ment of imprisonment for debt. That a practice so obviously opposed to every principle of justice and humanity, should, in an age like this, still remain sanctioned by the laws of the land, is truly a matter of surprise and regret. It is a source of pleasure, to observe the attention of some of our sister states awakening to this subject. It is worthy of our serious consideration, whether upon this subject also we will linger behind the age, and still refuse to do homage to the spirit of improvement that is moving over our land. 14 Pecuniary embarrassments are seldom the result of moral turpitude: They most frequently flow from causes to which the honorable and upright are equally exposed with the worthless; and against which, often, no human prudence can guard. Your own observation will warrant me in the assertion that ninety-nine debtors out of a hundred are such from improvidence or misfortune. 15 It is difficult to perceive why, in the case of the debtor, the benign maxim of the criminal law should be reversed, and that ninety-nine innocent persons should be forced to suffer, rather than one guilty person should escape. law relative to debtors is unjust, for innocence and guilt are treated with indiscriminating severity,-It is inhuman, for neither the weakness of woman, nor the helplessness of is secure from its operation,-it is partial, for it exempts the rich, and falls exclusively upon the poor. age 16 To imprison for debt, is, in effect, to tax our virtues for the gratification of our vices. It seems calculated to promote no good end. If a debtor has property and is honest, the law is useless: if he has property and is a rogue, no law will be of any service:-but if he has really no property, the law is not only useless, but oppressive and cruel. 17 The unhappy debtor, by being thus deprived of his personal liberty, is deprived of the only means left him of discharging his debts. His only prospect, perhaps, is his labor, and his personal attention to business. This prospect imprisonment destroys;-and it has often happened that large families, whose daily subsistence depended upon the personal labor and attention of their head, have thus by being deprived of that head, by an unfeeling creditor, been scattered and thrown upon the charity of the public. The many exhibitions of hardship which the prisons of our country frequently present, will, it is confidently hoped, quicken your attention to this subject. SECTION XI, Early rising conducive to health and longevity. 1 The first sensation of drowsiness is nature's call for sleep. Waking shows the body is rested. After the degree of strength, of which the state of the system is capable, is restored by sleep, longer stay in bed only relaxes. He perverts reason, who, by habit or artificial excitement, keeps awake so late that he is not ready to rise at daybreak, nature's undoubted signal for quitting repose, obedience to which secures desire of rest at the fit hour. Some people close their shutters against it. 2 George III. consulted his household physicians, separately, as to the modes of life conducive to health and longevity; as to the importance of early rising, there was full coincidence. Old people, examined as to the cause of longevity, all agree that they have been in the habit of going to bed -early and rising early. 3 We lose vigor by lying abed in health, longer than for necessary sleep; the mind is less tranquil, the body less disposed for refreshing sleep, appetite and digestion are lessened. Few things contribute so much to preserve health and prolong life, as going to bed early and rising early. Boston Medical Intelligencer. 4 It is a reprehensible practice, in many parents, to prevent their younger children from acquiring the pleasant habit of early rising, for the purpose of "keeping them out of the way in the morning." The habit of rising at daybreak or earlier during the winter season, and washing the face and hands with cold water, ought to be enjoined as an indispensible duty in every public school, or domestic nursery. 5 Rising early is not only a healthy and agreeable habit, and cheap,and easy to preserve, when once acquired, but profitable, and generally absolutely necessary to success in the pursuit of wealth, prosperity, and happiness. 6 Mr. John M'Leod, the proprietor and principal of the Central Academy, at Washington City, has given an example worthy of universal imitation, and demonstrated how easily children can be led into the path of duty by rewards and proper discipline. His pupils rise voluntarily and constantly at day light or earlier, J. T. PART EIGHTH. POPE'S ESSAY ON MAN &c. CHAPTER I. AN ESSAY ON MAN; IN FOUR EPISTLES TO H. ST. JOHN, LORD BOLINGBROKE. TO WHICH IS ADDED, THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER. BY ALEXANDER POPE, ESQ. EPISTLE I. Of the Nature and State of Man, with respect to the 1 AWAKE! my St. John! leave all meaner things 2 Together let us beat this ample field, 3 Say first, of God above, or man below, Through worlds unnumber'd, though the God be known, 'Tis ours to trace him only in our own. 4 He, who through vast immensity can pierce, May tell, why Heav'n has made us as we are. 5 But of this frame, the bearings and the ties, The strong connexions, nice dependencies, Gradations just, has thy pervading soul Look'd through? Or, can a part contain the whole? In human works, though labour'd on with pain, Yet serves to second too some other use. 7 When the proud steed shall know why man restrains 8 Then say not, man's imperfect, Heav'n in fault; If to be perfect in a certain sphere, What matter soon or late, or here or there? As who began a thousand years ago. 9 Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate, The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day, Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd, And now a bubble burst, and now a world. 11 Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar : Wait the great teacher, death, and God adore! What future bliss, he gives not thee to know, Hope springs eternal in the human breast: 12 Lo! the poor Indian, whose untutor'd mind He asks no angel's wings, no seraph's fire; 14 În pride, in reas'ning pride, our error liès; 15 Ask for what end the heavenly bodies shine, Earth for whose use? Pride answers, ""Tis for mine: "For me kind Nature wakes her genial power, "Suckles each herb, and spreads out every flower; "Annual for me, the grape, the rose renew "The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew; "For me, the mine a thousand treasures brings; "For me, health gushes from a thousand springs; "Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise; "My footstool earth, my canopy the skies." 16 But errs not Nature from this gracious end, From burning suns when livid deaths descend, When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep? "No ('tis reply'd) the first Almighty Cause "Acts not by partial, but by general laws; Ꮓ |