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tween the superior and inferior members of the community? and where the debased party, disappointed in their wish of hurling threats of defiance into the faces of their oppressors, vent their malignity against cach other?

-Let us illustrate this subject by referring to the affairs of a well known people.

from an unpromising text, we think they might often make a better selection than they do. We have often had occasion to remark that the orator passes over excellent maxims of morality in order to select a passage of scripture, which he conceives he can manage so as to draw certain inferences in faver of some con. tested point of doctrine, in which he supposes the honor of his sect is involved.

Lord."

I am the

The Jews, for many centuries, wore the shackles of servitude. They were oppressed by the Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and We would recommend it to any clergyman, Romans. They had long been accounted a who may be desirous of addressing an appro proud stiff-necked and arrogant nation. They priate discourse to the youth of Philadelphia, rebelled against all their successive masters, to make a text of the following words: and fought with, what we suppose you would "Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor lav a stumbcall, savage ferocity against their oppressors; but, being continually subdued, we find them ling block before the blind at last sunk into a state of abject servility. They flattered the pride of the conquerors of These words are found recorded in the ninethe world with every appearance of humility, teenth chapter of the third book of Moses and proclaimed to the world, "we will have no called Leviticus, and fourteenth verse. The king but Cæsar!" discourse may be divided into-but we are not disposed to write the sermon. Let the preacher divide it into as many heads as he may think proper. Let him expatiate upon each as long as he pleases; and then apply the whole as the Lord may enable him. He may draw as many inferences, as may seem right in his eyes' in favor of abstruse and metaphysical doctrines in divinity; but it is our particular request, that he would take some notice of the malignant disposition discoverable, even in children, to insult and torment the deformed, the drunken, and insane, who occasionally appear in the streets of the city.

Is it supposable that their hatred of the Ro mans was less at this time than it had been at any former period? Not at all: let the violence, rancor,and fury of their subsequent wars bear testimony of their immortal animosity. But that rage, which they could not spend on the heads of their oppressors, they directed against each other: and their sufferings and misfortunes are not to be paralleled in the history of any people.

Heroes, legislators, sages, reformers! what have ye done? You have been deified for the benefits, it was supposed, you had conferred on humanity. Behold the fruit of your labor! [To be continued.

Sermons.

There was a certain clergyman, in a neighboring state, who made choice of the following words for the theme of his discourse, "Thus saith the Lord, make this valley full of ditches." He divided his subject into a conveni-nt num. ber of heads, and made a very learned and ex.

cellent discourse.

One of his auditors observed to him afterwards, in conversation, that he was amazed that the doctor should select such a portion of scripture for his text: it appearing, he thought, to require a great deal of genius to deduce a suitable discourse from those words.

The doctor replied, "My dear sir, he must be a poor clergymen who cannot preach Christ from any text in the Bible." "Well doctor," replied the former, "how would you preach Christ from the iron bedstead of Og, king of

We have seen several hundred boys surround a wretched maniac, and torture him to a par. oxysm of fury by their words and their actions. We have seen them follow a deformed little

mortal, with shouts of reproach and every spe cies of opprobrious language. We have seen them rejoice, with exceeding great joy,' at the discovery of a drunken pauper. The civilized alarm whoop was raised in a moment; and every polished little savage, within several squares, ran, exulting, to the entertainment.

Is this civilization? is it humanity? or do you call it a savage practice?-Such actions were never known among the savages of the wilderness. But, from second thoughts we be. lieve the sermon should be addressed to the parents, and not to the children.

Eating.

Piomingo, the intention of this letter is to request you to inform the public what you mean by talking of a man "living that he may Bashan ?" 66 Why," said the doctor, "the iron eat." I should like to know what there is of the bedstead is a type of the hardness of equally interesting that he could live for. I, your heart and the stiffness of your neck; the for my own part, am inclined to believe that greatness of its size resembles the magnitude this is the design of his creation; and were I of your sins. It requires the power of Christ allowed to answer the question, "What is the to soften your heart and take away your mani- chief end of man?" agreeably to my own fold transgressions. The transition is easy and private opinion, I would say, "To eat, drink, and sleep."

natural."

Now, however we may admire the ingenuity of preachers in making an excellent discourse

Men may affect to despise eating as much as they please; but I believe it has been their

principal concern in all ages. Why do they tremble at the idea of poverty? Poverty is not a thing dreadful in itself; but, alas! it in. cludes the idea of hunger and starvation. Sup. pose a painter were to be employed to produce a picture of poverty; would not want be discovered in the belly, and famine in the countenance?

