121 Harvest Home. 122 with all the fashionable ease of supe- | indifference, and replied very modestly, riority: his unexpected and undesired "Your honour is pleased to joke with presence was rather a drawback on your servant: as little as the majestic the host's merriment; but he was, oak-tree will associate with the humble nevertheless, received with all the re- strawberry, as little can a Baron of gard due to his rank, and placed at the the empire think of marrying a farhead of the table. He very gallantly mer's daughter; but even supposing requested Rose to sit near him; but the possibility of such an occurrence, this the parents opposed in the most I would by no means wish it to take decided manner, and even the place in my own family: my child is Steward, who had laboured hard to as little fit to be your companion, as say fine things, and keep near to her, my wife and I are proper to meet was obliged to relinquish his scheme, your high and mighty relations; whilst, by being put near his master, whilst on the other hand, there can be no she sat at the other end just opposite countess who would not gladly acMeinhold. The Baron had no sooner cept of your offers." These words been seated, than he began to taste sounded sweetly in the vain coxcomb's the wine: with the seriousness of an ears; but he resumed, and took all experienced judge, he pronounced it the present persons to witness, that to be good; and to give a further he was quite sincere, and determined proof of his assertion, he helped him- to follow his whim. self so plentifully, that the effects were soon perceptible by his noisy loquacity. 66 Hardman seemed to have waited for the dessert, to announce something to the assembly; when the Baron prevented him, by saying, My dear farmer, I am to-day in such an excellent humour, that I am ready to renew your expiring lease for another twelve years, provided you will give me your daughter in exchange. Rose is handsome, and you are an honest man; what do I care for pedigrees? I'll make her a Baroness this very day: we have a minister amongst us, and he may do his office immediately after dinner; put aside all foolish considerations about rank and so on; I have maturely reflected on every thing, and such is my pleasure." It would be difficult to describe the different sensations which this address produced on the audience. Rose was for leaving the room; but her neighbour kept her back by force, and began to congratulate her on her elevation. Most of the guests were astonished, and looked sometimes on the Baron, and then on the fortunate bride. The Steward sat upon needles, and burned with impatience to hear the father's answer; whilst a wealthy grocer from town, who had intended to propose his eldest son, spilled his wine for the first time in his life. Meinhold overcame his grief, and looked once more at the fair object of so many wishes. Hardman had listened to the pleasure of his gracious lord, with a smile of No. 24-VOL, III, Well then, said Hardman, " I must make bold to declare, in my turn, that this whim cannot be complied with; since I intend to fix, this very moment, on another son-in-law:" with these words, he stood up, and handing to the half-swooning Rose a very handsome gold watch, he desired her to give it as a pledge of her faith to that man, whom he well knew she liked best; whilst he allowed Meinhold to engage his bride by means of a pearl necklace, with which he furnished him. The Baron forced a smile on his countenance, but the Steward could not hide his disappointment, and both soon left the room. Their setting off was a great relief to the parents; and they then stated, that they had been long aware of the mutual affection betwixt their beloved children, and had perfectly approved of it: the dutiful behaviour of the young man, in advising the girl to submission, had still heightened their regard for him, and that they would not exchange him for any Baron in Christendom. A chorus of applause followed this declaration, and the wedding-day was then appointed. The good old people found no cause for repenting their choice, and long did they share the happiness of their grateful offspring. Meinhold remained steady and industrious; but the nobleman ruined himself with bad company, and extravagance. His estate was sold on account of debts, and the worthy farmers had the means of making it their own. Their prosperity produced, I 123 Essay on the Futility of Ancient Knowledge. 124 however, no change in their manner | teach little but what was before incul of living; they remained in their own sphere, and their increasing wealth displayed itself merely in their liberality towards poor neighbours, and at the usual festivity of Harvest Home. CHINESE VASSALAGE. cated, and add less to our present or future happiness. It may not be a study devoid of interest, to prove the fallacy of such an assertion, to show by example how vast the distinction is, between the commands of a teacher sent from God, and the monitions of uninspired men. Such themes, however fevered they may feel to the pulse of fashion, or unsuited to novelty of argument, are still of high utility, evincing, as they do, the incompa "THE Minister Tung-kasu, is still unwell, and solicits permission to remain at home a longer period. He promises on recovery, to put his fore-rable excellence of our faith, that with bead in the mire at the palace gate, and in that posture to give thanks to his sacred Majesty, for his great indulgence to him." ESSAY ON THE FUTILITY OF ANCIENT minds unswayed by startling heresies, we may be gathered to our fathers. The Roman edict called upon citizens of every age, on the nerveless stripling and worn-down veteran, to arm 'pro aris focisque' in defence of their altars and their homes; nor at the KNOWLEDGE, AS CONTRASTED WITH present æra may we hunt for a parallel. THE PRECEPTS OF CHRISTIANITY. "Secundum quo Christiana Religio omnes alias quæ, aut sunt, aut fuerunt, aut fingi possunt, exuperat, est summa sanctitas præceptorum. GROTIUS. "Our Religion has God for its Author, Salvation for its end, and Truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter."-LOCKE. THIS declaration of the great English philosopher, no less simple than sublime, has been frequently repeated, yet, like our Saviour's Prayer introduced so often in the liturgy, it cannot pall by repetition. To impugn its veracity has been the effort of many a weak and wicked mind, in this age of reason and scepticism. Treading in the footsteps of the Ancient, who set fire to the temple of Diana, that he might be at least remembered by posterity, these modern sophists care not how wild or pestiferous be their doctrines, so they riot for a while in a wretched notoriety, and leave a name behind; too base to be remembered, if too signal to be forgotten. There is an able comment in the writings of Lord Verulam, on that passage in the Psalms, The Fool hath said in his heart, there is no God' that he said it simply, but did not, could not, think so. Thus it has been argued, that the precepts of our religion, more lofty than for human intellect to have conceived, and more pure than for human imperfection to attain, are little else than a compendium of ancient philosophy; that they Granting to the philosophers of Greece and Rome, far more ability than has descended to their successors; allowing them every praise for sublimity of reasoning, and acuteness of wit; admitting that their morality has sometimes ascended to the very heaven of instruction; yet, in the contrast, it will be but as dust in the balance; our of omniscience, and theirs, comparacreed of duty will rise to the wisdom tively speaking, dwindle down into foolishness. The first point which rivets our attention in the moral jurisdiction of the Ancients, is their want of forgiveness of injuries. Isocrates, in his treatise for the instruction of youth, thus admonishes them: "Account it equally base to be outdone by your enemies in evil deeds, as to be overcome by your friends in benefits." Aristotle also declares: " That he seems to want the feelings of a man, whoever does not prosecute his revenge; for to bear contumely with patience, is the part of a slave." What a different spirit breathe the words of our great Lawgiver: Forgive your enemies; pray for them that curse you; pardon a brother that offendeth, not seven times only, but seventy times seven.' In our present state of probation, where passion so often obtains the mastery, such feelings cannot, to their full extent, be looked for, however ardently they might be desired. Yet, as Paley justly argues, if such disposition be unattainable, so is all perfection. Ought then a moralist to recom 125 Essay on the Futility of Ancient Knowledge. mend imperfection? The very loftiness of the idea proves the divinity of its origin: it seems part of the choral hymn, which angels sung at the nativity of our Lord; Peace on earth, and good will towards men;' while the calm philosopher's exhortations to revenge, may be likened to the swelling notes of the challenging trumpet, wailing forth havoc and war. Not less dissimilar are the ordinances of the Christian revelation, which demand from its followers humility, an exclusion of regard to worldly glory, and regulation of the thoughts. Take pride away, the pride of apathy and stoicism, from philosophy, and you despoil her of her purple robe. To whom were the lec tures of their teachers in wisdom directed, but to the higher and learned classes of the community? the poor, that lay darkling in ignorance, had no pretensions to their imperial notice. "Like the rays of the morning, they courted the mountain tops, and left the valleys unilluminated." On Greece alone, they deigned to impart cultivation; scarcely less arrogant than the Chinese of modern times, who, when shewn a chart of the universe, deemed Europe and Asia part of their territory; the rest of their fellow men they suffered to be enslaved at pleasure, and emphatically styled Barbarians. The professors of our religion have traversed seas to enlighten the savage; have loosed the fetters of the slave; have explored the sordid shed of want and misery! Equally arrogant was their private demeanour, their selfadulatory precepts: basking in the sunshine of complacency, they saw no shadow of repentance; the veil that hid the inner vices of the man, was not, as yet, rent in twain: they heaved no sigh for past offences, nor shed one little tear over guilty fallen nature. Garus, described by Xenophon as a model for princes, is introduced, on the bed of death, thanking their gods with a sort of pharisaical exultation for their having revealed to him what was right or wrong in conduct; and for his having implicitly obeyed them. Laughter would be irrevelant in an essay of this nature, else had I quoted the three errors which Cato reproved himself for having