im&^m^ Please handle this volume with care. The University of Connecticut Libraries, Storrs X:.w- Wilbur L. Cross Library University of Connecticut GIFT OF ^^rs. George B. Arnistead ethersfield, C onn C>p^CP^ <« .6i: m W: ^i^' THE PROBE, OR ONE HUNDRED AND TWO ESSAYS ON THE NATURE OF MEN AND THINGS. L. CARROLL JUDSON, AUTHOR OF A BIOGRAPHY OF THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. The wounds that Fashion, Vice, and Folly, Have deeply inflicted on our fallen race, Much need the Probe.— Author. tDltl) an ^.pp^nbU, CONTAINING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, THE CONSTITUTION OF THS UNITED STATES, WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS, AND A MINIATURE BIOGRAPHY OF WASHINGTON AND THE SIGNERS. THIRD EDITION. PHILADELPHIA : PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. no. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, By L. Carroll Judson, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Printed by King & Baird. PREFACE During the last fifteen years, I had spent much time in writing a series of essays, similar to the follow- ing, which, with most of my other effects, were con- sumed by the calamitous fire at Pittsburgh, on the tenth day of April last. Convinced of the utility of a volume of short, pun- gent, and practical articles ; relating to the multiform and every-day concerns of life, I have endeavored to repair the loss, by again putting my thoughts on paper, and giving to the world the result of my experience and observations, for nearly half a century. My object has been, to probe the festering wounds of human nature, and point the afflicted patient to a healing remedy. I have aimed to present simple axioms and short propositions, calculated to rouse the mental powers of my readers ; and induce them to ex- amine ; impartially, faithfully, and minutely ; the vast circuit, the reaching powers, the lofty desires, and the native dignity of their immortal souls ; and explore the labyrinthian mazes of the wilderness of mind ; that they may form a correct estimate of themselves, and of men and things around them. iii IV PREFACE. I have studied to present strong common sense and stubborn facts, in plain unvarnished language. The essays are interspersed with scraps of science, history, and anecdotes ; and are intended to bring the reflect- ing powers of my readers, into pleasing and vigorous action. They inculcate sterling integrity, unyielding virtue, ardent patriotism^ active philanthropy, pure benevolence, and universal charity. If my arduous efforts to alleviate the miseries of my fellow creatures, produced by moral disease, shall be crowned with success, it will afford me great consola- tion. To raise higher the standard of morals, to pro- mote social order, and to advance the general good of our country ; should be the ruhng object of all. The Appendix is deemed an important addition, and should be often read by every citizen of the United States, and in all our schools. L. CARROLL JUDSON, of the Philadelphia Bar, Philadelphia, January 1, 1846. CONTENTS Advice, variety of, and how to impart, Pcig^ 9 Agriculture, best of all professions 12 Ambition, not productive of happiness 14 Anger, should be suppressed and regulated ^ 16 Apothegms, useful maxims 17 Avarice, miseries of ^ 19 Bible, its superiority over all books ^. 21 Benevolence, pure and false 22 Brevity, be short 24 Calumny, baseness of ^. , 26 Charity, benign influence of 27 Children, treatment of 29 Condescension, necessity of 36 Consistency, advantages of 38 Contentment, felicity of 41 Currents, upper and under 42 Death, our best friend 47 Debts, credit system injurious 48 Despair, causes of ^ . . 52 Discretion, defined 54 Duelling, a cowardly practice 56 Education, the kind most useful 58 Eloquence, artificial and natural — difference between 60 Eminence, does not add to happiness 62 a2 V VI CONTENTS. Envy, its miseries and antidote Page 64 ExAiiiNATioN, importance of self 65 ExPERIE^XEJ its lessons unheeded 68 Fame and Glory, distinction between 70 Fanaticism, mischiefs of 72 Fashion, a cruel tyrant 74 Fires, brief history of — one at Pittsburgh 77 Flattery, meanness of 86 Friendship, cautions relative to 87 Gambling, evils of 89 Genius, essence of power ., 92 Government, its proper foundation 95 Gratitude, defined — its influence on the heart 96 Happiness, w^hat is true 98 Heart, description of natural and moral 99 Honesty, the true standard of 103 Honor, each caste has its code 105 Hope, its operations on the mind 108 Idleness, leads to crime 109 Inconsistency, evils of Ill Ingratitude, baseness of 119 Inequalities of life, Agrarianism examined 121 Jealousy, produces misery c 124 Judgment, to be cautiously exercised 125 Knowledge, of common things most necessary 128 Kings, number of modern, in Europe 129 Labor, benefits of 133 L.vw, keep out of it — its changes 136 Love, defined 138 Luxury, armament of 140 CONTENTS. VU Man, nature of Page 142 TvIatrimony, promotes social order 145 Misfortunes, self created 150 Money, how to use and prize it. 152 Nature, harmony of 155 Novels, not useful in the aggregate 156 Occupation, all should have one 158 Offices, office seeking, a game 160 Opinions, like watches 161 Party Spirit, dangers of 163 Pauperism, causes and remedy 167 Perspective, a glance at human nature 169 Pillow, place for reflection 171 Presence of Mind, advantages of 172 Press, responsibility of editors 175 Procrastination, evils of 179 Promises, evils of breakings 181 Prudence, defined 183 Quacks, several kinds 187 Quarrels, how to avoid them 189 Readers, of three kinds 191 Religion, is not sectarianism 193 Reproof, how to administer it 195 Revenge, miseries of 197 Revolution, a scrap of American history 199 Saying too much, evil consequences of 217 Scandal, mischiefs of 220 Scorn, offal of pride 223 Selfishness, miseries of , 224 Spectacles, with false lens 227 Vlll CONTENTS. Sunday, advantages of ^(^g^ 230 SuspicioNj evils of 232 Tongue, put on the bridle 233 Trifles, importance of 237 Tyranny, the greatest of 240 Union, is strength 241 Usefulness, all may be useful 243 Valve, never open the wrong one 246 Vanity, the froth of pride 250 Variety, the spice of life 252 Wit, more ornamental than useful 254 Woman, nature and treatment of 255 Xantippe, on scolding 260 Xeniades, patriotism 262 Yaw, an essay for seamen 264 Youth, how to instruct them — Appeal to 266 Zeal, without and with knowledge 269 Zeno. silence a virtue 270 APPENDIX. Declaration of Independence 1 Constitution of the United States 7 Washington's Farewell Address 25 Miniature Biography of the Signers ► 42 THE PROBE ADVICE. Advice, to prove beneficial, depends upon these grand requisites; honest persons, with capacity and discretion to give that which is salutary ; and honest hearts, willing to receive and be guided by it. It is as abundant as spring flowers in May, but not always as odoriferous. From Lawyers, it may be purchased in quantity, according to the purse ; and in quality, from first, to fourth common, as lumbermen sell boards; the latter being the most plentiful, but usually the most ex- pensive in the end. Lawyers can, and should be the promoters of social order ; peace-makers in commu- nity, keeping people out, instead of leading them into the labyrinth of law. If no lawyers were patronized, but those who are emphatically peace-makers ; who can clearly discern the right and wrong between liti- gants, and kindly enforce the one and correct the other, by patient and sound reasoning ; a ray of millennial glory would burst upon us ; millions of money would pass through a better channel, and thousands of friend- ships be saved from dissolution. In the Healing Art, our country is flooded with ad- 2 9 10 THE PROBE. visers, from those of science, judgment, and skill; to swarms of quack opathics,who know as much of Physiol- ogy, Pathology, Materia Medica, Pharmaceutics, Anat- omy, and Physics ; as a pet cat does about the battle of Waterloo. We have many of this tribe of advisers, whose self-assurance, backed by some patent nostrums, gives them a passport among the credulous, and sometimes enables them to leave in the distance, a man of science, merit, and worth ; but too modest and unassuming for the times. Blustering impudence and foaming brag- gadocia, have performed astonishing feats in our coun- try, within the last few years. Specifics, in numbers that would amaze iEsculapius, are proclaimed to the wide world by trumpet-tongued newspapers, each of which is a certain cure for all the diseases flesh is heir to, and promises to restore the Me- thuselah age to the human race. The patient can be accommodated with medicine, from the microscopic dose, to the pound or gallon. He may be par-boiled in the steam bath, or chilled with ice water ; he may be drenched with syrup, scoured with pills, covered with plasters, have his blood let out, or his system charged with lightning. If all these should fail, he may throw himself into the arms of Mesmerism, triumph over all diseases, and attempt to deceive death, as the man in the fable did the bear, by pretending to be dead, as the only means of saving his life. If, in the multitude of counsel there is safety, the sick should be preeminently safe. In Pohtics, we have numerous advisers, most of them patriots in proportion to their interests, who coun- sel us to go with their party, right or wrong. In this matter, our own judgments should be well informed, and guide us. ADVICE. 11 In Literature, there is no deficiency in the num- ber, variety, or quahty of advisers. From the shallow- brained, self-conceited pedant, up to the able, Iionest, and erudite professor in our colleges, we may obtain advice, to direct our ideas how to shoot. Bookology has also taken a high stand, and is un- furling its broad pendant before the genial breeze of science. These silent monitors may be consulted, from Tom Thumb, up to the voluminous Encyclopedia, and from that, up to the book of all books — the Bible. In the every day concerns of life, there are always numerous volunteers, ever ready to give their advice, but not all, either honest or competent. In matters of Religion, a subject of more importance than all other things combined, the advisers are legion, and as various and distinct in some non-essential par- ticulars, as the lines of latitude and longitude. Secta- rian walls tower to the clouds, and these clouds often bewilder the inquirer after truth. All Bible churches draw their creeds from the same pure fountain — all serve the same master — all aim for Heaven. In this state of things, what is to be done ? My advice is, go to the Bible ; there pure religion is described in few words — throw the excresences of sectarianism to the winds, and extend charity to all Bible Christian churches. In what is necessary for the salvation of the soul, they are all right. Different sects of Christians, are like the children of one father ; each has a different Christian name, but all belong to the same family — so all Chris- tian churches belong to the household of faith, and should soar above family quarrels. In giving advice, time, place, and manner, are of the first importance. Meekness, love, prudence, and 12 THE PROBE. discretion ; with otlier talents below mediocrity, will effect more in correcting error, reforming the vicious, and advancing pure and undefiled religion; than the talents of an angel could accomplish without them. To know what, how, and when to advise ; is a matter too little understood, and less practised. If we wish the seed sown to take root, we must mellow the soil by- proper cultivation. So in giving advice, we must first gain the confidence of those we deem it a duty to ad- vise, and then look to God for success. AGRICULTURE. What I have said on this subject in a former publi- cation, I here repeat. Of all occupations, that of agriculture is best calculated to induce love of country, and rivet it firmly on the heart. No profession is more honourable, none as conducive to health, peace, tran- quilHty, and happiness. More independent than any other calling, it is calculated to produce an innate love of liberty. The farmer stands upon a lofty eminence, and looks upon the bustle of cities, the intricacies of mechanism, the din of commerce, and brain confusing, body killing literature; with feelings of personal free- dom, peculiarly his own. lie delights in the pros- perity of the city as his market place, acknowledges the usefulness of the mechanic, admires the enterprize of the commercial man, and rejoices in the benefits that flow from the untiring investigations and develop- ments of science ; then turns his thoughts to the pris- tine quiet of his agrarian domain, and covets not the fame that accumulates around the other professions. AGRICULTURE. 13 He has miicli time for intellectual improvement and reflection. Constantly surrounded by the varied and varying beauties of nature, and the never ceasing and harmonious operations of her laws, his mind is led to contemplate the wisdom of the great Architect of worlds, and the natural philosophy of the universe. Aloof from the commoving arena of public life, and yet, through the medium of that magic engine, the press, made acquainted with the scenes that are passing there, he is able to form a dispassionate and deliberate conclusion upon the various topics that concern the good and glory of his country. In his retired domicil, he is less exposed to the baneful influence of that cor- rupt and corrupting party spirit, which is raised by the whirlwind of selfish ambition, and rides on the tornado of faction. Before he is roused to a participation in violent public action, he bears much, reflects deeply, and resolves nobly. But when the oppression of rulers becomes so intolerable, as to induce the farmers of a country to leave their ploughs and peaceful firesides, and draw the avenging sword — let them beware — the day of retribution is at hand. Above all other occupations, that of agriculture ena- bles those who pursue it, to live in a fuller, freer, purer enjoyment of religion. It is less exposed to temptations, calculated to lead frail men from the paths of virtue. If multitudes, who are hard run to get bread, would leave our pent up cities, and occupy and improve the millions of fine land in our country, yet unlocated, it would greatly enhance individual happi- ness and public good. Try it, ye starved ones — if you are disappointed, then I am no prophet, or the son of a prophet. B 14 THE PROBE. AMBITION Ambition is at distance A goodly prospect, tempting to the view : The height dehghts us, and the mountain top Looks beautiful, because 'tis nigh to heaven : ^But we never think how sandy's the foundation, What storms will batter, and what tempests shake us. — Oticay. Some conceited wights, who study party politics more than philosophy or ethics, call all the laudable desires of the human heart, ambition, aiming to strip the monster of its deformity, that they may use it, as the livery of heaven to serve the devil in. The former are based on philanthropy, the latter, on selfishness. Lexicographers define ambition to be, an earnest desire of power, honour, preferment, pride. The honour that is awarded to power, is of doubtful gender, and the power that is acquired by ambition, is held by a slender tenure, a mere rope of sand. Its hero often receives the applause of the multitude one day, and its execra- tions the next. The summit of vain ambition is often the depth of misery. Based on a sandy foundation, it falls before the blasts of envy, and the tornado of faction. It is inflated by a gaseous thirst for power, like a balloon with hydrogen, and is in constant danger of being exploded, by the very element that causes its elevation. It eschews charity, and deals largely in the corrosive sublimate of falsehood, the aquafortis of envy, the elixir vitriol of revenge, and the asafoetida of du- plicity. Like the kite, it cannot rise in a calm, and requires ii constant wind to preserve its upward course. The fulcrum of ignorance, and the lever of party spirit, AMBITION. 15 form its magic power. An astute writer lias well ob- served, that " ambition makes the same mistake con- cerning power, that avarice makes relative to wealth." The ambitious man begins, by accumulating it as the desideratum of happiness, and ends his career in the midst of exertions to obtain more. So ended the onward and upward career of Napoleon — his life, a modern wonder — his fate, a fearful warning — his death, a scene of gloom. Power is gained as a means of en- joyment, but oftener than otherwise, is its fell destroyer. Like the viper in the fable, it is prone to sting those who warm it into life. History fully demonstrates these propositions. Hyder Ali was in the habit of starting frightfully in his sleep. His confidential friend and attendant asked the reason. He replied, " My friend, the state of a beggar is more delightful than my envied monarchy — awake, he sees no conspirators — asleep, he dreams of no assassins." Ambition, like the gold of the miser, is the sepulchre of all the other passions of the man. It is the grand centre around which they move, with centripetal force. Its history is one of carnage and blood — it is the bane of substantial good — it endangers body and soul, for time and eternity. Reader, if you desire peace of mind, shun ambition and the ambitious man. He will use you as some men do their horses, ride you all day without food, and give you post meat for supper. He will gladly make a bridge of you, on which to walk into power, provided he can pass toll free. Let your aim be more lofty than the highest pinnacle ambition can rear. Nothing is pure but heaven, let that be the prize you seek, ^^ And taste and prove in that transporting sight, Joy without sorrow, without darkness — hght." 16 THE PROBE. ANGER. It doth appal me To see your anger, like our Adrian waves, O'er sweep all bounds, and foam itself to air. — Byron. Those hearts that start at once into a blaze, And open all their rage, like summer storms, At once discharg'd, grow cool again, and calm. — Johnson. Byron seems to have viewed anger with contempt — Johnson, with compassion. The latter is right, and the former not far wrong. It is folly not to control our anger and keep it in subjection — long indulgence gives it a mastery over us — it then becomes a con- firmed disease, and calls for our pity. It is one of the misfortunes of our fallen nature, and can best be dis- armed by kindness. The bee seldom stings the hand that is covered with honey — ^the cross dog can be ap- peased with a piece of meat, the angry man is soonest cooled by gentleness. Anger is a species of momen- tary insanity — all humane persons treat the unfortunate subjects of this disease, tenderly, as the best means of restoring them to their right mind. When anger comes in contact with anger, it is like the meeting of two fires — the conflagration and damage are increased. As water extinguishes the one, so will gentleness the other. A soft answer tiuneth away wrath. Be angry and sin not. By these remarks, I do not be- come the apologist of those who indulge this inflamma- ble, explosive propensity — the treatment of the disease is my object. The patient who has long been afflicted, may do much towards effecting his own cure — at first, the malady was under his control. An ounce of pre- APOTHEGMS. 17 vention then, was worth more than a pound of cure, after the habit is fixed. The disadvantages arising from anger, under all circumstances, should prove a ])anacea for the complaint. In moments of cool reflec- tion, the man who indulges it, views, with deep regret, the desolations produced by a summer storm of pas- sion. Friendship, domestic happiness, self-respect, the esteem of others, and sometimes property; are swept away by a whirlwind — perhaps a tornado of anger. I have more than once seen the furniture of a house in a mass of ruin, the work of an angry moment. I have seen anger make wives unhappy, alienate husbands, spoil children, derange all harmony, and disturb the quiet of a whole neighbourhood. Anger, like too much wine, hides us from ourselves, but exposes us to others. If the man who has, for years, been a con- firmed drunkard, can form, and religiously keep, a res- olution to refrain from the fatal poison, the man who has often been intoxicated with anger, should go and do likewise. He can but try — the effort may be crowned with triumphant success. APOTHEGMS. SELECT AND ORIGINAL. A SAGE and poor shepherd looked for truth. The former sought her among the stars, the latter found her at his feet. Life, to youth, is a fairytale just opened; to old age, a tale read through, ending in death. Be wise in time, that you may be happy in eternity. 3 b2 18 THE PROBE. Happiness, like a snail, is never found from home, nor without a home. The rose is sweetest when it first opens ; the spike- nard root, when the herb dies. Beauty belongs to youth, and dies with it, but the odour of piety survives death, and perfumes the tomb. Never be cast down by trifles. If a spider breaks his thread twenty times in a day, he patiently mends it each time. Make up your mind to do a good thing, it will be done. Fear not troubles, keep up your spirits, the darkness will pass away. If the sun is going down, look at the stars ; if they are hid by clouds, still look up to heaven, rely upon the promises of God, and be cheerful. Never yield to misfortunes. Mind what you run after ; avoid bubbles that will burst, and fire-works that end in smoke ; get that which is worth keeping, and can be kept. Fight against a hasty temper ; a spark may set a house on fire ; a fit of passion may cause you to mourn long and bitterly. Govern your passions, or they will govern you. Conquer your enemies by kindness, pre- serve your friends by prudence, deserve the esteem of all by goodness. The road ambition travels, is too narrow for friend- ship, too crooked for love, too rugged for honesty, too dark for science, and too hilly for happiness. Evil thoughts arc dangerous enemies, and should be repulsed at the threshold of our minds. Fill the head and heart with good thoughts, that there be no room for bad ones. Drinking water, neither makes a man sick nor in debt, or his wife a widow. Prosperity gains a thou- sand intimates, adversity often shows us that not one AVARICE. 19 of them is a real friend. Sunshine friends arc the green flies of society. Instruction by precept is tedious, by example, more efi^ectual and short. Life consists not in mere existence, but in spending our time in doing good here, that we may be forever happy hereafter. Take special care what, and to whom you speak of any individual. Fools and obstinate people make lawyers rich ; the wise keep out of the law labyrinth. Help yourself and heaven will help you ; every man is the architect of his own fortune. AVARICE. cursed lust of gold, when for thy sake, The fool throws up his interest in both worlds, First starv'd in this — then damn'd in that to come. — Blair. A JUDICIOUS writer has well remarked, that avarice is the father of more children than Priam, and, like him, survives them all. It is a paradoxical propen- sity — a species of heterogeneous insanity. The miser starves himself, knowing that those who wish him dead, will fatten on his hoarded gains. He submits to more torture to lose heaven, than the martyr does to gain it. He serves the worst of tyrannical masters, more faithfully than most Christians do the best, whose yoke is easy and burden light. He worships this world, but repudiates all its pleasures. He endures all the miseries of poverty through life, that he may die in the midst of wealth. He is the mere turnkey of his 20 THE PROBE. own riches — a poor fed and bad clothed slave, refusing proffered, unconditional freedom. He is the cocoon of the human race — death ends his toils, and others reel off the glossy product of his labors. He is the father of more miseries than the prodigal — whilst he lives, he heaps them on himself and those around him. He is his own and the poor man's enemy, — money is the tomb of all his passions and desires, — his mind is never expanded beyond the circumference of the al- mighty dollar. He thinks not of his immortal soul, his accountability to God, or of his final destiny. He covets the wealth of others, revels in extortion, stops at nothing to gratify his ruling passion, that will not endanger his dear idol. He is an Ishmael in com- munity, — he passes to the grave without tasting the sweets of friendship, the delights of social intercourse, or the comforts of a good repast, unless the latter is got by invitation, when abroad. The first voluntary expenditure upon his body, during his manhood, and the first welcome visit of his neighbours, both passive on his part, are at his funeral. If we would enjoy the comforts of life rationally, we must avoid the miseries of avarice, and the evils of prodigality. Let us use the provisions of our benevo- lent Benefactor without abusing them, and render to Him that gratitude which is His due. Banish all in- ordinate desires after wealth — if you gain an abund- ance, be discreetly liberal — judiciously benevolent, and, if your children have arrived at their majority, die your own executor. BIBLE. 21 THE BIBLE. Be thou my star in reason's night, Be thou my rock in danger's fright, Be thou my guide mid passion's way. My moon by night — my sun by day. — Milnian. The highest eulogy we can pronounce upon this book of all books, is, to take it for the man of our counsel, and the polar star of our lives — not merely to admit and laud its superior excellency, and let it re- main on the shelf, until anathema maranatha, can be written in the dust upon its lids, and criminally neglecting to aid in giving it to the millions, who are groping in papal and heathen darkness. Divine in its origin, written by the pen of inspiration, dipped in the burning indignation of God against the wicked, on the one hand ; and in the melting fountain of his love, for the good, on the other; the sublimity of its language caps the climax of Rhetoric. As a History of that grand epoch, when God said, "Let there be light; and there was light," it stands alone, clothed in the majesty of Divinity. As a Chronicle of the creation of man, after the moral image of Deity, of his ruinous fall, and of his subsequent mad career, it must remain unrivalled. As a Chart of human nature, and of human rights and WTongs, and of the character of the great Jehovah, its delineations, in precision, fulness, and force of description ; far exceed the boldest strokes and finest touches, of the master spirits of every age and clime. As a system of Morals and Religion, every effort of man, to add to its transcendent beauty, or omnipotent strength, is presumption, and as vain, as 22 THE PROBK. an attempt to bind the wind, or imprison the ocean. As a book of Poetry and Eloquence, it stands, in lofty grandeur, towering above the noblest productions of the most brilliant talents, that have illuminated and enraptured the classic world. As a book of Revela- tion, it shed a flood of light upon the wilderness of mind, that added fresh lustre and refulgence to those of Reason, Philosophy and Science, that had guided mankind to that auspicious, glorious era, when it burst upon the astonished world. As a book of Counsel, its wisdom is profound, boundless, infinite. It meets every case in time, and is the golden chain that reaches from Earth to Heaven. It teaches us our native dignity, the design of our creation, the duties we owe to our God, ourselves, our families, our parents, our children, and our fellow men. It teaches us how to live and how to die. It points the finally impenitent to their awful doom — it arms the Christian in panoply complete — snatches from death its poisoned sting, from the grave its boasted victory, and points the soul to its crowning glory — a blissful immortality beyond the skies. BENEVOLENCE. Soft peace it brings wherever it arrives, It builds our quiet — "latent hope revives," Lays the rough paths of nature " smooth and even " And opens in each breast a little heaven. — Prior. Pure benevolence is one of those amiable qualities of the human breast, that imparts pleasure to its pos- sessor, and those who receive the benefits bestowed. It is of a modest and retiring nature, and renders its BENEVOLENCE. 23 gifts more valuable, by the delicacy with which tiiey are conveyed. Those who most merit and need the aid of the benevolent, arc usually possessed of fine feel- ing. The subjects of real misfortune, they are easily wounded, and dread the approach of those who carry a speaking trumpet in one hand, to proclaim the gifts they have bestowed with the other, forgetting the in- junction of our blessed Redeemer, not to let one hand know the alms that are bestowed by the other. I know some men who have refused cold bread and meat to a hungry man, yes, child and woman too, when they came famishing and alone to their doors, who never refuse to place their names very conspicu- ously upon paper subscriptions, especially if those sub- scriptions are to be published in some newspaper or printed document. They are like dorsiferous plants, that bear their seeds on their leaves, instead of in a capsule. Such men have the same claim to benevo- lence., as the devil has to preach religion ; the donations of the former are as offensive to Heav^en, as the ser- mons of the latter. They may both do good, but the one, being based on selfish pride, and the other on duplicity, neither the man nor the devil, are entitled to any credit for such unhallowed acts. It is well that the recipients and hearers are usually strangers to each. I know others, whose benevolence all oozes out of their hearts in whining sympathy, and rolls off at the end of the tongue. They feel deeply for the mis- fortunes of others, and say to them, be ye fed, warmed, and clothed, but from their abundance, do not contrib- ute one cent, like too many who make pretensions to piety, but produce no more fruit than a hemlock tree, that has been seared with lightning. S4 THE PROBE. f Pure benevolence, like the dew from heaven, falls gently on the drooping flower, not at the blaze of noon-day, but in the stillness of night. Its refreshing and reviving effects are felt, seen, and admired — not the hand that distilled it. It flows from a good heart, and looks beyond the skies for approval and reward. It never opens, but seeks to heal the wounds inflicted by misfortune — it never harrows up, but strives to calm the troubled mind. Like their Lord and Master, the truly benevolent man and woman, go about doing good for the sake of goodness. No parade — no trumpet to sound their charities — no press to chronicle their acts. The gratitude of the donee is a rich recompense to the donor — purity of motive heightens and refines the joys of each. Angels smile on such benevolence. It is the attribute of Deity, the moving cause of every bless- ing we enjoy. BREVITY. Brevity has been called the soul of wit, perhaps, because it has a short soul, floating in volatile spirits. In his last public speech, which I heard, the cele- brated Red Jacket remarked — M^ speeches have one good qualify — TIIEY ARE short. Dr. Cotton Mather placed over the door of his oflice, BE SHORT. These two words should be placed over the speakers' chairs in our legislative halls, the benches of judges, the tables of authors, and over the clocks of some churches. In business, punctuality and despatch make short work. Let friendly calls be short. Twice glad, in BREVITY. 25 formal visits, is coming short of the mark. Let your communications to those who are busy, be short. Hold no man by the button in the street, or in the door — be short. Let your anecdotes and stories be short. Let your credits, if you have any, be short. Let your speeches be short — be sure and stop when done. More noise is made in pouring a liitle water from a bottle, than when it is full. Let statute laws be short — then the sessions of our legislatures will be short. Let pleadings in court, instruments of writing, and opin- ions of judges, be short — that our books of reports may be short. If you have any bad habits, vicious practices, or bad companions, cut them short, or your happiness, reputation, and money may fall short. Let the prayers, exhortations, and admonitions of every Christian, be humble, meek, fervent, sincere, earnest, affectionate, and short. Let the sermons of ministers be nothing but Jesus Christ, and him crucified, and short. They may then be profitable ; because pure, simple, and short. Let the impenitent sinner turn from his sins at once — no delay, life is uncertain and short. This night thy soul may be required — a notice dreadful and short. Let authors be clear, concise, pointed, comprehen- sive, independent, and short. Pardon me for feeding you, my reader, with shorts. Graham bread is heal- thy, and often made of shorts. 4 C 26 THE PROBE. C A L IT M N Y 'Tis '-'calumny," Whose edge is sharper than the sword ; whose tongue Outvenoms all the worms of Nile ; whose breath Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie All corners of the world ! Kings, queens, and States, Maids, matrons ; nay, the secrets of the grave This viperous slander enters. — Shakespeare. This picture of Shakespeare, whose body lias mould- ered in the tomb over two hundred years, has lost none of its strong features by modern improvements in human society. Calumny is the same blighting Siroc- co, the same envenomed scorpion, the same damning miasma, as it was when his master hand delineated its dark and fiendish ph3^siognomy. As then, its pestifer- ous breath pollutes with each respiration — its forked tongue is charged with the same poison — it searches all corners of the world for victims — it sacrifices the high and low, the king and the peasant, the rich and poor, the matron and maid, the living and the dead ; but, cursed propensity, delights most in destroying worth, and immolating innocence. Lacon has justly remarked, *' Calumny crosses oceans, scales mountains, and traverses deserts, with greater ease than the Scythian Abaris, and, like him, rides upon a poisoned arrow." As the Samiel wind of the Arabian desert, not only produces death, but causes the most rapid decomposition of the ])ody ; so calumny affects fame, honour, integrity, worth, and virtue. The base, black- hearted, triple-tongued, Janus-faced, cloven-footed ca- lumniator, like the loathsome worm, leaves his path marked with the filth of malice, and scum of falsehood, CALUMNY. 27 and pollutes the fairest flowers, tlie choicest fruits, the most delicate plants, in the green-house of character. Living, he is a travelling pest-house — dying, impeni- tent, his soul is too deeply stained for hell, and should be driven to that imaginary, clementless blank, beyond the confines of all worlds, shrouded in the darkness of nonentity, there to roam alone, through the ceaseless ages of eternity, without a pain or pleasure to relieve the awful monotony of that dreadful vacuum. O, reader, never calumniate the name of another — sooner plunge a dagger through his or her heart. So deep does the calumniator sink in the murky waters of deg- radation and infamy, that, could an angel apply an Archimedean moral lever to him, with Heaven for a fulcrum, he could not, in a thousand years, raise him to the grade of a convicted felon. CHARITY, Fair Charity, be thou my guest, And be thy constant couch, my breast. — Cotton. This golden chain, that reaches from heaven to earth, is much more admired than used — more preach- ed about than practised. It has been remarked by some writer, " Did universal charity prevail, earth would be a Heaven, and Hell a fable." It is another name for disinterested, lofty, unadulterated love — the attribute of Deity, that moved Him to provide a city of refuge for our fallen, ruined race, when exposed to the vengeance and penalty, imposed by the holy law of God, violated by our federal head. It is placed at the head of all the Christian virtues by St. Paul, the ablest divine that ever graced a pulpit or wielded a pen. It 28 THE PROBE. is the substratum of philanthrophy, the brightest star in the Christian's diadem. It spurns the scrofula of green-eyed jealousy, the canker of tormenting envy, the tortures of burning malice, the typhoid of foaming revenge. It is an impartial mirror, set in the frame of love, resting on equity and justice. It is the founda- tion and cap stone of the climax of all the Christian graces — without it, our religion is like a body without a soul — our friendships, shadows of a shadow — our alms, the offsprings of pride, or, what is more detest- able, the offerings of hypocrisy — our humanity, a mere iceberg on the ocean of time — we are unfit to discharge the duties of life, and derange the design of our crea- tion. Was this Heaven-born, soul-cheering principle, the mainspring of human action, the all pervading mo- tive-power, that impelled mankind in their onward course to eternity, the polar star to guide them through this world of sin and wo — the ills that flesh is heir to, would be softened in its melting sun beams, a new and blissful era would dawn auspiciously upon our race, and Satan would become a bankrupt for want of busi- ness. Wars and rumors of wars would cease — envy, jealousy, and revenge; would hide their diminished heads — falsehood, slander, and persecution would be unknown — sectarian walls, in matters of religion, would crumble in dust — the household of faith would become, what it should be — one united, harmonious family in Christ — infidelity, vice, and immorality would recede, and happiness, before unknown, would become the crowning glory of man. Pure and undcfiled reli- gion would then be honored and glorified — primitive Christianity would stand forth, divested of the inven- tions of men, in all the majesty of its native loveliness CHILDREN. 29 — the victories of the cross would be rapidly achieved — and the bright day be ushered in, when Jesus shall rule, King of nations, as he now does King of saints. TREATMENT OF CHILDREN. Infants, of all the animal creation, when ushered into this world, are more helpless, and remain so longer than the young of any of the brute creation. The wisdom of God, in this, as in all his economy, is con- spicuous. Nothing binds so firmly the union of hearts, as the increasing love of parents to their children, en- hanced by the arduous and protracted care, necessary to sustain and bring them up. The mother, who is worthy of that endearing name, finds a new impetus to urge her on to the fulfilment of every duty, imposed by her marriage vows. The father, if not trans- formed from a man to a brute, feels, more deeply, his obligations as a protector, and nobly discharges them. A social compact is thus formed, and becomes one of the links of the great chain that forms a society, which increases to a state, and finally to a nation. The great length of time it requires, to prepare children to act and do for themselves, enlarges and strengthens this link, and operates as the most powerful incentive to maintain good government. Hence, not only the advantage, but the absolute necessity of the marriage institution. Let this become obsolete, the waves of destruction would roll over us like a mighty flood. Its abuse, by some miscreant wretches, demons in human shape, is no argument against it. The intrinsic value of religion is not reduced, because the devil gets into a church. It is the keystone of social order — properly c2 30 THE PROBE. entered into and properly used, it is the desideratum of human happiness, and nothing refines this happiness so much, as a well regulated and skilfully cultivated juve- nile nursery. Here, the scion is reared that makes the tree — be it crooked or straight. As the mental powers of children are developed, and often when yet at the breast, certain traits in their dis- positions are plainly seen. To be enabled to treat them properly, all their propensities must be well understood. The father is the king over this little community, but generally imposes upon his queen, the duties of juve- nile government, which is the first and important duty in the nursery. Laws must be enacted — few in num- ber at the commencement — simple, plain, reasonable, and absolute. Too much governing and legislation, injure children, as well as our commonwealth. To govern properly, you must always govern yourself. Let your own examples enforce the precepts you incul- cate. To train up a child in the right way, you must walk in the right way yourself. Children are close ob- servers. The great secret in juvenile government, in the nursery and in the school, is, to gain and retain their love. This inspires respect, and these, more than any other thing, will induce obedience. Tenderness and firmness are the fulcrum and lever with which to ope- rate. Anger should be manifested never — displeasure and tender regret, whenever the child violates any known rule of discipline. Rare and perverse is the disposition, that requires the rod, Solomon to the con- trary, notwithstanding. Obedience, based on fear, and not on esteem and respect, makes a slave, and mars the native loveliness of the image of a son, daughter, or pupil. Harsh scolding language, and frequent hard CHILDREN. 