However men may boast of intellectual enjoyments, it is plain they are only considered as things worthy of a secondary consideration; and when they attempt to describe those celestial delights, they do it by some image drawn from the science of cookery, or the im. portant business of eating. What are we to understand by "the feast of reason and flow of soul," but that they enjoy a kind of pleasure, which, though infinitely inferior, bears some faint resemblance to the ineffable delights of eating and drinking. The most aident desires of the mind are made known by comparing them to hunger and thirst; and the highest and most sublime mental gratification is liken. ed to a spread table and an overflowing cup. When the wise king of Israel would sum up the felicities of life, he declares that "there is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink; and he adds, with rapturous exultation, "Who can eat or hasten hereunto more than I ?"

A nice and accurate judge of literary works is said to be possessed of taste; and when the critic boasts of having a relish for the writings of the poets, he feasts his imagination with the sweet savor of viands, and smoking hot culinary

similitudes.

The happiness of the immortal gods was placed in nectar and ambrosia; and when we contemplate the fleeting nature of our own existence, we are ready to exclaim, "Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we must die!" I defy any one to think of the maxim of Horace, "enjoy the present moment," without referring immediately to the delights of the table and the ecstasies of deglutition.

As feasting with the gods was the reward bestowed upon heroes for their marvellous exploits; so the curse of hunger and thirst was the punishment inflicted upon the wicked for the most atrocious of crimes. O, unfortunate Tantalus! may I be turned on the wheel of torment, may vultures devour my liver, may I roll up with anguish of heart the still revolving stone, rather than suffer the hundredth part of thy excruciating misery! I seem to see, even at this moment, thy parched lips within an inch of the cooling stream! I see misery in throned on thy famine-struck visage! I see thy hungry eyes turned up with unutterable longing to the fruit that hangs above thy head!

When the fertile fields of Canaan were promised to the Jews, they were described as flowing with milk and honey" and abounding ia "corn and wine."

"Bring it near to me," said the blind but venison-loving Isaac, "bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's venison, that my soul may bless thee. And he brought it near to him, and he did eat; and he brought him wine, and he drank." What was the great blessing that Isaac had to bestow on Jacob?" The dew of heaven, the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine." The wise old patriarchs had too much sense to prefer the hungry pleasures of the imagination to the "feast of fat things full of marrow." And although the art of eat. ing has of late been carried to a pitch of perfection, of which the ancients had no idea; yet, they had a tolerable acquaintance with what have been emphatically styled the good things of life.

I will frankly acknowledge that eating is my principal concern: no other business occu pies so much of my attention. The time that is spent at the table, and the knowledge that is displayed in the preparation of food, 1 conceive to be two things which, more than any other characteristics, distinguish civilized men from barbarians. To a savage, the sensation of hunger is disagreeable, and he endeavors to remove it as expeditiously as possible; but the man of refinement has reduced eating to a science: it is his business and his pleasure.

The only thing that gives me any uneasi ness is that I cannot always continue the ope. ration of eating. Why was not man so constituted that he might eat from the moment of his birth to the instant of his death? The only remedy I find for this evil is to fill up the interval, that occurs between one meal and another, with sleep. And this answers the purpose tolerably well; for, as sleep is a kind of death, I seem to lose my existence when life youred their plain repast in ten or fifteen mi would be a burden. The early Romans denutes; but their luxurious descendants, who enjoyed riches and leisure, lay whole nights round their table, feasting like heroes and drinking like gods. They were determined to partake of the pleasures of life in opposition to every obstacle: for, if their stomachs were replenished before the end of the entertainment, they hastened to discharge their contents by vomition, and returned with fresh ardor to the feast.

In fine, I conceive that the wise in all ages have placed the summum bonum in good eating: that, at least, is my philosophy. "Some people," says the great doctor Johnson, "have a foolish way of not minding, or pretending not to mind, what they eat. For my part, I mind my belly very studiously and very carefully; for I look upon it, that he who does not mind his belly will hardly mind any thing else."

This same doctor Johnson is said to have made many wise observations: but this, I suppose to be one of the wisest he ever uttered. What business can stand in competition with this? What pleasure has half the allurements? Were I in the paradise of Mohammed, I should

find no other employment for the Houries, but tius, "This truly is the golden age: much honor cometh by gold." to wait on my table.

