ECLECTIC READER.
CLECTIC

us that we had, unawares, already begun our descent toward the Black sea, from the elevated regions over which we had so long travelled, and accounted for the novel sight of villages with fruit-gardens around them, which had attracted. our notice in the ravine from which we now issued.

The narrow valley of the river, at the point where we entered it, seemed almost a paradise. The naked rocks of the cliffs that enclosed it concentrated the rays of the sun to a degree, which might in time have become oppressive, but the first feeling of which, to us, recently from such chilly regions, was like a sudden transfer from a bleak November atmosphere to a smiling morning in May.

Along the banks of the stream was a continued series of fruit-gardens, crowded with a luxuriant growth of cherry, apple, pear, walnut, peach, mulberry, and other trees, now covered with blossoms which filled the air with their odor. Among them were scattered numerous country-houses, to which their owners are attracted in winter, by the mildness of the climate of this charming valley.

We were now upon the high road from Erzroom through Baiboort to Trebizond; and every mile or two brought us to a khan, or shop, where provender, butter and cheese, bread and fruit, were exposed for sale. The bread was indeed coarse and black, but it was in regular loaves, such as we had not seen for many a month; and the sight and taste of well-preserved apples, on the sixth of May, was delicious. Every vestige of inhospitable Armenia and Persia was gone. They offer to the passing traveller no such conveniences as these, humble as they were.

LESSON II.

Advice to the Young.-NOAH WEBSTER.

As mankind are all one family, the rule of loving our neighbor as ourselves extends to the performance of duties of kindness, to persons of all nations, and all conditions. High and low, rich and poor, bond and free, black and white, are our brethren and neighbors in the sense in which Christ intended to use the word in his precept.

In regard to property, you are to pay punctually all your

just debts. By failure or delay of payment you keep that which belongs to another. If you borrow any article of your neighbor, you are to use it with care, and not injure the value of it. Heedless people, who would not steal twenty-five cents from another, often think nothing of injuring a borrowed utensil or book to twice or five times that

amount.

If butter or lard is put up for a foreign or distant market, it should be put up in a good state, and the real quality should be such as it appears to be. If any deception is practised, by covering that which is bad by that which is good, or by other means, all the price of the article which it brings beyond the real worth, is so much money taken from the purchaser by fraud, which falls within the criminality of stealing.

A man's apples, pears, peaches and melons are as entirely his own as his goods or his coin. Every person who climbs over a fence, or enters by a gate, into another's enclosure, without permission, is a trespasser; and if he takes fruit secretly, he is a thief. It makes no difference that a pear, or an apple, or a melon, is of small value; a man has as exclusive right to a cent or a melon as he has to a dime, a dollar, or an eagle.

If, in making payment or counting money, a mistake occurs, by which a sum falls into your hands, which belongs to another person, you are as much bound to correct the mistake, and restore the money to the rightful owner, as you would be not to take it by theft.

When a mechanic contracts to build a house or a ship, he is bound to perform the work in the manner which is promised. If he performs the work slightly, and with workmanship inferior to that which is promised and understood at the time of contracting, he defrauds his employer.

All kinds of injury or annoyance of the peace, security, rights and prosperity of men are forbidden by the law of God. To pull down or deface a sign-board, to break or deface a mile-stone, to take the lead or other metal out of bridges, to cut and disfigure benches or tables in a schoolhouse, court-house or church, to place obstacles in the highway, to pull down or injure fences, to tarnish the walls of a house or the boards of a fence, and other like things, are not only mean but immoral.

LESSON III.

Mocha on the Red Sea.-MODERN TRAVEller.

WITH a fine, fair breeze, we sailed through the Gate of Tears (Bab-el-Mandeb), for so did the ancient Arabs name those narrow straits at the mouth of the Red sea, regarded by their early navigators as so perilous, and so often, indeed, fatal to their inexperience. We had a ship in company here, and loud and joyous was the greeting between the crews, as we both cast anchor in a little bay just within the lesser mouth, by which we entered.