31 blows, create the former — kindness, reason, and a uni- form firmness, improve the latter. Children have good memories — excessive severity is never forgotten ; it may so dry up the fountain of love, that its gushing waters will never again flow clear and free. It has often rendered desperate, but has rarely softened a morose disposition. It has sometimes prostrated the energies of a child, but never gives them a healthy vigor. Too much pruning endangers a shrub, more than the shade of a dense forest. Dr. Cotton Mather made it a rule, never to resort to corporeal punishment, except for atrocious wrongs, or minor faults, obstinately persisted in. And when the rod must be used, by rea- soning mildly with the offender, you may generally con- vince the child of the atrocity of the offence, the just- ness of the punishment, and the tender regard you have for his good, and thus preserve his esteem — in no other way can it be done. If he is naturally bad, improper punishment will make him worse. No unnecessary re- straints or unreasonable tasks, should be imposed on children. In this way, their mental and physical pow- ers may be crippled. Make their obedience passive, their hearts cheerful, and their actions free. Never ex- cite them by unnecessary crosses and vexation, merely to exercise your authority. Blame them cautiously for errors, and commend them liberally for good conduct. Correct all faults the moment they appear ; weeds grow more rapidly than the esculent plant, each hour of neg- lect retards the growth of the latter, and increases the labor of destroying the former. Beware of par- tiality. It is an incubus upon good government, and is as quickly perceived, and more keenly felt by chil- dren, than by adults. If one child is less amiable, 32 THE PROBE. docile, and gifted, than another in the same family, neglect will increase these qualities fearfully. A favorite child among children, is made unhappy by mistaken favoritism — arousing in the others one of the basest passions — envy, — which makes the latter worse and the former miserable. The merits of the favorite may justify the feelings of preference, indulged by the parents, but this feeling should be judiciously suppress- ed, at least, until the children aiTive at their majority; and by some discreet fathers, is first exhibited in their wills. The education of children should commence in the nursery, and the mother should be the teacher. I speak not of book learning, which is a mere adjunct. Impressions, deep and lasting, are imprinted on the mind of the young child, before it learns a letter. The infant, long before it can articulate a word, is impressed with things that please the eye and the taste, and by indulgence, may contract a habit, lasting as life. An infant may be fed on food, poisoned with alcoholic liquors, and imbibe an artificial taste, that may doom the man to a drunkard's grave, perhaps to a drunkard's hell. Imitation is early developed ; the first oral les- sons that are understood, are seldom eradicated — and nave a great influence on the formation of character. The first lines of a hymn, the first simple prayers, lisped by the child, as it learns them from the lips of a pious mother, arc remembered through life, and have often led to early piety, and laid the foundation of greatness, based on goodness. Early scenes of terror, shame, joy, and violent indignation, are seldom eradi- cated from the mind. Frightful bugbear stories of ghosts, hobgoblins, and witches, are never forgotten, CHILDREN. 33 and are criminally pernicious, creating artificial fear, that remains unconqucrcd by riper years. How important, then, that first impressions, the preliminaries to a school education, should be as pure as the unsullied sheet on which they are imprinted, and that no foul blots deface its fair surface. How important that the mother and the nurse should be discreet, affectionate, kind, firm, intelligent, and pious. If all were so, we should have more Washingtons, who would bless their mothers and honour our country. Mothers, your responsibility to your children, and your country, is vast beyond conception. Your precepts and your examples, will tell through future time, for weal or for wo. The great secret in teaching children, is, to gain so large a share of their love and confidence, as to direct their inclinations into the proper channel. Enlist their attention, convince them of the benefits in prospect, the rewards of application, and the degrading conse- quences of neglect. Treat them with kind and marked attention, uniform politeness and courtesy, but not with childish familiarity. Make them feel their importance as human beings, without inflaming their pride. Teach them the duties they owe to their parents, their teach- ers, their fellows, their country, and their God. Treat their inquisitiveness with patience and encouragement, and manifest a pleasure in their disposition to learn the reason of things. It is the germ of intellect, and if properly fostered, will ripen into the fruit of knowledge. A contrary course has blasted many a promising bud, like a killing frost, the tender vine. Curiosity in chil- dren, is the grand lever of nature, to raise them from the quarry of ignorance, and needs the fulcrum of a 5 34 THE PROBE. patient teacher, to render it efficient. It is the main- spring of improvement, and if suffered to rust from neglect, impairs the motion of the machinery of the mind. Indifference or rebuke, destroys its elasticity — to answer all inquiries, is to lead the child up the hill of science, and prepare him for future usefulness. Impress, deej)ly, upon the minds of your children, the importance of always speaking unvarnished, unpre- varicated truth. Among the old pagan Persians, not a liar could be found. — In our Christian land, liars are more annoying, and as common as musquetoes in Au- gust, and may be found even in our churches. How great the contrast in morals! Some wicked parents teach this vice to their children purposely, as an ad- junct of pilfering. — Some good fathers and mothers teach it through inadvertency. It is sometimes induced by too severe punishment for faults committed, causing the child to resort to falsehood, to avoid a castigation. Other parents teach it by practising deception on their children, which cannot long be concealed. In other instances, parents make promises to their children, only to break them, and thus inculcate this ill habit. Some parents wink and laugh at fibs in their little ones, as a mark of cunning and sagacity, instead of crushing the propensity in embryo. This is leading them into temptation, and not delivering them from evil. Some parents and teachers injure their children and pupils, by blunting their sense of shame, a power- ful principle of human nature, that requires the most delicate and skilful hand to manage it to advantage. It is the hair-spring of the machine, and is operated upon by the least movement of the regulator, which, if turned too far, lets it out, and deranges the motion CHILDREN. 35 of every wheel. Shame should be brought into action, only to correct the grosser errors. You may as well take the hair-spring from a watch, as to paralyze shame in a child, by over working it. The more deli- cate it is, the more readily will a rough hand destroy it. To balance, properly, hope and fear, in children, is a matter of high importance, and of rare attain- ment. Hope, without fear, engenders rashness — fear, without hope, destroys mental and physical energy. The former is the motive-power, the latter, the safety- valve of human society and civil government. A family is a government in miniature. — What is proper for one, is proper for both, notwithstanding the greater often indulges in wrongs, for which it would punish the lesser. Parents and teachers, before they are prepared to balance these two great principles in children, must effect an equilibrium in themselves, and pursue a con- sistent, uniform course, in precept and example. Ex- cessive indulgence one day, and chilling severity the next, will soon cause a vibration in the best balanced mind of a child. Thus, a teacher, at school, may destroy the good work of a correct parent; and the bad management of a parent, may counteract the unwearied exertions of a judicious teacher. This sub- ject requires more attention than it receives. To produce an equilibrium of hope and fear in the minds of children, they must be taught the cause and the certainty of rewards and punishments. They must be made to fear to do wrong because it is a violation of right, as well as an exposure to punishment — and to hope for a reward when they act correctly, because the natural result of good actions; and that a good 36 THE PROBE. character is their highest reward in life. They should be taught to shun evil because it is sin, and to do right for the sake of righteousness. Such hope is not sel- fish — such fear is not slavish. Let them have a reason- able share of rational, innocent, and healthful recrea- tion, and a fixed time for receiving instruction, either from oral lessons or books. Impress on their minds, the importance and advantage of system in every thing. Let them learn and practise the motto — a time and a place for every thing, and every thing in its time and place. Finally, teach them the enormity of every vice, and the blessings of every virtue, that they may early learn to shun the former and practise the latter. Above all, teach them pure and undefiled religion. The sub- ject may appear trifling — it is so treated generally, and, because so treated, and because children are not properly trained, our county prisons and penitentiaries are crowded with felons, and our country with thou- sands more who ought to be there. Train up your children in the way they should go, and you will rob the penitentiary and the gallows of many a subject, and save souls from perdition. C ONDESCENSION. This is an amiable, and, discreetly used, an advan- tageous quality. I have somewhere read of two goats that met midway, on a narrow pass, over a deep gulf. Neither could turn round to go back, w^ithout danger of falling off, and one very courteously laid down, and permitted the other to walk, not harshly, but gently over him, and both passed on in safety. This is not the first wise lesson I have learned from brute ani- CONDESCENSION. 37 nials, who act much more consistently than some men, who claim reason for a guide, but seldom follow its directions. In passing over the highway of life, it is often neces- sary to condescend to accommodate our fellow trav- ellers, and put ourselves to mutual or individual in- convenience, to get along smoothly. By condescension, I mean not that any one shall yield a single thing that is not clearly right, or submit to any thing clearly WTong — but if we meet another in straitened circum- stances, when he can neither go back or forward, with- out using us, gently, let him do it — do not be too par- ticular which shall be walked over. The great social law of humanity requires, that we should grant all accommodations to our fellow travellers, that cannot essentially injure us, or that will not compromise the fixed principles of truth, justice, and righteousness. If a more yielding disposition was exercised in things that tend to better and ameUorate the condition of man, and a more obstinate resistance made to injus- tice, vice, and immorality ; peace and happiness would be promoted, and social order advanced. In the domestic circle, obstinacy, and a want of mutual confidence, do much mischief. Instead of ad- vising with each other, and profiting by mutual coun- sel, husbands and wives too often seek the advice of others, who have no interest, and perhaps less capacity, in giving safe counsel. Many a husband would have been saved from shipwreck, had he made a confidant of his wife in all his business, and taken her advice. No one can feel as deep an interest in his prosperity and happiness as she should, and does, if worthy to be a wife. Children should yield implicit obedience to D 38 THE PROBE. parents, and even manhood should not place them above their counsel. The best lessons on this subject are contained in the Bible — the best experience, in the enjoyment of religion. CONSISTENCY. Consistency is a jewel of more value to the human family, than all the precious stones and gold of the earth. It is the prime minister of mind, giving health- ful vigor to reason, prudence, discretion, and common sense. Be consistent^ was long a motto of the old Ro- mans — when this became obsolete in practice, they ceased to be. It was the motto of our revolutionary sires, and is still the watch word of every old school patriot among us — the Simon Pure republicans of our land — the salt of our free institutions. True, we have much of the paper currency of inconsistency in circulation, but I flatter myself, we have a suflicient quantity of the genuine coin in the vault of patriotism, to redeem enough of this paper, should a pressure come upon us, to save our country from bankruptcy. But, to render us safe, as a nation and people, the virtue of consist- ency must be more thoroughly and generally inculcated. Inconsistency is a rank, poisonous weed, and is taking deep root in our soil. Confined to no age or country, its unholy leaven, once introduced into the mass, may suddenly pollute the whole lump, and produce fearful and rapid destruction. Its march is onward ; it gains force and velocity, and the moment it is permitted to pass the summit of the inclined plane of reason, the CONSISTENCY. 39 rope of patriotism snaps, the hook of integrity is broken, the car of government and social order is plunged into the awful gulf of revolution, and often injured, beyond the possibility of repair. When the death knell of our admired republic is sounded, it will be with the grating notes of the clarion of inconsistency. How important that our public men be consistent, discreet, wise, virtuous. If they are not so, it is the fault of the people, if they do not supply their places by those that are. Upon the virtue and intelligence of the mass, a free government depends. Let con- sistency, in all things, be practised by our people indi- vidually ; we will then insure the prosperity and safety of our free institutions, not otherwise. Each person contributes to form national character. The key stone of the arch of consistency, is pure and undefiled reli- gion. No people can be truly great, unless they are truly good. All history proves the truth of this asser- tion. True greatness is that which produces the greatest amount of happiness. This is never based on military power, or the pageantry of courts. The ancient patriarchs, and those around them, enjoyed more substantial comfort than the kings of Greece, the emperors of Rome, or the monarchs of modern times, and their vassal subjects. All power is in the people, and if surrendered to an individual, they enter into voluntary slavery. This is gross inconsistency ; the spawn of duplicity, the scourge of slaves, and a national curse. Man came from the hand of his Creator free, and betrays his God by vol- untarily surrendering that freedom to man. To make, and maintain laws of social order, is not, as some casuists have contended, a surrender of personal liber- 40 THE PROBE. ty, when that liberty is predicated on its legitimate foundation — virtue. The arrangements of a social compact, are a consolidation of personal liberty, like the consolidation of money in a co-partnership, for the purpose of increasing, not of diminishing strength. This consolidation of personal liberty, raises the mass of individuals from savage barbarism, to national civil- ization and freedom, imparting and refining rational enjoyment, and prompting mutual improvement and protection. That each member may add to the strength of the compact, let the following maxims be observed, as the indexes of consistency. Remember that contentment is the real philosopher's stone. Shun idleness — it is the parent of poverty — the idle man's brain is the devil's work shop. Avoid in- temperance — Bacchus has drowned more persons than Neptune. Bear misfortunes with fortitude — prosperity with meekness. Betray no trust, divulge no secret. Confine your tongue within proper limits, or it may confine you within the cells. Command your temper, or it may place you under the command of the police. Curb every licentious passion, throttle every unholy propensity. Remember that brevity is the soul of wit, business the salt of life, punctuality the life of busi- ness, and discretion, the safety valve of action. Equity is the bond of social order, truth the basis of all ex- cellence — let them guide you through life. Enter not into party faction and political intrigue — they are the canker worms of our elective franchise, and the bane of legislation. Practise the golden rule — do not be content with the silver one — do as you are done by, and most scrupulously avoid the iron rule, to gain the CONTENTMENT. 41 €7id regardless of imaiis. Practise charity, love mercy, deal justly, walk humbly, trust in God, obey his pre- cepts, do good and no evil to your fellow men, and BE CONSISTEiNT TO THE LAST. CONTENTMENT. 'Tis better to be lowly born And range with humble livers in content, Than to be perk'd up in a glistening grief, And wear a golden sorrow. — Shakespeare. Contentment is felicity. Few are the real wants of man. Like a majority of his troubles, they are more imaginary than real. Some well persons want to be better, take medicine, and become sick in good earnest — perhaps die under some patented nostrum. Some persons have wealth — they want more — enter into some new business they do not understand, or some wild speculation, and become poor indeed. Many who are surrounded by all the substantial comforts of life, become discontented because some wealthier neighbor sports a carriage, and his lady, a Brussels carpet and mahogany chairs, entertains parties, and makes more show in the world than they. Like the monkey, they attempt to imitate all they see that is deemed fashionable ; make a dash at greater contentment ; dash out their comfort- able store of wealth ; and sometimes, determined on quiet at least, close the farce with a tragedy, and dash their brains out with a blue pill. Discontented persons live in open rebellion against their great Benefactor, and virtually claim wisdom, more than infinite. They covet they wish, and wishes are as prolific as rabbits. One 6 d2 42 THE PROBE. imaginary want, like a stool pigeon, brings flocks of others, and the mind becomes so overwhelmed, that it looses sight of all the real comforts in possession. False theories of human happiness are adopted, com mon sense and reason are paralyzed, a perverse tem- per, like cider in the sun, becomes changed to an acute sour ; the imagined opinions of others, that they belong to the lower ten thousand, lash their pride into a foam- ing fury ; old fashioned contentment is banished from the domicil, and they start in full pursuit after an Ignis FaUats, and are led, rapidly, into the quagmire of poverty and want. They barter competence, domestic felicity, and substantial comforts, for ideal good, and obtain, for their labour, the dregs of wTetchedness. Let all remember, that a contented mind is a continual feast ; that most of the upper ten thousand are strang- ers to its enjoyments ; that confidence in God and a sweet submission to His will, are the surest sources of happiness, and that Lazarus left his rags for Heaven, and the rich man left his riches, for that place of tor- ment, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. "We want but little here below, Nor want that little long." CURRENTS In the Baltic sea, there is an upper and under cur- rent, running in opposite directions, a fit emblem of the men and customs of our country, in former times, and of the present day ; the under current represent- ing the happy simplicity and virtue of our pilgrim CURRENTS. 43 fathers, and revolutionary patriots ; the upper, the in- consistency of many modern men, times, and practices. The man who studies the laws and operations of unerring nature, and drinks freely at her crystal foun- tain, enjoys a happiness, purer and nobler, than that drawn from many of the highly varnished schools of the present luminous era. In the days of Penn, Frank- lin, and Rittenhouse ; industry, a clear head, a matured judgment, and a good heart ; with a good share of what the modern literati are pleased to term, a com- mon education, w^ere the best recommendations and surest passports, to public esteem and promotion. Now, in view of very many, a liberal education forms the legitimate stepping stone to the pulpit, the legisla- tive hall, and the temple of fame. The primary land- marks of common knowledge and common sense, are, in view of many, lost, in the blaze of light, shed upon our country, by the luminaries of newly invented sys- tems of science. The under current of practical intel- ligence, fit for every day use, is sinking deeper and lower, beneath the foaming torrent of the upper cur- rent, formed of fashionable and polite literature. A sermon, or a public speech, to be acceptable to some modern ears^ not hearts, must be trimmed, like a Pa- risian bonnet, with all the ribbons of a brilliant fancy, and flowers of rhetoric ; good sense and sound logic being a secondary matter. A few roses, culled from the dead, or foreign living languages, render it still more palatable. The waters of theology have become so deep, and so filled with snags and brush wood, that common fishermen can no longer labor with success. A man is no longer fit for the legislative hall, for the bar, or any of the learned professions, unless he has 44 THE PROBE. mastered the classics and all the sciences, except the science of common business, and common sense, with- out which, he is a splendid ship without a helm. I mean no disrespect to high seminaries of learning, or to the literati, but congratulate our country, and them, that we enjoy the shining lights of the classics, and the highest branches of science. I only aim to correct a mistaken idea that has gained credence with many, that, when a man has graduated at college, he is raised above the Heaven-born principle of equality, and is privileged to ride through life on the shoulders of commercial, mechanical, and agricultural men ; called, by some high-toned, aristocratic professors, the common herd ; but who are the bone and sinew of our country. Primary schools, where a thorough English education can be acquired, are of the first importance, and should never be overwhelmed by the upper current of incorporated colleges. When the mechanic shop, the counting house, the plough, the distaff, and the kitchen ; fall into disrepute, and are submerged by the upper current of fashionable accomplishments, vain show, pomp, and parade ; the sun of our country's glory will set in gloom. When the republican simplicity of Greece and Rome reced- ed before high classical literature, imported luxuries, and rules of etiquette — when they ceased to call men from the plough, to the cabinet and the field ; when the women exchanged the kitchen for the drawing room ; corruption supplanted virtue ; the genius of Liberty veiled its face, and fled; dissolution followed — ruin closed the scene. Fashion contributes largely to swell the upper cur- rent, now rolling its towering waves over our land. CURRENTS. 45 Care, fatigue, vexation, envy, jealousy, loss of health, and a waste of wealth ; arc the bitter fruits she gives to her devotees; often producing the consumption of poverty, and the pleurisy of blue ruin. She is the Ig?iis Fatuns of fancy ; the farther she is pursued, the deeper the mire in her path. Idleness is an ingredient in the upper current, which was scarcely known, and never countenanced, in the good old linsey woolsey, tow and linen, mush and milk, pork and potatoe times of the pilgrim fathers, and revolutionary patriots. We now have those among us, who had rather go hungry and be clad in rags, than to work. We also have a numerous train of gen- tlemen idlers, who pass down the stream of life at the expense of their fellow passengers. They live well, and dress well, as long as possible, by borrowing and spunging, and then take to gambling, swindling, steal- ing, robbing ; and often pass on for years, before justice overtakes them. So long as these persons can keep up fashionable appearances, and elude the police, they are received into the company of the upper ten thou- sand. Many an idle knave, by means of a fine coat, a lily hand, and a graceful bow ; has been received into the polite circles of society with eclat, and walked, rough shod, over a worthy young mechanic or farmer, who had too much good sense to make a dash, or imi- tate the monkey shines of an itinerant dandy. A fine dress, in the eyes of some, covers more sins than charity. Among the wealthy, there are many who ride high in the upper current, preferring pleasure to business, bringing up their children in idleness and extravagance, instead of teaching them frugality and economy ; and 46 THE PROBE. finally leave the world with their estates insolvent. Their sons and daughters, being ignorant of business, cannot provide for themselves by honest industry, and are often led into the purlieus of vice, and are quickly lost in the maelstrom of iniquity. Vanity, self conceit, and self ignorance, contribute to swell the upj)er current. Lying and deceit are ever rolling their frightful surges over the under current of truth, creating a dense fog that is impenetrable, and has proved disastrous to many fine vessels, which had credulity for a pilot, and neglected to cast out the anchor of investigation, and lay to, until the fog was dispelled. The politics of the present day form the foam of the upper current, and rush on, with a maddening fury, that constantly casts up mire and dirt. Formerly, the political car was moved by the motive power of reason, patriotism, and love of country — now, it is rushed for- ward by the locomotive of party spirit — and no one can tell how soon we shall be run off the track, and be dashed in pieces. Aristocracy is also contributing largely to swell the upper current, and is doing much to destroy the repub- lican simplicity of '76. Sectarianism, in matters of religion, has contributed to swell the upper current, and has often covered charity, humility, and forgiveness, with the waves of persecution and revenge, wounding the blessed Redeemer, in the house of his professed friends. In short, vice and immorality, in all their deceptive forms, are combined to swell the upper current, and would gladly sink the under current of wisdom and virtue, below the reach of mind ; and waft the family DKATH. 47 of man, on the fiery billows of sin and corruption, be- yond the reach of hope, happiness, and peace. Let us all, in matters of domestic, political, moral, and religious economy ; beware of the upper current. Let us fasten the lead of reason, and buoy of Revelation to the line of consistency, and let our soundings be deep and often. DEATH. Death is the crown of life. Death wounds to cure! we fall, we rise, we reign. — Young. The thought of meeting this king of terrors, is made unwelcome by most of the human family. Even the Christian is prone to treat the subject unkindly, until he is compelled to approach this grim monster, and, as the acquaintance increases, the insatiate devourer of the body loses his deformity, and, in the end, proves himself a genuine friend. We should all make the acquaintance of this, our final deliverer, volunta- rily and at once. Treat death as an enemy, and un- kindly leave him to force himself upon us at the last hour ! How cruel. Treat death as an enemy ! How ungrateful, unwise, and imprudent. Is he an enemy, who delivers us from pains, follies, disappointments, miseries and wo? Is he an enemy, who transfers us from delusive dreams, from the region of bubbles and corroding cares ; to a region w^here all is pure, substan- tial, enduring joy and endless felicity? It is a libel on DEATH to call him our foe, a king of terrors, an enemy. Frail man comes into the world crying, cries on through life, and is always seeking after some desired thing which he imagines is labelled happiness, or is 48 THE PROBE. mourning over some loss, which makes him miserable; a restless mortal body, with an immortal soul, that re- quires something more than earth can give to satisfy its lofty desires ; the soul that hails death as the wel- come messenger, to deliver it from its ever changing ever decaying prison house of clay, called man; on which time wages a perpetual war; whitening his locks, furrowing his cheeks, stealing his ivory, weak- ening his nerves, paralyzing his muscles, poisoning his blood, battering his whole citadel, deranging the whole machinery of life, and w^asting his mental powers; until he becomes twice a child ; and then delivers him over to his last and best friend, death, who breaks the carnal bondage, sets the imprisoned spirit free, closing a toilsome career of infelicity ; opening the door of im- mortal happiness, returning the soul to its own, origi- nal, and glorious home; to go no more out forever. Not to become familiar with death, is to endure much unnecessary fear, and add to the myriads of the other imaginary woes of human life. For the Christian, death has no real terrors — all who are wise, are Chris- tians. DEBTS. The money that has been lost by the ruinous credit system in our country, could it be gathered into one aggregate sum, would be sufficient to pay our national debt, the debts of each state and corporation, and build a railroad from Boston to Oregon. By the last Bankrupt Law, as short a time as it was in force, about one hundred millions of dollars, in bad debts, DEBTS. 49 were blotted out as by magic ; and thousands of honest men, who were better entitled to its benefits, than many who enjoyed them, did not apply for relief. Con- tracting debts, is not unlike the man who goes to sea without a compass — he may steer clear of rocks, sand- bars, a lee shore, and breakers ; but the chances are greatly against him; and, if he runs foul of cither, ten to one he is lost. The present indiscriminate credit system is a labyrinth, the entrance is easy, but how to get out — that's the question. It is an endless chain, and if one link breaks in a particular community, it deranges the whole. The concussion may break many more, create a panic, and the chain become useless. If this misfortune would cure the evil, it would be a blessing in disguise; but so deeply rooted is this sys- tem among us, that no sooner is one chain destroyed, than another is manufactured; an increasing weight is put upon it ; presently, some of its links snap, another concussion is produced, and creates a new panic; car after car rushes down the inclined plane of bankrupt- cy, increasing the mass of broken fragments and gene- ral ruin, all so commingled, that a Philadelphia lawyer, aided by constables and sheriffs, can bring hut little order out of the confusion. At the outset, especially among merchants, a ruinous tax is imposed by this system, upon the vendor and vendee. The seller, in addition to a fair profit for cash in hand, adds a larger per cent, to meet losses from bad debts, but which often falls far short of the mark. Each purchaser, who is ultimately able to pay, bears the proportionate burden of this tax, and both contribute large sums to indulge those who cannot, and, what is worse, those who never intended tq pay; thus encouraging fraud, 7 E 50 THE PROBE. sometimes subsequent, but often original in its con caption. Like the tariff, the sinuosities of this systen-. are understood but by a few, and reaHzed by fewer still. From the manufacturer to the consumer, the tax, induced by the credit system, is increased; the lat- ter consumes more freely because he buys on credit, extravagance usurps the place of economy and pro- duces idleness; the retailer, who has imposed the last and largest tax, often finds nothing left with his cus- tomer, but the rags of the goods he has sold, and the carcase his provisions have sustained. The officers of the law close the farce, by playing upon the rags and carcase with sundry paper implements, with re- sults less curious and more expensive, than those of the galvanic battery upon a corpse. The consumer is the swivel link in the chain, the moment this swivel loses its head, by too much pressure and friction, the derangement commences. The links may be keyed together by delay, as the farmer keys his chain with wood, but the key soon wears out, and the last failure may be at a worse time and place than the first. Debts contracted by borrowing, are more onerous, not to say, as many do, more honorable, than those incurred by purchase. The borrower becomes a bound slave to the lender, and places his heirs in the same situation. He goes to sea with a deck load, and little or no ballast in the hold, and a sudden squall of for- tuitous wind, throws his craft on its beams ends, and often, the wreck but little more than pays the salvage of the court officers ; lender and borrower are both carried into the breakers, and dashed on a lee barren shore, drenched and penny less. We have hordes of small borrowers of money, who are the gad flies of DEBTS. 51 coniniimity. Each is satisfied with a drop, hut their immlKTS arc so «^reat, that, if not <^iiardod against hy tlic Hy not of resohition, they will weaken the system by their combined draughts. To ask for small debts, is painful to the lender, and is considered an insult to the borrower. We have many who are prone to contract new debts, and lose sight of old ones. They are mere passengers in tlie life boat, and leave others to work at the oar, and furnish every thing. As time rolls on, the Statute of Limitation dims their vision : the Rubicon passed, the debts are cancelled. It is " a fair business transac- tion," say they, the law intervenes ; abused confidence, honour, integrity, justice and conscience; have no part or lot in the matter. We will obey the law, " and make it honorable." We have also another species of small borrowers, who may feel neglected if not noticed : those who bor- row a bucket of coal, a piece of butter, a little meat, salt, pepper, flour, ginger, tea, coffee, milk, sugar, with a piece of candle, and a little of all the good things for the stomach, and sometimes, not so often, a piece of soap, wash basin, and towel. These borrowers have generally bad memories, and, if their memories serve them, their weights and measures are lessened by long use ; or, perhaps they think it right to take toll enough to pay for running their borrowing machine. So long as the pernicious credit system is the order of the day, monetary pressures, j)anics, convulsions, and revulsions will continue in our country ; j)roducing dis- tress and ruin at each periodical return. Owe no man^ is an injunction of Holy Writ, and, if not obeyed, like the violation of the other injunctions radiating from 52 THE PROBE. that polar star to guide man to happiness and peace, the consequences are often disastrous. DESPAIR. A dark cold calm, which nothing now can break, Or warm, or brighten — like that Syrian lake. Upon whose surface morn and summer shed Their smiles in vain — for all beneath is dead. — Moore. JVo calamity can produce such paralysis of the mind, as despair. It is the cap stone of the climax of human anguish. The mental powers are frozen with indif- ference, the heart becomes ossified with melancholy, the soul is shrouded in a cloud of gloom. No words of consolation, no cheerful repartee, can break the death- like calm : no love can warm the pent-up heart, no sunbeams dispel the dark clouds. Time may effect a change ; death will break the monotony. We can ex- tend our kindness, but cannot relieve the victim. We may trace the causes of this awful disease ; God only can effect a cure. We may speculate upon its nature, but cannot feel its force, until its iron hand is laid upon us. We may call it weakness, but cannot prove or demonstrate the proposition. We may call it folly, but can point to no frivolity to sustain our position. We may call it madness, but can discover no maniac actions. We may call it stubbornness, but can see no exhibitions of indocility. We may call it lunacy, but cannot perceive the incoherences of that unfortunate condition. We can call it, properly, nothing but dark, gloomy despair, an undefined and undefinable paraly- zation of all the sensibilities that render a man happy, DESPAIR. 53 and capable of imparting happiness to those around liim. It is a state of torpid dormancy, rather than a mental derangement of the cerebral organs. It is induced by a false estimate of things, and of the dispensations and government of the God of mercy. Disappointments, losses, severe and continued afflic- tions, sudden transition from wealth to poverty, the death of dear friends ; may cast a gloom over the mind that does not correctly comprehend the great first cause, and see the hand of God in every thing ; and produce a state of despair, because these things are viewed in a false mirror. Fanaticism in religious meetings has produced the most obstinate and melan- choly cases of despair, that have come under my own observation. Intelhgence, chastened by religion, are the surest safeguards against this state of misery ; ig- norance and vice are its greatest promoters. Despair is the destruction of all hope, the deathless sting, that refines the torment of the finally impenitent and lost. It is that undying worm, that unquenchable fire, so graphically described in Holy Writ. Reader, if you desire an insurance against the iron grasp of despair, you can obtain it without money and without price, by applying to the immaculate Re- deemer. He stands, with open arms, to receive, and keep in safety, all who believe in His name and put their trust in Him, for time and eternity. Then you may hope on and hope ever. Then you will have a sheet anchor to your soul, that will enable you to out- ride the storms of time, and at last, be moored in the haven of eternal rest. e2 54 THE PROBE. DISCRETION. This important principle is, wisdom applied to prac- tice. It is one of those terms that many measure by the sliding scale, so much in use by those whose judg- ments are warped by circumstances, who are men of principle according to their own interest ; whose con- sciences are as elastic as India rubber ; who wind them- selves up in self, like a cocoon, and run counter to the design of their creation ; mere automatons in the scale of being, so far as usefulness is concerned. The party man deems it discreet to do all within his power to advance the interests of his party, right or wrong. The applicant for an office, in many instances, deems it discreet to resort to wire working, pipe laying, and all other means within the compass of his ingenuity, to accom])lish his object. 