Arithmetic comprises a wide range of useful and curious knowledge. I wish my teacher to be well versed in it. And I expect him to be not merely a mechanical operator; but to know, like a man of sci ence, the reasons on which his rules are founded; and to be capable of making his pupils, if their intellectual powers be sufficient, rational as well as expert. arithmeticians. Here is my picture of a good and worthy teacher. May it help to raise the dignity and value of the profession! If you can enlist in your service such a man as I have described, consider him as a very important acquisition; and treat him, as he justly deserves to be treated, with esteem and liberality. be as This may suitable a place as any other for the insertion of the following note. MR. MOUNTAINEER, I request you, as a friend to accuracy of language, to correct the following common errors. People say, the Testament, meaning the New Testament. As we have the Old and New Testaments, the word Testament alone cannot with propriety be used to designate either of them. Again, we frequently hear persons speak of the Bible and Testament; intending to point out by these names the Old Testament and the New. Here is the error before mentioned, and another added to it. The Old Testament is not the Bible, according to the faith of Christians. Our bible includes both the testaments. Vice and Dissipation Reproved, A CORRESPONDENT has favoured me with the following serious paper; and I lay it, without hesitation, before my readers. We live at a time and in cireum stances which render such reflections and admonitions peculiarly seasonable. FOR THE MOUNTAINEER. And as "Enjoy the day of mirth, but know There is a day of judgment too." The life of man is short and uncertain. we see that we must die, so we also know assuredly that we must stand before our Creator in judgment. There we have to account for the use we make of our time and our faculties, and to abide the results of that solemn and impartial scrutiny. Let us retire from the cares and pleasures of the world, and reflect calmly on the high end which God had in view when he gave us cxistence and placed us here. We shall soon find that the way in which the greater part of the children of men spend their time is totally hostile to the will of the Almighty, and utterly incompatible with their own happiness. Gross thoughtlessness characterizes vast numbers of mankind; and from this source flows a stream of evils injurious to society, and inconceivably detrimental to the individual. While we are immersed in the enjoyment of all those gratifications and delights which the earth affords, why do we not recollect that it will be asked of us on some future day, in a voice of thunder, did you make the providential blessings conferred upon you subservient to the grand purposes for which you were formed; or were they abused by you, to the dishonour of the great Giver, and to your own shame ? This world was not intended to be the scene of that wild gaiety which is so abundantly exhibited in our social circles. There is an extreme incongruity in the giddy mirth of those who are unreconciled to God. Did they employ a few moments in sober consideration, they must be aware that nothing stands between them and the awful bar of their final Judge but his long-suffering permission that they continue to draw their forfeited breath. Did they thus consider, they must know that they have no certainty of the extension of that breath a single hour; and that such conduct as theirs has no tendency to prepare them for a state of perfect holiness in the heavens. How shortlived are those guilty pleasures into which many so eagerly plunge themselves! What vanity is stamped upon them, and with what bitter annoyances are they attended! What mirth do you find in the tormenting uneasiness and corrosion which hover around the gaming table; in the empty purse and ruined fortune; in the sight of a neglected, injured wife, and a beggared family; in the pressing wants of such near and dear relatives, who are unable to provide for themselves? What resemblance to mirth do you perceive in the sickness and pain which follow the midnight revel; or in the haunting ghost of time dissipated in vile debauchery, of which the light of day even makes you blush to think? Can such things as these be accounted pleasures fit for a rational creature? Say, were the faculties of the soul bestowed for no other purpose than to be thus debased? It is impossible. Look forward, and survey the end of your doings. These practices may wear a pleasant face to you so long as your infatuation continues; but there is a day of judgment coming, which will place them in a very different point of light. Now your sight is dim; you discern nothing with clearness. Your eyes you have madly covered with a film of prejudice, which prevents your seeing objects as they really are. You look, but you are deceived; you observe, but you have a confused and delusive notion of passing occurrences; and the end will be disappointment and despair. When death shall have disrobed you of your mortal clothes, and divested you of that phrensy which bewilders you here, every disguise shall be removed. Conscience shall have its full power restored. You shall behold things in their genuine characters; know the true value of all earthly enjoyments; and be compelled to J estimate, with agonies of remorse, the worth of that prize which you have slighted and forever lost. We do not contemplate the world as we ought, until we recognise it as the theatre of our moral probation; the temporary residence of mankind, where we are required to secure, through the gospel of Jesus Christ, our welfare in that eternity which is appointed for all. men living. Happiness and misery, both inexpressibly great, and both everlasting, are set before the human race. And can there be an inquiry more important to any one of us than this, which of these shall be my portion? Imagine the last trumpet sounding to awake the dead; see the earth shaking, the elements in commotion, and our globe, with all that is on it, burning in one promiscuous flame; and say at what price you rate your splendid possessions while they are consuming in the fire of the last day, and evaporating into smoke. O for the wisdom which lays up a sure and durable treasure in heaven! Dying without this wisdom and this treasure, it were good for us that we had never been born. While, therefore, we thankfully enjoy the comforts granted by the providence of God, let us beware of overwhelming ourselves with the pomps and luxuries of this vain world. Let us not forget that the hour is near, and may he very near, when we shall "say to corruption, thou art my father, and to the worm, thou art my mother and sister;" the hour when we shall enter into paradise or into hell, as our unchangeable abode. C. No. 20. MAY 19, 1814. TO THE MOUNTAINEER. MY DEAR FRIEND, TWO years ago you witnessed my marriage.. You saw Emily Wilson standing at my side in all the G bloom of youth and beauty, and heard us, in the presence of God, exchange our vows of love. Even in that hour of my soul's triumph, I felt my joy augmented by your cordial congratulations. Now, I must claim your sympathy in my sorrows. My Emily is gone,gone to join her kindred angels in the land of bliss. Her mortal part was yesterday committed to the dust; and the world looks like a wilderness around me, in which I seem to wander alone. But You know how to feel with me and for me. you have seen the chosen partner of your heart snatched away to the about the grave, very time when you expected to rejoice in calling her all your own. allow me to say that your distress could not be equal to mine. Fervently as you loved the excellent Julia, she would have become dearer, much dearer to you, had your union been permitted. Yet My Emily's fatal illness was a rapid consumption, originating in a visit to a poor, sick neighbour, in a season of most inclement weather. She was previously aware of the danger of going out at such a time, but would not let the danger check her benevolence: She soon felt seriously disordered, and our skilful friend Dr. Welford was brought to her aid. A little observation of her case led him to the conclusion, which he intimated to me, that no medical exertions, nothing short of a miracle, could save her life. With all my confidence in his judgment, I laboured to think him in this instance mistaken. O my friend, how poignant were my sufferings, under the alternation of diminishing hopes and increasing fears, during a period of three months! Emily foresaw the event long before I admitted the idea of its certainty. Besides the severe pain which she endured from her disease, her heart was torn also with anxious and opposite feelings. By death itself she was not terrificd; and in looking beyond the dark valley her faith steadily an-. ticipated an eternity of light and joy. But to leave me and her infant daughter in this region of tempta |