PARLEY'S MAGAZINE. THE NEW YEAR. WELL, my young friends, here comes been acquainted, first, through the paanother new year. The year 1836 is over and gone; 1837 is now fairly arrived, and we have fairly entered upon it. May it be a prosperous and a hap. py one. ges of the Juvenile Rambler, and next through those of this magazine, these five years; and yet I feel almost as if we were still strangers. I want to go round and see your smiling faces. I want to go round, and with my staff in one hand, and my hat in my other, make my best bow to you, and express to you my best wishes, and bid you my kindest good morning. Many of my readers have already lived to see five, ten, fifteen,—and some twenty new year's days. To some, all have been happy ones, and the whole subsequent years have been happy years; to others it has not been so. They have I wish I had even a list of your been called to part with friends, or at names, at full length, to read over this least to stand by their sick beds; and morning. That would afford me some some of them have been sick and un- satisfaction. I know, indeed, it would dergone suffering and pain themselves. be a long one. I know that there are I have known some people, by the way, who thought their whole year a happy one, though they were sick a few days of it. They say, they never knew the worth of health till they had been sick; and that the pleasures of life were on the whole increased by their sickness. They say, that since their recovery, every thing has looked more beautiful; their food has relished better, their sleep has been sweeter, their friends have appeared dearer, and God wiser and better than ever before. But I wish you all-I say again-a happy new year, whether sick or well. I should like, if it were possible, to go round this morning and express my good wishes in person, and shake hands with each of you. Some of us have many thousands of you, and that you are found in almost or quite every state, and territory and district and county in the whole Union; and even in some of the dominions of the British and French kings. More than all this, however; much more. You are found in almost every country which has been visited by seamen-in Europe, Asia, Africaand among the islands of the seas. I know too that some of your names would be long and difficult. But I would make an effort to read them, at least once. I love sometimes to indulge my imagination. Is there any harm in it? Perhaps you will say no. But this depends upon the manner of indulging it. If we indulge ourselves in dwelling upon things which are wrong or hurtful, then of course there is harm in it. But I am going to indulge my imagination, in a way which perhaps you never thought of; and whether it is right or wrong, I leave it to you to decide. I am going to imagine my readers all assembled on Boston Common. What a strange collection of people! They are of all colors, from the whitest and palest faces and hands to those whose complexions are as dark as dark can be. There are the African, the Asiatic, the American, the Indian, the European, and the numerous mixed breeds of people. Then, again, the dress; how odd it is! There are as many sorts of colors and as many kinds of fashions as one could well conceive. The difference of headdress alone is surprising; not only among the females, but among the males. There are hats, and caps, and turbans and feathers, and I cannot stop to tell you what else. The people, too, are of all sizes and ages. It is indeed true that they are chiefly young people, under twenty years of age. But they are not exclusively young people. Here and there we find a school teacher, and still more frequently a parent, especially a mother. There are, in fact, a few old people, grey headed. These last, I see, look a little ashamed to be known among the readers of a children's magazine, and seem disposed to hide themselves among the crowd; but need they? Is it a shame to love to read children's books? Then, too, observe the apparent difference of their circumstances. Some are dressed like the children of kings and princes, others like the meanest beggars. Some are descended from rich parents, others from those who are very poor, and who can only save their dollar a year to pay for the magazine, by denying themselves some of those little conveniences of life which their richer neighbors call necessaries. What a strange collection of people, I say again, in their outward appearance. But their souls-the internal, immortal spirits-differ as much as their external appearance. If we could see these, we should find some small, some large, some narrow, others liberal. I trust, however, we should find the little souls becoming enlarged from month to month; and the narrow, contracted ones, becoming broader and more liberal. I should like to indulge my fancy a little farther. I should like to class this motley crowd, by directing the old to go to one part of the common; the middle aged to another; the young-the most numerous class-to another; the teachers to another; the fathers to another; and the mothers still to another. Then I should like to converse with each class, (for, as to going and conversing with each individual, it would take quite too long). and ask them in what way I can render the magazine more acceptable to them. I should like especially to know the wishes of the thousands of children. I should like to know whether they wish NEW YEAR'S ADDRESS. 