3Iany incumbents of elective offices, consider it discreet to use every exertion to make capital for their reelection ; others, who hold their places at the will of a superior, crouch and faw^n, like spaniels, before their master. Each religious sect is prone to deem it discreet to make all the proselytes in its power, seeming more anx- ious to increase numbers, than Christian graces, especi- ally, when coldness has paralyzed the hearts of its mem- bers, and nothing but the form of godliness is left. The man of ambition deems it discreet to gratify his desires, by turning every occurrence to his advantage, that will forward his designs. The miser deems it discreet to hoard up his gold from every source from which it can be drawn ; starve and freeze his body, and neglect the inter- *csts of his immortal soul. Some deem it discreet to use DISCRETION. 55 alcohol moderately every day ; others, to have a real spree now and then ; and others think they are discreet, if they do not drown their mental powers with this deadly poison, more than once a month. There are many other degrees on this sliding scale, that the reader is left to figure out. Do you ask, what is discretion ? I will first answer negatively. It is not that grasping propensity, that imposes increasing toil without enjoyment ; it is not that narrow, selfish disposition that starves those around it, and spurns the hungry poor when they ap- proach ; it is not the calculating spirit, that studies the rule of loss and gain, more than the Bible ; it is not that jealousy, that keeps a feline watch over all around, and distrusts every one ; it is not that cunning, that pre- fers intrigue to manly openness ; it is not that want of moral courage, that shrinks from any call of duty; in short, nothing is discretion, that is adverse to wis- dom. Affirmatively ; discretion is the development of a sound and wise judgment — a benevolent and good heart. It seeks a happy equilibrium in all things ; it aims at pure happiness in time, and in eternity ; it pur- sues noble ends by honorable means ; it shuns all ap- pearance of evil, and meets, with fortitude and resig- nation, the ills flesh is heir to ; it applies the touch- stone of plain, common sense, aided by Revelation, to every thing ; it is practical in all its operations ; it rigidly tests fine spun theories, before it adopts them ; it induces rational enjoyments — but considers no pleas- ures rational, that disqualify the soul for the enjoyment of a blissful immortality beyond the grave ; it clearly discerns what is right, and has sufficient moral force 56 THE PROBE. and energy to pursue the right and shun the wrong ; it is cool, dehberate, reflective ; but resolute, strong, and efficient ; it is economy, without parsimony ; liberality, without prodigality ; benevolence, without ostentation ; wealth, without pride ; sincerity, without dissimulation; and goodness, without affectation. Parents should teach it to their children by precept and exam})le. Teachers should enforce it upon their pupils ; it should take its appropriate place in the po- litical arena — in the departments of State — in our legis- lative halls — in the cabinet — in the executive chamber — in our international negotiations and intercourse — in our courts of justice — in our seminaries of learning — in our pulpits — in our social meetings — in the do- mestic circle — in family government — in the juvenile nursery — in match making — in short, discretion should rcffulate all our conduct for time, and in view of eter- nity. Let it be the helm to guide our bark on the sea of life, that we may be safely wafted to the haven of lasting rest. DUELLING. Am I to set my life upon a throw. Because a bear is rude and surly T No. — Cowper. False honor, like false religion, is worse than none. They both lead to destruction, and are depre- cated by all good men. The one is a relic of the bar- barous ages — the other is somewhat older, having first been imposed on old mother Eve, by the devil. That cool, deliberate murder should be tolerated in this land of gospel light and moral reform, is as aston- DUKLLING. 57 ii^liini^-, as it is liiiniiliating and (Jis^racoful. And that tlie niiirdorcr should aftcM'wards be countenanced, and even caressed, and honored with places of public trust and emolument; is shocking to every n)an, who has a proper sense of moral ol)ligations. He wlio can calmly make u]) liis mind to take the life of his fellow man, on the field of false honor, is an enemy to God and the human race, and, if he succeeds in his cowardly purpose, should be treated as an outlaw, and have the mark of Cain branded, in ])lazing capitals, on his blood- stained forehead. The man who has not genuine courage enough to refuse a challenge, forfeits his native dignity, insults Deity, violates reason, betrays the trust reposed in him by his great Creator, and is guilty of prolonging this barbarous practice. By refusing, he punishes him who seeks his life, in the severest manner. The man who refuses the first chal- lenge, is seldom annoyed with a second. Those who are known to be o})posed to this hellish practice, arc not interfered with by the gentlemen " bears" of false honor. Let public opinion, uniformly and universally, point the finger of withering scorn at the duellist — this would do more to cure him of his fj^-htin^r mania, than any other thing, except the want of subjects. I recollect many cutting answers to challenges, that inflicted severer wounds than to be shot with the blue pill. Here is one, " Sir, Your desire to have me shoot you, cannot be complied with. 3Iy father taught me, when a boy, never to waste })owder on game not worth bringing home." Another, " Sir, I am opposed to murder in any form — of course I cannot consent to shoot you, or volunteer to be shot myself. To gratify your strong desire for burning powder, mark out my 8 58 THE PROBE. full length portrait on a barn — if you can hit that, con- sider me shot, and your honor vindicated." Another, *' Sir, I fear not your sword, but the sword of God's anger. I dare venture my life in a good cause, but cannot venture my soul in a bad one. I will charge upon the cannon's mouth for my country, but I want courage to storm hell." No man, who is engaged in duelling, is a Christian or a philosopher. EDUCATION. In one of my former publications, I referred to the increasing errors on this subject — that of overshooting the mark. Too many have imbibed the idea, that to obtain a sufficient education to enable a man to appear advantageously upon the theatre, especially of public life; his boyhood and youth must be spent within the walls of some classical seminary of learning, that he may commence his career under the high floating ban- ner of a collegiate diploma — with them, the first round in the ladder of fame. That a refined classical education is desirable, and one of the accomplishmtiits of a man, I admit — that it is indispensably necessary, and always makes a man more useful, I deny. He who has been incarcerated, from his childhood, up to his majority, within the limit- ed circumference of his school and boarding room, although he may have mastered all the classics, is destitute of that knowledge of men and things, indis- pensably necessary to prepare him for action, either in private or public life. Classic lore and polite litera- ture, are very different from that vast amount of com- EDUCATION. 59 nion intrlli^rncc, fit for evory day use, that he must have, to render Iiis intercourse with society pleasini^ to himself, or ai^reeable to others. He is liable to impo- sition at every turn he makes. lie may have a largo fund o^ fine sense, but if he lacks common sense, he is like a ship without a rudder. Let boys and girls be taught, first and last, all that is necessary to prepare them for the common duties of life — if the classics and polite literature can be worked between the coarser branches, they will be much safer — as silk goods are, enclosed in canvass, or a bale. I wish not to under- value high seminaries of learning — but rather to stimu- late those to persevere in the acquirement of science, who are deprived of the advantage of their dazzling lights. Franklin, Sherman, and others, emerged from the work shop, and illuminated the world as brightly, as the most profound scholar from a college. In this enlightened age, and in our free country, all who will, may drink, deeply, at the pure fountain of science. Ignorance is a voluntary misfortune. By a proper im- provement of time, the apprentice of the mechanic may lay in a stock of useful knowledge, that will enable him, when he arrives at manhood, to take a respectable stand by the side of those w^ho have grown up in the full blaze of a collegiate education — and with a better prospect of success at the start, because he is much better stocked with common information, without which, a man is a poor helpless animal. I 60 THE PROBE. ELOQUENCE. That I may not stand alone in my views on the subject of genuine eloquence, I will give those of that able statesman, John Adams, and those of one of his cotemporaries, whose name I do not find with the ex- tract. Mr. Adams remarked, " Oratory, as it consists in the expression of the countenance, graces of atti- tude and motion, and intonation of voice, although it is altogether superficial and ornamental, will always command admiration, yet it deserves little veneration. Flashes of wit, corruscations of imagination, and gay pictures; what are they? Strict truth, rapid reason, and pure integrity, are the only essential ingredients in oratory. I flatter myself, that Demosthenes, by his 'action! action! action!' meant to express the same opinion." The other writer observes, "Clearness, force and earnestness, are quahties that produce conviction. True eloquence, indeed, does not consist in speech. It cannot be brought from far. Labor and learning may toil for it; but they toil in vain. Words and phrases may be marshalled in every way; but they cannot compass it. It must exist in the man, in the subject, and in the occasion. Affected passion, intense expression, the pomp of declamation, all may aspire after it, but they cannot reach it. It comes, if it comes at all, like the outbreaking of a fountain from the earth, or the bursting forth of volcanic fires, with spontaneous, original, native force. The graces taught in schools, the courtly ornaments and studied contri- vances of speech, shock and disgust men, when their ELOQUENCE. 61 own lives, and the lives of their wives and children, and their country, hang on the decision of an hour. Then, words have lost their power; rhetoric is vain, and all elaborate oratory contemptible. Then, even genius feels rebuked and subdued, as if in the pre- sence of higher qualities. Then, patriotism is eloquent ; then, self devotion is eloquent. The clear conception, outrunning the deductions of logic ; the high purpose, the firm resolve, the dauntless spirit, speaking on the tongue, beaming from the eye, informing every feature, and urging the whole man onward — right onward to his object — this, this is eloquence, or rather, it is some- thing greater than eloquence — it is action, noble, sub- lime, and god-like action." Rhetoric, as taught in our seminaries, and by itine- rant elocutionists, is one thing; genuine, heart-thrilling, soul-stirring eloquence, is a very diflferent thing. The one is like the rose in wax, without odor; the other, like the rose on its native bush, perfuming the atmos- phere with the rich odors, distilled from the dew of heaven. The one is the finely finished statue of a Cicero or Demosthenes, more perfect in its lineaments than the original; pleasing the eye and enrapturing the imagination ; the other is the living man, animated by intellectual power, rousing the deepest feelings of every heart, and electrifying every soul, as with vivid lightning. The one is a picture of the passions all on fire ; the other is the real conflagration ; pouring out a volume of words, that burn, like liquid flames, bursting from the crater of a volcano. The one attracts the admiring gaze, and tickles the fancy of an audi- ence ; the other sounds an alarum, that vibrates through the tino^lin^ ears to the soul, and drives back the rush- 62 THE PROBE. ing blood upon the aching heart. The one falls upon the multitude like April showers, glittering in the sun- beams, animating and bringing nature into mellow life ; the other rouses the same mass to deeds of noble daring, and imparts to it the terrific force of an ava- lanche. The one moves the cerebral foliage in waves of recumbent beauty, like a gentle wind passing over a prairie of tall grass and flowers ; the other strikes a blow, that resounds through the wilderness of mind, like rolling thunder throuo^h a forest of oaks. The one fails, when strong commotions and angry elements agitate the public peace ; the other can ride upon the whirlwind, direct the tornado, and rule the storm. EMINENCE. Men who anticipate the enjoyment of happiness from great eminence in any thing this world can bestow, are doomed to disappointment when they attain the desid- eratum of their wishes. Ask our ex-presidents, who are still on the stage of life, if they enjoyed as much happiness when the responsibilities of our national in- terest rested upon them, as when in private life ? No, will be the prompt reply. Put the same interrogatory to those who have reached the highest pinnacle of eminence in the different professions, and the answer will uniformly be the same. Visit the abodes of royalty, and you will find a keener pungency of disquietude there, than in our country. Queen Mary, in a letter to William III., when he was in Ireland, discoursed as follows : *' I must see company on set days — I must laugh and talk, EMINENCE. 63 though never so much against my will — I must grin, when my heart is ready to break, and talk, when my heart is so oppressed that I can scarce breathe. All my motions are watched, and all I do so observed, that if I eat less, or speak less, or look more grave, all is lost in the opinion of the world." Washington fre- quently observed, towards the close of life, that he would not repass it^ were it in his poicer to do so. The happiness of a contented hod carrier, far sur- passes that of the king or queen on a throne, or that of those in high stations in our own republican, but increasing aristocratic land. Public life is a bore. Our public men are bored constantly by a horde of boor borers. Happiness is not an inmate of the confused arena of public life. In peaceful retirement, amidst the domestic and social circle, she delights to take up her abode. With competence, she best associates, but smiles more propitiously on virtuous poverty, than on the pomp and show of wealth and high life. But no earthly happiness is complete until religion throws its sacred halo around it. Here is firm footing; here is solid rock! This can support us, all is sea besides. Sinks under us, bestornis, and then devours. His hand the good man fastens on the skies, And bids earth roll, nor feels her idle whirl. — Young. Let those who are in full flight after eminence, re- member they are not in pursuit of Happiness, but are seeking Eminence ; don't mistake the name, by so doing, you might be put on the wrong track. €4 THE PROBE. ENVY. Envy, like the sun, does beat With scorching rays, on all that's high or great. — Wall. Of all the ills that issued from the box of that ugly jade, Pandora, the production of Jupiter, envy inflicts the most misery upon the unfortunate subject over whom it reigns triumphant. Like Milton's fiend in Paradise, he sees, undelighted, all delight. The bright- ness of prosperity that surrounds others, pains the eyes of the envious man, more than the meridian rays of the sun. It starts the involuntary tear, and casts a gloom over his mind. It brings into action, jealousy, revenge, falsehood, and the basest passions of the fallen nature of man. It goads him onward with a fearful impetus, like a locomotive ; and often runs his car off* the track, dashes it in pieces, and he is left, bruised and bleeding. Like the cuttle fish, he emits his black venom for the purpose of darkening the clear waters that surround his prosperous neighbors ; and, like that phenomenon of the sea, the inky substance is confined to a narrow circumference, and only tends to hide himself. The success of those around him throws him into convulsions, and, like a man with the delirium tremens, he imagines all who approach him, demons, seeking to devour him. Like Haman, he often erects his own gallows in his zeal to hang others. His mind is like the troubled sea, casting up the mire of revenge, and the dirt of slander. His brain is enveloped in the fiery clouds of anger ; his blood foams like alkali and acid combined ; his heart is in constant commotion ; his EXAMINATION. 65 ideas arc multiform and perplexed. If in his power, he would bottle up the sunshine, rain, and dew of Heaven, to keep them from others. Uncharitable as it may be, he becomes an object of contempt, rather than pity. His disease is iiialum in se, and as difficult of cure as the leprosy, and quite as loathsome. The best remedy is religion; the surest, to have every body dead and he keep tavern. There is hope in the first ; the patient would soon become weary of the last, and die of ennui. Reader, if envy is rankling in your bosom, declare war against it at once ; a war of extermination ; no truce, no treaty, no compromise. Like the pirate on the high seas, it is an outlaw, an enemy to all man- kind, and should be hung up at the yard arm, until it is dead, dead, DEAD. EXAMINATION, '•KNOW THYSELF." It has been said this precept descended from Hea- ven — but, if we are close observers of mankind, and can realize how little we are acquainted with all that relates to ourselves, we may doubt whether it has reached the human family, and may yet be on its jour- ney — or, at all events, has not yet commenced the suc- cessful discharge of its important mission to our planet. So keen is the vision of most men, when looking at those around them, that, with a beam in their own, they can see a mote in the eyes of their neighbors. Few there are, who know their own powers of intel- 9 F 2 •66 THE PROBE. lect — the strength of their propensities for weal or wo — the good they can perform, or the evils they can per- petrate. At one period of life, a man may shudder at the relation of a vile act committed by his fellow man, and subsequently, go beyond him in the commission of crime — plainly showing, as did Peter, the Apostle, he did not know himself. But few men analyze their own natures — and fewer, still, follow the lessons they learn in the school of self examination. We are prone to act from impulses not chastened by reason, and yield to circumstances, with- out tracing causes, or discerning effects. Too many there are, who tax all their powers to accomplish their ends, regardless of the means employed. This is the grand lever of the political demagogues and office seekers in our country, and is sometimes used in log- rolling legislation. The principle is base in its concep- tion, pernicious in its consequences. It is often pre- dicated upon falsehood — always fraught with dishonor — and is never practised by the pure in heart. If strangers to our own evil propensities, we are liable to be led captive at their will, and to be hurried on to the abyss of ruin — an end that no man aims at, when he spreads his sails to the breeze of time, and embarks on the ocean of life. Had he paused — become acquainted with himself, and weighed results — he might have seen the end, and avoided destruction. Charity for human nature, frail as it is, forbids the idea, that any man, at the commencement of his career upon the great theatre of life — intended to fill a drunkard's grave — spend a portion of his life in the penitentiary, or expiate his crimes upon the gallows. In prosperity, many, who deservedly sustain a high EXAMINATION. 67 reputation lor honesty, pure morality, and even of piety ; and who are pained when they see a weak brother leave the paths of virtue, and arc liberal in their cen- sures upon him ; when adversity overtakes them, they arc Icft^ as some say, to dissimulation — deceit, and sometimes, have their names enrolled on the calendar of crime — proving, by melancholy demonstration, that they did not know themselves. He that knows him- self, knows others, and he alone is competent to speak and write of others. Of all ignorance, that of ourselves is most lament- able. It engenders self conceit — makes us the dupes of knaves — enslaves us to the most cruel of all masters — our evil passions ; renders us blind to our own in- terests — deprives us of happiness here, and endangers our future bliss. Many seem to be affected with a kind of delirium, like a person reduced to extreme weakness by disease — imagine they are strong, when they cannot sustain their own weight — hence, they are sure to fall when they attempt to go forward ; not being supported by their friends — reason, discretion, prudence, and vir- tue. If they knew themselves — realized their own weakness — the dangers of temptation — the proneness of human nature to turn from the highway that leads to pure happiness, and would make themselves ac- quainted with the inevitable results produced by fa- miliar causes — common sense, aside from Revelation, w ould warn them to avoid the quick-sands of error and the rocks of destruction, on which many a splendid craft has made shipwreck. Let all who desire a peace- ful life and a happy end, obey the Heavenly precept — Know thyself. 68 THE PROBE. EXPERIENCE. Experience has been called the mother of science, but, like most other mothers, has many disobedient, and some very unruly children. 3Iore lessons are learned in the school of this thorough matron, than are practised. They are of the most salutary kind, and usually so ex- pensive, that it is passing strange they should be dis- carded. But so it often is. The grosser passions of human nature wage a perpetual war upon the citadel of our true happiness, and too often take it by storm. Self conceit blinds us — self confidence betrays us ; our fancy, taste, and appetite lead us ; we heed not the warning voice of experience, and are hurried on by folly and vice, fully apprized of consequences. The ambitious man is enraptured with the history of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and Bonaparte; and burns to tread in their footsteps. It is vain that experience informs him, that the former became dis- gusted with power, and killed himself with alcohol — that the other was stabbed in the Roman senate — and that the latter expired, a prisoner, on a desolate rock in the ocean. His thirst for power cannot be quenched by experience — he tempts fate. The inebriate commences his career in full view of the wrecks of intemperance strewed thick around him — has seen the desolations produced by rum — has fol- lowed the drunkard to the grave — perhaps to the gal- lows ; yet he turns a deaf ear to the warning voice of experience, and plunges into the dark abyss of de- struction. The victims of lotteries, cards, dice, and all the de- EXPERIENCE. 69 nioii arts of the blackleg, are reduced to the keenest penury among us ; yet thousands of others, like the in- fatuated devotees of Juggernaut, throw themselves be- fore the wheels of this car of hell, and are crushed to poverty. The calendar of crime, the penalties of the criminal code, the various punishments that are so certain and frequent, from the small fine up to the gallows ; are sufficiently familiar to all to be avoided ; yet the voice of experience is unheeded by thousands, and their ca- reer of crime is only arrested by death. The whirlpool of wild and precarious speculation has often been gorged with ruined adventurers ; yet other multitudes follow in their wakes, regardless of the les- sons of experience, posted up in hand bills by the con- stable, sheriff, and auctioneer ; at every corner, in glaring capitals. A thirst for gain inspires a blind confidence ; they make a desperate leap after fortune — -jump over low-water mark into the maelstrom, and sink to rise no more. The fatal consequences of crime and error, gleaming beacons thickly placed along the shores of time to warn against peril, are unheeded by millions ; and many who survive one shipwreck, in despite of ex- perience, again rush into the same danger, and are lost. Through all the multiform concerns of fife, the hu- man family is constantly taking lessons in the school of experience, and paying dearly for them; but obsti- nately refusing to profit by them. This fond mother may warn, reason plead, wisdom woo, common sense demonstrate ; but all to no purpose. Self conceit, blind confidence, carnal desires, pampered appetite, tyrannical habit ; all combine and bind the captive with 70 THE PROBE. chains, that require an Ahnighty hand to break their jDonderous links. Reader ! the evils uncorrected by experience, and their consequences, that have now passed in rehearsal, you must admit, involve, in one common ruin, vv^ealth, health, reputation, and all the sources of human hap- piness, and endanger, perhaps may ruin, the soul. — Do you ask the remedy ! — Religion. FAME AND GLORY. Though fame is smoke, Its fumes are frankincense to human thoughts. — Byron. Fame, like money, should neither be despised or idolized. An honest fame, based on worth and merit, and gained, like large estates, by prudence and indus- try, deservedly perpetuates the names of the great and good. We have a species of spurious fame, some call it glory, that either dies with the incumbent, or is ungrateful to the memory. Genuine fame is a better undertaker than physician, and deals more in epitaphs than prescriptions. Transient fame, or glory, requires as much, and more difficult labor to acquire it, because the offspring of ambition. Lacon has truly observed, in substance. The road to glory would cease to be arduous, if it were well trodden. Those who seek earthly glory, must always be ready to take and make opportunities for advance- ment — take and make paths to travel in. Some prac- tise simulation and dissimulation — leap and creep, like Ca?sar; kiss the ground, like Brutus; soar aloft and and stooj), to conquer — any thing to insure success. FAME AND GLORY. 71 Brenmis threw his sword in the trembling scale to turn it; Nelson snatched the laurels from the hesitating hand of victory, and placed them on his own brow. Cromwell did not wait to strike, until the iron was hot, but made it hot by striking. Some can rule the storm of mind when raised — but few have lived, who could both raise and rule it. No glory or fame is both consolatory and enduring, unless based on virtue, wisdom, and justice. That acquired by wild ambition, is tarnished by association — time deepens the stain. We read the biography of Washington with calmness and delight; that of Bonaparte, with mingled feelings of admiration and abhorrence. We admire the gigantic powers of his intellect, the vastness of his designs, the boldness of their execution; but turn, with horror, from the slaughter-fields of his ambition, and his own dreadful end. His giddy height of power served to plunge him deeper in misery ; his lofty ambition increased the burning tortures of his exile; his towering intellect added a duplicate force to the consuming pangs of his disappointment. His fatal end should cool the ardor of all who have an inordinate desire for earthly glory. There is a higher, purer glory, enduring as eternity, which is more worthy of immortal souls, than any thing earth can give. That glory is within the reach of all, and is not dependent on the caprice of the multi- tude. To obtain it, we have only to enlist under King Immanuel, fight manfully the good fight of faith ; he will enable us to triumph over every foe, and will reward us with palms of victory, and a crown of immortal glory. 72 THE PROBE. FANATICISM. Alchymists may doubt The shining gold their crucible gives out; But faith, fanatic faith, once wedded fast To some fond falsehood, hugs it to the last. — Moore. The great misfortune of fanatics has been, in all ages of the world, to embrace falsehood rather than truth; sophistry rather than sound logic; some new revelation of man, rather than that of divine authority. With charity and mercy, they hold no communion ; for- giveness is no part of their creed ; persecution is their Moloch. They have shed rivers of blood under the pretence of serving God, and under the banner of the cross. The Crusades were an illustration of the awful consequences of fanaticism. They were six in number, undertaken for the recovery of the Holy Land from the Mahometans. The first was undertaken in 1096, and was excited by Peter the Hermit, and Walter the Moneyless. All Europe was in commotion, and seemed determined to exterminate the Turks at one bold stroke. An army of over one million marched to Jerusalem, took it by storm, and spared neither sex or age. Notwithstanding this victory, most of this immense army found a premature grave in Asia, and the remnant that returned, brought with them the pest- ilence, leprosy, and smallpox. A second crusade was undertaken in 1145, by Lewis VII. of France; a third, by Richard I. of England, in 1190; a fourth, by Phihp II. of France, in 1204; a fifth, by Lewis IX. of France, against Egypt, in 1248; and the sixth, by the same king, against Tunis, in 1270, where he was FANATICISM. 73 killed. The loss of life, in these crusades, is variously estimated by different historians, but by none, less than thirty millions — a sad coniinentary upon human nature, a solemn warning against blind zeal and in- fatuating fanaticism. Fanatics are inexorable to all entreaties for mercy ; all who are not with them, they treat as enemies; considering all heterodox, who do not embrace their dogmas. Fanaticism arrays father against son, mother against daughter; disregards all the ties of consan- guinity, all the bonds of former friendship, and all whom it cannot control, endeavors to destroy. Each set of fanatics are right in their own conceit, and detest all who think differently. The intelligence of the present day has stopped the effusion of blood among Christian nations by fanatics, and dispelled much of the darkness of fanaticism — but among the nations who still sit in gross darkness, it has lost none of its original features. The Turk would consider the sacred cities of Mecca and Medina polluted, was a Christian to step his foot in either. The Tartar be- lieves the lama to be immortal, and to eat certain parts of him, heaven is secured. The inhabitants of Mount Bata believe, the eating of a roasted cuckoo makes a saint ; and all these would sacrifice those who believe differently, if in their power. The 3Iormons and Millerites of our time and coun- try, have drunk largely at the fountain of fanaticism, and most of our religious sects have a slight tincture of it — enough to sometimes ridicule what they conceive to be error in others, instead of preaching nothing but Christ, and him crucified. As pure and undefiled re- ligion increases, when charity shall become the crown- 10 G 74 THE PROBE. ing glory of every Christian — when the gospel of* peace, in its native loveliness, primitive purity, and Bihle simplicity ; shall shed its glorious rays over the nations of the earth ; fanaticism will recede, until it shall be finally lost in the flood of light, that shall radiate from the sun of righteousness. Let Christians banish all prejudices against sects, and warm their hearts in the melting sunbeams of charity — this will sooner make them of one heart and mind. FASHION. Loveliness Needs not the aid of foreign ornaments, But isj when unadorn'd, adorn'd the most. — TJiompson. We profess to be a Christian people, and are con- tributing, very sparingly to be sure, to the laudable enterprise of sending the gospel to those nations that are enveloped in the darkness of idolatry ; and yet we have an idol in our midst, worshipped with a zeal worthy of a Hindoo priest. No heathen god or goddess, has ever had more zealous devotees than Fashion, or a more absurd and humiliating ritual, or more morti- fying and cruel penances. Her laws, like those of the Medes and Persians, must be implicitly obeyed, but unlike them, change, as certainly as the moon. They are rarely founded in reason, usually violate common sense, sometimes common decency, and uniformly common comfort. Fashion, unlike Custom, never looks at the past, as a precedent for the present or future. She imposes unanticij)atcd burdens, without regard to the strength or means of her hood-winked followers, cheating them FASHION. 75 out of time, fortune, and happiness ; repaying tliem with the consohition of being ridiculed by the wise, endangering heakh, and wasting means; a kind of re- muneration rather paradoxical, but most graciously received. Semblance and shade arc among her attri- butes. It is of more importance for her worshippers to appear happy, than to he so. She makes Folly- originator and conductor of ceremonies, all based on the rickety foundation of vain show ; each routine of which must be passively adhered to, until the fickle goddess shakes her kaleidoscope again, and then, O Jupiter ! what a bustle — not the Simon Pure variety- bustle — but such a scampering to obey the mandate of the tyrant : — It could not be eclipsed by ten score of rats, should ferret, weasel, and puss, all pounce upon them at once. The least murmurino^ or haltino^ on the part of a recusant, is punished with instant excommu- nication, and the ridicule of the fashionable community. If she requires oblations from the four quarters of the globe, they must be had, if wealth, health, and happi- ness are the price. If she fancies comparative naked- ness for winter, or five thicknesses of woollen for dog days — she speaks, and it is done. If she orders the purple current of life, and the organs of respiration to be retarded by steel, whalebone, buckram, drill, and cords, — it is done. Disease laughs, and death grins at the folly of the goddess, and the zeal of the worshippers. If she orders a bag full of notions on the hips, a Chi- nese shoe on the foot, a short cut, a trail, a hoop, or balloon sleeve, or no sleeve, for a dress ; and a grain fan bonnet, or fool's cap for the head, she is obsequiously obeyed by the exquisitely fashionable ladies, and lauded by their beaux. If she orders her male subjects to 76 THE PROBE. produce a crop of corns on their feet with tiglit boots, contract their muscles with straps at both ends, and their chests with steel springs, and hemp cords suitable for a hangman, and to play all the monkey shines of a coxcomb, with chains dangling, rattan flourishing, and soaplocks streaming in the breeze, they are quite as tractable and docile as the feminine exquisites. Fashion taxes without reason, and collects without mercy. Siie first infatuates the court and aristocracy, and then ridicules the poor if they do not follow in the wake, although they die in the ditch. This was exem- plified in the reign of Richard III., who was hump- backed. Monkey-like, his court, at the dictum of fash- ion, all mounted a bustle on their backs, and as this was not an expensive adjunct, the whole nation became hump backed — emphatically a crooked generation — from the peasant to the king, all were humped. When looking at the frivolity of fashion, I often think of the boy, who traced the fashions from the country to Philadelphia ; from thence to New York ; thence to Boston ; thence to Paris, and from thence to the devil ; when he exclaimed, "T thought they came from him, for they make folks look just like a picture of him in one of my books." If this tyrannical huzzy would be content wath se- ducing the rich from the path of common sense, qnly for a short time, and would leave them something for old age, when she can no longer receive their adulation, she might have some claims to generosity ; but no, she not only often strips f/icm, as clear from feathers as a turkey on a spit, but searches the cellar and the garret — the cottage and the hovel, for victims. She takes fools by storm, the wise by deception and bribery, and FASHION. 77 makes the Mordccais and Daniels tremble at tlie «;oiig-soiin(l of triimpet-ton^ucd ridicule. Not only tlie vain and giddy, the thoughtless and rattlebrained, dance attendance upon her, but many a statesman and philosopher, moralist and Christian, more or less from all classes, pay tythes, at least, into the treasury of this transatlantic, Americanized, aristocratic, brazen-faced goddess; who is constantly importing the trappings and extravagances of European courts, to smother republican simplicity. Fashion is the foster mother of vanity, the ofFal of pride, and has nursed her pet, until it is as fat as a sea turtle, is quite as wicked to bite, and harder to kill ; but, unlike that inhabitant of the herring pond, instead of keeping in a shell, it is mount- ed on a shell, adorned with every flummery that the old fickle minded, ever changing, never tiring, ignis fatuus nurse can invent, intruding into all the avenues of life, scattering misery far and wide — faithless, fearless, un- compromising, and tyrannical. Reader, if you love freedom more than slavery, liberty more than thraldom, happiness more than misery, competence more than poverty ; never bow your knee to the goddess Fashion. FIRES. By referring to history, we find the great fires of our country scarcely deserve the name, either on land or water, in the amount of property destroyed, or in the destruction of human life. In the years 982, 1087, 1132, and 1136, nearly the whole of the city of London was destroyed by fire. On the 10th of July, 1212, the London bridge was burnt, g2 78 THE PROBE. and two thcfiisand persons perished. On the 2d of Sep- tember, 1666, a fire commenced near the monument, and continued four days and nights, spreading over four hundred and thirty-six acres of ground, four hun- dred streets, and consuming one hundred and thirteen thousand houses, and eighty-six churches. In 1676, this city was again threatened, for a time, with a sim- ilar fire, six hundred houses being destroyed before the flames were arrested. The next large fire in London, occurred July 22 and 23, 1794, when near seven hun- dred houses were destroyed, including an East India warehouse, in which were thirty-five thousand bags of saltpetre, but history says nothing of its '■^explo- sion.'''' On the 21st of March, 1824, a dreadful fire occurred at Cario, Egypt, when six thousand persons lost their lives by the explosion of the magazine — gunpowder, not saltpetre ! In January, 1823, a great fire occurred in Canton, which consumed fifteen thousand houses, and occasioned the loss of five hundred lives. On the 4th of September, 1778, a fire occurred in Constantinople, which consumed two thousand houses. On the 22d of October, 1782, another occurred in the same city, which consumed forty thousand dwellings and fifty mosques. In July of the next year, seven hundred houses were burnt. August 5, 1784, another fire occurred there, which destroyed ten thousand houses. During the year 1791, at different fires, thirty thousand houses were destroyed in that ill-fated city. On the 2d of August, 1816, this city lost twelve hun- dred and five houses and three thousand shops. In 1818-20, several thousand more houses were de- t^troyed. In February, 1813, a great fire occurred FIRES. 