means to attain them, as well as the agents employed, may be various. Whilst, therefore, the master spirit unlocks the treasures of his experienced and well stored mind, for the benefit of his readers, I too, may contribute my mite. Human life, with all its modes and pursuits, is so multifarious, that even he who has had little experience, may have observed something worth the communication; and if he only excites enquiry or induces a single mind to relinquish a folly or renounce a vice, he has not labored in vain.

"Nor has my education altogether disqualified me for the part I may have to support. My years have been few, but they have been busy. When the seducements of pleasure or indolence invited to relaxation, I was fortunate in having a watchful guardian, always present, to admonish me of the value of time and the necessity of perseverance. He pointed to the young Virginians who by industry had raised the hopes of their friends, and by desisting too soon from their labors, had afterwards disappointed them. He continually reminded me of the fate of Menander, a near neighbor of ours, who, about ten years ago left the college where he was educated with prospects the most flattering and brilliant-His story is short and simple, and though by no means uncommon, yet worth repeating-In his early youth he had improved his natural sagacity by studious diligence. At college, for a long time, his efforts were unremitted and crowned with the usual success. Unfortunately for him his reputation kept even pace with his talents. By his Fellow-Students and acquaintances he was cried up as a great genius, till at length he began to think himself one. Rating his own attainments by comparison with those of the young men around him, he easily persuaded himself that because he was before them, he was behind none. In this he committed an error common to most young Collegians, who imagine that there is nothing beyond their own walls worth consideration. From that fatal moment he gave into the prevalent disease of his countrymen, in determining to rely, solely, on the efforts of his unassisted geniusHis books were laid aside and the treasures of ancient and modern wisdom neglected. He became a wit and a man of pleasure. Indolence seized upon his victim and held him fast. When he came into the world, it was apparent there were many with whom he could not contend; but either his presumption or confirmed habits of negligence hindered him from entering again and treading, with invincible ardor, the only road which can ever lead to excellence. Thus what he had gained by labor, he lost by

1

relaxation. His fame withered like a delicate flower touched by the untimely frost, and now, buried in obscurity, he is forever lost to society.

"This story related by my uncle, in his unsually impressive manner and in some happy moment, excited me to greater exertions. Determined to avoid the fate of Menander, I seldom lost a moment. What time was unoccupied by books, was employed in observation or in conversing with those learned men whom chance threw in my way and who thought it not beneath them to instruct a child. Hence I have gained something, and what is more important than any thing, the knowledge of how much remains to be acquired-Nor have I viewed mankind altogether through the medium of books aud the conversation of the learned. The parental care and unbounded generosity of my noble uncle have afforded me opportunities of a nearer inspection, neither so few nor limited as might be imagined. I have been at various seminaries of learning in and out of Virginia, public and private. I have there studied the characters of my young countrymen under every aspect, and in all their different phases. I have traced to my own satisfaction the causes, independent of original organization, which raise one man above, and sink another below, the level of his species. Associating with the studious, I have noted the march of their minds; and, forced into company, with the idle and dissolute, I have followed them through all the progressive stages of deterioration. Residing sometimes in a town, I have been received into the polite circles and become familiar with its manners; whilst my country education has made me acquainted with the calm pleasures and unambitious pursuits of rural privacy. Nor have I been permitted to overlook the fair sex. Indeed my disposition required no extraordinary excitement in this respect. I should not have been my uncle's nephew, much less his pupil, if I had been indifferent to the objects of his most enthusiastic demation. Ket my regard has hitherto been general and unappropriated.Of course I have manked failings as well as virtues in the female character: but failings of such a nature, so nearly allied to the brightest excellence

so suscep

operating upon minds so delicate, so ductile, so su tible of improvements that it has endered me a thousand times more anxious than ever to see them occupy that stajon in society, which the God of, Nature designed for them. At present I am in the town of****** prosecuting a course of legal studies. Of my profession and the objects connected with it I shall hereafter have much to say. No science I find embraces a larger variety of in

teresting topics, fills the mind with so many noble subjects of contemplation, or comprehends a wider range for intellectual excursion. I speak of it in its proper and liberal, not confined and technical sense. If it has suffered in public estimation, it is not to be attributed to any cause inherent in the science itself, but to other extrinsic circumstances which I may hereafter undertake to point out. In the mean time if my daily reading will suggest any thing worthy of remark, I will not hesitate to make it the subject of an essay.

"Having thus introduced myself to the public, I shall hereafter dispense with ceremony, and following the example of my great prototype, suspend and resume my enquiries at pleasure.

"As every thing I write is submitted to his inspection. he will be my security that nothing indelicate, nothing personal, nothing offensive to good morals, shall find its way to the Press."

ALFRED.

The O. B. had intended ere this to give Theodore Hopewell a place in his papers. But as Hopewell's letter, would in some measure break the unity and consistency of his plan, he persuades himself that he shall be readily pardoned for the omission, by that polite and benevolent writer. The O. B. has received several communications which have much individual merit, but not forming, by their nature, an integral part of his scheme, he has been obliged to deny himself the pleasure of using them. As, however, it is a pity they should be lost to the public, The O. B. repeats his engagement that he will, on application by their authors, return them by the same channel through which he received them.

&, friendship! then fond ooother of the humere treast, to this we play in every calamitys, 18 thre the care-Tired The witched ocks for anceous;

and may
be emer

son of miscay foodly sling; prom thy kind appistance The unfortunate aleways hopes relish, and Dappointment.

suse of
June 647840

I never see a heavy fall of snow, like that which I have been, now, observing, through my window, for several hours, without feeling an instinctive flow and gaiety of spirits. This is, probably, the effect of an early association of ideas, which the mind still makes without my perceiving it. For in my young days a snow was the constant signal for an hundred different, delightful amusements: amusements, which are now nearly out of use, perhaps, from the much greater infrequency of the inviting cause. Fifty years ago, in such a snow as this, which is already nine inches deep, all the young folks were leaping and bounding with anticipated delight, and could not be kept within doors even until the snow had ceased to fall. little children of four or five years old would clear a place in the yard and prop a plank or an old door to catch snowbirds, pulling the trigger, alternately, by a string which was conducted through the window into the house; then

The

they would roll balls in the yard-wonder at their rapid and unaccountable accumulation-and contend who should make the largest. The country boys and girls would wage the joyous war of snow-ball-or unite in a party of sleighing or run races, by sliding on planks over the fro zen surface of the snow, down the long slope of a hill side Dreadful at such a season, was the carnage among the tenants of the air, the field and the forest-traps, snares, springs in a thousand forms contributed to their destruction, and the huntsmen followed on the track of the flying game, with a certainty and a perseverance which no speed, nor cunning, nor strength could elude.

But it was during the fall itself of a cold and driving snow, while the whole creation without was shivering and shrinking from the blast and drift, and filling the air with the many-toned expression of their sufferings, that the highest interest was excited in all who were capable of feeling and reflecting. It was then while the flocks and herds were driven to their folds and stalls, and the wind was heard to whistle on the outside of those walls which it could not pierce, that we became sensible of the superior intelligence of man and learned to appreciate a thousand conveniences and comforts which that intelligence had spread around him.

Then, too, it was with the family drawn together, at night in a friendly circle, around the blazing and cheerful hearth, with a brown mug of that simple, rural beverage, the juice of the apple, placed before them-that I first learned to estimate the social character of man and tasted the pure charms of virtuous and instructive conversation. Such was the time for innocence to come forth, without blush or tremor, & shew her thoughts; for strong, uncultured sense to exhibit his muscles; and for rural learning to open its legendary lore. Conversations like those, I do not hear in the present time. I hear, indeed, more flippancy and smartness; perhaps more wit and decoration; but I hear much less of solid and useful sense; and above all much less of unaffected nature. For it was nature; it was this arch enchantress that infused the inimitable resistless charm. Then, no cavilling hypercritic stood by, to catch the speaker before he tripped: of course no one thought himself obliged to "speak by the card" lest "equivocation should undo him.' Then, no witling stood, with uplifted gig to hit the first hair-breadth opening that presented itself, and, thus, to arrest the useful progress of the conversation. No snarling satirist, or turner of invectives couched, like a tiger, to seize his wandering and unsuspecting prey. No malignant demon of