5 for more or less of history, or biography, hills, the valleys, the fields, the rocks, or travels, than we have usually had; the rivers, and the lakes remain essenand whether they prefer more or fewer tially the same. What is it then, which stories. I should like to know if they changes? What is it which is new? are fond of dialogues, poetry, &c., in Is it the trees and plants-the vegetalarge proportion; or whether they ble world? Is it the animals that have choose to have the greater part in plain a beginning, a maturity, and an end? Is reading. The opinion of a few hundreds it man-who is born, who lives, but of old people, or a thousand or two of who has no end? Yes, it is all these. parents and teachers, I should consider No one of these is ever the same at the of less consequence; but even their commencement of one year that he was opinion would be valuable. at the beginning of the previous one. These all-man especially-have their new year, and are really, in some respects, every year altered; every year in new circumstances. It is easier for the imagination to conjure up such a scene on Boston Common than to make it a reality. Instead of ever seeing the friends of Parley's Magazine collected there, we shall be much more likely to see it filled with companies or regiments of soldiers and their thousands of spectators; or with thousands and ten thousands of citizens witnessing the ascent of a balloon, or the exhibition of fire works, or the arrival of a President, or some other great man. No, my dear readers, we shall never all meet on Boston Common or else where, in this world. The bible speaks of a meeting beyond the grave, which we shall all sooner or later attend. May We so live that our meeting, on that great occasion, may be to us all, a pleas ant one! We have entered, I must say again, on another new year. We call it a new year; but after all what is it which is new? The sun, the moon, the stars, the sky, the atmosphere, the ocean, the Yes; we have just entered upon another new year. With some, as I have before said, it is the fifth; with others the tenth; with others the fif teenth; with others still the twentieth. But however this may be, whether we have seen fewer or more new year's days, to some of us, and the great Creator only knows which it shall be, it will be the last. No matter, however, if we are prepared and well prepared for a world where no sun is needed to measure out the time by years; a world where God's presence makes all bright and blooming and joyous; a world from which sorrow and sighing and tears are forever excluded. A good cause makes a stout heart, and a strong arm. Adversity successfully overcome, is the highest glory. LETTER FROM AUNT NEWBURY. BE COLLECTED, OR, ENDURE IT PATIENTLY. Ay; be collected, my dear girls, do be collected for self possession is beyond value. Some people are, positively, more frightened at an ant, than others are at an elephant. I knew a clergyman who was so terrified at the appearance of an owl, that he always lost his selfpossession when he saw one. Unfortunately, as he read prayers one afternoon in a country church, an owl kept flying backwards and forwards across the church. This was a distressing thing to the clergyman, though it amused some part of his congregation; for every time the owl flew towards the pulpit, the minister suddenly stooped down, and put his hand over his cyes, nor was it without great difficulty that he managed to go through the service. We should make great allowance for a timid disposition; for when foolish fears have once got possession of the frame, it is very difficult to repress them; but for a female to scream out, as though a house were on fire, at the sight of a spider, a mouse or a frog; to run as if a wild bull were at her heels, when she sees a cow quietly walking at the distance of a hundred yards; or to faint on receiving a letter containing mournful intelligence ;-is neither creditable to her education, nor to her understanding. Neither spiders, nor frogs, nor mice, are fonder of our company than we are of theirs: and if we only give them the opportunity, they usually convince us of this by getting out of our way as fast as they can. A cow is a LETTER FROM AUNT NEWBURY. very harmless creature, and very seldom does any one an injury unless she is excited to anger. And, if we cannot read a letter that afflicts us, without being overcome, how shall we bear the manifold afflictions of life? Do, my dear girls, gain the habit of being collected in dangers, and enduring patiently the trials that overtake you. Depend upon it, that our fears magnify our dangers. If we looked our troubles steadily in the face, we should bear them better, and overcome them more speedily. I do love self-possession; and when I see people scampering, and screaming, jumping on this side, and on that, to avoid dangers that have no real existence, I cannot but think that they are far more important in their own estimation than they ought to be. Do be collected. I well remember three of my companions getting into a boat to be rowed across the river Thames, when the weather was a little rude. 66 Now, ladies," said the boatman, "I will thank you to keep steady, or we may, possibly, get capsized." There were three other passengers in the boat; and scarcely had they pushed off from the shore, when the boat heeled a little on one side. My three companions had no self-possession. Forgetting the injunction of the waterman, they all rose up screaming, and rushed to the opposite side of the boat. Thus, in a moment, the boat was capsized; they were all plunged into the water; and with great difficulty were saved from drowning. 7 How common it is to see persons in a boat rise up suddenly on the least appearance of danger; and thus, by want of self-possession, they bring upon themselves the very calamity they would avoid. Never shall I forget the calm and collected demeanour of a young lady who was with me in a storm at sea, near the coast of France. O, it was grateful to gaze upon her, as she stood upon the deck of the vessel watching the fury of the elements with a serene countenance. Some fine horses on board were nearly mad from the rolling of the vessel; and one of them leaped over the place in which he was confined, and plunged about on the deck, scattering the sailors in all directions. One bold fellow held down this horse several hours during the storm; though once he had nearly plunged into the sea. The attitude and calm countenance of the young lady were admirable. I mark'd her mid the whitening surge, What time the storm was roaring; While the billows were breaking round her. So long as this poor wilder'd brain, Retains that fierce commotion, So long that form shall calmly stand, With how much more pleasure and self-respect we look back on our con |