79 there, dcstro} in<^ twelve thousand houses, four hundred boats, and four hundred lives. On the 21st of June, 1821, Paramaribo, the chief city of tlie Dutch colonies in South America, was al- most entirely destroyed by fire — damage estimated at twenty millions of guilders. On the 26th of August, 1780, St. Petcrsburgh, in Russia, sustained great dam- age by fire ; and on the 28th of November, of the same year, eleven thousand houses were destroyed by fire, communicated by lightning. On the 7th of June, 1796, another fire occurred there, destroying a large magazine of naval stores, and one hundred vessels. Moscow, in Russia, founded, in 1147, was fired by the Tartars, in 1383, and almost entirely consumed. It was rebuilt, and, in 1571, again laid in ashes by the Tartars. It was again rebuilt, and, in 1611, destroyed by the Poles. From that time, this city enjoyed unin- terrupted prosperity up to the 14th of September, 1812, when Bonaparte entered it with his victorious army. It was then fired by the Russians, and continued burn- ing for several days, destroying more than three quar- ters of the city proper, then twenty miles in circumfer- ence, compelling the French army to retreat from the flames, causing the ruin of the army and the downfall of Bonaparte. Thirty thousand sick and wounded perished in the flames. At Brest, in France, on the 4th of December, 1776, the marine hospital was consumed, with a large num- ber of sick persons, and fifty galley slaves. On the 14th of February, 1807, the British ship Ajax was consumed off Tenedos, an island in the Grecian Archipelago, when three hundred and fifty men perished. 80 THE PROBE. On the 6tli of April, 1800, the Britisli man-of-war, Queen Charlotte, was consumed by fire off Leghorn, when seven hundred lives were lost. Many other fires have occurred at different times, in other countries, of greater magnitude, than any that have taken place in our country. New York has suffered by fire, at different periods, more in amount, than any city in the United States. On the 29th of December, 1773, the government house in that city was consumed. Trinity church, the Charity school house, the Lutheran church, and one thousand houses, were consumed by fire in that city, on the 21st of September, 1776. On the 7th of August, 1778, another fire occurred, which destroyed three hundred houses. Many other fires occurred at different periods, consuming from twenty to sixty houses at a time, pre- vious to 1835, when greater damage was done than at any former fire. The destruction w^as estimated at over ten millions of dollars. The fire of last summer, in that city, is fresh in the minds of all, as also that of Quebec in Canada. On the 21st of March, 1788, the greater portion of New Orleans was reduced to ashes. In Charleston, S. C, on the 15th of July, 1815, a fire occurred, which destroyed two hundred houses. On the 18th of January, 1827, a destructive fire occurred in Alexandria, D. C, which, owing to the in- clement season, caused great distress. Congress ap- propriated twenty thousand dollars towards the relief of the sufferers. On the 17th of December, 1786, Richmond, Va., was visited by a fire, which destroyed one hundred houses. On the 26th of December, 1811, the theatre at that FIUKS. 81 place was burnt, wlicii seventy lives were lost, anion*^ them, the governor of the state. Raleigh, N. C, was nearly destroyed by fire, on the 2d of October, 1S32. Wilmington, in the same state, suffered greatly by fire in INovember, 1798. On the 26th of December, 1802, Portsmouth, N.IL, had three hundred houses destroyed by fire. — August 24, 1814, Washington city was fired by order of Gen. Ross, who commanded the British troops. The capitol, containing the national library, the house of the Presi- dent, and many private dwellings, were consumed, as also the dock yard and the bridge over the Potomac. Petersburg, Va., was visited by a destructive fire on the 26th of April, 1761 ; since which, it has been almost totally destroyed tw^ice, by this destructive element. The first fire found on record, worthy of note, that oc- curred in Philadelphia, took place on the 24th of March, 1790, when a calico manufactory was burnt on the south west corner of Market and Ninth streets. On the 27th of January, 1797, the printing office and dwelling of Andrew Brown were consumed ; his wdfe and three children perished in the flames; and, on the 4th of February following, he died, from injuries received in endeavoring to rescue them. The most melancholy fire that ever occurred in this city, was the burning of the Orphan Asylum, on the 23d of January, 1822, w hen twenty-three of the poor orphans perished. Fire engines and hose were in use here as early as 1803. I now proceed to speak of the destructive fire which occurred in Pittsburg, on the 10th of April last. I not only witnessed, but felt deeply, the disastrous consequences of that fire, in the loss of nearly all of my property. 11 82 THE PROBE. It commenced about half-past twelve — noon. It was communicated to an ice house, from a fire built in the yard of a frame building, at the south east corner of Second and Ferry streets, for the purpose of heating wash water. The engines were on the ground prompt- ly, and manned by as noble companies of firemen as can be found in any city ; but a deficiency of water deprived them of the mastery over the raging element, which would have been achieved in a few minutes, could a supply have been obtained. The buildings in the immediate neighborhood were mostly frame — very dry and combustible. The fire soon crossed Second street — communicated to the cotton manufactory of James Woods, which, in a few minutes, was enveloped in flames, with all the stock and machinery. A des- perate effort was made by the firemen to arrest the fire at the brick house adjoining this large building; but all human effort was powerless — the flames increased with the increasing wind, which now became a hurricane, blowing from the south west, and carried the fire to the roofs of numerous buildings in a few" minutes. A dense mass of human beings now thronged the streets and avenues in the neighborhood of the fire — the roofs were covered with men and women, faithfully plying water from buckets, to extinguish the falling fire; but the course of the raging element was onward. It soon reached Water street — spread furiously to Mar- ket street, widening in its course, until it reached Wood street, where it extended in width, from the Mononga- hela river to Diamond alley, acquiring an intensity of heat without a parallel. Fire-proof buildings, as they were supposed to be ; fire-proof iron safes, as they were denominated, proved utterly inadequate to de- FIRES. 83 fond against the accumulating heat. Efforts to re- move goods were rendered almost powerless by the crowded state of the streets, and many who succeeded in removing their effects, placed them in the road of the fire. Some, who removed their goods three times, had them finally burnt ; and many who were assist- ing their friends in the lower part, returned to the burning remains of their own houses in the upper part of the city, so rapidly did the fire progress after it reached Wood street. At this point, it threatened the steamboats, which were moved out into the river ; the Monongahela bridge immediately took fire, on which large quantities of goods had been deposited, and in ten minutes and a half from the time it caught, every arch fell into the river, creating a smoke and steam, almost suffocating to those who were near it. The wind then changed to the west, and drove the flames, in one broad, unbroken sheet, horizontally, so as to fire almost every thing in its course up the Monongahela river, until the work of destruction ceased for want of fuel, having reached the terminus of Kensington, a suburb of the city ; covering nearly sixty acres, in its destruc- tive course. By the force of the heat, the fire was gradually spreading sideways towards the north, when the wind suddenly changed to that point, and drove the heat towards the river, and prevented farther damage. The public buildings destroyed, were : Philo Hall, oc- cupied by the Mayor and City Police, Board of Trade, and Philological Institute ; the Bank of Pittsburg, sup- posed to be fire proof; Union Meeting House ; Baptist Meeting House ; Methodist Meeting House, for colored ed people ; Western University ; Scotch Hill Market House, and injuring the Gas W^orks considerably. The 84 THE PROBE. Monongahela House, Merchants', American, and many smaller hotels, were consumed — the first named being covered with a metal roof. Individual losses were, in some instances, as high as two hundred thousand dol- lars. From the best information I can obtain, there were about eleven hundred buildings destroyed, about five millions dollars worth of property consumed, and near sixty acres of ground burnt over, nearly two-thirds of which has since been built upon ; and, in most instances, the buildings are better than those that were destroyed. The greater portion of the damage was done from two to five o'clock. No language can fully describe the scene that passed during those three hours. I was just recovering from a protracted illness, and unable to work ; but was calm and collected, except for a few moments, when I had reason to fear my wife had per- ished in the flames. The exhibition of human nature, under the fiery ordeal, was various — in some instances, painful to behold — in others, such as to induce a smile in the midst of despair. Almost every moment, some one would be carried by where I sat, who was sick, had fainted, or had been injured. Some stood, serene as a summer morning; others shed floods of tears ; others screamed, whilst the hyena and jackall thieves were freely and industriously helping themselves to goods that had been saved from the fire. The roar of the conflagration, and the consternation of the multi- tude, forced upon my imagination that more awful scene — the last and terrible day of the Lord, when the elements shall melt with fervent heat. I observed some throwing looking glasses and crock- ery from the u|iper stories into the streets, to save them ; FIRES. 85 many cryino^ for help, too iiuicli agitated to help them- selves. One gentleman, hearing a lady crying bitterly, wringing her hands in agony, went to her aid — when she exclaimed, " Do save my Mary in the second story!" He rushed through the flames for her child, as he supposed, when lo ! her Mary proved to be a pet cat ! The lady had displayed her tenderness for puss, and the gentleman his courage, gallantry, and humanity. He kicked the cat and cursed its mistress, and did not again risk his life for any of the feline ladies. A volume might be written, relating hair-breadth escapes ; feats of courage and of folly ; presence of mind, and the reverse, which would interest the reader ; but which would too much encumber this book. It is remarkable, and should inflame our hearts with gratitude, that no more lives were lost. But eleven are known to have perished in the flames. The time of day and time of year, were evident and striking tokens of mercy, mingled with this awful calamity. — Had it occurred at the same hour of night, thousands, especially children, must have perished; and had it been in the midst of a severe winter, the amount of suffering would have been incalculable. With the magnificent donations that were promptly forwarded, and the energy of the inhabitants, all hent on amassing wealth, the effects of the fire have measur- ably passed off*; and many are in better circumstances than they were before they were burnt out. H THE PROBE. FLATTERY. Here is my throne, my kingdom is tliis breast, My diadem, the weahh of light that shines, From your fair brow upon me. — Milman. Men or women who make a throne of vanity, a kingdom of self, and feast on the volatile breath of sycophants ; are like a balloon, nothing will inflate them and cause them to rise, but the gas of flattery ; any thing solid operates upon them with a centripetal force. When inflated, the more ignorant sometimes seem to feel as important as the Khan of Tartary, who is houseless, yet, when he has finished his repast of mare's milk and horse flesh, causes a herald to pro- claim from his seat, that the other potentates of the world have permission to eat their dinner. Those who feast on flattery are to be pitied ; those who flatter, should be despised. The one, by proper discipline, may have the unfortunate propensity corrected, per- haps cured; the other is the indulgence of a base dis- position to accomplish unhallowed purposes. The person who flatters, only to betray ; is meaner than badly kept October saiier kraut, alias, sour krout, the next July ; and worse than a cut worm in a corn field. To love flattery, is weakness ; it is nauseating as an emetic, to the truly wise. To flatter, betrays a small mind, or the stooping of a great mind to accomplish a dishonorable purpose; perhaps to gratify a hellish passion. Flatterers, Hke the bee, carry honey and a sting at the same time ; but, unlike that insect, they poison the flowers on which they light. They often possess the cunning of the fox, and always his mean- FRIENDSHIP. 87 ncss. They have only to be known to be despised, they liave only to be talked with to be known ; and when known and despised, are shunned, and often change their course, and become the vilest slanderers ; the jackalls and hyenas of society. Let those who are easily intoxicated and inflated by flattery, sign the pledge of wisdom, and live up to it; and those who have been the manufacturers and retailers, take the same pledge, religiously observe it, and pursue some nobler employment. They will then better fulfil the design of their creation, induce self respect, and secure the esteem of those around them. FRIENDSHIP. Friendship, like love, is but a name, Unless to one you stint the flame. those who depend On many, seldom find a friend. — Gay. Pure, disinterested friendship, is a bright flame, emitting none of the smoke of selfishness, and seldom deigns to tabernacle among men. Its origin is divine, its operations heavenly, and its results enrapturing to the soul. It is because it is the perfection of earthly bliss, that the world has ever been flooded with base counterfeits, many so thickly coated with the pure metal, that nothing but time can detect the base inte- rior and ulterior designs of bogus friends. Deception is a propensity deeply rooted in human nature, and the hobby horse on which some ride through life. The heart is deceit fid above all things, who can know it? Judas betrayed the Lord of glory with a kiss, and his vile example has been most scrupulously followed ever 06 THE PROBE. since. Thousands have had their property, reputa- tion, and hves sacrificed, under the hissing sound of a Judas kiss. Caution has been termed the parent of safety, but has often been baffled by a Judas kiss. The most cautious have been the dupes and victims of the basest deceivers. We should be extremely careful who we confide in, and then we will often find ourselves mis- taken. Let adversity come, then we may know more of our friends. Nine hundred and ninety-nine out of a thousand, will probably show that they were sunshine friends, and will escape as for their lives, like rats from a barn in flames ! Ten to one, those who have en- joyed the most sunshine, will be the first to forsake, censure, and reproach. Friendship, based entirely on self, ends in desertion, the moment the selfish ends are accomphshed, or frustrated. In forming friendships, let the following cautions be observed, as general land-marks. Beware of the flat- terer, who takes special care to refer to your beauty, talents, wealth, influence, power, or piety. Beware of those whose tongues are smooth as oil, they are often as drawn swords. Beware of those whose bewitching smiles are enchantment ; like the wily serpent, charm- ing the bird, they may contemplate your ruin. Beware of those who are fond of communicating secrets; they expect to obtain yours by reciprocity, and will employ some others to help keep them. Beware of fretful dis- putatious persons; of the envious, the jealous, the proud, and the vicious. Beware of the fickle and unstable who are ever perched on the pivot of uncertainty. Beware of the man who invites you to participate in what are styled GAMBLING. 89 *' innocent aniiiscnicnts," which often Icjul to the broad road of ruin. Beware of the man who despises the old fashioned customs of frugality and economy — they arc the basis of earthly prosperity. Beware of the man who suddenly commences shaking hands with those he had before considered below him. He has an office in his eye and wants your vote, but is unworthy of it. In the choice and in the preservation of friends, ever re- member that caution is requisite at all times, and un- der all circumstances. Finally, beware of all those who do not respect the Bible and the Christian religion, the firmest basis on which the superstructure of friendship can be erected. GAMBLING. The gathering number, as it moves along, Involves a vast, accumulating throng, Who, gently drawn, soon struggle less and less — Roll in this vortex and its power confess. — Pope. Every device that suddenly changes money or pro- perty from one person to another without a quid pro quo, or leaving an equivalent, produces individual em- barrassment — often extreme misery. More pernicious is that plan, if it changes property and money from the hands of the many to the few. Gambling docs this, and often inflicts a still greater injury, by poisoning its victims with vice, that eventu- ally lead to crimes of the darkest hue. Usually, the money basely filched from its victims, is the smallest part of the injury inflicted. It almost inevitably leads to intemperance. Every species of offence, on the black 12 h2 90 THE PROBE. catalogue of crime, may be traced to the gambling table, as the entering wedge to its perpetration. This alarming evil, is as wide spread as our country. It is practised from the humblest water craft that floats on our canals — up to the majestic steamboat on our mighty rivers ; from the lowest groggeries that curse the community, up to the most fashionable hotels that claim respectability — from the hod carrier in his be- spattered rags, up to the honorable members of con- gress in their ruffles. Like a mighty maelstrom, its motion, at the outside, is scarcely perceptible, but soon increases to a fearful velocity ; suddenly the awful cen- tre is reached — the victim is lost in the vortex. In- terested friends may warn, the wife may entreat, with all the eloquence of tears ; children may cling and cry for bread — once in the fatal snare, the victim of gam- blers is seldom saved. He combines the deafness of the adder with the desperation of a maniac, and rushes on, regardless of danger — reckless of consequences. To the fashionable of our country, who play cards and other games as an innocent amusement, we may trace the most aggravated injuries resulting from gam- bling. It is there that young men of talents, educa- tion, and wealth, take the degree of entered apprentice. The example of men in high life, men in public sta- tions and responsible offices, has a powerful and cor- rupting influence on society, and does much to increase the evil, and forward, as well as sanction the high- handed robbery of fine dressed black legs. The gam- bling hells in our cities, tolerated and patronized, are a disgrace to any nation bearing a Christian name, and would be banished from a Pagan community. Gambling assumes a great variety of forms, from the GAMBLING. 91 flipping of II cent in tlie b;ir room for a glass of w hiskey, up to the splendidly furnished faro bank room, where men are occasionally swindled to the tune of "ten thou- sand a year," and sometimes a much larger amount. In addition to these varieties, we liave legalized lotteries and fancy stock brokers, and among those who manage them, professors of religion are not unfrequently found. Thousands, who carefully shun the monster under any other form, pay a willing tribute to the tyrant, at the shrine of lotteries. Persons from all classes, throw their money into this vault of uncertainty, this whirl- pool of speculation, with a less chance to regain it, than when at the detested faro bank. It is here that the poor man spends his last dollar — it is here that the rich often become poor, for a man has ten chances to be killed by lightning, where he has one to draw a capital prize. The ostensible objects of lotteries are always praiseworthy. Meeting houses, hospitals, semi- naries of learning, internal improvement, some laud- able enterprize, may always be found, first and fore- most, in a lottery scheme — the most ingenious and most fatal gull trap, ever invented by man or devil. Some, who are so fortunate as to escape all the gambling gins that have been referred to, get caught in the most refined, and not the least dangerous — the capstone of the climax — that makes awful sweeps among the upper ten thousand — Stock Gambling. This system is as pernicious in principle as the others — as dangerous to those few who have the means to sport in stocks, but, fortunately, the meshes of the net are so large, that the vast multitude of small fish are in no danger from this quarter. All the other seines will hold, even minnows. 92 THE PROBE. Gaming covers in darkness, and often blots out all the nobler powers of the heart, paralyzes its sensibilities to human wo, severs the sacred ties that bind man to man, to woman, to family, to community, to morals, to religion, to social order, and to country. It transforms men to brutes, desperadoes, maniacs, misanthropists; and strips human nature of all its native dignity. The gamester forfeits the happiness of this life, and endures the penalties of sin in both worlds. His profession is the scavenger of avarice, haggard and filthy, badly fed, poorly clad, and worse paid. Let me entreat all to shun the monster, under all his borrowed and deceptive forms. Remember, that gambling for amusement, is the wicket gate into the labyrinth, and when once in, you may find it difficult to get out. Ruin is marked, in blazing capitals, over the door of the gambler — his hell is the vestibule to that eternal hell, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. If you regard your own, and the happiness of your family and friends, and the salvation of your immortal soul, recoil from even the shadow of a shade, reflected by this heaven-daring, heart-break- ing, soul-destroying, fashionable, but ruinous vice. GENIUS. The man who can analyze Genius, and, as a chem- ist, in his laboratory, show, to a demonstration, its component parts, or, to speak comparatively, even j)enctrate its cuticle, or detect its oxygen, may next analyze the wind, put the thunder-cloud in his breeches pocket, and cjuafF lightning for a beverage. We may think, see, talk, and write upon the triumphant achieve- GENIUS. 93 ments, the magic wonders, and untiring efforts of Ge- nius ; bat what is Genius ? that's the question — one that none but pedants will attempt to answer. The thing, the moving cause, and the modus operandi^ can no more be comprehended, and reduced to materiality, than the spirit that animates our bodies. Metaphysi- cians, Craniologists, and Physiologists; may put on their robes of mystery, arm each eye with a micros- cope, each finger with the acutest phrenological sensi- bility, and whet up all their mental powers to a razor edge, strain their imagination to its utmost tension, tax speculation one hundred per cent., and then call to their aid men who possess this quality, the combined force could not weave a web, and label it Genius, that would not be an insult to common sense. Genius is not only mental power, but its essence. The frosts of Iceland cannot freeze it, the fogs of Holland cannot mildew it, the tropical sun cannot paralyze it, the po- tentates of the earth cannot crush it — in all countries and climes, it springs up spontaneously in various shades, but flourishes most luxuriantly, and with more beautiful symmetry and strength, when nurtured by intelligence and freedom, amidst the social institutions of a Republican form of government, and, next to that, under a limited monarchy. A single glance at the history of American and English Genius, compared with others of modern times, will convince an unbiassed mind, of the truth of this assertion. At one period, Genius exerted its greatest force to promote the science of letters, and revelled in classic lore. Latterly, it has put forth its noblest powers upon the mechanic arts, seized some of the mightiest elements of nature, and made them subservient to man. Mechanical Genius 94 THE PROBE. has reduced time, distance, and weight ; in a ratio, that has ecHpsed the most visionary projects of its most zealous friends, that were the subject of ridicule not many years ago. The broad ocean, the mighty river, the wide-spread lake, the towering mountain ; once formidable barriers to intercourse, are now rapidly passed by the aid of steam, consolidating our own country into a phalanx, and making the nations of the old world our neighbors. To what useful purposes the electric fluid, the atmosphere, the wind, and other ele- ments will yet be converted by Genius ; time only can develope. So versatile is this essence of mental power, that we can form no rules to pre-determine or fix its personal locality, its time of development, its measure of strength, or the extent of its orbit. Like a blazing meteor, it bursts suddenly upon us, as in the darkness of night, illuminates the world, and, like the lightning thunder-bolt, shivers every obstacle that stands in its way. Like the diamond, which differs from all other precious stones, by having the power of refracting and reflecting the prismatic colors ; so Genius refracts and reflects the intellectual rays of mind, imparting fresh vigor, lustre, and force. The diamond can never shine, until divested of the rubbish of the quarry, by the hand of the lapidary. In the same manner, Genius must be divested of ignorance, before it can refract and reflect its rays, and the brighter it is polished by intelligence, the more powerfully and brilliantly will it dazzle. How important, then, that the quarry of mind be explored, that none of these precious jewels lie undiscovered in time of life, and be finally lost in death. Lacon has well observed — "A Newton or a Shakespeare, born among savages — savages had died." GOVERNMENT. 95 GOVERNMENT. Virtue affords the only safe foundation for a peace- ful, happy, and prosj)erous government. When the nicked rule, the nation mourns. Not that rulers must necessarily profess religion, by being members of some Christian church, as desirable as it may be, but they must venerate it, and be men of pure moral and political honesty. Disease and corruption affect the body politic, and produce pain and dissolution, with the same certainty, that they prostrate the physical powers of man. If the head is disordered, the whole heart is sick. If the political fountain becomes polluted, its dark and murky waters will eventually impregnate every branch with the contagious miasma. The his- tory of the past proves the truth of these assertions — passing events afford too frequent demonstration of the baneful effects of intrigue and peculation. With- out virtue, our Unioiv will become a mere rope of sand — the victim of knaves and the sport of kings — self government will become an enigma with monarchs, rational liberty a paradox, and a republic, the scoff of tyrants. Let every freeman look to this matter in time. The crowned heads of Europe are watching, with an Argus-eye, every opportunity to weaken our Union. Every year of our prosperous existence endangers their power — the story of our liberty is reaching and enrapturing their subjects — the tenure by which they hold their crowns, is becoming more frail as time rolls onward; and, if we are true to ourselves — if virtue predominates — if the voice of wisdom is obeyed — if patriotism, discretion, and honesty, guide our rulers — 96 THE PROBE. our government will increase in strength, beauty, and grandeur; and eclipse Greek and Roman fame. By our example, we will conquer the world, more effectually, and by far more gloriously, than Alexander did with the sword — by regenerating the minds of the millions upon its surface. But we must practice upon the principle, that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. We are more in danger from internal foes, than from foreign enemies. If we would be truly great, we must be truly good. Virtue, wisdom, prudence, patriotism, and sterling integrity; must actuate, guide, and fully control our leaders, and the great mass of our increasing population. The towering waves of political intrigue and demagogue influence must be rolled back, and the purity of motive and love of coun- try, that impelled the sages and heroes of '76, to noble and God-like action, must pervade the hearts of our rulers, and the people of our nation. GRATITUDE. To generous minds, The heaviest debt is that of gratitude, When 'tis not in our power to repay it. -^Franklin. Gratitude is a painful pleasure, felt and expressed by none but noble souls. Such are pained, because misfortune places them under the stern necessity of receiving favors from the benevolent, who are, as the world would say, under no obligation to bestow them — free-will offerings, made by generous hearts, to smooth the rough path, and wipe away the tears of a fellow being. They derive a pleasure from the enjoyment of GRATITUDE. 97 the benefits bestowed, which is rendered more exqui- site, by the reflection, that there are those in the world, wlio can feci and appreciate the woes of others, and lend a willing hand to help them out of the ditch — those who are not wrapped up in the cocoon of selfish avarice, who live only for themselves, and die for the devil. This pleasure is farther refined, by a knowledge of the happiness enjoyed by the person whose benevo- lence dictated the relief, in the contemplation of a duty performed, imposed by angelic philanthropy, guided by motives, pure as heaven. The worthy recipient feels deeply the obligations under which he is placed — no time can obliterate them from his memory, no Statute of Limitation bars the payment; the moment means and opportunity are within his power, the debt is joyfully liquidated, and this very act gives a fresh vigor to his long-cherished gratitude. Nothing tenders the heart, and opens the gushing fountain of love, more than the exercise of gratitude. Like the showers of spring, that cause flowxrs to rise from seeds that have long lain dormant, tears of grati- tude awaken pleasurable sensations, unknown to those who have never been forced from the sunshine of pros- perity, into the cold shade of adversity, where no warmth is felt, but that of benevolence — no light enjoyed, but that of charity; unless it shall be the warmth and light communicated from Heaven to the sincerely pious, who alone are prepared to meet, with calm submission, the keen and chilling winds of mis- fortune, and who, above all others, exercise the virtue of gratitude, in the full perfection of its native beauty. 13 98 THE PROBE. HAPPINESS. The spiders most attenuated thread Is cord — is cable, to man's tender tie On earthly bliss — it breaks at every breeze. — Young. The enjoyment of earthly happiness depends much upon disposition, taste, fancy, and imagination. These are fickle, changeable as the chamelion, and often play truant. Of course, it is not surprising to frequently find the helm of sublunary happiness unshipped, her masts sprung, her anchor dragging, or cable parted, her sails rent and shivering in the wind, her hull water- logged, signals of distress out, or her flag at half mast, and sometimes an adverse breeze throws her on her beams end. Her compass, as the red men say of the white, is mighty uncertain, her officers and crew are more uncertain still. It is not the want of means to be happy, that pro- duces the great amount of unhappiness in the world. Keen misery may be oftener found in the abodes of wealth, than among the peasantry, or even serfs. Earthly happiness has been appropriately compared to the manna of the Israelites. He that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack. It is the result of wisdom, rational design, rea- sonable desires, and prudent enjoyment. But taste, fancy, and imagination ; discard these cardinal points, and fly from them like a tangent line from a radius ; and as surely produce misery, as fire burns gunpowder; often producing a ruinous explosion. Artificial and imaginary wants, are as much more numerous than real wants; as shin plasters, a few years ago, were IIKART. 99 more plcntirul than gold eagles; and are of about the same relative value. Disappointment is a harsh old fellow, the sworn enemy of earthly enjoyment, and stands at the threshold of imaginary wants with his cat- o'-nine tails, and lashes most of those who attain them, and prevents their entrance into the sanctum sanctorum of happiness. Where one enjoys the pleasure antici- pated, on the attainment of an object, not indispensably necessary to promote earthly comfort ; ninety-nine are so excoriated by disappointment, that they writhe in agony, like a man with the gout. An immortal spirit, if compelled to seek happiness in things earthly alone, is prone to be driven, with centrifugal force, farther and farther from it. To enjoy happiness in this life, in its greatest purity, we must live in constant prepa- ration to enter upon it in " that country, from whose bourne no traveller returns." The great secret of substantial happiness, consists in contentment, and a constant communion with God, and a full reliance on him, at all times. THE HEART. They little know Man's heart, and the intenseness of its passions, Who judge from outward symbols ; lightest griefs Are easiest discern'dj as shallow brooks Show every pebble in their troubl'd currents, While deeper streams flow smooth as glass above Might'est impediments, and yield no trace Of what is beneath them. — Ncale. The physical heart is the great reservoir, from which flow the numerous life streams that support our 100 THE PROBE. body. Anatomists suppose each ventricle of the heart to contain from one and a half to two ounces of blood, and that the heart pulsates over four thousand times in an hour, passing over four hundred pounds of blood every sixty minutes. Twenty-eight pounds of blood is supposed to be the quantity in a common-sized person, which passes from and to the heart, from fifteen to twenty times each hour, with a regularity and velocity, of which we can form no full conception. Dr. Paley has remarked, "The heart is so complex in its mechanism, so delicate in many of its parts, as seemingly to be little durable, and always hable to de- rangement — yet may this wonderful machine go, night and day, for eighty years together, at the rate of one hundred thousand strokes every tw^enty-four hours, having, at every stroke, a great* resistance to over- come, and may continue this action this length of time, without disorder, and without weariness." But my business is more particularly with the im- material, or moral heart. With reference to the in- cumbents of this kind of hearts, we have three kinds of men in community — those with good hearts, those with bad ones, and those without hearts. With all the multifarious machinery of the physical heart, its intri- cacies bear no comparison with those of the moral heart, which has been declared by Holy Writ, to be desperately wicked^ with the significant question — who can know it9 a question w^orthy of serious considera- tion — yet fearfully neglected. The examination of our own hearts is a repulsive task, and seldom attended to, and more seldom, thoroughly. But few men know their * Thirteen pounds. — Carpenter. HEART. 101 own powers of mind, and their natural propensities, until they are brought into full action. Here is the solution of the problem, why some particular eras have produced greater men than others. It was the occa- sion, not the difference in native mental powers. Great occasions ever have, and ever will produce great men. The American revolution developed a blaze of talent that illuminated the world, which, but for such an oc- casion, would have passed unobserved by the incum- bents, and those around them. 3Iore especially are we unwilling to discover and correct the bad qualities of our hearts. If the heart has yielded to the control of the gross passions, we are too apt to permit them to run riot, and lead the whole man astray. Instead of keeping it with all diligence, and putting it under proper discipline by self examina- tion and correction, we are too prone to be more ignorant of this fountain of action, than of any thing else, in or around us. This is radically wrong, and often ruinous. Know thyself, O man ! The heart is the seat of all that adorns our race, as well as of all that deforms it. We are enraptured to meet a man W'ith an open, bold, noble, and generous heart ; full of the milk of human kindness, natural af- fection, beaming in his face and exhibited in his actions. We are pained to meet one, with his heart overflowing with wickedness and vice, a brute in human form. Still more are we pained to meet a man who is heartless, wrapped up in self, no feeling for the pleasures or w'oes of his fellow men, a snail in embryo, ossified by mean- ness. Their own hearts many will not know, the hearts of others we cannot know, although some igno- ramuses have assumed the high prerogative of judging i2 102 THE PROBE. them. Even actions are no sure criterion, unless we can know all the circumstances that prompted them. In judging from actions, men will vary in their opinions, as physiologists have in the action of the material heart. The resistance to be overcome by each pulsa- tion of the heart, in forcing the blood from the ventricle into the aorta, has been estimated by different authors, from five ounces,* to one hundred and eighty thousand pounds ;t a fair illustration of the random verdicts, passed by some persons on others. If all will recollect, that every tub stands on its own bottom, that each man and woman is individually ac- countable to God for the action of the moral heart, and look into their own hearts, and weed out their own foul gardens ; it will enhance individual and public hap- piness. For overt transgressions of the laws of social order, we are amenable to earthly tribunals — the moral heart they can never penetrate or scan. Man may bleed its sensibility, open the gushing fountains of its grief, rouse its latent powers to a foaming fury, dry up its milk of human kindness by base ingratitude ; but into its sancium sanctorum he can never enter — the great Jehovah only has full access there. If our hearts are right with him, if we have fully, freely, and unre- servedly surrendered them to him, all will be well ; we need not fear what man can do to our bodies — but if they are not right with him, dreadful will be our doom. *Keill. tBorelli. HONESTY 1 03 HONESTY. An honest man is the noblest work of God. — Pope. The standard of honesty, here raised by the poet, would not answer for the mass of the present genera- tion. He induded purpose, word, and action; in all things, under all circumstances, and at all times. The purity of his honest man must raise him above every temptation, and enable him to obey strictly, to the letter, the laws of integrity, that come from the clean hands of the great Jehovah — a man, whose every mo- tive and action will pass the scrutiny of Omniscience, unscathed and approved. Such a man would not con- vert the newspaper, or umbrella of another, to his own use. Where is the man who dares claim this standard as one of his adoption, reasonable and just as it is ? If any, let him throw the first stone, but let him see well that it does not rebound, and break his own head. See him dodge. The adage. Honesty is the best policy, is the essential oil of dishonesty in disguise. The man who is honest only from policy, and not for the sake of the virtue of honesty, is so only from selfish interest, the essence of meanness. He is more dangerous than the open knave — for the moment he thinks his interest can be enhanced by dishonesty, he will Swartwout. We have too much policy in morals and religion. It is cunning without wisdom, cowardice with hypocrisy, fear of man, not of God. The devil preaches religion from policy, and the man who is honest o?ili/ from policy, is like him. I admire the story of the crazy woman. 