committed in the course of a long and active life. Sublime in ignorance! Had all his transgressions been heaped up, like 6 126 the mountain of human miseries, in one funeral pile, they would have buried him with their immensity. With a system of morals thus deficient, what was their opinion of the Deity? what their form of devotion? Not the statue mentioned by Daniel, with its head of gold, and its feet of iron and clay, could be formed of more dissonant materials. Well might they raise, in the centre of Athens, a temple to the unknown God: to them he had ever been unknown. Some (for I will use the words of an enlightened heathen) totally denied that there were any gods; others deemed, they took no interest in affairs of earth: a chosen few accounted the Deity, in goodness most excellent, in power infinite. Of this few was Socrates. It is delightful to view this truly great man in his prison, immediately before drinking the fatal poison. We behold him consoling his friends on their bereavement; admonishing them, that to walk in his steps would be the best proof of honouring his memory; and when questioned concerning the mode of interment, answering with a smile, As you will, if indeed I do not escape you.' His last act, humanity would strive to conceal. He directed a sacrifice to Esculapius, thus confirming what had been previously intimated, that he bowed down before the golden images which the citizens of Athens set up; a pantheon of idols, whom they first endowed with the basest properties of mortality, and then derided on the stage, without thinking, that had Jove been such as represented, the thunder would have riven their tenements, and taken a just vengeance on their guilty head. No wonder their religion was an idle tissue of ceremonies, a mere triade of sacrifice. The lusts of the wise were chained down by superstition; the passions of the ignorant ravened without control. He that offered the richest oblation, was regarded as the peculiar favourite of heaven. Happy faith for the wealthy! they might riot in excess, might ride over the bending mendicant, nor cast one look behind; or if they did, had simply to bear some hecatombs to the altar; and the poor wretch, who could present none other than an humble heart, was to be trampled on unheeded. Livy gives us the shuddering detail of the temples at Rome being polluted with human vic 127 Essay on the Futility of Ancient Knowledge. tims. What shall we say of those who would wish to reduce us to a religion like this; who would gainsay those notions of the Deity which' Nature proclaims aloud in all her works;' who would raze that church which holds no distinction of persons, where the lowliest may breathe forth righteous prayers with the full assurance of acceptance; would annul that sacred sabbath when all may rise awhile above the smoke and turmoil of the world; would steal its stay from sorrow, from death its only hope? 128 Weepnot, she says, at Nature's transient pain, Let the first curse be entailed on the Atheist alone, to creep on the earth, and lick the dust as his portion: the good and the wise will not surrender this first charter of their rights; through life it must be the guide of their conduct, and at the last should be written on their hearts. Ah! whence this longing after immortality, I Yet all ended in one painful conclusion: 'I'm weary of conjecture.' Had Beyond the tomb, ere the day-spring from on high visited the earth, all was What solace, it may be asked, did a dark, a dreary night; a vast, a the sententious aphorisms of the phi- frightful unknown! Clashed in the losophers yield in seasons of distress? manner of elementary chaos, fear They that leaned on them, leaned on a struggled with hope, ignorance with reed which tore the confiding hand: reason, and doubt with conviction. they listened to an echo which mock- trust, (said the father of natural relied them with a sound. If their patri-gion, at the time of his death,) to mony was lost by the fickleness of ascend to the company of pure beings, fortune, they must not pine after arti- but this I would not assert for certain.' ficial wants; if ingratitude assailed Tully, that almost Christian with rethem, friends are like swallows, that spect to a future state of existence, come in the spring, but take flight at seems tossed to and fro in a sea of the approach of winter. If our riches doubt. His meditations have been are gone, we may look to a treasure in well depictured: heaven; if the friend of our bosom proves untrue, we are commanded to rely on that Friend, who is subject to no change. In that hour of anguish to many, and of searching trial to all, when death presents the cup of bitterness, and the world vanishes with its tiara of illusions, what did their testbooks say, when opened by the sick man's couch? You are going, cries Leucia, where all things go; why then do you weep? You was nothing, and you will be nothing. For this very reason, might the answer have been, For this very reason I weep.' Did they give any consolation to the bereaved broken-hearted survivor? "In returning from Asia, (writes his friend to him, on the loss of a beloved child,) I sailed by Ægina and Megara, once most flourishing, now laid in ruins; and I thought, are we weak mortals indignant, if any of us have perished? Remember, you are born a mortal. Believe me, this thought afforded no little consolation." It proved truly the remark of a modern