But the hour of dinner approaches.-Already the sweet odor of roastbeef assails my nostrils. Hark! I hear the rattling of the knives and the soul-cheering jingle of the plates. The servants pass and repass in the busy haste of preparation. Farewell savage! by the life of Apicius, I would not wait a minute for all the barbarians in the universe. My whole frame trembles with the intensity of desire.

The world recedes; it disappears
Heaven opens on my eyes. My ears
With sounds seraphic ring
JOHN GORMAND.

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Cynophilus, an ancient philosopher, felt no attachment for any creature in existence but his dog. He dwelt in the fields. His food consisted of roots and berries; and his drink was water. Every individual of the human race was an object of abhorrence and contempt; yet he frequently walked in the populous city, and pressed through the multitude assembled in the forum: what could be his motive for this extraordinary conduct?-He was governed by the same impulse which compels the sheep to feed in flocks: he was a gregarious animal.

THE SAVAGE-NO. IX.

Slavery.

SLAVERY-but we will endeavor to discuss this subject without quoting the celebrated apostrophe of Sterne, or the no less celebrated verses of Cowper. Of what species of slavery shall we speak? Shall we take notice of the servile condition of Asia; the drudgery of Eu rope; or the misfortunes of Africa.

Men are prone to overlook things that are nigh; and fix their eyes on distant objects. They are afflicted by the distresses of those who groan under the rigor of foreign despotism; but, at the same time, they are busily em. ployed in maturing the same sufferings for themselves and for their children.

The citizens of the United States lament, with the greatest apparent sensibility, the misfortunes, distresses and grievances of poor oppressed enslaved Europeans; yet they, themselves, are every day hastening to the extent of their abilities, the time when the people of America will be precisely in the situation of those whose affairs they now so feelingly deplore.

The condition of the laborers and peasantry in Europe is miserable enough; but there was a time when they were by no means so unfortunate. There was a time when, comparatively speaking, they were savages; when equality prevailed among the great body of the people; when they were ignorant of the vices, luxuries, and diseases which have been introduced by the progress of civilization. But those times are changed. Commerce has spread her sails and visited the remotest corners of the earth. She has poured the diamonds of the east and the gold of the west inte the bosom of Europe. She has erected magnificent cities; into which she has introduced luxury and pomp-wretchedness and want. She has established manufactories; which have been productive of riches and splendor-poverty, vice, and disease. Well: let the citizens of the United States extend their commerce, and "You may drive back nature with violence," establish manufactories. What will be the says Horace," but she will continually return." consequence? Wealth, prosperity, luxury, The hermit has denied himself the pleasures of society, in this miserable world, and among a degenerate people; but he promises himself the enjoyment of mingling in a crowd of better men beyond the grave.

The hermit, who fixes his residence in the desert far removed from the footsteps of men, feels this innate propensity so strong in his breast, that he finds it necessary to assemble around his rushy couch an innumerable multitude of visionary men, whom he dignifies with the appellation of angels. He holds imaginary communion with prophets and apostles, and walks the streets of the New Jerusalem with myriads of saints clothed in white, singing songs of praise and exultation.

magnificence--and all those other things which we have already proved to be inseparable attendants on luxury and refinement. Do not extensive manufactories and wide-spreading commerce produce riches? Does not the possession of riches confer power? Is not slavery necessarily coexistent with power? If riches. did not confer power on the possessor, they would cease to be an object of pursuit: they would be totally useless. If they do confer power, they must, necessarily, impoverish others in the same proportion that they enrich the possessor. One wealthy man cannot ren der other men, equally wealthy with himself, We may say, with as much truth as Proper- subservient to his wishes; but let him increase

The Golden Age.
PROPERTIUS, a Roman elegiac poet who died
a short time before the commencement of the
christian era, contends that he lived in the
golden age; and the reason he assigns for
this opinion appears to be cogent:

Aurea nunc vere sunt sæcula: plurimus auro
Venit honos.-

F

his own wealth, and then he will be able to ex- The grovelling baseness, the sordid injus. tend his influence over those who were former- tice, the cowardly cruelties, of A, are forgotten. ly his equals: consequently they are impover. He has defrauded the fatherless, oppressed the ished in the same proportion that he is enrich- widow, deluded the thoughtless, deceived the ed. Every accession of wealth, therefore, to ignorant, sacrificed his friends, betrayed his an individual in any community is an acces- trust, and laid perjury on his soul; but he is sion of poverty or slavery to every other indi- rich and all is forgotten. The industrious vidual within the sphere of his influence. Why families, ruined by his ingenuity, are scattered should we deplore the existence of that slavery over the world, the victims of sorrow, vice and in other parts of the world, which already ex disease: or, deep in the vale of penury, their ists among ourselves, and which we use every tears fall unnoticed; and their groans are not exertion within the limits of our power to bring heard. He reaps the harvest of his villanies; to perfection? Why should we express re- becomes an alderman or justice of the peace; sentment against an Asiatic or European des- enjoys otium cum dignitate; dies in peace, at pot for exercising that power which has fallen a good old age; and his fortune descends to into his hands by a train of causes and effects, his son. and yet express no disapprobation of the conduct of the wealthy man who uses, to the utmost, that influence which the possession of riches has given him over society? The rich man and the prince are equally culpable: there can be no more harm merely in the acquisition of a throne, than there is in making a fortune and a crown received by inheritance is as much the property of the possessor, as an estate received by the death of the father is the property of the son. He, who sways the scep. tre, exercises power. He, who uses the estate, exercises power. The cases are in every respect similar and if it be wrong to acquire a kingdom, it is wrong to accumulate money: the object in both cases being precisely the same-power. The man who aspires to em pire removes the obstacles that stand in his way; the man who would amass riches does the same. Villany is sometimes practised by the former; and sometimes, by the latter. We grant that more evil is frequently perpetrated by the great, than by the little, usurper; but if the pursuit of one be justifiable, so is that of

the other.

Three brothers enter the world at the same time. They all resolve to grow powerful: but B is of a more aspiring disposition_than A; and C is still more ambitious than B. A re

mains in his native town, and manages his little traffic with infinite cunning and address. He studies the rise and fall of the price of every species of goods; and buys up or sells off as circumstances may require. If he suppose that a certain article will be in demand, he endeavors to engross it; and afterwards takes every advantage, in his power, of those who were possessed of less cunning or foresight than himself. If he know of some circum. stance that lessens the value of goods in his possession, he immediately disposes of them to some ignorant purchaser, for as much as they follies and misfortunes of others, he acquires will bring. Thus, through the ignorance, money with considerable rapidity. He is accounted a man of substance. His credit is established. He contracts debts to an immense amount; turns his property into cash; takes the benefit of some act of insolvency or bankruptcy; and his fortune is made!

B, in the mean time, has been much more cxpeditious and more fortunate in the acquisition of wealth than his brother. He has gone to the the East Indies or to the West, or somewhere else; where he has kindled wars, plundered towns, impoverished provinces, and returned to his country with inexhaustible stores. He astonishes the crowd with his riches; he wallows in luxury; he indulges his taste for magnificence and splendor; he extends his patronage to literature and the fine arts; he becomes a Mecenas to every man of learning, and the dulce decus of polished society; he subscribes to charitable institutions; and commands the homage, respect, and adoration of the world! When he dies, his obsequies are celebrated with pomp; and his name is immortalized by sculptors and poets.

But the daring ambition of C was not content with the acquisition of power by the accumulation of money. He courted the people; was elected their representative; became their idol; received the chief command of their

forces; seized on the public treasure; and, lives were lost, he incircled his brows with a after a severe battle, in which some thousand diadem. What then? He is a mild and bene. ficent prince. He causes punishment to be inflicted upon evildoers; and praise to be bestowed on those who do well. He is accounted the father of his people; and transmits his crown with full sovereignty to his descend

ants.

Was not the object of these three brothers precisely the same? Did they not all, according to their respective capacities, endeavor to acquire and exercise power? The means employed by one were equally unjustifiable with those employed by either of the others. Every one produced as much slavery as he was able. The absolute quantum of good or evil effected they were all equally villains. by C or B might be greater than that which was produced by A; but in foro conscientiæ,

We need not, therefore, look to Africa, Asia, or Europe, for the existence of slavery: the plant flourishes in the United States; but it is not yet in a state of maturity. The people partake something still of the nature of savages;

when they become perfectly civilized, they will be perfectly slaves.