104 THE PROBE. Confucius, the great Chinese philosopher, met an insane woman, with a pitcher of water and faggot of fire, and asked how she intended to use them. She replied, " With the fire I will burn up heaven — with the water put out hell. We shall then know who are good for the sake of goodness." The possession of the principle of honesty, is a mat- ter known most intimately, to the man and his God, and fully, only to the latter. No man knows the ex- tent and strength of his own honesty, until he has passed the fiery ordeal of temptation. Men who shudder at the dishonesty of others, at one time in life, then sailing before the favorable wind of prosperity, when adversity overtakes them, their honesty too often flies away, on the same wings with their riches ; and, what they once viewed with holy horror, they now prac- tise with shameless impunity. Others, at the com- mencement of a prosperous career, arje quite above any tricks in trade, but their love of money increases with their wealth, their honesty relaxes, they become hard honest men, then hardly honest, and are, finally, confirmed in dishonesty. On the great day of account, it will be found, that men have erred more in judging of the honesty of others, than in any one thing else; not even religion excepted. Many who have been condemned, and had the stigma of dishonesty fixed upon them, because mis- fortune disabled them from paying their just debts ; will stand acquitted by the Judge of quick and dead, whilst others cover dishonest hearts and actions, un- detected ])y man. Self interest blinds charity, circumstances are viewed with the eyes of prejudice, and not by them closely HONOR. 105 scanned — tlio cry of mud dog is raised, and in this way, many an honest man has been victimized, who might and should have been saved for future useful- ness. The confirmed knave is soon well known, and no man should be unconditionally condemned, until he proves himself to be clearly dishonest, and shows a disposition to remain so. To err is one thing — to be dishonest at the core, is a very different thing. Charity, kindness, and forbearance ; would have saved many a man, who has been driven to desperation and ruin, by a contrary course. With a blush, I write it, this course is sometimes most inhumanly pursued in churches, against a member who becomes unable to pay another member in the same church. I have known instances of this kind, that would disgrace a savage, and forfeit his caste. Charity and forgiveness are paralyzed by cold-hearted selfishness, and the victim is sacrificed in the house of his professed friends. HONOR. An attempt to define this term, to meet the views of all, would place the writer in the same dilemma with the man who set out to please every body, and suc- ceeded in gaining his own displeasure, and that of every one he met ; or he would fare like the man, who alter- nately drove, led, rode, and carried his ass ; at the sug- gestion of different persons, and was upbraided by some one, as often as he made a change. The honor awarded to a good man, by the great Jehovah, is pure and unalloy- ed. The different kinds, so called by men of the world, like the coin in circulation, range from the legal alloy, 14 106 THE PROBE. down to the basest counterfeit ; current only among the ignorant, and bogus men. Each caste has its code of honor. A member of congress may shoot a fellow member — be lauded by his constituents for the act, and be reelected as a mark of honor and continued confi- dence — the man in humble life might be hung for a similar act. The one may indulge in all the dissipation that contaminates the seat of government, and still be called, The Hon. Mr. , whilst the man in low life, decoyed from the path of duty and rectitude, by some rum-selling shark, a man killer and soul destroyer, would be arraigned before an alderman, and fined for getting drunk, for profane swearing, and imprisoned, if he was unable to pay the penalty. A public function- ary may rob the treasury of thousands, and be treated as an honorable man by multitudes, whilst the man who unlawfully takes a loaf of bread to prevent starvation, or an old garment to keep him from freezing; is hunted by the officers of police, hke a sheep-killing dog ; and, at an expense of fifty or a hundred dollars to the city or county, is punished for this offence, and disgraced in view of every one. Thieves, pickpockets, blacklegs, pirates, and such like kindred spirits ; all have their code of honor, and most punctiliously observe it. The aristocracy may violate all the rules of morality, not inscribed on the calendar of crime, and receive the adulation of those of their own kidney, and all those who bow obsequiously to a man who has, or appears to have wealth, measuring honor and reputation by dol- lars and cents — a standard adopted by large numbers in this republican land, and by more in the European world. The honor connected with fame, in the ranks HONOR. 107 of tlic upper ten tliousand, is that most talked about, sought after, coveted, and envied — the fame of the hero, the statesman, tlie jurist, the ])olitician, the philosopher, and the literati. This kind of lionor, like our gold coin, made under the law, is nearest the Simon Pure, and, Hke that, is small in (juantity, compared with the man- ufactured, soulless paper of our country, and as hard to be obtained. Fame, hke an undertaker, pays more attention to the dead, than the living. The purest earthly honor, in its brightest aspect, is precarious, effervescent, fleet- ing. It builds its superstructure on public opinion, the quick sand of human nature, and as changeable as the wind. It often erects a splendid mansion for the aspi- rant, then pulls it down, and, from the same materials, builds his tomb. It cannot withstand the storms of life, it is a mere feather before the wind. Earthly Hope is its banker, but seldom has any funds with which to meet the draughts of honor. Brutus mis- took it for virtue, and adored it, but when the storm came, found it to be a deceptive shadow. Let us cease, then, to depend on sublunary fame and honor for happiness, but seek the enduring joys, that flow, without alloy, from that fountain, that is opened in the house of Kino^ David — a fountain that will wash out every stain, purify all our enjoyments, and make us happy as angels are. 108 THE PROBE. HOPE. Why is a wish far dearer than a crown ? That wish accomplishedj why the grave of bhss ? BecausCj in the great future buried deep, Beyond our plans of empire and renown, Lies all that man with ardor should pursue. And He who made him, bent him to the right. — Yoimg. Earthly Hope, like fear, and sleep, is confined to this dim spot, on which we live, move, and have our being. It is excluded from heaven and hell. It is a dashing blade, with a great estate in expectancy, which, when put in its possession, produces instant death. It draws large drafts on Experience, payable in futuro, and is seldom able to liquidate them. Hope is always buoyant, and, like old Virginia, never tires. It answers well for breakfast, but makes a bad supper. Like a balloon, we know where it starts from, but can make no calculation when, where, and how, it will land us. Hope is a great calculator, but a bad mathemati- cian. Its problems are seldom based on true data — their demonstration is oftener fictitious than otherwise. Without the baseness of some modern land speculators, it builds cities and towns on paper, that are as worth- less as their mountain peaks and impassable quagmires. It suspends earth in the air, and plays with bubbles, like a child, with his tube and soap suds. As with Milo, who attempted to split an oak, and was caught in the split and killed ; the wedge often flies out, and the ope- rator is caught in a split stick. It is bold as Caesar, and ever ready to attempt great feats, if it should be to storm the castle of Despair. It is like the unlettered IDLENESS. 109 rustic, who was asked if he could read Greek, lie re- plied, with perfect sang froid, " I cannot tell, I never tried." Hope tries every thin^^, and stops at nothing. This is earthly Hope — a paradox — being strictly hon- est — yet the essence of deception. But there is a Hope, that is an anchor to the soul, both sure and steadfast, that will steady our frail bark, while sailing over the ocean of life, and that w ill enable us to outride the storms of time — a Hope that reaches from earth to heaven. This Hope is based on faith in the immaculate Redeemer, and keeps our earthly hopes from running riot, into forbidden paths. The cable of this Hope cannot be sundered, until death cuts the gor- dian knot, and lets the prisoner go free. To live with- out it, is blind infatuation — to die without it — eternal ruin. IDLENESS. Cares are employments, and without employ The soul is on a rack, the rack of rest. — Young. Idleness is criminal prodigality, because it wastes time — it causes extra, unnecessary labor ; performing nothing at the proper time, and is the prolific author of want and shame — a confused workshop for the devil to tinker in. Creative wisdom designed man for virtuous action ; idleness violates this design, robs the creature of happiness here, and endangers — it may destroy it, in futurity. The Turks often repeat this proverb. The devil tempts all other men — the idle man tempts the devil, for the devil likes to see men in motion; it is much easier to give a moving object any desired direction, K 110 THE PROBE. than a dead stationary weight. The idle man is hke a bed of unused compost — with the properties of en- riching the field, if properly spread over it ; the very ground on which it lies can produce no useful vegeta- tion, noxious weeds may spring out of it, and their seeds be scattered, to the injury of the surrounding wheat. While a man remains inert, torpid ; like an oyster in its shell, he commits no overt acts of evil or good, but his soul cannot rest quietly ; it naturally engenders vice, this ultimately rouses him to action, the devil puts him under whip and spur, to make up lost time, and, in many instances, the man who has paralyzed his moral powers by idleness, like a blind horse, works on the tread wheel better than a sound one. The physical powers of the idle man become ener- vated — he converts himself into a living sepulchre — loathsome to himself and all around him. I once saw a lazy man offered a half dollar, to buy food for his starving family. He begged the donor to put it in his pocket, as he disliked to move his hands. It was done, that he might maintain his reputation as the laziest man in the neighborhood — but this does not destroy the force of the illustration. Manual labor is the invigorator of body and mind — the promoter of health, and the friend of virtue. Among those who labor in the field, the workshop, and the commercial room ; we usually find health and hapj>i- ness, and rarely crime. The idle poor populate our prisons — from the idle rich, this population would be increased, if they all had their deserts — but wickedness in high places is often winked at. The idle rich weave a web of misery for themselves ; bring up their children INCONSISTENCY. Ill ifrnoraiit of business, and when they die, this web is often the only legacy left to their heirs — which fre quently proves a passport to infamy, the penitentiary, or the gallows. Let idleness be banished from our land — crime and misery would follow in its wake — virtue and happiness would receive a new impetus. INCONSISTENCY. A FULL account of the bold and successful career of this arch enemy of order and happiness, would involve the history of mankind, from that fatal hour, when the indelible stain of transgression was stamped upon the fair escutcheon of our first parents, to the present moment. It has exercised its baneful influence over the human family, in every age, country, and clime. It rose, like a phoenix from ashes, in the blooming bowers of Eden, and planted its standard, emblazoned with the insignia of curses, on the mournful ruins of Paradise. From there, it has waved, with maniac triumph, over millions of deluded mortals, and over the wreck of ruined nations. To rob man of the ima^e of his God, and seduce him from the path of wisdom, has been its constant and successful aim. That it is still swaying its iron sceptre over the human race, is equally true. Nor will its exertions relax, until it shall be lost in the flood of millennial glory, that many sup- pose will ultimately burst upon the world. Its untiring course is onward, searching every avenue of mind, assailing every weakness of the heart. There are but few, if any, who have not sacrificed at its altar. It is the hot bed of human misery — the uncompromising foe 112 THE PROBE. of reason, wisdom, discretion, and prudence. Its at- tendants are ignorance, superstition, bigotry, fanaticism, faction ; and the rank and file of all the evil passions. Its first shout of victory grated harshly through the air, when the forbidden fruit was severed from its parent stem. Angels heard the discordant sound, and wept. Justice recorded the sad catastrophe with an- guish. Mercy beheld, with an eye of pity, the fallen pair ; the incarnate God was moved with compassion, entered bail for the trembling culprits, and cancelled the crimson bond on the summit of Calvary. In the blood of Abel, Inconsistency saturated its floating banner, and, as time rolled on, the scarlet was more deeply imprinted. The old world was convulsed by its reckless power, and its fairest portions blighted by its Sirocco blasts. The streams of Europe, Asia, and Africa; have been tinged with the purple current, drawn from the veins of millions, by the keen lancet of Inconsistency. The ancient and powerful kingdoms of the earth ; the hundred cities of Crete ; the splen- dours of Babylon ; the republics of Greece and Rome ; Carthage, with its seven hundred thousand inhabitants; Athens, with its forums and lyceums ; all fell beneath the ruthless hand of Inconsistency. Many of the philosophers, sages, orators, and poets, of the classic land ; many of the most prominent actors, who guided the destinies of the mistress of the world ; a large majority of the sixty-four emperors ; most of the ambitious generals ; were sacrificed at the sanguin- ary shrine of Inconsistency. The great Pompey, the proud Tarquin, the conquering Alexander, the bloody Nero, the ambitious Caesar, and the exiled Bonaparte ; all fell beneath the piercing arrows of Inconsistency. INCONSISTENCY. 113 III our own time and country, this envenomed, hydra monster, is continuing its ravages, sweeping over our far famed Republic, like a Samiel wind over the desert of Sahara. In matters of religion, this disturber of harmony has interfered, and demolished the old land marks of one faith, one God, and one baptism. Charity, humility, peace, forbearance, forgiveness, and consistent piety ; were the marked characteristics of primitive Chris- tians. Now, these Christian graces are often shorn of their original beauty, by Inconsistency. In the days of the Apostles, no studied rhetoric was thrown about the story of redeeming love ; simple, un- adorned truth, enraptured the immortal mind, and poured upon it a flood of celestial light, that led thou- sands in a day, to embrace the religion of the cross. No splendid fixtures then adorned their places of wor- ship ; the manger was fresh in the memory of the dis- ciples of Jesus ; his rebukes of show and vain pride were not fors^otten ; the golden calf of Fashion was not admitted in the church ; pure religion, unalloyed with conjecture and enigmatical construction, was incul- cated, with power and success. How changed the scene, how humiliating the conflicts of modern theology. Oh ! Inconsistency ! what evils hast thou not perpe- trated. Infidelity, in all its various shades, is a legitimate child of Inconsistency. The man who has read the Bible ; who understands the physiology of the world, the philosophy of mind, the minutiae of anatomy, the powers of reason, and the revolving circuit of his own soul ; and denies the existence of Him who spake, and it was done ; who commanded, and it stood fast ; dis- 15 k2 114 THE PROBE. robes himself of the noblest powers bestowed by cre- ative Wisdom, and sinks himself below the level of a brute. All things, from the leaf that vibrates in the breeze, to the etherial sky, spangled with stars ; pro- claim the existence of a God. Most assuredly, there is a Supreme Being, who rules, with unerring wisdom, in the kingdoms of Nature, Providence, and Grace. This position is most conducive to happiness in this life — the superstructure of the contrary, produces misery here ; if its foundation should prove false, and the other true, the infidel curses himself in this world, only to be damned in the next. Moral rectitude is the substratum of human felicity — infidelity, the destruction of social order. Vice, from the larceny of a pin, to the most daring burglary ; from the simple assault, to the most tragical homicide ; from the trifling " white " He, to the basest perjury, are all spontaneous plants from the hot bed of Inconsistency. Are you in the habit of profane swearing ? This is a yarn in the web of this arch enemy, and lessens your worth in the estimation of all good society. It is without excuse, and, like shooting at the wind, is with- out object. Are you in the habit of lying and deceiving ? This is a prominent part of the warp, in the web of this fell destroyer, and will stamp you with lasting disgrace, unless you break the snare at once. Do you foster a disposition to appropriate small ar- ticles belonging to others to your own uses ? If you indulge in taking newspapers, umbrellas, sunbeams of God's love. The Eternal Son cancelled the bond oiven fur the redemption of our race, at the time and place a])pointed; by giving his life, a sacrifice fur its payment. He has opened a fountain in the house of King David, where every stain may be washed away. lie has opened the gushing streams of the waters of life, where all may freely drink and live. The noble powers of man are left, but associated w^ith bad company. We have only to separate these — keep our- selves unspotted from the world, close in with the terms made by Mercy, and all will yet be well. With his nature polluted as it is, so important was man considered by the Trinity, that all Heaven was moved to devise the plan of his restoration. O, Man, look within, and see the wonders, the powers of thy immortal soul. Through the long vista of history, a single glance carries us back to the time of our creation. Our minds, with the rapidity of light, encircle the globe, measure the stars, grasp the arcana of nature, and find a resting place, only in the contemplation of the great Jehovah. We are heirs of glory, why cling to earth, and turn our backs on our legal inheritance ? Forbid it reason, forbid it heaven, forbid it Almighty God. MATRIMONY. The tieasures of the deep are not so precious As are the conceal'd comforts of a man, Locked up in woman's love. — Middleton. Poet Middleton and his Lady Love, were probably among the few happy pairs, contemplated by the Indian Philosopher, who believed souls were made in heaven, 19 N 146 THE PROBE. to meet and match on earth ; but often got separated on their way down, and got mis-matched, and of course were rendered miserable. I beheve, with the poet, that if a woman can succeed in locking a man in her love, and keep the key, and make him stay locked, their earthly bliss must be precious. But once out, he is as hard to get in, as an untamed bird, escaped from a cage. The marriage institution is the bond of social or- der, and, if treated with due respect, care, and dis- cretion; greatly enhances individual happiness, and consequently, general good. The Spartan law punish- ed those who did not marry ; those who married too late; and those who married improperly. A large por- tion of the evils that have defaced the orio^inal oro^ani- zation of the Roman Church, were the result of the injunction of celibacy, imposed on the priests; an em- bargo that is gradually being raised. There are other causes that have stripped the marriage institution of its ancient simplicity, and rendered its ])ure stream turbid in places. Among the Patriarchs, before there were any rakes, parents never interfered, the young pair made the match, and the girl always married the man of her choice, an indispensable pre-requisite to a happy union. Latterly, especially among the rich and great, the parents make the matches, and marry por- tions of money, or noble blood, together, instead of their children — mutual esteem, the foundation of hap- piness, is a secondary concern. Fashionable circles; gay life; levees among the great; watering places; and wealth, or an appearance of wealth; often cheat the young into Matrimony, without any love in the pot, and without the aid of parental authority, the very cir- cumstance that should induce it; for, as society noio to MATRIMONY. 147 is, it is oft (Ml projior that the experience of parents should |)r()inj)t them to iiitcM'pose to jjrcroif., hut never lo enforce niarriai::e. We have many pohshed knaves in modern times, who make it a i)rofcssion to betray innocence, and sacrifice virtue — demons, that have been vomited out of hell, to serve the devil. Marriages, not based on mutual esteem, often produce connubial infi- delity, always unhappiness. A few discreet men seek for wives, some seek for nurses, more seek for beauties, and a larger portion seek for money in hand, or in expectancy. Fashion and habit have also thrown much mud in the stream of matrimony, since the time our hardy and happy pioneers settled this country. Then, the girls and boys were permitted to eat and grow fat — now, they are often moulded after the wasp, body and mind. Then, they took their lessons in the kitchen and field; now, in the drawing room and anti-work socie- ties. Formerly, they made and wore homespun ; now, our country is drained of specie to supply more costly, and less comfortable and durable wearing apparel. Then, the girls were educated for wives, and the boys for men of industry — now, the former are educated to make a show, the latter, to make a dash. Then, the spinning wheel was sweet music — now, it is vulgar. Domestic felicity, old-fashioned economy and industry, have been strangled together, by fashion and habit — hence, we have fewer happy marriages, and more di- vorces, than in times of yore. All are not angels, that angels seem. Marriage, properly engaged in, enhances the conse- quence of those who enter into it, by inspiring confidence in the surrounding community. Figure one only counts a single unit, make it as big as you may — put another 148 THE PROBE. figure one by its side, and we have eleven. The mar- ried man, if he performs his duty, is no longer a bird of passage, but becomes a permanent citizen, and as his little responsibilities increase, feels an increasing in- terest in the welfare of our common country. His comforts, interests, joys, and griefs; are shared by the partner of his bosom — his soul is expanded — he has something to care for, besides his noble self — consola- tions unknown to single blessedness — bachelors. But love on both sides, and all things equal in out- ward circumstances, are not all the requisites of do- mestic felicity. Human nature is frail, and nmltiform in its passions. The honey moon gets a dash of vine- gar, now and then, when least expected. Young peo- ple seldom court in their every-day clothes, but they must put them on after marriage. As in other bar- gains, but few expose defects. They are apt to marry faultless — love is blind — but faults are there, and will come out. The fastidious attentions of wooing, are like spring flowers, they make pretty nosegays, but poor greens. Miss Darling becomes the plain house wife, and Mr. AUattention, the informal husband, not from a want of esteem, but from the constitution and nature of man. If all these changes, and more than would answer in wooing time, are anticipated, as they are by some analyzing minds, their happiness will not be em- bittered by them when they come. Bear and forbear, must be the motto put in practice. Let the unmarried be cautious of those who do not treat their parents, those around them, and even brute ani- mals, kindly. Beware of those who do not, at least, res- pect religion. Beware of those whose minds are always floating on the surface of vanity, and are nauseated at MATRIMONY. 149 serious reflection. Beware of those who have more non- sense than common sense. Finally, to enter safely into the married state — the contracting parties should under- stand human nature, and above all, their own disposi- tions — and then compare them frankly and candidly. If one is alkaline, and the other acid, a frequent effer- vescence must occur — to be happy under such circum- stances, your love must be strong, and religion rule your hearts. The Rock of Ages, is the firmest found- ation on which matrimony can rest. The atmosphere of piety is free from many storms and fogs, that over- take and hanir over those who are stransi^ers to its purity. I will add the experience of another, for our mutual benefit. " When people understand they must live together, for reasons known to the law, they learn to soften, by mutual accommodation, the yoke which they cannot now shake off. They become good husbands and wives, from the necessity of remaining husbands and wives; for necessity is a powerful master, in teaching the duty it imposes. If it were once understood, that, upon mutual disgust, married persons might be legally separated, many couple, who now pass through the world with mutual comfort — with attention to their common offspring, and to the moral order of civilized society, might have been, at this moment, living in a state of mutual unkindness — in a state of estrange- ment from their common offspring, and in a state of the most licentious and unreserved immorality. " In this case, as in many others, the happiness of some individuals must be sacrificed to the greater and more general good. If people come together, with the extravagant expectation, that all are to be halcyon n2 150 THE PROBE. days — the husband conceiving, that all is to be author- ity with him, and the wife, that all is to be accommo- dation with her, every body sees how that must end. If they come together with the prospect of happiness, they must come with the reflection, that not bringing perfection in themselves, they have no right to expect it on the other side — that having respectively many infirmities of their own to be overlooked, they must overlook the infirmities of each other." — Lord Stowell. MISFORTUNES. OFTEN SELF CREATED, A LARGE portion of the miseries of mankind, in a pecuniary point of view, are brought on by themselves. One cause may be found in a restless disposition. Some men try every kind of business by turns, be- come master of none, and necessarily make a sacrifice at every change. They fly every w^ay to get wealth, and overtake poverty before they are aware of its proximity. Had they begun coblers, and stuck to the awl — all would have been well. The people of our country are more fickle in business, than those of any other. Mrs. Restless has a kind husband, docile children, and a competence. Her neighbor, Mrs. Stylish, has a wealthy, surly, snappish husband; but is surrounded by splendid furniture, and rides in a carriage. Tlrs. Rest- less envies her pomp, and would be glad to be in her situation; and Mrs. Stylish envies, in turn, the other fair lady, because she has a kind husband, and is not troubled with the parade of wealth. Both are unhappy, MISFORTUNES. 151 because discontented. Farmer A. and Mercliant J5., both well oi\\ imagine a change in business and loca- tion, from country to city, and from city to country, will enhance their happiness, and increase their wealth. They try it, and soon make shipwreck of their wealth, and sigh for former comforts, now beyond their reach. Had they let well enough alone, all would have been well. Another cause may be found in the indulgence of artificial and imaginary wants. More expensive dresses, more delicate food, more costly furniture, the comfort- able plain carriage must give place to a coach — none of which add to real comfort, perhaps the reverse — have ruined thousands. Trying to purchase the reputation of wealth in the opinion of others, by living beyond their means, has landed many a family on the bleak shores of poverty. These exhibit more folly than the preceding char- acters. A greedy ambition and impatience after wealth, often brings poverty down upon a man, like a thousand of brick. Rash speculation often does the work in short order. An indulgence in the pleasures, fashions, vices, and follies of the day, is the greatest source of self-created misfortunes, which are neither few or light. To avoid these misfortunes, the first grand requisite is, to become truly pious, and live in the favor of our great Benefactor. Be temperate — govern your desires and passions — be on good terms with the world, and those around you — spend all your time usefully — make no enemy or lose no friend carelessly — be cheerful and contented — despise not small gains — never be 152 THE PROBE. led astray by delusive prospects of sudden wealth — mind your own business, only when charity calls you to interfere and aid others — avoid the extremes of avarice and prodigality — use the world as not abusing it — take a pew and family newspaper — use and pay for them both — and live in a full belief of, and put your trust in that Being who rules wisely, and cease crea- ting misfortunes ; they will come fast enough without your artificial aid. MONEY, A KNOWLEDGE OF MONEY. A LARGE portion of man and womankind, are sadly destitute of this important branch of knowledge. I will particularize but four classes. The avaricious and miserly man renders himself, and those within his power, miserable, by making too much of money. He becomes an idolater, and violates the law of God, and of common humanity. The spendthrift runs into the opposite erroneous extreme, and by not j)lacing a sufliciently high estimate on money, to induce him to use it prudently, he makes it the means of his speedy ruin, by wasting it in extra- vagant foolish expenditures, perhaps in the indulgence of sensual and vicious pleasure. We have a third class of persons, who would make good use of this necessary evil, if they knew the rela- tive value of money, and the things to be jiurchascd with it. Our country is flooded with land sharks, who are on the alert to rob all who can be deceived. Un- less we know the worth of the article to be purchased, MONEY. 1 53 there arc many who will charge twice or four times its value — for those persons are excellent physiognomists and j)hrenologists, and can tell a green horn, man or woman, half a square off. Those who are confined within the walls of a semi- nary, from childhood to the time they commence life for themselves, are those who suffer most from an utter destitution of a knowledge of the value of things. From their books, they learn that money has been treated with contempt by the learned and wise, and are erroneously led to believe that money, instead of an inordinate love of it, is the root of all evil. They have had no means of learning the worth of things, and, with a highly polished classical education, they are more ignorant of the common concerns of life, indispensablj necessary to prepare them to live, than a huckster boj- but ten years old. It is a cruel error in our system of education, not to adopt some plan, that will prepare our young men to live, as well as shine, when they arrive at their majority. If, during vacation, boys were put to active business, real work, and the girls in the kitchen, and both often taken on shop and mar- ket, instead of pleasure excursions, it would do much towards curing the evil. To be safe against imposi- tion, we must be well acquainted with the common concerns and business of life. They are not taught in our seminaries, and must be learned somewhere, sooner or later. If this indispensable part of education is postponed to man and w^omanhood, it is then ac- quired at a dear, often ruinous price. The fourth class is composed of those who make money the standard of reputation and merit — a limb of that baneful aristocracy, that is increasing in our 20 154 THE PROBE. cities and large towns, at a fearful rate. I have often thought of the force of a remark, made lo me about a year since, by an observing man of thirty-live, who had been raised in it, relative to the standard of reputation in the city of . *' If you desire me to inform you of the standiiif^^ repu- tation^ and consequence of any man in that city, first tell me how many dollars and cents he is north — his intelli- gence and 7noral icorth are of no account.'*'' He continued, *' See the consequence. TJtat city has not a single public square, or a single asylum icithin, and hut a miserable — emphatically a i^oor house, beyond, its limits.'''' Without money, without character, is the motto of aristocracy. When the love of money, which has been long con- sidered the root of evil, pervades a community, all that is noble, generous, and that adorns human nature ; is blighted, as by a Sirocco. Money the standard of repu- tation ! Money placed above the mental powers, the moral attributes of mind ! the acquirements of splendid talents — the triumphs of lofty genius ! Away with such a false standard — it is unworthy of immortal be- ings. Use money as not abusing it — but banish the love of it, and let it no longer defile, degrade, and cripple the noblest powers of man. Its love is anti- republican, anti-human, and anti-christian. It dries up the milk of human kindness, and transforms the soul into a sterile, barren waste, contracting its expansive powers, until they become so small, that they find more room within the circumference of the almighty dollar, than a frog would in Lake Erie. NATURE. 155 NATURE. In the vast, and in the minute we see The unambiguous footsteps of the God Who gives its lustre to an insect's wing, And wheels his throne upon the rolling worlds. — Cowper. The capacity of man, that enables him, by observation and investigation, to grasp the works and operations of Nature, and, aided by Revelation, to comprehend God in every thing, is a strong evidence of the immortality of the sold, and of the vast powers of his mind. To trace the perfect gradation of Nature, from the smallest animalcule, up to the grand centre of the planetary system, is the province of man. He is privileged to enter the great laboratory of Nature — not to work, but to admire ; not to dictate, but to be instructed. He there beholds a perfect whole, without a vacuum — a connected whole without a discord ; a separate inde- pendent whole, beautifully connected ; each part mov- ing by itself, yet each contributing to the harmony of the whole ; and a single thing, unlike most of the inventions of man, performing separate and distinct offices. The atmosphere is the element of respiration ; the conductor of light by refraction and reflection ; and, by being decomposed, becomes heat, three grand essen- tials of life. The ocean sustains its myriads of in- habitants ; and, although it is a great reservoir of salt water, by the joint action of the atmosphere and sun upon it, becomes the great fountain from which the earth is supplied with//T5/^. The sun warms, enlight- ens, controls time, motion, and space. The earth 156 THE PROBE. bears on its bosom, all that is necessary for man and beast, in almost endless variety ; and in its bowels, the minerals that enable us, with greater facility and com- fort, to reap the other bounties that surround us. View the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal king- doms, as a connected harmonious whole, or separate ; and then each part of each, separate, from the smallest grain of sand, up to the mighty globe ; from the small- est fibre of the smallest plant, up to the majestic oak ; from the smallest animalcule, that can be seen by the most pow erful microscope, up to the crowning glory of creation — Man — all is one united harmonious whole, in regular gradation, without an imperfect link. Who can contemplate Nature as it is, and doubt the existence of a God ? None but the wilfully blind, and obstinately perverse. NOVELS. To me it seems, their females and tlieir men Are but the creatures of the author's pen; Nay, creatures borrow "d, and again convey 'd From book to book — the shadows of a shade. — Crabhe. Novel writers and readers, have increased, within the last half century, like rabbits in a clover field, and have produced and devoured more flowers, than escu- lent plants. Taken as a whole, from Fielding, Rich- ardson and Smollct, down to the " JUST PUBLISHED," the benefits that have rcsidtcd from the productions of novel w riters, are like a kernel of wheat in a peck of chaff. Comparatively few of them inculcate morals, pure as those of the Pagan school, and fewer recom- NOVELS. 1 fu mend, much less, inculcate Christianity. Novel writ- ing has become a profession, and novel reading, a mania. The one caters, the others devour, like the shark, every kind of food that comes in their way, la- belled, "A NEW NOVEL." As this class of readers sel- dom consult the Bible, Query, would it not be well to foil the devil, by publishing it in piece meal, with the above label? The name of the author presents the grand objection. I complain less of the na7}ie novel, than of quality and quantity. By being crammed with light and frothy trash, the mind, like the body with new cider, becomes affected with flatulency ; a continuation of which, produces dyspepsia ; this often results in dys- orexia, and sometimes in dysthymia. Novel writing, is imagination playing upon imagina- tion. The writer is a veteran, inured to the service ; the readers, less accustomed to fatigue, are more liable to be overworked, especially if young. The one knows and treats the subject as fiction ; the others often treat it as a dreadful reality. As a convincing proof to me, that novels vitiate the taste, and destroy a relish for stronger food, I can turn my mind's eye to several, whom I have seen weeping over a novel, and have seen the same person sit under the most vivid description of the crucifixiofi of our Saviour, with stoic indiffer- ence ; showing, clearly, that this kind of reading neither improves the judgment, nor leads to a true estimate of persons and things. The same persons would look pale, if asked to read Paley on the Mind, and be locked in the arms of Morpheus, by Locke on the Understand- ing. Unsound and false thinking, often produce improper actions. Not unfrequently do weak-minded persons 158 THE PROBE. take the hero or heroine of a novel, as a pattern for imitation, and succeed about as well as a monkey would in distilling whiskey. The style of novels, some of them festooned with the gayest flowers of language, is calculated to give a disrelish for more solid and useful books ; for habit is as quick to seize power, as an am- bitious demagogue, and holds on with as much tena- city. If the Bible was read more, and novels less, it would be better. OCCUPATION. The man wiio has no occupation is in a bad plight. If he is poor, want is ever and anon, pinching him ; if he is rich, ennui is a more relentless tormentor than want. An unoccupied man cannot be happy — nor can one who is improperly occupied. We have swarms of idlers among us, the worst of whom are gentlemen idlers ; that is, men who pursue no useful occupation, and sponge their way, often enjoying the luxuries of life, living upon the hard earnings of others — the can- cers of community — pseudo patterns of bipeds — leeches on the body politic. In this wide-spread and expanding country, no one need be without some useful occupation. All trades and professions are open, from the honest hod carrier, up to the highest place in the agricultural, com- mercial and mechanical departments, and from the humblest, but not least useful teacher of A. B. C, up to the pinnacle of professional fame. Those occupa- tions that re(piire manual labor, are the surest, most healthy, and most independent ; surest, because they OCCUPATION. 