From this anchorage, and, indeed, all the morning, while making for, and passing the straits, we had the black, lofty shore of Africa in view. We ran down upon Mocha with a full sail on the following morning. The town looks white and cheerful, the houses lofty, and have a square, solid appearance; the roadstead is almost open, being only protected by narrow spits of sand, on one of which is a round castle, and on the other an insignificant fort. A date grove adjoins the city, and extends nearly two miles along the southern beach.

So far from the seaports of Arabia and India resembling each other, to the commonly observant eye, the contrast is striking. You have turbans and loose garments, but they are different both in fashion and materials. At every step in the seaport of Arabia, you meet the black, the half-naked Abyssinian, straight as the young areca, with a nose sufficiently prominent to give expression to his features, and having his curled woolly hair died with reddish yellow, the foppery of his country. Then there is the stout Arab porter, in his coarse brown garment, bowing under a heavy load of dates.

Lastly, you have the Bedouin, with the hue of the desert on his cheek, the sinewy limb, the eye dark and fiery. He has a small turban, a close-bodied vest, a coarse sash, all of dull colors; the arm, the leg are bare; the brown bosom open to the sun and wind; sandals on his feet; a broad, straight, two-edged sword in his hand; a long and ready poniard in his girdle. He walks erect, and moves directly to his front, giving place to none. Though every where sur

rounded by Persian or Turkish despots, he looks, and he can boast, that he is personally free.

The Arabs, when very young, have an expressive, but mild countenance, and a pleasing eye. As they become men, the change is very disadvantageous; their figures are not good, and the beard is generally scanty; but in advanced age, their appearance is truly venerable. The fine dark eye is then admirably contrasted with the long white beard, and the loose drapery prevents the meagre figure from being observed.

The Arabs in general seem to care very little about their religion. Superstitious followers of Mohammed, many of them do not obey one moral precept of the Koran; and though they perform the prescribed ablutions with strict regularity, yet there is hardly a vice, natural or unnatural, which they do not practise and avow.

The Arabs have essentially altered their conduct towards Christians, who may now walk about the streets of their towns without being liable to insult. The different events

which have taken place in India, and which have so conspicuously elevated the cross above the crescent, have struck a panic to the heart of the Mohammedan throughout the East.

The Jews are looked upon with an evil eye at Mocha. The Arab may spit upon, and strike them, and they are not allowed to wear a turban. Many of them gain a livelihood by working as goldsmiths and jewellers. They have a synagogue, built of mud, small and mean.

LESSON IV.

Short Sentences.-JOHN MASON.

Ir signifies nothing to say we will not change our religion, if our religion change not us.

A desire of happiness is natural, a desire of holiness supernatural.

If you forget God when you are young, God may forget you when you are old.

It will cost something to be religious, it will cost more not to be so.

We may expect God's protection so long as we live in God's bounds.

They who deserve nothing, should be content with any thing.

A man may be poor in purse, yet proud in spirit. 1 How canst thou be a judge of another's heart, that dost not know thine own.

They that do nothing are in the ready way to do that which is worse than nothing.

Christian graces are like perfumes; the more they are pressed, the sweeter they smell; like stars, that shine brightest in the dark; like trees, the more they are shaken, the deeper root they take, and the more fruit they bear.

Sin is like a bee, with honey in its mouth, but a sting in its tail.

As every shred of gold is precious, so is every moment of

time.

As they who, for every slight infirmity, take physic to repair their health, do rather impair it, so they who, for every trifle, are eager to vindicate their character, do rather weaken it.

LESSON V.

The American Blue Jay.-WILSON.

"THIS elegant bird," says Wilson," which, as far as I can learn, is peculiar to North America, is distinguished among the feathered tenants of our woods, by the brilliancy of his dress, and, like most coxcombs, makes himself still more conspicuous by his loquacity, and the address of his tones and gestures.

"The jay measures eleven inches in length; the head is ornamented with a crest of light blue or purple feathers, which he can elevate or depress at pleasure; a narrow line of black runs along the frontlet; back and upper part of the neck a fine light purple; a collar of black, proceeding from the back side of the head, passes with a graceful curve down each side of the neck, to the upper part of the breast, where it forms a crescent; chin, cheeks, throat and belly white, the three former slightly tinged with blue; tail long and wedge-shaped, composed of twelve feathers of glossy light