satirist, that we bear the misfortunes of others with wonderful tranquillity. Religion alone holds forth a branching arm; to this we may cling for support; sheltered by this, we may patiently await the stroke of our approaching dissolution. Blessed be the God of Israel, we are not doomed to conjecture! our creed taught no clearer morals, nor given any higher sanctions for virtue, still would it have been entitled to the highest gratitude, for bequeathing us this blessed inheritance, combining, as it does, the hope of throwing off mortality, like grave-clothes, with the prospect of meeting those friends whom we have lost, in changeless, endless, re-union. I will pause here, for it would be needless to enter more largely into this disquisition; the writings of antiquity prove their deficiency in morals, though there are 'individual passages, which Philosophy might make her texts, and Experience select for her mottos.' In all their mines of gold, there runs a vein of earth. With the calmest spirit of dispassionate inquiry, it may be said, that to every religion, the Christian can throw down the gauntlet of defiance. Would that his works were as perfect as his faith is pure! It rose, like the temple erected by Solomon, in majestic silence;' no sound of the axe or ham 129 Advantages of keeping Cows.-New Zealand. 130 mer was heard in its construction; its were 1s. 9d. in the pound, per year. cedar roof, and pavement of precious At that time a number of Cows were stones, brought crowned heads to view kept by the Cottagers upon broad it with admiration; it was formed of commonable roads, in the summer; so many cubits in length and breadth, and they were assisted with food by as to admit of every, even the hum- the farmers in their straw-yards, &c. blest worshipper; dedicated to the in the winter; by this means, those honour of the Holy of Holies, the who kept a cow did not think of apglory of the Lord has filled it: like its plying to the parish for relief. About prototype, which fell not but with the this time, the farmers began to plough fall of Jerusalem, we may rest assured up the roads; of course the number that it will not end here but with the of cows kept lessening every year, as general conflagration; or if this hope their pasture was decreasing by the prove fallacious, let us remember, that | plough. I perceive by the parish as no place of worship, no edifice, was books, as the cows decreased the rates suffered by the Almighty to stand on increased. In seven years' time, the that site where the holy temple once rates were increased to 3s. in the stood; so, if this faith be permitted to pound; at that time only a few cows go to rack, no religion of any kind were kept by the poor people. In a whatsoever will be left remaining. Be few years after, those few were obliged it our duty to watch in its portals; to to be sold, and the rates then increasguard that no characters of shame be ed to six shillings in the pound! The indented on its marble purity. As rates have stood at this with very little some inscription was usually prefixed variation ever since. We have only over the pious buildings of the an- two poor men now that have one cow cients, this (if I may be allowed to each; I think one has five, and the extend the similitude) shall be the other six children. The man with writing over our tabernacle: Ye heirs six children, hires two acres of poor of a better covenant, walk with humble land at about 30s. per acre, more than reverence in the house of God, and ye half a mile from his house, and after shall be wiser than the sages of anti- his day's labour is done for his master, quity; hear with meek submission the he goes with his wife and little family words of life revealed to you, and to weed, and till his land. The other ye must be better men. poor man is more fortunate. His small patch of land lies near to his cottage, about an acre. These, two of the largest families we have in the parish, I believe, are honest, independent parishioners, earning their 15s. per week at labour, and with their cow, I believe, are the happiest two families in the parish. I am sorry to see so many poor families with the same earnings, (as to wages,) but no cows, come to the parish for relief. These two families make no application for relief; but those with three or four children we are obliged to relieve." For the Provisional Committee, BENJAMIN WELLS, Hon. Secretary. W. C. T. ADVANTAGES OF COTTAGERS KEEP ING COWS. THE Provincial Committee for Encouragement of Industry, and Reduction of Poor's Rates, cannot too anxiously impress on the legislature, and the country, the advantages enjoyed by the labourer when in possession of a cow; especially as this may be realized on a small portion of arable land. That the children of the poor, in almost a peculiar manner, stand in need of milk, is certain, not to mention that the cow furnishes also a supply for a pig. By circulating the following extract from a correspondent, (an overseer in Norfolk) attention may be invited to this important object; and as the letter is two years old, the probability is, that even a stronger case might at this moment be made King's-Head, Poultry, "NEW Zealand is situated between the latitudes of 34 and 48 degrees south, and between the longitudes of "In the year 1798, the poor-rates in 166 and 180 degrees east from Greenthis parish, (North Creak, Burnham,) | wich. This place was supposed to be out. |