159 are more expansive ; Iiealtliicst, l)Ccaiiso they give ex- rrrisc to the physical powers ; most independent be- cause less exposed to the whims and caprice of public opinion. The two great professions, Law and Physic, are fearfully overstocked at the present time, and, mel- ancholy as is the fact, parents are pushing their sons into this accumulating torrent, covered with floating wrecks, as indiscriminately as the Hindoos do their children into the Ganges. It is a sad mistake, an injury to the son, and to our common country. But a small portion succeed well, a few more make a mere living, but by far the largest portion struggle awhile with disappoint- ment and poverty, and then go at some other business, or, what is more lamentable, become dissipated and ruined. Every boy should be taught some manual occupation, and every girl housewifery — no matter how rich the parents, or for what profession designed. Riches can be taken from us — our trade or occupation — never while we live. A profession may fail — we then know how to labor. I would especially caution parents against putting their sons to the profession of the Law. As people grow wiser and better, lawyers will be less need- ed. Physic has also lost much of its mystery — people are becoming their own physicians more and more. In the early history of our race, we read of neither law- yers or doctors, a strong hint that none were needed then — if the number of the former was now reduced three fourths, and that of the other one half, and the young flood dammed up for ten years, it would greatly increase individual happiness and the prosperity of our country. 160 THE PROBE. OFFICE SEEKERS. Had not office seeking become a kind of professional business, based upon impudence, and the rank and file monopolized by many who are void of true patriotism — men in leading strings — slaves of party leaders and reckless demagogues — some sympathy should be ex- tended to the disappointed thousands, who swell the multitude at the scat of government. It would be but charitable to sympathize with those who are ignorant of the political machinery of party politics — and have been led there by the promise of some member for whom they voted — a promise, probably made to scores of others, for the purpose of obtaining their votes. Office seeking and office promising, are among the canker- worms that are preying on our body politic, and arc causing serious mischief. The aspiring candidate, who thinks more of self than the glory and good of his coun- try, obtains many votes, by selecting a number of pli- ant, plausible men in his district ; and promising each a slice from the wheat loaf, should he be elected. If he succeeds, they are encouraged to make a journey to head quarters — where they go, only to be disappointed, often spend the last dollar they can raise, and leave their families to suffer for bread. Scenes of distress, arising from such reckless promises, are of common occurrence, the authors of which, cannot be too severely censured. Office seeking has become a game, in which the ap- plicants are the pack, demagogues the ])layers, and government, alias^ the dear sovereign people, the table played upon. The secret of true wisdom consists in keep- OPINION. 161 ing out of the pack, living in sweet communion with your family, friends, unci with the Author of all good. When virtue and genuine patriotism predominate, offices will seek good and competent men, who should answer the call, as a matter of duty, not of pleasure or profit, [f corruption, intrigue, and duplicity, are the order of the day, it is useless for good men to enter the arena of applicants — they will be jostled out — have their names traduced, and their feelings mortified. Let them rather aid in clearing out the Augean stable, as the only means of safety, for themselves and our country. OPINION. 'Tis with our judgments as our watches — none Go just alikej yet each believes his own. — Pope. If Pope w^rote truly of the people at the time he penned the above lines, they were composed of differ- ent materials from those of the present day. A large portion of our people, in matters of high importance, especially political and religious, cither carry dumb watches, do not wind them up, do not trust to them, or force them to run alike. Some big clock governs thf3 mass around it. As it clicks, so they click — as it points the hour, the minute, the second, so do they. If the big clocks were all true to time, and all alike, there would be some sense and comfort in being governed by them — as it is, it would be well for us to look a little to our own timepieces, exercise our own judgments, and learn to think and act for ourselves. This would have a tendency to regulate the big clocks, put a check on 21 o2 162 THE PROBE. demagogues, and allay the heat of party spirit. In re- ligious matters, let the Bible be the standard, and let us set our watches to it by actual inspection, and not depend upon another to give us the time ; much less, upon those who go by a dial, governed by the moon, instead of the Sun of Righteousness. Althouirh our lime may then agree with the big clock, it will be for the reason that it is correctly set to the same standard. It is very agreeable to go with the multitude if right — better be alone than wrong, or to wrangle with those who differ in opinion, and believe they are right. Let every one be persuaded in his own mind, is the injunc- tion. By these remarks, I mean not, that one man shall treat those with contempt or indifference, who differ with him in opinion — but the reverse — they should be respected because they have an independence of mind, without which man is a mere automaton. Nor do I undervalue the opinions of others. This would be to repress, not encourage investigation, and would be an assumption of infallibility, which belongs only to God. Let opinion be free as mountain air, and not be confined by demagogues or priests, by metaphysicians or dogma- tists, by kings or popes, but based on Reason and Reve- lation. Nor do I mean any disrespect to those who are worthy and competent to lead — for leaders there must be. I only wish to prompt men to use the noble powers of their immortal minds for themselves, that they may better benefit others ; and neither let them rust out, or be worn out, to forward the selfish designs of intriguing and ambitious aspirants. Discussion in the mental, like a thunder storm in the natural world, purifies the atmosphere, and when the clouds are cleared away by the action that produced the commo- PARTY SPIRIT. 163 tion, the simbrains of iriitli in the former, as tlie foun- tain of light in the hitter, shine upon all around. Be not over anxious to know the opinions of others concerning yourself. If they are favorable, it may in- crease that rank weed, pride — if the reverse, it may sour your temper and destroy your happiness. To be cursed with this kind of curiosity, is worse than corns on the toes — or gout in the head. Cultivate an independence of mind, deserve the good opinion of others — then run your boat in the middle channel — be neither too anxi- ous, nor yet indifferent of wliat others think of you. Keep a conscience void of offence, act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before God and man. PARTY SPIRIT For years, my voice and pen have been arrayed against this foul spirit, nor shall my humble efforts relax, until the purple current ceases to flow from my heart, or the enemy is subdued. Its history is red with blood — its career has been marked with desolation and ruin, often riding on the whirlwind of faction, and the tornado of fanaticism. It has blotted kingdoms and empires from the map of the world — its burning lava has con- sumed nations, blighted the fairest portions of creation, and sacrificed millions upon its sanguinary altar. Its motive power is wild ambition — its fuel, too often, fell revenge — its object, illegitimate power. I refer to its past history, from which we are to draw lessons for the present and future. Human natme is the same — like circumstances will produce the same results. Although this Bohon L^a* has not attained a towering height in our 164 THE PROBE. own country, it is taking deep root in our community — its poison already contaminates our political and religi- ous atmosphere — it has already had its victims of blood, and blighted the fair reputation of many an individual. Its miasma has reached our ballot boxes, violated the peaceful fireside, traduced private character, invaded patriotism, induced perjury, countenanced forgery, cor- rupted our elective franchise, arrested the liberty of free discussion, and produced mobocracy, in its most fearful aspect, marked with sanguinary scenes and direful consequences. If these sad effects have been realized in the spring- time of its growth, how awful will be the consequences of its summer foliage, and autumnal maturity ? The solution of this problem is found in crimson, and fully demonstrated in the history of nations that once were, but now are not — nations who enjoyed the sunshine of prosperity, until this demon sealed their ruin. It is contended by many, that it is the safety of a Republic to have two ])olitical parties, that one may watch and detect the corrupt designs of the other. If this argument is sound, our country is highly favored, for we have four distinct parties, besides guerilla leaders, who plunder from each of the others. The argument would be sound, if either party would banish all demagogues from its ranks — become purely pa- triotic — be guided entirely by love of country, charity towards others, the fear of God, prudence, sound dis- cretion, and rigid justice to all. As they are now con- stituted, for one to correct the faults of the other, would be like Satan rebuking sin. There are good traits and good men in each party, but good men are not apt to become party leaders, and bad riders will TARTY SPIRIT. 1^5 spoil the best of horses. Many of the prominent load- ers of the present day, are much like the Kilkenny cats. We have swarms of demagogues who are destitute of patriotism— who are regardless of the good of our country; men of seven princii)les — '•^five loaves and two fishes'''' — men who put on the livery of heaven to ac- complish base party purposes — who unite an oily tongue with a scorpion heart — an evil brain with an active body — often sacrificing honor, integrity, and even their friends ; to carry out plans, based entirely upon PARTY SPIRIT ; pressing towards the end, with the force of a locomotive, regardless of the means brought in requisition. The influence of this foul spirit has often manifested itself in our legislative halls, in the cabinet, and in the distribution of executive patronage. It is no longer an inquiry, ichat, but icho recommends a man to office. The first and highest qualification is, to belong to the party in power — "Is he honest? is he worthy? is he competent ?" are old fiishioned Jeffersonian questions, of secondary importance. It is with reluctance, that a man of real worth and modest merit, enters the political arena, or consents to encounter the pestiferous atmos- phere of PARTY SPIRIT, now hanging, like an incubus, over our beloved country. Nor is merit a necessary qualification with the demagogue. Available — is the omnipotent word — the grand counter-sign — the magic passport to a nomination — and ivlien nominated — the candidate must be voted for, although destitute of ca- pacity, moral virtue, and the requisites of a statesman. As a natural consequence, dignity, decorum, and com- mon courtesy ; are often banished from our legislative halls — scenes of confusion occur — crimination and re- IGG THE mOBE. crimallon usurp tlio ])lncc of sound logic and courteous dohutc — reason is dethroned — common decency out- raged — the business of our country neglected, or badly performed — party laws passed at one session, and re- pealed at the next — all the result of being enslaved by PARTY SPIRIT. liCt those who lov^e Liberty and our common coun- try, burst the fetters of party — think and act for them- selves — spurn the fawning demagogue, and become FnEE3iEX indeed. On this course depends our safety — our fiual national destiny. Party spirit is not confined to the political arena. It has raised Alpine barriers in the way of the religion of the cross — sectarian walls, behind which the skeptic, the infidel, and unbelievers, hide with impunity. All Christian creeds are professedly drawn from the same pure fountain — yet, by a kind of chemical jn'ocess, each sect gives its own supply a hue to suit its own fancy, and each forms a distinct party. How awful the per- secutions of party spirit, by one set of professing Chris- tians against another — let past history tell, and the angry clouds that are gathering in our own country — confirm. Unless intelligence, wisdom, and prudence, check the onward career of party spirit, daily accumulating force in our midst, our country is doomed — our union dissolved — our Liberty lost — our Freedom gone. PAUPERISM. 167 PAUPERIS M. This irrowing evil of our country, like many others, has so far jiursucd its bold and onward course, pre- senting a bold front, pressed on by an accumulating rear. Relief has been the watchword with the be- nevolent; CAUSES and remedy, have but recently been traced and proposed, and are now arresting the atten- tion of the public mind in this city. Prodigality is the great first cause — the others are secondary, and minor. By prodigality, I mean, a waste of Intellect, Time, and Money, the three great secondary causes of Pauperism. Intellect is wasted by ignorance or perversion ; time is wasted by idleness ; and money, by an unnecessary and criminal expenditure. Darkened or perverted intellect, gives a wn*ong direction to the mind, poisons it with false principles, and often diverts the body from the path of rectitude and useful employment. Idleness is the teeming hotbed of vice, from grossness, up to refinement — every avenue of which, leads to Pauperism. Useless and criminal expenditures of money lead to the same goal, from the unnecessary smoking of a cigar, drinking alcoholic poison, patronizing hells of blacklegs, or living and dressing beyond the income; up to the extravagant outlays of the rich, who pamper pride, by making a pompous show, to attract the admiring gaze of those of the multitude, who have more fancy than brains, and more vanity than common sense; retaining an infantile taste for glittering gewgaws, as long as they live; thinking every thing gold that shines. 168 THE PROBE. In the abstract, idleness is the great producer of I)aupcrism — the reservoir of vice and crime. A minor secondary cause of Pauperism, is improvi- dence, or a want of judgment and experience in doing business, and using money. A system of education should be introduced, to remedy this evil. Another minor cause may be found, in the liberal provision made by the benevolent, for paupers. In many persons, this has induced idleness, and an ex- penditure of money for articles not indispensably requi- site, knowing, that some of the benevolent institutions would provide for their wants. If we had no alms- houses, Dorcas Societies, or Soup Associations; there are many who would lay up a store for winter, that now depend upon them, and even speculate from them. I remember a case in point. A woman, a beneficiary of a Soup Society, called in the afternoon of a day, for four rpiarts of soup. She was reminded that she had been served in the morning — "True," said she — "but sure, haven't I taken four boarders since ?" Another cause of increasing Pauperism is, the large number imported from Europe. Congress should pre- vent this. I would not dispense with eleemosynary insti- tutions, but I would recommend a more rigid discipline. We have long been devising and adopting plans of re- lief, but a remedy has but recently been suggested, that seemed to promise success — that remedy is the Bible, and the religion there inculcated. It is a fact worthy of notice, that more than ninety-nine out of a hundred of the j)au])ers in this city, are not members of Bible churches. Tliis fact has more force, than a volume of fine-spun arguments. Virtue and industry are the ne- cessary results of pure Bible religion. St. Paul said. PERSPECTIVE. 1G9 he that will not work shall not eat. If all will work, wlio are able, and make a judicious use of their earn- ings, we should have but few paupers, and those, the really unfortunate. Bring all under the influence of the Bible, pauperism would be reduced ninety per cent., the day that is accomplished. Let the philanthropist look around in the churches where the Bible has free course, and he will be astonished to find scarcely a pauper there, and that pauper supported by the church of which he or she is a member, and not a bene- ficiary of any other institution. PERSPECTIVE. A GLANCE AT HUMAN NATURE — SELECT AND ORIGINAL. Some make large figures on a public subscription, who spurn the famishing poor from their door. Some enter zealously into laudable plans, if originated by themselves, not otherwise. Some are greatly moved by trifles, who bear heavy calamities wdth fortitude. Some preach virtue, but practise vice. Some censure pride in the devotees of fashion, and are themselves just as proud, in being out of fashion. Some husbands and wives are all love, dove, dear, and honey, when abroad ; their ill-nature they keep for domestic use, and go abroad but seldom. Some are so uneven in their temper, that at one time, nothing can anger them, at other times, nothing can please them; others are like punk-wood, quick to take fire, and quick to go out; others are slow to anger — but when offended, usually stay so for life. Some feel deeply their own misfortunes, but those 22 P 170 THE PROBE. of others, they view with cahnness. Some are free to volunteer their own advice, but spurn the advice of others — being overwise in their own conceit — more hopeless cases than fools. Those who crouch and fawn to superiors, are usually tyrannical masters. Some change their friends often, and like the last ones best. Some practise affectation to appear large, and ren- der themselves ridiculous. Some base their faith and opinions on some leading star, or the multitude, not on their own judgment and reflection. Some create suspicions of dishonesty, by too great professions of honesty. Some mistake taciturnity for wisdom, and stupidity for gravity. Some ladies of fashion affect extreme sensibility by their looks, manners, and tones of voice ; and are so tender hearted, as to weep over high-life scenes of fiction, portrayed in a novel; but can view, with stoic indifference, the vulgar poor, objects of real distress, that have legitimate claims on their charity. Cosmop- olite philosophers have a large fund of speculative be- nevolence, consisting in words — not deeds. They are true to their prototype, Seneca, who was very wealthy, wrote an admirable essay on charity, but never gave any thing to the necessitous. We have another class of bipeds, who seek to ease their guilty consciences, by commuting for neglects and trespasses, hard dealing and close shaving, by a grave and punctilious attendance at church on Sunday. Distance, mud, and storm; are no barriers. The devil delights in such servants. Some have too much re- ligion in theory, and too little in practice. Some will wrangle for it, others will write for it, some will fight for it, others will die for it; but there are too few who PILLOW. 171 live for it; after the precepts luul examples of its <^reat Author. In two things, false professors of all religions have agreed — to persecute all other sects, and plunder their own. PILLOW. The pillow is the throne of conscience, and the cita- del of reflection. It is there, that the world is shut out ; there, conscience will be heard; there, reflection en- forces attention. There, the grand review of life, and especially of the past day, week or month, takes place. There, errors are corrected, or plans laid to increase them — there, resolutions are formed — good or bad; but there, more than any where, conscience corrects the bad, and enforces the good. On the pillow, we analyze our plans of business, our judgments are more settled, we discover what is wrong, and abandon it; and are more strongly confirmed in what is right. The good man buries his resentments in the pillow, and the wicked are often conquered by reflection, and, on the pillow, nobly resolve to forsake their wickedness, and re- turn to the paths of virtue. The pillow often cools burn- ing revenge, and drives anger from the heaving bosom. On the pillow, the Christian delights to hold com- munion with Him who protects him by day, and guards him by night. He can there review the numerous bless- ings of which he is the happy recipient, reflect upon the immortality of the soul, ofter up his silent and un- disturbed prayers for himself, his relatives and friends, and the whole human family. The philanthropist can there devise and digest j)hins for the amelioration of the human family, undisturbed and in quiet. But, oh! the 172 • THE PROBE. thorns that are in the pillow of him who is steeped in crime, unless he has seared his conscience, and stran- gled reflection. And to the awakened sinner, how dreadful is the pillow ! In the darkness of night, he seems to see the gleaming fires of vengeance, blazing from the throne of an offended Deity. But, from that same pillow, he can look to a bleeding Saviour, find pardon for all his sins, and bathe his enraptured soul in the fountain of redeeming love. On the pillow, the good man commends himself to God for safety while he sleeps, and awards to Him his gratitude when he wakes. On the pillow, nature is refreshed by sleep, let that pillow be of feathers, wood, or stone — sleep, the sem- blance of death, but the preserver of life. Let all make good use of the pillow. PRESENCE OF MIND. This is a rare and useful quality, constitutional with some, and greatly improved in others, by frequent and repeated exposure to danger. This is strongly exhibit- ed by our Aborigines, who are trained to perils from childhood. Long familiarity with persons and things, often changes their first appearance materially. The principle of self preservation, the first law of nature, is the main spring of presence of mind, in time of personal danger. A naturally timid person may become so ac- customed to danger, that what he once dreaded, he no longer fears. The reverse sometimes occurs — expo- sure to perils increases fear and paralyzes all the powers of the man. Some men can never be depended on as soldiers or sailors — owing to constitutional fear. PRESENCE OF MIND. 173 Tli(^ iTifin who is blessed with original presence of mind, will exhibit it on his first exposure to sudden and imminent danger, and the greater the danger, the more brightly will this quality shine. At a single glance, the peril and the remedy are lighted up before him, as with a lightning flash in the darkness of night, and his energies of action receive a supernatural vigor, and are nerved to double the strength he could exert on ordi- nary occasions. At fires, on the water, at raising buildings, on the highway, and in numerous other situations of peril, I have witnessed feats of strength, performed at a moment when life was in jeopardy, that clearly proved my assertion. Other instances I have witnessed, where safety depended upon a single mo- mentary act, not of strength, but the result of pure presence of mind — the only thing that could have been done to save life, so far as human judgment could de- termine. From what I have seen, heard related, and read ; I am inclined to believe this quality is more common in the female than in the male sex ; and so designed by an all wise Providence, for the protection of our spe- cies, when in a helpless state. An instance occurred in India about thirty years ago, of remarkable presence of mind in a lady. Several ladies and gentlemen went on shore, and had seated themselves near a jungle — the lady in question sitting a few feet farther out than the rest. Suddenly, a huge tiger sprang at her — she instantly spread an umbrella in his face, which so dis- comfitted him, that he retreated, and the party escaped unhurt. In the history of the early settlement of our country, and of the border wars, many thrilling instan- ces of presence of mind are recorded, on the part of p2 174 THE PROBE. both the settlers and savages. These were not unfre- quently exhibited, in a remarkable degree, by females, especially mothers. In the time of battle, both on land and water, this quality has often decided the contest against all pre- vious probabilities. Among those who possessed this natural gift to a high degree, were Washington and Napoleon, men whose dispositions and desires were at perfect antipodes to each other. In the midst of the din of battle and the clash of arms, at a single glance, they could see the position of the contending armies, and coolly calculate the advantages to be gained by sudden changes and manceu\ res, and as quickly order them. A commander who has this quality, has a de- cided advantage over one who has not, and, with an inferior force, often achieves astonishing victories, es- pecially if his officers and men are imbued with the same gift. Perry could leave his disabled ship, and, calm as a summer morning, pass to another vessel in an open boat, through a storm of iron hail, and weave for himself a wreath of glory, enduring as the pages of history. In other spheres of life, not fraught with dangers to the body, presence of mind is an indispensable requi- site to success. Shining wit is a species of presence of mind. This quality should be possessed by the judge on the bench, the lawyer at the bar, the orator in the forum, the minister in the pulpit, who preaches, and does not read his sermons, the physician, with whom we trust our lives, and the surgeon, in his responsible operations. Those who practice hiimhuggery successfully, are found to have a large share of this quality, coupled PRESS. 175 with impudence and dishonesty of a high order. It is also possessed, in a j)reeminent degree, by successful blacklegs, pickpockets, burglars, robbers, and others who stand high on the calendar of crime. Like other strong qualities, when perverted from good to evil pur- poses, this gift becomes a dangerous agent with those who are corrupt in principle and practice. My advice is, to keep cool under all circumstances, if possible. Much may be effected by cultivation — we should learn to command our feelings and act prudently in all the ordinary concerns of life — this will better pre- pare us to meet sudden emergencies with calmness and fortitude. If we permit our feelings to be ruffled and disconcerted in small matters, they will be thrown into a whirlwind, when big events overtake us. Our best antidote is, imphcit confidence in God. PRESS. No one can too highly appreciate the magic power of the Press, or too deeply deprecate its abuses. As newspapers have become the great highway of that in- telligence, which exerts a controlling power over our nation, catering the e very-day food of the mind, I will confine my remarks to these vehicles of knowledge, and their conductors. No course of reading is better calculated to show the present state of society, than the perusal of the various newspapers of the day. The variety and quality, size and quantity, have increased to a mighty flood. Com- paratively, we have the omnibus, that admits every thing for money ; the stage coach, a little more particu- 176 THE PROBE. lar ; and the private coach, neat, cleanly, and uncon- taminating. We have the political party sheets, some of whose editors are often goaded on by demagogues, to the most disgraceful venality ; acrimonious, calum- niating ; assailing persons, more than measures ; placing party interests above public good. The political dis- cussions of the present day, are seldom characterized by reason, logic, courtesy, or common sense. This is an evil that editors can, and should correct. They can give a harmonious, or a discordant tone to society. But few of the corps editorial, seem to feel the high responsibility resting upon them. Their whole aim should be, to enlighten and improve mankind, and avoid all publications, calculated to produce ill blood, or lead to erroneous conclusions. Their papers should be standards of truth, promoters of peace, cementers of union, inculcaters of pure morality, disseminators of sound logic ; free from personal invectives and ani- madversions on private character, and rigidly just, in their discussion of public men ; chaste in language, free from scandal and calumny; calculated to improve the mind, correct the head, and better the heart. Public good never requires an editor to expose domestic rela- tions, and exaggerate minor faults, promulgate false charges, or echo inuendoes. Politics, as conducted by some of the leaders of the parties of the present day, have become disgusting to the genuine patriot, who deems the good of his country, paramount to party tri- umph. The old landmarks of '76, have been discarded by many, and too frequently are our laws, and even revised, and new state constitutions, based on party principles ; if not a sandy, at least, a very problematical foundation. PRESS. 177 It is a law of nature, tliat each mass of matter, con- tains the materials to eli'ect its own destruction. Tiie destructive material once put in motion, the work of enny in change, or the half-penny, give it to him if in your power ; so in the kind offices of intercourse, give every one the small W 254 THE PROBE. change as well as the large. Nothing promotes this kind of necessary change, unalloyed, so much as pure Religion. WIT. Sense is our helmet — wit is but a plume ; The plume exposes — 'tis our helmet saves. — Young. Genuine Wit may be compared to a kaleidoscope ; every time it is shook, it presents new and beautiful figures. The latter please the eye, and enables car- pet and calico manufacturers to obtain new designs for their work ; the former pleases us all over, without really benefitting us any where. Like lightning in a dark night, its illuminations are momentary in most cases. — Sheridans and Hopkinsons are very rare. They were as highly charged w^ith Wit, as a cloud some- times is with the electric fluid, emitting flashes in such quick succession, that darkness is scarcely visible. Wit, like a coquette, is pleasing company for the time being ; but no man, knowing her character, courts her with the intention of marriage, and no sensible man is long edified with her company. Wit and wisdom mai/ be found in the same person, but when the former is flashing, its glare hides the lat- ter. It serves to amuse and exhilarate, but rarely pro- duces profitable reflection, or elevates sound common sense. It is emphatically a plume, and exposes the head it ornaments, to many an arrow from the bow of revenge. Some wits had rather lose a friend than a keen, cutting remark upon him. This has often oc- curred, and is exchanging treasure for trash. Wit may WOMAN. 255 obtain many conquests, but no willing subjects. It is like echo, it always has the last word. It is more dif- ficult to manage than steam, and often wounds by its explosions. It produces many bon mots, and but few wise sayings. It is like some heartless sportsmen, who shoot every bird indiscriminately, and kill more innocent ones, unfit for food, than hawks, that prey upon our poultry. In no way is Wit so pernicious, as when perverted to injure the Bible and the Christian religion. It then forfeits, to its possessor, the esteem of all good men ; and every flash serves to render the incumbent more obnoxious to them, and endangers his own hap- piness. Finally, flashing wit is an undefined and undefinable propensity — more to be admired than coveted ; more ornamental than useful ; more volatile than sohd ; a dangerous, sharp-edged tool, often cutting its most skilful master ; rarely imparting substantial benefits to mankind ; but often serious injury. Let those who have it, endeavor to control it, and those who have ii not, can make better use of the sense they have. WOMAN. The man who lays his hand upon a woman, Save in the way of kindness, is a wretch, Whom 'twere gross flattery to call a coward. — Shakespeare. To write an essay upon Woman, and do her impar- tial justice, is an imposing and delicate task. On no other subject have writers run into greater extremes, or differed more widely. The most nauseating flat- 256 THE PROBE. tery, the keenest satire, and most vindictive anathe- mas ; have been showered upon Woman, in copious effusions. She merits neither, no more than man. The second cast of some metals refines them more, so only Woman differs from man in her nature. Frailty is stamped upon both. The man who flatters is apt to betray Woman. The man who condemns the sex as a species, has been un- fortunate in his associations, or in his advances — per- haps both. The vilest of men have been Women haters — good men — never. Dominic, the author of the infernal Inquisition, and sainted by the Roman Church, was so bitterly opposed to women, that he never would look one in the face. The man who cher- ishes a contempt for the female sex, shows that he has never been favored with the company of intelligent, re- fined Women, or that he has a very bad heart. It is an insult upon Deity, who made her, to advance the happiness of man, and if the end is not accomplished, the fault is his, not hers. Some men use their wives, as farmer's girls do split brooms ; when new, they only sweep the parlour with them ; then the kitchen, then scrub with them, then take them for oven brooms, and when the splits are burnt off, they use them for cow knockers. O ! shame, where is thy blush ! Man was made to protect, love, and cherish, not to undervalue, neglect, or abuse Woman. Treated, edu- cated, and esteemed, as she merits ; she rises in dig- nity, becomes the refiner, and imparts a milder, softer tone to man. No community has ever 'exhibited the refinements of civilization and social order, where Wo- men were held in contempt, and their rights not pro- perly respected and preserved. Degrade Woman, and WOMAN. 257 you degrade man more. She is the fluid of the ther- mometer of society, placed there by the hand of the groat Creator. Man may injure the instrument, but can neither destroy, or provide a substitute for the mercury. Her riglits are as sacred as those of the male sex. Her mental powers are underrated by those only, who have either not seen, or were so blinded by prejudice, that they would not see their development. Educate girls as boys, put Women in the business arena designed for men, and they will acquit them- selves far better than boys and men would, if they were placed in the departments designed for females. As a species, the perception of Woman, especially in cases of emergency, is more acute than that of the male species ; unquestionably so designed by an all-wise Creator, for the preservation and perpetuity of our race. Her patience and fortitude, her integrity and constan- cy, her piety and devotion ; are naturally stronger than in the other sex. If she w^as first in transgression, she was first in the breach. Her seed has bruised the ser- pent's head. She stood by the expiring Jesus, when boasting Peter and the other disciples had forsaken their Lord. She was the last at his tomb, embalmed his sacred body, and the first to discover that he had burst the bars of death, risen from the cleft rock, and triumphed over death and the grave. Under aflliction, especially physical, the fortitude of Woman is proverbial. As a nurse, one female will endure more than five men. That she is more honest than man, our penitentiaries fully demonstrate. That she is more religiously inclined, the records of our churches will show. That she is more devotional, our prayer meetings will prove. 33 w 2 258 THE PROBE. The fact of greater numbers of females becoming pious, than males ; has been often referred to by infi- dels, to prove the fallacy of religion, by asserting their inferiority in strength of mind. The argument proves the reverse in the abstract. Religion is the loftiest subject that can engage the attention of the human mind, and is more enrapturing to a strong, than a weak one. Base must be that heart, that aims to de- stroy the one and degrade the others, with the same poisoned arrow. The very fact, that Woman deprav- ed, excites in the breast of man, a stronger feehng of regret and disgust, than to see the male sex degraded ; arises from our innate consciousness of her more re- fined nature, and her less frequent appearance in the arena of vice and crime. This trait in her character, is of vast importance in a moral and religious point of view. From the mother, the child receives its first impressions, which are most lasting. Her example is its model, her lessons its sentiments, her precepts, its laws. These impressions have a strong influence in forming the character of the adult. To their mothers, Washington, La Fayette, Sir Philip Sidney, and many other great and good men ; were indebted for their bright and noble career. To mothers, we are indebt- ed for the liberty we enjoy ; on mothers its perpe- tuity depends. Montesquieu truly observed, " The safety of a State depends on the virtue of Women," and I will add, the virtue of Women depends on their being properly treated by men. By elevating them in the scale of being and intelligence, their virtue is best protected. By elevation, I do not mean an introduction into the poisonous atmosi)here of fashion and gaiety; the danc- WOMAN. 259 in^ school, the ball room, the theatre, the levee, and whist parties; that, iii our day, are disqualifyin*^ thou- sands for the duties of wife and mother, by keeping them in utter ignorance of domestic life. By intelli- gence, I do not mean a knowledge of French, Italian, instrumental music, wax flowers, or fancy drawing ; that are also depriving many of that solid education, fit for every-day use, and calculated to improve the mind, correct the head, inform the understanding, and better the heart. The mother of Washington was ignorant of them all, and was never contaminated in the gay circles of the upper ten thousand. Let girls, no matter how wealthy their parents, be first thoroughly instructed in the solid branches of an Eng- lish education, including the Bible, and in all the duties of housewifery, from the cellar to the garret. Without these, they are not qualified to be wives or mothers. If they should never be under the necessity of labor- ing, they need all these, to enable them to manage the affairs of a house. Here is the sphere designed for Woman by the great Creator, where she should have as unlimited control, as the man in his sphere ; not to be cooped up, like a hen with chickens, but with as much liberty to go and come, as the interests of her department will permit ; and with as full scope for her mental powers, as man. In no circle is Woman as love- ly, as safe, and as useful, as in the domestic ; and on errands of mercy. Such was her circle when Greece and Rome flourished. When she became a student of the school of fashion and gaiety, they fell ; an awful warn- ing to those in our country, who are making fearful in- novations upon the republican simplicity and domestic habits, that characterized our nation fifty years ago. 260 THE PROBE. I again repeat, that upon intelligent, domestic, pious mothers; the perpetuity of our liberty depends. If we are sacrificed, it will be at the shrine of fashion, sen- sual pleasures, and infidelity, in their various shades ; which mutually beget each other, and have borne, on their fiery billows, the wrecks of numerous nations that once flourished as happily as our own — but have sunk to rise no more. XANTIPPE, Such women feel not, \vhile they sigh and weep ^ ^Tis but their habit, — their affections sleep. They are like ice, that in our hands we hold, So very melting — yet so very cold. — Crahbe. Xantippe was the wife of the great Philosopher Socrates, and the greatest scold of which history gives any account. To use an illustration — She could scold at a target for hours together, hit the nail every shot, keep her own tally, and, like a well regulated air-gun, her ammunition was as exhaustless as the atmosphere. Whether this aided in producing that extraordinary composure, manifested by Socrates, when he took the fatal hemlock ordered by the tribunal that unjustly condemned him to death ; the historian does not inform us, but it is reasonable to suppose, that such a battery of words, discharging its whole fury upon even a phi- losopher, for fifty years, must have made some im- pression. Tins scolding propensity is still one of the ugly excrescences of human nature, and, occasionally, its thrilling music may be heard. Habit has much to do XANTIPPE. 