Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

may demand attention, must be, in some degree, apparent to every one. To the student, not less than to the man of business, is regularity of method important in the arrangement of his pursuits, as it prevents loss of time- by embarrassing suspense, with regard to the object which, at any given hour, claims immediate attention.

Even a plan of arrangement, in some respects defective and objectionable, would secure to a student a decided advantage over another individual, who should disregard order and method; incalculable, then, must be the benefit arising from regulations which proceed on wise and enlightened principles. A few suggestions on this point are deserving of notice. Let not the plan laid down be so difficult of observance as to incur the danger of frequent failure or irregularity.

It is wise for us to consider not only what we could wish to accomplish, but, also, what it is probable that, with our habits, and in our circumstances, we shall be able to effect. By attempting too much, we often accomplish less than we should have effected with plans guided by principles of greater moderation.

And one reason which may be assigned for this is, that, after having repeatedly fallen short of the line prescribed, our plans cease to have authority in our own estimation, lose their practical influence on the distribution of our time, and, having thus been virtually, they are at length avowedly, abandoned.

Let the proportion of time and attention devoted to every object of study, be regulated by a regard to its real and its relative importance.

Let the most important studies be assigned to those hours in which we find, by experience, that we can exert our intellectual energies with the greatest facility and intensity.

Let the minor intervals of time, which precede or follow the more important engagements, be duly and economically improved.

How many valuable acquisitions may be secured by filling up, with appropriate reading, the moments of occasional and uncertain leisure, which Boyle calis the parentheses or interludes of time! These, coming between more important engagements, are wont to be lost by most men, for want of a value for them; and even by good men, for want of skill to preserve them.

And as some goldsmiths and refiners are wont to save the very sweepings of their shops, because they may contain in them some filings or dust of gold and silver, I see not, why a Christian may not be as careful not to lose the fragments of a thing incomparably more precious.

LESSON XXXVII.

The Kidnapped African.-LANDERS.

AMONG the slaves was a middle-aged, short woman, having a broad, mournful kind of countenance; in fact, there were two of them, so very much alike in all respects, that they might be taken for sisters. As she sat with the goats, whose society, by-the-by, was extremely disagreeable to her, inasmuch as they committed various misdemeanors, to her great annoyance, she fetched one of the deepest and most dismal sighs I ever heard.

This attracted my attention; for she was seated so near me, that, from the motion of the canoe, I was not unfrequently jostled against her. She had been slowly masticating, with apparent disrelish, part of a boiled yam, which appeared to be cold and dry, and which was now laid aside. She was in deep meditation; tear-drops were in her eyes, ready to fall, as she gazed earnestly at a spot of land on the eastern bank, which was fast receding from her view.

Her closed lips, slightly upturned, and quivering with emotion, the usual prelude to more violent grief, gave an expression of sadness and silent sorrow to her countenance, which language can but ill express. Nothing could be more touching than this tranquil face of wo. Loud bursts of lamentation, and other vehement expressions of passion, would not be half so eloquent.

I imagined that the poor creature was bewailing her fate in the ill-usage which she had received from her guardians, one of whom had, not long before, applied a paddle to her head and shoulders; or she might, I thought, be in want of water, which was beyond her reach; but, to satisfy my. doubts, I addressed her, and demanded the cause of her

emotion.

On this, she turned round her head, and bestowed a

violent thump on the nose of a goat, which had discovered her broken yam, and was nibbling it fast away; she replied, pointing with her finger to the spot on which she had been so anxiously gazing,-"There I was born." The chord was touched; she had striven to repress her feelings before, but she could no longer command them; she became more agitated, and wept bitterly as she faltered out, "That is my country!"

I was softened and moved at the woman's distress, and should, doubtless, have felt still stronger compassion, if I had not observed her, in the midst of her tears, inflicting the most rigorous chastisement on her brute companions, in the most unmerciful manner. The kids and goats had, in their playfulness, been gamboling about her, and bespattered her with a little dirty water from the bottom of the canoe; and I thought to myself, that if a female could behave with cruelty to a companion, being herself in distress, that little pity or gentleness could dwell in her bosom.