They are both tyrants to the utmost of their abilities. They both hold their fellow creatures in slavery as unbounded as their powers. Nor is the condition of the white slave in the northern states much preferable to that of the black slave in the southern parts of the union. The laws and the progress of civilization have made the indigent laborer a slave to every man in possession of riches. He may change his master; but he is condemned to perpetual ser.

A man is not incommoded by a nuisance which has long been familiar to his senses; but if he be exposed to the effluvia of a different species of filth, to which he has not been accustomed, he will immediately show signs of disgust and detestation. The inhabitant of Philadelphia perceives not (or perceiving dislikes not) those odoriferous gales that issue from the narrow alleys and sinks of the city; vitude; and his reward is the reward of every whereas a man from the country, who is con- other slave-subsistence. The situation of the versant enough with abominations of a differ- white slave is often more unfortunate than that ent kind, will give manifest indications of of the black: he is probably harassed by doloathing and abhorrence. So it is with moral mestic cares, and compelled to be a helpless turpitude: the slavery that has become fami- witness of the distresses of his family; or he liar to a man's eyes makes no impression on changes his employer so often, with the vain his mind; but that which assumes a differ- hope of meliorating his condition, that he beent form, or discovers itself in a different comes sick, infirm, or old, without having had manner, calls forth his sympathetic condolence. it in his power to secure the friendship or proVices or follies to which he has been accustomed give him not the slightest uneasiness; but those of a more uncommon nature, or those which are the consequences of manners and customs different from his own, awaken his pity and contempt.

We have often heard a Pennsylvania farmer execrating the conduct of a southern planter, in holding the unfortunate Africans in a state of slavery; yet this man never once reflected that he, himself, was guilty of the same injus. tice which he reprobated so severely in another. The Virginia planter exercises authority over his fellow men; so does the Pennsylvania far. mer. There is no difference but this: one possesses more power than the other.

The Virginian possesses five hundred slavcs: he acquired them by inheritance, or purchased them with his money. He claims their perpetual services; and the laws of his country sanction his claim. By his powerful exertions, or by a fortunate concurrence of circumstances, he has acquired an absolute as cendancy over these men: consequently they are absolutely his slaves.

The Pennsylvanian is in possession of a land

ed estate, worth one hundred thousand dollars. His fields are cultivated by fifty or sixty ragged miserable laborers; to whom he gives twelve dollars a month one year, because they cannot be procured at a cheaper rate. Another year, laborers are numerous: they range over the country in every direction begging for employment. He now hires them for ten, cight, seven, six, five, four, dollars a month, and even sometimes allows them nothing (to make use of a favorite expression of his own) but their victuals for their work. Observe well, that he exercises every power,which his own exertions, or a fortunate concurrence of circumstances, have given him over his fellow inen.

What injustice is discoverable in the conduct of the southern planter, which is not also found in the practices of the northern farmer?

tection of any of his masters. What then is the consequence? The wretched outcast, after a life of slavery, is neglected by those who have enjoyed the fruit of his labor: he may perish in the streets, expire on the highway, or linger out a miserable existence in some infirmary or poorhouse, till death shall relieve him of his pain, and the world of a burthen. And the pitiful assistance, which is granted, by the rich, to their sick, decrepid, or superannuated slave, is given as a charity, accompanied with reproaches and expressions of contempt; and the dying pauper must receive it with all becoming humility. He is upbraided with his vices, reproached with his follies, and unfeelingly insulted by every purse-proud fool who may manage the concerns,or have the superintendence of the poor. The black slave is compelled to labor; but he is destitute of care. He is not at liberty to change one service for another; but he may, by long and faithful adherence to his duty, secure the affections of his master, and, by assiduous attentions, conciliate his superiors. When he grows old or infirm, he is sure of being maintained, without having recourse to the tender mercies of a justice of the peace, overseer of the poor, or superinten.

dent of a workhouse.

Is it not a little strange that the opulent man when he contributes his quota to the necessities of a wretch who has been, in every sense of the word, a slave to the community of the rich, considers himself as bestowing a charity; whereas the slaveholder supposes himself bound in justice to support the blacks who are worn out in his service?-Is it not a little strange that we should hear men in the middle and northern states pour forth reproaches against their brethren to the southward for holding slaves, when they themselves are supported by the labor of slaves? "Thou hypocrite! first cast the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast the mote out of thy brother's eye.”

[To be continued.

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