principled speculations. To live by work-by steady and honest industry-no one who knows the history of this country will dare deny, was the disposition and the character of our ancestors; this was the case before the revolution, during the revolution, and for some years after it. Who that knew Albany, as we knew her at least forty-five years ago, will deny that she then answered precisely to the general description of our country we have just given? Then her ancient Dutch simplicity and integrity had not been soiled; her skirts were clear of idleness and dissipation; she had no Theatres, no Circusses; no places for loungers and laziness; and she had consequently no vagabonds. The sight of a pauper, a loafer, or a drunkard, was as rare almost as that of a ghost from the grave. We remember these times-and we remember that mechanics were then contented and happy in their workshops; and if they left them it was either on business or some rational and necessary relaxation; young farmers, as well as old ones, then joyfully followed the plough and the harrow, and wielded the scythe and the pruning hook; while their wives and young women in general, thought it a privilege, instead of a painful task, to turn the spinning wheel, and drive the shuttle. These were the days of our primitive simplicity, industry and prosperi

ty; nor is there a particle of poetic fiction in this brief view of those happy days of our forefathers: but now, alas! the scene is so changed, that well indeed may we exclaim

"Oh! luxury, thou curst by heaven's decree,
How ill exchanged are things like these for thee!
How do thy potions with insidious joy,
Diffuse their pleasures only to destroy !
Kingdoms by thee to sickly greatness grown,
Boast of a florid vigor not their own;

At every draught more large and large they grow,
A bloated mass of rank, unwieldy woe:

Till sapped their strength, and every part unsound,
Down, down, they sink, and spread a ruin round.
E'en now the devastation is begun,

And half the business of destruction done;

E'en now,

methinks, as pondering here I stand, I see the rural virtues leave the land !"

To live by honest industry, we repeat it, was the wholesome rule of our ancestors-and by industry we mean the labor of all honest and valuable professions, trades and callings, in which we include the professions of literature, law, physic and divinity; for these are essential not merely to the common welfare, but to the existence of every country in any thing like a wholesome condition. But to live without labor of any kind—to elude all honest industry as much as possible-has become the modern rule with a large portion of society and hence while statutes are passed to legalize fraud, to annul contracts, and increase and extend idleness and corruption; tens of thousands of acres

of land lie uncultivated as so much barren waste, and tens of thousands of young and able bodied men are living in idleness and dissipation, and running to ruin. Hence it is, that the quantity of produce, raised on what land there is cultivated among us, is so small, that bank speculators and monopolizers are able to forestall it, and extort twelve dollars a barrel for flour from the poor mechanic and laborer. Well might the great Jew broker, Rothschild, of London, say, as he did lately, when advised to start a banking-house in New-York, that he did not think much of a country that imported its wheat! It is now indeed the boast of foreigners, and of Ireland in particular, that they have performed for us all, or nearly all, our great public works; that our young farmers, mechanics and youth in general, are too delicate for such work as digging and scooping out canals! The work of digging in the earth and cultivating it, which Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob performed with their own hands, and which God commanded them to perform, for the health both of their bodies and their souls, it is a disgrace to a modern American dandy even to think of; and hence we have had to depend upon Irishmen to perform those indispensable and highly meritorious labors, on which the peace, prosperity and glory of our country, if heaven per

mit her to stand, so much depend: And we should not be surprised if, at last, they who dig the canals should possess them, and the country to-boot; for nothing is more certain than that idleness, and its consequence, effeminacy, are calculated neither to build up, nor, protect or preserve any country.

Beware, then, I beseech you, my young readers, of all sorts of idleness and dissipation. Consider every moment of your time as precious, and devote all you can of it, consistent with health, to your mental and moral improvement, your business and your God: And ye who call yourselves patriots, and are forever prating or boasting of your democracy or whiggery, your patent republicanism, or your "old hickory" patriotism; instead of encouraging idle and licentious exhibitions, which unhinge the order of society, and lead the youth of the nation, and the nation itself, down to perdition;

stop short in your ruinous career, and for the future strive to remedy the mischiefs your pernicious examples have caused. Encourage no more a monopolizing spirit; encourage no more the wild speculator, especially in the public lands; but encourage young men of sober and steady habits to settle upon those lands, and bring them into cultivation. Let it become more honorable to follow the plough and handle

the wheel and the distaff, than to fill front rows at the Theatre and the Circus; to be seen in the ranks of an idle holiday procession; to dangle in ball-rooms, or to league with the devil at masquerades! But may we not, perhaps, you ask, do as we please with our own time and money? To this we answer, NO, you may not; that is, if you profess to be bound by any moral, benevolent, or religious obligations; for these clearly forbid all enjoyments in one portion of citizens, which are calculated to set a bad example, and to ruin the moral, industrious, and religious habits of any other class. The man of fortune and influence, who keeps an idle, useless and demoralizing holiday, or who visits Theatres and Circusses, sets publicly a pernicious example, and commits moral treason against his country, by the tendency which his indulgence in such bad habits has to spoil the habits of others. Can a merchant leave his desk or his counter, to indulge in idleness, without enticing his clerks to follow his example? Can a mechanic leave his workshop for a like idle purpose, without at the same time, setting his apprentices and journeymen agog for the same idle and ruinous course, whatever it may be? In fact, no man's life, time or money, is his own. He has received all in trust from God; and to God he is accountable for the use he makes of all.