However, be this as it may, she was greatly afflicted. She might have recalled to her mind, as she was borne past the place where she had received her being, and where her childhood had been spent, the pastimes and amusements of that happy period of life.; and this reflection, bringing along with it a train of pleasing associations, had produced her grief, which was, no doubt, increased by comparing the freedom which she once enjoyed, with her present miserable condition of bondage. She felt regret on gazing at her native land for the last time. "There I was born," said she, as she was passing by it, weeping; "That is my country!"

LESSON XXXVIII.

Female Education. MRS. SAndford.

LITERATURE, indeed, was a rare accomplishment amongst women of former days; but when they did attempt it, they were satisfied with no ordinary proficiency. It is a pity that their industry and good sense are not oftener imitated; for, though we may not wish all women to be, like them, Grecians or mathematicians, we cannot question the supe

riority of intellectual pursuits to many of the usual ways of getting rid of time.

Why should not the leisure of women be employed in storing and strengthening their minds? Why, if they are spared the fatigues, of active life, should they be debarred from the pleasures of literature?

The lives of too many of them are spent almost in idleness, and the alleged inappropriateness of intellectual pursuits furnishes a plea for listlessness and trifling. They fancy themselves not called to mental exertion, and they, therefore, throw away their time in frivolous occupation, or more frivolous amusement.

It is most important, not only that the mind should be well informed, but that there should be a taste for literature, and that knowledge should be appreciated for its own sake, and not merely as a distinction.

The superiority of cultivated women is, in every thing, apparent. They have been accustomed to think and to discriminate, and their opinion is not a mere momentary impulse. Their sphere, too, is enlarged, they are not so much actuated by selfish feelings, or so liable to receive partial, and, consequently, erroneous, impressions.

They view every subject more calmly, and decide every subject more dispassionately, and are, generally, more correct in their own sentiments, and more liberal to those of others.

It is mediocrity that is intolerant and opiniative. A woman who, without reflection, takes up the views of others, is peculiarly accessible to party spirit; and this is one reason why women, in general, are more zealous partisans than the other sex; their minds are more contracted, their knowledge more confined, and their prejudices stronger.

As a corrective to this, as well as a preservative from error, letters are very useful, and, in this view,, perhaps, almost as much so to women as to men; especially now, in these days of progress, when every class should be prepared for its advance..

What an easy dupe to empiricism, or design, is a halfeducated woman! With sufficient acquirement to be vain, and sufficient sensibility to be soon imposed on, she may be easily seduced from principles which she has received only on the authority of others, and which she is, therefore, ill-prepared to defend.

No character commands more respect than that of the religious and cultivated woman, and it is to the credit of the sex, that religion and letters have usually been associated. We dwell, with pleasure, on the piety of lady Jane Grey, if that of Elizabeth be questionable.

The names of Russell and of Hutchinson, of Rowe, Chapone and Smith, of the amiable authoress of "Father Clement," of the revered Hannah More, are together treasured in our minds as happy reminiscences of the union of female piety and accomplishment.

Nor would accomplishments, in any degree, indispose women for active duties. Order is the symptom of a wellregulated mind; a woman who has felt the importance of interior arrangement, will scarcely be indifferent to her domestic claims.

If the woman of mind bears with equanimity petty vexations; if she lends a reluctant ear to family tales; if she is not always expatiating on her economy, nor entertaining by a display of domestic annoyances, she is not the less capable of controlling her household, or of maintaining order in its several departments. Rather will she occupy her station with more dignity, and fulfil its duties with greater ease.

At the same time, she should ever bear in mind, that knowledge is not to elevate her above her station, or to excuse her from the discharge of its most trifling duties. It is to correct vanity, and repress pretension. It is to teach her to know her place and her functions, to make her content with the one, and willing to fulfil the other. It is to render her more useful, more humble, and more happy.

And surely such a woman will be, of all others, the best satisfied with her lot. She will not seek distinction, and, therefore, will not meet with disappointment. She will not be dependent on the world, and thus she will avoid its vexations. She will be liable neither to restlessness nor discontent, but she will be happy in her own home, and by her own hearth, in the fulfilment of religious and domestic duty, and in the profitable employment of her time.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »