is more distant-more earnest in pursuit as its object is more difficult to be attained.

Without this invigorating principle, the verse of the poet would be lifeless, and the arm of the warrior inac tive. The nobler feelings of the heart would be entirely unknown; and, as man would be incapable of admiring, so there would be nothing worthy of admiraation; every thing in science would be imperfect; eve ry thing in art contemptible.

X. LIFE AND ITS USES.
[From the same.]

"Dum vivimus, vivamus."

HE, who addresses us on the value of life, a subject in which all are equally concerned, is certain of alluring, if he cannot convict; and, though his proselytes be few,

his audience will be large. He, who pretends to increase our blessings, or give stability to those we possess, touches a string that entwines the human heart, and harmonizes with our feelings. It would, indeed, be strange, if man needed much exhortation to make him comply with the suggestions of interest, or refused to pursue that course, which experience has declared the road to happiness. Hence the propensity, inherent in human nature, to reward those, who, by shortening the way to riches, have conferred benefits on society. If then, honours be alloted to him who teaches us how to obtain this comparatively inferior blessing, how much greater is his merit, who teaches us how to enjoy life, on which every other blessing depends? The road of life is dark, and who would refuse a guide? Many are the quicksands in the ocean of existence, and who would navigate it without a pilot?

Influenced by the prevalent opinion in their favour, there have appeared some, in every age, who, in an authoritative manner, have drawn the lines between happiness and misery, and held forth recipes for avoiding the one, and obtaining the other. By the interpretation of some, our motto commands the gratification of the passions, and entire devotion to sensual pleasure. They would lead us over beds of roses to havens of increasing bliss, where man may breathe away his life in the luxury of enjoyment, without remorse for the past, or dread of the future. Heedless of those lines which the Creator has drawn between day and night, man is taught to apply both to the purposes of pleasure; he is to obey no God, for religion is averse to sensuality; he is to love none of his fellow creatures, for love is the offspring of prejudice He is to "exert his energies" to obtain whatever he wishes; and in his wishes, he is to be restrained by no consideration, either of utility or right. In a word, he is to "eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow he must die." Such is the substance of a doctrine, founded upon the worst passions of the human heart, and directly subversive of religion and happiness. As long as there exists a God, and future happiness is the object of present existence-as long as man is in