What you attempt, do with all your strength.

Determination

is omnipotent. If the prospect is somewhat darkened, put the

would be selected as will afford the best remuneration for the labor bestowed.

Το

every person making a careful examination, it will be evident that it is much easier to raise one hundred dollars worth of vegetables in the garden, than to raise meat of that value, or breadstuff in the field, of that value. It can scarcely be doubted, that vegetables may be produced in the garden for less than half the cost of their equivalent in other kinds of food for a family. With a good supply of such fresh vegetables in summer, seemingly but little else is needful. They are palatable and nutritious. Especially if meat is short in the cellar, or dear from the butcher, the greater should be the effort to increase this economical substitute. So, likewise, if there is a deficiency of meal and flour. Let a person make a memorandum of every article taken from a good garden, at a fair market price, and the amount at the close of the season will be incredible. With an ample supply of milk, and a good garden, a family may receive a comfortable living with but very little meat or breadstuff, and be equally well fitted for the labors they have to perform. And it is known that there are families which receive the greater portion of their living from an acre of land thus cultivated; part of its products used on the premises, and a part sold in exchange for other articles, Such a fact is sufficient to show that, in all cases, this description of culture may be profitable as well as an important item in what is called good fare; and that none should neglect it, whether rich or poor.-More than half this article has been selected from the Genesee Farmer.

Does not the sun with constant pace
Persist to run his annual race?

Do not the stars which shine so bright,
Renew their courses every night?
Does not the ox obedient bow

His patient neck, and draw the plough?
Or when did e'er the gen'rous steed
Withhold his labor or his speed !

Never Go Back.-Never go back-never!

Reputation and life are the most precious things this side the grave.

fire of resolution to your soul, and kindle a flame that nothing but the strong arm of death can extinguish.

“that a lusty fellow like you is thus employed?" “Ah,” replied

the beggar, looking very piteously, " If you did but know how lazy I am !"

THE PHILOSOPHER'S SCALES.

BY JANE TAYLOR.

A MONK, when his rites sacerdotal were o'er,

In the depth of his cell, with his stone-covered floor,
Resigning to thought his chimerical brain,

He form'd the contrivance we are now to explain.
In youth 'twas projected, but years stole away,

And ere 'twas complete he was wrinkled and gray:
But success is secure, unless energy fails,

And at length he produced The Philosopher's Scales.

What were they? you ask: you shall presently see;
These scales were not made to weigh sugar and tea;
O no-for such properties wondrous had they,
That qualities, feelings, and thoughts they would weigh;
Together with articles small or immense,
From mountains or planets, to atoms of sense.
Naught was there so bulky but there it could lay,
And naught so ethereal, but there it could stay;
And naught so reluctant, but in it must go-
All which some examples more clearly will show.
The first thing he weighed was the head of Voltaire,
Which retained all the wit that had ever been there;
As a weight, he threw in the torn scraps of a leaf,
Containing the prayer of the penitent thief,
When the scull rose aloft with so sudden a spell,
As to bound like a ball on the roof of his cell.
One time he put in Alexander the Great,

And a garment that Dorcas had made, for a weight;
And though clad in armor from sandals to crown,
The hero rose up, and the garment went down.
A long row of alms-houses, amply endow'd
By a well-esteemed Pharisee, busy and proud,
Next loaded one scale, while the other was press'd
By those mites the poor widow threw into the chest ;
Up flew the endowment, not weighing an ounce,
And down, down the farthing's worth came with a bounce.

A wise man will be more anxious to deserve a fair name than to possess it.

A Sad Condition-Miravaux was accosted by a sturdy beggar, asking alms. "How is this," inquired Miravaux,

Miravaux gave him a piece of silver.