2G1 with it. Indulgence gives it strength, and greatly in- creases its volume, but not its melody. It converts a sour disposition into elixir vitriol, and a sweet one into vinegar. Of all scolds, the crying ones most disfigure the human face divine. They remind me of the flutter wheel of a saw-mill, clogged with brushwood. They produce no dry thunder gusts. This unfortunate, unnecessary, self tormenting, others provoking, all annoying habit, is not confined to females, as in the case of Xantippe. I have known some husbands and wives, who were all honey and dear to each other, when entertaining company and on visits, who were both adepts in this business ; as their poor children and servants could attest. Occasionally, by way of change; they would open their battery on each other, and make the splinters fly freely, and some- times the crockery too. O shame ! I have known master mechanics, who converted their workshops into bedlams by scolding ; spoiling good apprentices, making the bad worse, and driving away each journeyman in quick succession. A scolding teacher in a school, is worse than New Orleans mosquitoes in dog days. I have known a scold- ing physician destroy the usefulness of brilliant talents, and they highly cultivated, by indulging in this mad freak. I have known scolding lawyers make them- selves a butt, and often injure, and sometimes ruin the cause of a client, by indulging in this sad propensity. I have known scolding preachers drive away all their parishioners, and have seldom known one to do any good. It is no where sanctioned or recommended in the Bible, in ethics, or by any philosopher, although some have been cynics. If once fixed on a person by 262 THE PROBE. habit, it is difficult of cure. Solitude increases its force, like pent-up waters ; for the scold seldom stops to reflect. Reli<>lon has sometimes cured the disease, but, like cancers that are cut out, their fibrous roots are very apt to be left, and still torment the patient. Un- less nipt in the bud, this noxious plant will grow. As a continued dropping of cold water uj)on the head, will eventually stop the circulation of the blood, and pro- duce a most horrid death; so will perpetual scolding dry up the life-stream of affection, esteem, and respect ; and destroy all social order that comes under its pes- tiferous influence. Lay this to heart ye scolds, and pray God to give you grace to overcome this freezing, ice-bound habit, and thereby increase your own com- fort, and that of those around you. XENIADES. What is life ? 'Tis not to stalk about and draw fresh air, From time to time, or gaze upon the sun ! 'Tis to be free. — Addison. Xeniades was a citizen of Corinth, who purchased Diogenes, when sold as a slave. He asked the tub philosopher what he could do. Command freemen, was the promj)t and laconic reply ; which so pleased his purchaser, that he immediately set him at liberty. In- dependence, as is usual with true lovers of freedom, was a strong trait in the character of Diogenes. Alex- ander the Great once visited him in his tub, and asked what favor he could bestow upon him. Get out of my sunshine, was his quick and sarcastic answer. The XENIADES. 263 conqueror of the world turned to his courtiers, and said, " Were I not Alexander, I should wish to be Diogenes." How few we have at the present day, who would not dwindle into pi^i^mies, and wei^fh like a feather against a i)ound of lead, if put in the scale of patriotism hy the side of a Diogenes. In his day, the friends of freedom loved and fought for it, for its own intrinsic worth, not for the sake of the loaves and fishes, as in modern times. Love of gain, fame, and honor, now form the great motive power that moves the multifarious wheels, wires, and pipes, of our political machinery. The; towering waves of party spirit have long rolled over old school patriotism, and covered it with the alluvion of corruption. If not too deeply buried, it will yet spring up ; and our country will again reap a rich har- vest from this alluvial bottom. But it is high time the plough of correction and harrow of equality should be used. The feio have governed the many long enough. If the deposite is suffered to accumulate, the substratum of patriotism cannot be reached with a common instru- ment. Even now, it would require a prairie plough to insure a good crop. The people, in mass, should be- come fully sensible, that they have something more to do, than "to stalk about, and draw fresh air, and gaze upon the sun." Let them reflect, analyze, judge, and act for themselves ; and with the independence and pa- triotism of a Diogenes, prove themselves worthy of freedom. Then, and not without, will it be preserved and perpetuated. Let demagogues, and all the con- taminating vices that have long polluted the political atmosphere of our country, be thrown over the dam, with all the accumulated flood wood, that is impeding 264 THE PROBE. the originally pure stream of Liberty. Our nation may then reasonably ask, and expect to receive, the guardian care of Almighty God — not otherwise. YAW. This word is applied to a ship, signifying its un- steady and indirect motion on a great swell of the sea ; a fit emblem of the Yawing of man, in passing over the ocean of life. How few there are who carry ballast enough to keep their frail barks from careening at every swell that overtakes them. Many are thrown upon their beams ends, others are lost at the early part of their voyage. And why these shipwrecks ? Because the vessel is of bad materials, poorly con- structed, and not properly trimmed ; not for want of good materials within the reach of every one, and good workmen to put them together. Tiic youth who rushes into the avenues of vice, will find himself with a bad hull, a rotten mainmast, a mildewed mainsail, a disordered cabin, a broken com- pass, a weak cable, a light anchor, his figure head de- faced, his helm unshipped, his ballast composed of bilge water, his cargo worthless, and all his rigging unfit for sea. In this condition, unless thoroughly repaired by those master workmen. Virtue and Wisdom, his shipwreck is inevitable and speedy. Reader, look around, and see what multitudes are Yawing on the billows of life. See that young man, endowed with towering talent, polished by an expensive and refined education ; the hope of indulgent parents, and the ))ridc of admiring friends — see his vessel ca- YAW. 265 reening — his sails fluttering — his masts falling — his cable parted — he founders — one awful plunge — he sinks to rise no more. Alcohol unshipped his helm, destroyed his compass, forced him on the rocks, and plunged him in ruin, before he had lost sight of the shore from which he launched. Look at the multitudes, whose flimsy barks are con- structed of the light materials of sensual pleasure; their vessels cannot live on a rough sea for a moment. Look at those in the low black schooner, water logged with crime in all its varied forms — the billows of justice roll over them, and they disappear. See the gay mul- titudes putting to sea in their light canoes of fashion — they are tossed to and fro, like squirrels on a strip of bark ; and sometimes are driven back on shore, and apply to Virtue and Wisdom, to construct them some- thing more substantial. Look into the ship-yard of Folly and Vice, and you will see an endless variety of crafts, all enticing to the natural eye, but none of them sea-worthy — they will all Yaw those who embark in them, on the rocks of destruction. Wisdom, Virtue, and pure Religion, are the only safe workmen to be employed. They have none but substantial and durable materials, and do their work in the very best manner. Be not deceived in the firm — the name is Happiness and Heaven — index pointing upward. Embark in a craft from this ship-yard, if you desire to outride the storm of life, and be safely landed in the haven of enduring bliss and endless joy. 34 X 266 THE PROBE. YOUTH What is youth ? a smiling sorrow, Bhthe to-day, and sad to-monow ; Never fixed — for ever ranging, Laughing, weeping, doting, changing; Wild, capricious, giddy, vain, Cloy'd with pleasure, nurs'd with pain. — Mrs. Rohinsoii. Lacon has well remarked, that the excessess of Youth are drafts upon our old age, payable, with interest, about thirty years after date. Hurry and Cunning, are the two apprentices of their Despatch and Skill — but neither of them learn their master's trade. Youth are easily thrown off the track of happiness, and often get wofully bespatterd. They are usually strangers to the three modes of bearing up under the ills of life — indifference, philosophy, and religion. Their anticipa- tions are strong, their imaginations ever on the wing, their hopes extravagant, their judgment weak, their experience green ; and, like the kite, they are carried by various currents of wind, in a zigzag course, up to adult age. Some unfortunates are long reaching their majority, and are somewhat kitish tlu'ough a long series of years. They chase and crush butterflies a long time. With these natural propensities, how important that our Youth receive, and duly improve the right kind of instruction during the proper season for improvement. The reasoning powers, and the capacity of discerning between good and evil, are early developed, by kind and judicious culture. But few are too obstinate to listen, and those few have been neglected in early childhood. YOUTH. 267 liulucc tlicin to listen, an affectionate course will usu- ally intluence them to comply with advice, that they can readily see must enhance their Imppiness, and prepare them to become resi)ectable and useful members of society. Inspire in them self respect, a most powerful lever to insure their safety. Teach them the proneness of human nature to yield to seducing pleasure, and the great safety in avoiding temptation, that they may be kept from evil. Teach them their importance as im- mortal beings, and curb their pride, by convincing them of their dependence on God for every thing. Show them that they must soon take the places of their fathers and mothers, on the great theatre of life; teach them to think and act like men and women; this will strengthen them and press upon them the vast import- ance of becoming thoroughly prepared to act well their part, when called on the stage of action. Teach them religion in its native purity and simplicity. Unfold to them its sublime beauties, and contrast them with the distorted features of vice. Picture to them the happy results of the former, and the direful effects of the latter. Do these things with all of our Youth, religion will prosper — our country is safe. Causes will produce their legitimate effects. To the dear Youth, I desire to say a few words. Listen to an old man, who feels a deep interest in your welfare, and well remembers when he was young, and can appreciate the increasing dangers to which you are exposed, as our country becomes more densely populated. Love, honor, and obey your parents. From them you received the first kind attentions of humanity. By them you have been fed, clothed, and preserved, under 268 THE PROBE. God ; from your helpless infancy, to the present mo- ment. During your more tender age, when you knew no care, felt no anxiety, and realized no blessings ; their anxiety, care, and love ; impelled them to watch over you, and provide for your numerous and accumu- lating wants. They first opened the quarry of ignor- ance in which your intellect lay concealed, and aided in bringing your mental powers from the darkness of nature, to the light of intelligence. If your parents are Christians, they have taught you the necessity of shun- ning all vice, and of reposing your trust in the immacu- late Redeemer. For all this, your hearts should swell with gratitude ; you owe them a debt you can best pay, by loving, honoring, and obeying them, and departing from all evil, and walking in the ways of wisdom, virtue, and truth. Improve your minds by acquiring a good store of useful knowledge. If the tree put forth no blossoms in spring, we gather no fruit in autumn. If the spring- time of your lives passes without improvement; if the vain allurements and trifling amusements of this deceit- ful and deceiving world engross your minds, to the ex- clusion of salutary improvement, the darkness of ignorance will remain stamped upon your mental powers, and will most likely })ush you into the murky waters of shame and disgrace. At the week day and Sabbath school, improve your time — love your teacher and fellow schoolmates, en- deavor to be first in your class, live in harmony and peace with every one, shun all vice, resist every temp- tation to do wrong ; and bear strongly in mind, that you will soon take our places — become fathers, mo- thers, teachers, ministers, statesmen, governors, presi- ZEAL. 269 lents — and tlmt tlic responsibility of preserving onr country and nation, will soon devolve on you. Let these reflections raise you above the trifles that only amuse without benefiting you — learn to be men and women, while you are boys and girls. Above all, study the Bible — seek religion, and re- member your Creator in the days of your youth, that your years may be long, prosperous, useful, and happy. ZEAL. Zeal, without knowledge, is slavery in its highest refinement. It blinds its subjects, and renders them the dupes of knaves. They constitute a fifth class in the world, belonging not to the minority composed of great men ; the majority, composed of the small, the knaves, or the fools. They are mere automatons, walking, talking, fighting machines ; like Falstaff"'s soldiers, afraid of nothing but danger, and not quick in apprehending that. Zeal is rather paradoxical in its operations upon the human race. It is like some baulky horses — they work best when blinded. It is lamentable to see the want of Zeal in all the benevolent and holy enterprises of the day. Look at the cause of pure and undefiled religion — compare the Zeal of its professed friends, with that of the idolaters, the Mahometan, the wild Arab. For ardent fervor, burning zeal, untiring perseverance, and scrupulous punctuality ; the latter far surpass the most devoted Christian. How soon, how very soon, does the Zeal of our revivals die away. Our Zeal is only periodi- cal, and those periods of short duration. x2 270 THE PROBE. The Bible cause, the missionary societies, tract dis- tribution, and Sabbath school operations ; are all zealously attended to but occasionally, and not long at a time. This is Zeal with knowledge misimproved — Zeal in causes worthy of the noblest energies and un- tiring exertions of man. These are self-evident facts, that demand the prayerful attention and most serious consideration of every Christian. This awful indiffer- ence, that steals over us like a nightmare; is deroga- tory to the Christian character, an incubus upon the cause of our Lord and Master, a drag-chain upon the churches of Christ, a clog that retards spiritual ad- vancement, a blot upon Christian graces, a heart- chilling disease, that affects the soul, as the ague does the body. It is the mesmerism of the devil, and the electro-magnetism of the world combined. Awake Christians, lest you sleep the sleep of death. Let your Zeal be according to knowledge — a Zeal that shall convince the world you are in earnest in a glori- ous cause — and prepare to strike a blow for your con- quering King, that shall resound through the wilderness of impenitent minds, and cause every tree to bud and blossom like the rose. ZENO. Ze\o, the great philosopher, born at Cyprus, con- sidered silence one of the cardinal virtues. In a quali- fied sense this is true. It would be a virtue in those who never say a good thing, to be silent. It would be well to observe silence, rather than talk nonsense, as thousands do, in public speaking and in private conver- ZENO. 271 sation. Our tongues are the most consuinmate prodi- gals on earth, with this advantage over others — the funds seem inexhaustible, although they may not be of much real value. With nothing are we as careless, as with the use of this little flippant member. We are not only prone to let it run too much at large, but we permit it to become unruly, and intrude upon the rights of others. It was this fact, undoubtedly, that induced Zeno so much to admire silence. But to impose si- lence, or prevent mischief, is out of the question. We are doomed to suffer from it. We may as soon expect the wind will cease to carry thistle seeds on their feather cars, and plant them a thousand miles from their parent stem. Pythagoras imposed silence on his pupils for days together, but the moment the in- junction was taken off, they gabbled more than ever, and much nonsense too. But if we cannot stop, we can improve, by lessening the quantity and bettering the quality of our talk. This is more desirable than silence. This is what was de- signed by our great Creator — that we should speak, but speak only good and no evil. It was a saying of Zeno, that men have but one tongue and two ears, and should therefore hear much and speak little. If this hint of nature was better observed, it would be of vast benefit to our race. That too much is said, none will deny. We should have less and wiser talk — more and better work, in every department of life, from the do- mestic circle, up to the presidential chair. I am aware the present large quantity gives employment to law- yers, justices, juries, legislators, paper-makers, and printers ; rather a problematical recommendation. Let us endeavor to keep our tongues with all dili- 272 THE PROBE. gence, remembering, that he who offends not in word, and never indulges in idle talk, is a wise man. Let us devote our tongues to the improvement of mankind — the propagation of truth — the advancement of the glo- rious cause of our immaculate Redeemer — and in pre- paring ourselves and our fellow men, for that glorious rest and felicity, prepared for all the true followers of the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of all those who enlist under the banner of the cross, and hold out faithful to the end. Then we may hail with triumphant joy, the '•' Great day, for ^vhich all other days were made, For which earth rose from chaos — man from earth, And an eternity — the date of gods, Descended on poor earth — created man I" APPENDIX TO THE PROBE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. When, in the course of Iiuman events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve tlie political bands wliich have con- nected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind, requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal : that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights : that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness: that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed : that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments, long established, should not be changed for liglit and transient causes; and accordingly all ex- perience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufTerable, tlian to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same 1 A 1 2 APPENDIX object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despot- ism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off sucli govern- ment, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies ; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present king of Great Britain, is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these slates. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation, till his assent should be obtained ; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of peo- ple, unless those people would relinquish the right of repre- sentation in the legislature ; a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the repository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for op- posing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected ; whereby the legislative powers, in- capable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large, for their exercise ; the state remaining, in the mean time, ex- posed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convul- sions within. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these states ; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of for- eigners ; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. TO THE PROnE. O He has obstructed the adininistraiion of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for cstabhsliing judiciary powers. He lias made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their olhces, and the amount and payment of tlieir salaries. He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of ofhcers, to harass our people, and eat out tlieir substance. He has kept among us, in limes of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the military mdependent of, and superior to, the civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws ; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation : For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us : For protecting them by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states : For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world : For imposing taxes on us without our consent: For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury : For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences : For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neigh- bouring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an ex- ample and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies : For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering, fundamentally, the forms of our governments : For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection, and waging war against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. 4 APPENDIX He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign merce- naries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions. In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose char- acter is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have we been Avanling in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emi- gration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the lies of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and corres- pondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the neces- sity which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in general congress assembled, appealing to the Su- preme Judge of the world, for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colo- nies are, and of right ought to be, free and independext STATES ; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the TO THE PROBK. U Britisli crown, and tlial all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is, and ought to be, totally dis- solved ; and that, as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour. The foregoing declaration was, by order of congress, en- grossed, and signed by the following members : JOHN HANCOCK. NEW HAMPSHIRE. Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton. MASSACHUSETTS BAY. Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry. RHODE ISLAND, &C. Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery. CONNECTICUT. Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntingdon, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott. NEW YORK. William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris. NEW JERSEY. Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark. PENNSYLVANIA. Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross. DELAWARE. Cesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas M'Kean. a2 6 APPENDIX TO THE PROBE. MARYLAND. Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll, of Carrollton. VIRGINIA. George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr. Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton. NORTH CAROLINA. William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn. SOUTH CAROLINA. Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr. Thomas Lynch, Jr. Arthur Middleton. GEORGIA. Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton. CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES PREAMBLE. We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, pro- vide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America. ARTICLE L Of the Legislature. SECTION I. 1. All legislative powers herein granted, shall be vested in a congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. SECTIOX II. 1. The House of Representatives shall be composed of mem- bers chosen every second year by the people of the several states ; and the electors in each state shall have the qualifica- tions requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislature. 2. No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state in which he shall be chosen. 3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this 8 APPENDIX union, according to iheir respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, in- cluding those bound to service for a term of years, and exclud- ing Indians not taxed, three-fifilis of all other persons. The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each state shall have at least one representative ; and until such enumeration shall be made, the state oi JYew Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three ; Massachusetts eight ; Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one ; Connecticut five ; JVew York six ; JVeio Jer- sey four; Pennsylvania eight; Delaware one; Maryland six; Virginia ten ; JVorth Carolina five ; South Carolina five ; and Georgia three. 4. When vacancies happen in the representation from any state, the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill up such vacancies. 5. The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and other officers, and shall have the sole power of impeach- ment. SECTION III. 1. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six years ; and each senator shall have one vote. 2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first election, they shall be divided, as equally as may be, into three classes. The seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year, of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year, and the third class at tlie expiration of the sixth year, so that one third may be chosen every second year ; and if vacancies happen, by re- signation or otherwise, during the recess of the legislature of any slate, the executive thereof may make temporary appoint- ments until the next meeting: of the le^^islature, wliich shall then fill such vacancies. TO Till': rROBE. 9 3. No person sliall be a senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inliabitant of that state for which he shall be chosen. 4. The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, bnt shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a president pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the office of President of the United States. 6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeach- ments. Wiien sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the chief justice shall preside; and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the mem- bers present. 7. Judgment in case of impeachment shall not extend farther than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honour, trust, or profit, under the United States ; but the party convicted shall, nevertheless, be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment ac- cording to law. SECTION IV. 1. The times, places, and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof; but the congress may at any time, by law, make or alter such regulations, except as to the place of choosing senators. 2. The congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall be on the first 3Ionday in December, unless they shall by law appoint a different day. SECTION V. 1. Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members ; and a majority of each 2 10 APPENDIX shall constitute a quorum to do business ; but a smaller num- ber may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner and under such penalties as each House may provide. 2. Each House may determine the rule of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behaviour, and, with llie concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member. 3. Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy: and the yeas and nays of the members of either House, on any question, shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on the journal. 4. Neither House during the session of Congress shall, with- out the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting. SECTION VI. 1. The senators and representatives shall receive a compen- sation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the treasury of the United States. They shall in all cases, except treason, felony, and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their re- spective Houses, and in going to or returning from the same ; and for any speech or debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other place. 2. No senator or representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States which shall have been crea- ted, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased, dur- ing such time; and no person holding any office under the United States shall be a member of either House during his continuance in office. SECTION VII. 1. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives ; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments, as on other bills. TO THK PROBF.. 11 2. Every bill which shall have passed the House of Repre- sentatives and the Senate sliall, before it become a law, be pre- sented to the President of the United States ; if he approve, he shall sign it; but if not, he shall return it, with his objections, to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objection at large on their journal, and proceed to recon- sider it. If, after such reconsideration, two-thirds of that House shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two-thirds of that House, it shall become a law. But in all such cases the votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundays ex- cepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Con- gress by their adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law. 3. Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary, (except a question of adjournment,) shall be presented to the President of the United States ; and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the rules and limitations pre- scribed in the case of a bill. SECTION VIII. The Congress shall have power — 1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States : 2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States : 3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes : 12 APPENDIX 4. To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies, throughout the United States : 5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures : 6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the se- curities and current coin of the United States : 7. To establish post offices and post roads : 8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by- securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclu- sive right to their respective writings and discoveries : 9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the supreme court : 10. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and ofiences against the law of nations : 11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water: 12. To raise and support armies ; but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years : 13. To provide and maintain a navy : 14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces : 15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions : 16. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employ- ed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively the appointment of the oflicers and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress : 17. To exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever, over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states and the acceptance of Congress, be- come the seat of government of the United States, and to exer- cise like authority over all places purchased, by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings : and ^ TO THE PROBE. 13 18. To make all laws whicli shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this constitution in the government of the United States, or any department or ofiicer thereof. SECTION IX. 1. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person. 2. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless when, in case of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it. 3. No bill of attainder, or ex-post-facto law, shall be passed. 4. No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be taken. 5. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state. No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one state over those of another; nor shall vessels bound to or from one state be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another. 6. No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in conse- quence of appropriations made bylaw; and a regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time. 7. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States, and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without the consent of Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state. SECTION X. J. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confede- ration; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make any thing but gold and silver coin a ' B 14 APPENDIX tender in payment of debts ; pass any bill of attainder, ex-post- facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts ; or grant any title of nobility. 2. No state shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws ; and the nett produce of all duties and imposts laid by any state on im- ports or exports shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States, and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of Congress. IVo state shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty on tonnage, keep troops or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with another state, or with a foreign power, or engage iji_war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay. ARTICLE II. Of the Executive. SECTIOX I. 1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same term, be elected as follows : — 2. Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of senators and representatives to which the state may be entitled in Congress; but no senator or representative, or person holding any office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector. 3. The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for eacli ; which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United Slates, directed to the President of the Senate. The President TO THE PROBK. 15 of the Senate shall, in l\\p presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the cerlilicates, and tiie votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed ; and if there be more than one who have such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for President ; and if no person have a majority, then, from the five highest on the list, the said House shall in like manner choose the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote ; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two- thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. In every case after the choice of the •President, the person having the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the Vice President. 4. The Congress may determine the time of choosing ilie electors and the day on which they shall give their votes, which day shall be the same throughout the United States. 5. No person except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President ; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States. 6. In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President; and the Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what officer shall then act as President; and such officer shall act accordingly, until the dis- ability be removed or a President shall be elected. 7. The President shall, at stated times, receive for his servicer 16 THE PROBE. ANGER. It doth appal me To see your anger, like our Adrian waves, O'er sweep all bounds, and foam itself to air. — Byron. Those hearts that start at once into a blaze, And open all their rage, like summer storms, At once discharg'd, grow cool again, and calm. — Johnson. Byron seems to have viewed anger with contempt — Johnson, with compassion. The latter is right, and the former not far wrong. It is folly not to control our anger and keep it in subjection — long indulgence gives it a mastery over us — it then becomes a con- firmed disease, and calls for our pity. It is one of the misfortunes of our fallen nature, and can best be dis- armed by kindness. The bee seldom stings the hand that is covered with honey — the cross dog can be ap- peased with a piece of meat, the angry man is soonest cooled by gentleness. Anger is a species of momen- tary insanity — all humane persons treat the unfortunate subjects of this disease, tenderly, as the best means of restoring them to their right mind. When anger comes in contact with anger, it is like the meeting of two fires — the conflagration and damage are increased. As water extinguishes the one, so will gentleness the other. A soft answer turncth away wrath. Be angry and sin not. By these remarks, I do not be- come the apologist of those who indulge this inflamma- ble, explosive propensity — the treatment of the disease is my object. The patient who has long been afliicted, may do much towards effecting his own cure — at first, the malady was under his control. An ounce of pre- APOTHEGMS. 1 7 vention then, was worth more than a pound of cure, after the hahit is fixed. The disadvantages arising from anger, under all circumstances, should prove a panacea for the complaint. In moments of cool reflec- tion, the man who indulges it, views, with deep regret, the desolations produced by a summer storm of pas- sion. Friendship, domestic happiness, self-respect, the esteem of others, and sometimes property; are swept away by a whirlwind — perhaps a tornado of anger. I have more than once seen the furniture of a house in a mass of ruin, the work of an angry moment. I have seen anger make wives unhappy, alienate husbands, spoil children, derange all harmony, and disturb the quiet of a whole neighbourhood. Anger, like too much wine, hides us from ourselves, but exposes us to others. If the man ^yho has, for years, been a con- firmed drunkard, can form, and rehgiously keep, a res- olution to refrain from the fatal poison, the man who has often been intoxicated with anger, should go and do likewise. He can but try — the effort may be crowned with triumphant success. APOTHEGMS. SELECT AND ORIGINAL A SAGE and poor shepherd looked for truth. The former sought her among the stars, the latter found her at his feet. Life, to youth, is a fairytale just opened; to old age, a tale read through, ending in death. Be wise in time, that you may be happy in eternity. 