In the pursuit of knowledge, follow it wherever it is to be found; like fern, it is the produce of all climates,

and like coin, its circulation is not restricted to any particular

TOILS AND PLEASURES OF RURAL LIFE. 179

Again he perform'd an experiment rare;
A monk, with austerities bleeding and bare,
Climb'd into his scale-in the other was laid
The heart of Howard, now partly decayed;

When he found, with surprise, that the whole of his brother
Weighed less by some pounds than this bit of the other.
By other experiments, no matter how,

He found that ten chariots weighed less than a plough.
A sword, with gilt trappings, rose up in the scale,
Though balanced by only a tenpenny nail.
A shield and a helmet, a buckler and spear,
Weigh'd less than a widow's uncrystaliz'd tear.

Yet no mountains of silver and gold would suffice
One pearl to outweigh; 'twas the pearl of great price.
Last of all, the whole world was bowl'd in the gate,
With the soul of a beggar to serve for a weight;
When the scale with the soul so mightily fell,
That it jerked the philosopher out of his cell.

TOILS AND PLEASURES OF RURAL LIFE.

Here, brothers, secure from all turmoil and danger,
We reap what we sow, for the soil is our own;
We spread hospitality's board for the stranger,
And care not a fig for the king on his throne;
We never know want, for we live by our labor,
And it contentment and happiness find.

Nor a few of the thoughts now to be collected in a chapter by themselves, may have been scattered along incidentally, when discussing other subjects. But, as much is said, on the one side, of the hardships of the farmer, by those who endure or witness them; and, on the other side, of the benefits of a country residence, especially by those who view them at a distance, it seems proper, in a work like the present, to make a collation of them in opposing columns; to bring each class into a more compact order, that we may have more.just conceptions of them. Habit will reconcile us to almost everything, though at first disagreeable.

class. There is a paradox in pride-it makes some men ridiculous, but prevents others from being so.

Locke was asked how he had contrived to accumulate so much valuable knowledge. He replied, that he had attributed what little

180

he knew, to not having been ashamed to ask for information, and

TOILS AND PLEASURES OF RURAL LIFE.

The surrounding circumstances of the agriculturist, like the circumstances attending other modes of life, are imperfectly understood, except by those in immediate proximity to them. Superficial views are taken, in order to avoid the trouble of philosophical investigations. Those at a distance from the peculiarities attending the different orders in the business of life, and especially those who have no experimental knowledge of them, may greatly, as predisposed, over-estimate the bright side of the picture, and under-estimate the evils of the corresponding side of it. This is true of the professional man and the merchant, as well as of the farmer. It is now proposed to remove some of the obstacles to correct apprehension in these matters; to repudiate some of the erroneous conclusions that have been adopted in regard to them. And it is calculated not to be so didactic and metaphysical in the process as to render the effort repulsive to the reader. Descriptions of natural scenery should always be in language adapted to the subject. If rhetoric has any charms, here is an appropriate place for them.

The farmer is apt to imagine, when beholding the abundance of pecuniary means in the possession of the merchant, that everything on which he places his wand is converted into cash; that his occupation deserves not the name of labor, being little else than what may be called amusement; and that he has no solicitude except to gratify his taste and his fancy, and to spend his money. So he speculates in regard to the professional man -imagining that his days are mere pastime, without a thought of mental anxiety, as well as without muscular action, to exhaust his physical energies. Far different would be the conceptions, could he with mesmeric vision inspect the painful and almost agonizing solicitude, during midnight vigils, of the faithful medical attendant, when endeavoring to find means to restore the almost hopelessly disorganized functions of animal life; or of the legal practitioner, who has in his keeping the fortune, the reputation, and even the life of his client; and especially of the sincere and devoted minister of salvation, whose soul must be in constant travail for the everlasting destinies of those for whose welfare he is ordained. No one should envy the condition of such men! No one should charge them with a profession exempt from pressures the most overwhelming, and from responsibilities in magnitude without a parallel! If faithful to their respective trusts, richly do they deserve all they receive. They would merit more than this world can give. Nor are the circumstances connected with rural life better understood, by persons not having experimental knowledge of them. True, in regard to the laborious toils, conceptions less Nothing is more disgusting than the triumphant crowings of literary dunces.

to his habit of conversing with all descriptions of men, on those topics chiefly that formed their own peculiar professions or pursuits.