3 b2 18 APPENDIX. under grants of different states ; and between a state, or the citizens thereof and foreign states, citizens, or subjects. 2. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls, and those in which a stale shall be a party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations as Congress shall make. 3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury, and such trial shall be held in the state where the said crimes shall have been committed; but when not com- mitted within any state, the trial shall be at such place or places as Congress may by law have directed. SECTION III. 1. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason, unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or confession in open court. 2. Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason ; but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, except during the life of the person at- tainted. ARTICLE IV. <^ Miscellaneous. SECTION I. 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each stale to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. And Congress may, by general laws, prescribe the man- ner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. SECTION If. 1. The citizens of each stale shall be entitled to all the privi- leges and immunities of citizens in the several states. 2. A person charged in any state with treason, felony, or TO 'Jii:; riiuHK. 19 other Clime, who sliall llec from justice and be found in another state, shall, on demand of tlic executive authority of the state from which lie lied, be delivered up, to be removed to the state having jurisdiction of the crime. 3. No person held to service or labour in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into anotiier shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such ser- vice or labour ; but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to wliom such service or labour may be due. SECTION III. 1. New states may be admitted by Congress into this union; but no new state shall be formed or erected within the jurisdic- tion of any other state, nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned, as well as of Congress. 2. Congress shall have power to dispose of, and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory, or other property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States or of any particular state. SECTION IV. 1. The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion ; and, on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened), against domestic violence. ARTICLE V. Of Amendments. 1. Congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this constitution ; or, on the application of the legislatures of two- thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three- fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three-fourths 20 APPENDIX. thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by Congress ; provided, that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eiglit hundred and eight, shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article ; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the senate. ARTICLE VI. Miscellaneous. 1. All debts contracted, and engagements entered into, before the adoption of this constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this constitution, as under the confederation. 2. This constitution, and the laws of the United Slates which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United Slates, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, any thing in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding. 3. The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several slates, shall be bound by oath or aflirmalion to support this constitution: but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any oflicc, or public trust, under the United States. ARTICLE VII. Of the Ratification. 1. The ratification of the conventions of nine slates shall be sufficient for the establishment of this constitution between the states so ratifying the same. Done in Convention, by the unanimous consent of the states present, the seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the independence of the United Stales of America the twelfth. In witness whereof, we have hereunto subscribed our names GEORGE WASHINGTON, President, and Deputy from Virginia. TO Tin: PRO 111:. 21 NEW IIAMrSIIIRE. John Langdon, Nicholas Gihiian. MASSACHUSETTS. Nathaniel Gorman, Rufus King. NEW JERSEY. William Livingston, David Brearly, William Patterson, Jonathan Dayton. PENNSYLVANIA. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas MifHin, Robert Morris, George Clymer, Thomas Fitzsimmons, Jared IngersoU, James Wilson, Governeur Morris. DELAWARE. George Read, Gunning Bedford, jun. John Dickinson, Richard Bassett, Jacob Broom. CONNECTICUT. William Samuel Johnson, Roger Sherman. NEW YORK. Alexander Hamilton. MARYLAND. James M'Henry, Daniel of St. Tho. Jenifer, Daniel Carroll. VIRGINIA. John Blair, James Madison, jun. NORTH CAROLINA. William Blount, Richard Dobbs Spaight, Ilugli Williamson. SOUTH CAROLINA. John Rutledge, Chas. Cotesworth Pinckney, Charles Pinckney, Pierce Butler. GEORGIA. William Few, Abraham Baldwin. dtlest^ WILLIAM JACKSON, Secretary. 22 APPENDIX. AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. Art. 1. Congress shall make no law respecting an establish- ment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press ; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the govern- ment for a redress of grievances. Art. 2. A well-regulated militia being necessary to the secu- rity of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Art. 3. No soldier shall, in lime of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner ; nor in time of Avar, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. Art. 4. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated ; and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and par- ticularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Art. 5. No person shall be held, to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indict- ment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be put twice in jeopardy of life or limb ; nor shall be compelled, in any criminal case, to be witness against himself; nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law ; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation. Art. 6. In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the stale and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation ; to be confronted with the witnesses against him ; to have com- TO Tin: PROBE. 23 pulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favour ; and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence. Art. 7. In suits at common law, where the value in contro- versy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved ; and no fact tried by jury shall be otherwise re- examined in any court of the United States than according to the rules of the common law. Art. 8. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. Art. 9. The enumeration in the constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. Art. 10. The powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively or to the people. Art. 11. The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another state, or by citizens or subjects of another state, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state. Art. 12. § 1. The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with them- selves ; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice President ; and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President and of all persons voted for as Vice President, and of the number of votes for each, which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate ; the Presi- dent of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Ptepresentatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted ; the person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such a majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three, on the list of those voted 24 APPENDIX TO THE PROBE. for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose im- mediately by ballot the President. But in choosing the Presi- dent, the votes sliall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote ; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other con- stitutional disability of the President. 2, The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice President shall be the Vice President, if such number be a ma- jority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list the Senate shall choose the Vice President : a quonim for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be neces- sary to a choice. 3. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice President of the United States. WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, Friends and Fellow Citizens^ The period for a new election of a citizen, to administer the executive government of the United States, being not far dis- tant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts must be employed in designating the person who is to be clothed with that important trust; it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now apprise you of the resolution I have formed, to decline beino^ considered amons^ the number of those out of whom a choice is to be made. I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to be as- sured, that this resolution has not been taken without a strict regard to all the considerations appertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful citizen to his country, and that, in with- drawing the tender of service, which silence in my situation might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for your future interest, no deficiency of grateful respect for your past kindness; but am supported by a full conviction, that the step is compatible with both. The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in, the office to wdiich your suffrages have twice called me, have been a uniform sacrifice of inclination to the opinion of duly, and to a defer- ence for what appeared to be your desire. I constandy hoped, that it would have been much earlier in my power, consistently with motives which I was not at liberty to disregard, to return to that retirement from which I had been reluctantly drawn. The strength of my inclination to do this, previous to the last election, had even led to the preparation of an address to de- clare it to you. But mature reflection on the then perplexed 4 C 25 26 APPENDIX. and critical posture of our aflkirs with foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my confidence, im- pelled me to abandon the idea. I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external as well as internal, no longer renders tlie pursuit of inclination incom- patible with the sentiment of duty or propriety ; and am persuaded, whatever partiality may be retained for my services, that, in the present circumstances of our country, you will not disapprove my determination to retire. The impressions with which I first undertook the arduous trust, were explained on the proper occasion. In the discharge of this trust, I will only say, that I have with good intentions contributed towards the organization and administration of the government, the best exertions of which a very AiUible judg- ment was capable. Not unconscious, in the outset, of the in- feriority of my qualifications, experience in my own eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others, has strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself: and every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome. Sa- tisfied that if any circumstances have given peculiar value to my services, they were temporary, I have the consolation to believe, that while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it. In looking forward to the moment which is intended to terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do not per- mit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved country, for the many honours it has conferred upon me; still more for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported me ; and for the oppor- tunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable attachment, by services faithful and persevering, though in use- fulness unequal to my zeal. If benefits have resulted to our country from these services, let it always be remembered to your praise, and as an instructive example in our annals, that, under circumstances in which the passions, agitated in every direction, were liable to mislead ; amidst appearances some- TO THE PROBE. 27 limes dubious; vicissitudes of fortune often discourairing ; in situations in whicli not unfre(|ucntly want of success has coun- tenanced the spirit of criticism, the constancy of your support was the essential prop of the efforts, and a guarantee of tlie plans by which they were effected. Profoundly penetrated with tliis idea, I shall carry it with me to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that Heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence; that your union and brotherly aflection may be perpetual ! that a free constitution, which is the work of your hands may be sacredly maintained, that its administration, in every department, may be stamped with wisdom and virtue, that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these states, under the auspices of Heaven, may be made complete, by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of liberty, as will acquire to them the glory of recom- mending it to the applause, the affection, and the adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it. Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your welfare, which cannot end but with my life, and the apprehen- sion of danger, natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an occa- sion like the present, to olfer to your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent review, some sentiments, which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsideral)Ie observation, and which appear to me all-important to the per- manency of your felicity as a People. These will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly jiave no personal motive to bias his council. Nor can I forget, as an encouragement to it, your indulgent reception of my sentiments on a former, and not dissimilar occasion. Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment. The unity of Government which constitutes you one people, is also now dear to you. It is justly so ; for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquillity at home, your peace abroad ; of your safety ; of 28 APPENDIX. your prospcrily; of lliat very liberty which you so higlily prize. But as it is easy to foresee, that from diflerent causes and from diflerent quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth ; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insi- duously) directed, it is of inlinite moment, that yuu sliould pro- perly estimate the immense value of your national Union, to your collective and individual happiness ; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the Palla- dium of your political safety and prosperity; watcliing for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be aban- doned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred lies which now link together the various parts. For tliis you have every inducement of sympathy and in- terest. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your aflections. The name of American, whicli belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exult the just pride of patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of diflerence, you iiave the same religion, manners, habits and political principles. You have, in a common cause, fought and triumphed together. The independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint councils, and joint efforts; of common dangers, suflerings, and successes. But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those wliicli apply more immediately to your interest. Here every portion of our country finds the most commanding motives for carefiiUv guarding and preserving the union of the w^hole. Tiie NORTH, in an unrestrained intercourse with the south, protected by the equal laws of a common government, finds in TO Tiir. PnOBE. 29 the productions of tlie latter, great additional resource? of ma- ritime and commercial enterprise, and precious materials of maniifucturing industry. Tlic soi tii, in the same intercourse benefiting by the agency of the north, sees its agriculture grow, and its commerce expand. Turning partly into its own channels the seamen of the .north, it finds its particular naviga- tion invigorated; and while it contributes, in different ways, to nourish and increase the general mass of the national naviga- tion, it looks forward to the protection of a maritime strength, to which itself is unequally adapted. The east, in a like in- tercourse with the WEST, already finds, and in the progressive improvement of interior communications, by land and water, will more and more find a valuable vent for the commodities which it brings from abroad, or manufactures at home. The WEST derives from the east supplies requisite to its growth and comfort; and what is, perhaps, of still greater consequence, it must of necessity owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its own production, to the weight, influence, and the future maritime strength of the Atlantic side of the union, di- rected by an indissoluble community of interest, as one nation. Any other tenure, by which the west can hold this essential advantage, whether derived from its own separate strength, or from an apostate or unnatural connexion with any foreign power, must be intrinsically precarious. While then every part of our country thus feels an immediate and particular interest in union, all tlie parties combined cannot fail to find, in the united mass of means and efibrts, greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater security from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations. And, what is of inestimable value, they must derive from union an exemption from those broils and wars be- tween themselves, which so frequently afilict neighbouring coun- tries, not tied together by the same government ; which their own rivalships alone would be sufiicient to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments, and intrigues, would stimulate and embitter. Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments, which c2 30 APPENDIX. under any form of government are inauspicious to liberty; and ■svhich are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty. In tliis sense it is, that your union ought to be consi- dered as a main prop of your liberty, and that love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other. These considerations speak a persuasive language to every reflecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit the continuance of the uxiox as a primary object of patriotic desire. Is there a doubt, M'hether a common government can embrace so large a sphere ? Let experience solve it. To listen to mere speculation, in such a case, were criminal. We are authorized to hope that a proper organization of the whole, with the auxiliary agency of govern- ments for the respective subdivisions, will afford a happy issue to the experiment. It is well worth a fair and full experiment. With such powerful and obvious motives to union, affecting all parts of our country, while experience shall not have demon- strated its impracticability, there will always be reason to dis- trust the patriotism of those, who, in any quarter may endeavour to weaken its bands. In contemplating the causes which may disturb our union, it occurs, as a matter of serious concern, that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations; northern and southern; Atlantic and WESTERN ; whence designing men may endeavour to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within par- ticular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heart burnings which spring from these mis- representations ; they tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal aflection. The inhabitants of our western country have lately had a useful les- son on this head ; they have seen, in the negotiation by the Executive, and in the unanimous ratification by the Senate of the treaty with Spain, and in the universal satisfaction at that event throughout the United States, a decisive proof how un- founded were the suspicions propagated among them, of a policy TO THE PROBE. 31 in the general government, and in the Atlantic states, unfriendly to tlieir interest in regard to the IMississippi. They have been witnesses to the formation of two treaties ; tliat with Great Britain, and that with Spain; which secure to them every tiling they could desire, in respect to our foreign relations, towards conlirming their prosperity. Will it not be their wisdom to rely for the preservation of these advantages on the union by which they were procured ? Will they not henceforth be deaf to those advisers, if such there are, who would sever them from their brethren, and connect them with aliens } To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a Govern- ment for the whole is indispensable. No alliances, however strict, between the parts, can be an adequate substitute ; they must inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions wjiich all alliances in all times have experienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a Constitution of Government better calculated than your former for an intimate union, and for the efficacious management of your common concerns. This government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting secu- rity with energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the funda- mental maxims of true liberty. The basis of our political systems, is the right of the people to make and alter their con- stitutions of government. But, the constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish govern- ment, presupposes the duty of every individual to obey ti;^ es- tablished government. All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with a real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular delibe- 32 Ari'KNDIX. ration and action of tlie constituted aiillioritios, arc destriirtive of this fundamental principle, and f)f fatal tendency. Tliev serve to organize faction ; to give it an artificial and extraordi- nary force ; to put in tlie place of the delegated will of the na- tion, the will of a party, often a small, but artful and enterprising minority of the community ; and, according to the alternate triumphs of dilferent parties, to make tlie public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of fac- tion, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans, digested by common counsels, and modified by mutual interests. However combinations or associations of the above descrip- tion may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men, will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government ; destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion. Towards the preservation of your government, and the per- manency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect in the forms of the constitution, alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. In all the changes to which you may be invited, remember that time and hahit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of governments, as of other human institutions, that experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing constitution of a country ; that facility in change upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion, ex- poses to perpetual change from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; and remember, especially that for the efficient management of your common interests, in a country so exten- sive as ours, a government of as much vigour as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty, is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly dis- TO Tfir, rnoni:. 33 tribuled and atljustcil, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name, wlicrc the government is loo feeble to with- stand the enterprises of faction, to confine each member of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, and to main- tain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property. I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the state, with particular reference to the founding of them on geo- graphical discriminations. Let me now take a more compre- hensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally. This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed. But in those of the popu- lar form, it is seen in its greatest rankness ; and is truly their worst enemy. The alternate dominion of one faction over another, shar- pened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which, in different ages and countries, has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an indi- vidual : and, sooner or later, the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty. Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind, (which, nevertheless, ought not to be entirely out of sight,) the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It serves always to distract the public councils, and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill- founded jealousies and false alarms ; kindles the animosity of one part against another \ foments occasionally riot and insur- 34 APPENDIX. rection ; and opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, whicli find a facilitated access to tlie government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another. There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government, and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This, within certain limits, is probably true : and in governments of a monarchial cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favour, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, iu governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of this spirit for every salutary purpose. And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be, by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume. It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking, in a free country, should inspire caution in those intrusted with its ad- ministration, to confine themselves within their respective con- stitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of en- croachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the depart- ments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form* of govern- ment, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufTicient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks, in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into diflerent depositories, and constituting each the guardian of public weal against inva- sions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern ; some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them, [f, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modi- fication of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the con- stitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; TO Tin: ruoRK. 36 for though lliis, ill one instance, may bo the instrument of j^ond, it is the customary weapon by which free governmenl.s are de- stroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance, in permanent evil, any partial or transient benefit wiiich the use can at any time yield. Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labour to subvert tliese great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connexions with private and public felicity. Let it be simply asked, where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligations desert the oaths, which are the instru- ments of investigation in courts of justice.'' And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. Tlie rule indeed extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric ? Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institu- tions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened. As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it, is to use it as sparingly as possible ; avoiding occasions of expense by culti- vating peace; but remembering also that timely disbursements io prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disburse- ments to repel it ; avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous 36 APPENDIX. exertions, in time of peace, to discharge the debts which un- avoidable wars may have occasioned ; not ungenerously throw- ing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear. The execution of these maxims belongs to your repre- sentatives ; but it is necessary that public opinion should co- operate. To facilitate to them the performance of their duty, it is essential that you should practically bear in mind, that towards the payment of debts there must be revenue ; that to have revenue there must be taxes ; that no taxes can be devised Avhich are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant, that the intrinsic embarrassment inseparable from the selection of the proper object (which is always a choice of difficulties) ought to be a decisive motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the government in making it, and for a spirit of ac- quiescence in the measures for obtaining revenue, which the public exigencies may at any time dictate. Observe good faith and justice towards all nations ; cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct : and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it } It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady ad- herence to it ? Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue ? The ex- periment at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas ! is it rendered impossible by its vices ! In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that permanent inveterate antipathies against particular na- tions, and passionate attachment for others, should be excluded; and that in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation, which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affections, TO Tii:: riionr,. 37 cither of wliich is suniciciit to lead it astray from its duty and it.s interest. Antipathy in one nation against another, disposes each more readily to ofier insult and injury, to lay hold of sli^^ht causes of umbraj^e, and to be haughty and intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed and bloody contests. The nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The government sometimes participates in the na- tional propensity, and adopts through passion, what reason would reject; at other times, it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace, often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of nations has been the victim. So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another, produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favourite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest, in cases where no real common interest exist, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a partici- pation in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favourite nation, of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions, by unne- cessarily parting with what ought to have been retained ; and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties irom whom equal privileges are withheld : and it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favourite nation) facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity ; gilding witti the appearances of a vir- tuous sense of obligations, commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption or infatuation. As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practise the arts of D 38 APPENDIX. seduction, to mblcad public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils ! Such an attachment of a small or weak, to- wards a great and powerful nation, dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter. Against tlie insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow citizens) the jealousy of a free peo- ple ought to be CONSTANTLY awakc ; since history and expe- rience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defence against it. Ex- cessive partiality for one foreign nation, and excessive dislike of another, cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influ- ence on the other. Real patriots, who may resist the intrigues of the favourite, are liable to become suspected and odious ; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests. The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connexion as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulflUed with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in fre- quent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities. Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a diflerent course. If we re- main one people, under an efiicient government, the period is no* far ofl', when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any lime resolve upon, to be scrupu- lously respected ; when belligerent nations, under the impossi- bility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard TO TTIF. PROBC. 39 tlie giving us provocation ; when \vc may choose peace or war, as our interest, giiidcc! by justice, sliall counsel. Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation ? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground ? Why, by inter- weaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humour, or caprice. It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances, with any portion of the foreign world ; so i ir, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. 1 hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private allairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat it, there- fore, let those engagements be observed in llieir genuine sense. But in my opinion it is unnecessary, and would be unwise to extend them. Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable establish- ments, in a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies. Harmony and a liberal intercourse with all nations, are recom- mended by policy, humanity, and interest. But even our com- mercial policy should hold an equal and impailialhand ; neither seeking nor granting exclusive favours or preferences ; consult- ing the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing: establishing, with powers so disposed, in order to give trade a stable course, to define the rights of our merchants, and to en- able the government to support them, conventional ules of in- tercourse, the best that present circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary, and liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied, as experience and circumstances shall dic- tate; constantly keeping in view, tliat it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favours from another; that it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favours, and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not 40 APPENDIX. giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect, or calculate upon real favours from nation to nation. It is an il- lusion which experience must cure — which a just pride ought to discard. In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish ; that they will con- trol the usual current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the course which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations ! but, if 1 may even flatter myself, that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good ; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of parly spirit; to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue; to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism ; this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare, by which they have been dictated. How far, in the discharge of my official duties, I have been guided by the principles whicli have been delineated, the public records and other evidences of my conduct must witness to you and to the world. To myself, the assurance of my own con- science is, that 1 have at least believed myself to be guided by tliem. In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my procla- mation of the 22d of April, 1793, is the index to my plan. Sanctioned by your approving voice, and by that of your repre- sentatives in both houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure lias continually governed me, uninfluenced by any attempts to deter, or divert me from it. After a deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights I could obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, under all the circumstances of the case, had a right to take, and was bound in duty and interest, to take a neutral position. Having taken it, I determined, as far as should depend upon me, to maintain it with moderation, perseverance and firmness. The considerations which respect tiie right to hold this conduct, it is not necessary on this occasion to detail. 1 will only observe, that according to my understanding of the matter, that riglit, so TO Tin: PROBE. 41 far from being denied by any of tlie belligerent powers, lias been virtually admitted by all. The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred with- out any tiling more, from the obligation which justice and hu- manity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of peace and amity towards other nations. The inducements of interest for observing that conduct will be best referred to your own reflections and experience. With me, a predominant motive has been, to endeavour to gain time to our country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress, without interruption, to that degree of strength and consistency, which is necessary to give it, humanly speak- ing, the command of its own fortunes. Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, 1 am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sen- sible of my defects, not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. Whatever they may be, 1 fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence ; and that, after forty-five years of my life dedicated to its service, with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest. Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actu- ated by that fervent love towards it which is so natural to a man who views in it the native soil of himself and his progeni- tors for several generations, 1 anticipate with pleasing expecta- tion that retreat, in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free government ; the ever favourite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labours, and dangers. G. WASHINGTON. United Slates, 17 th September, 1796. 6 d2 42 APPENDIX. MINIATURE BIOGRAPHY OF WASHINGTON AND THE SIGNERS. George Washingtox — born in the county of Westmoreland, Virginia, on the 22d clay of February, A. D. 1732. He lost his father at an early age, and was indebted to the wisdom of his mother for the foundation of his subsequent greatness and un paralled usefulness — died on the 14th of December, A. D. 1799, at Mount Vernon, situated on the west bank of the Potomac, sixteen miles below the City of Washington. October 7, 1837, his remains were removed to a new vault;, near the old one, and placed in a highly finished marble sarcophagus, constructed and presented by Mr. Struthers of this city. They were in a state of preservation, unprecedented in this climate. In life, taken as a grand whole, he has had no equal. He was like the blazing luminary in the firmament, eclipsing the lights of other days and of liis own time, with the more bril- liant refulgence and greater volume of his own. His triumph- ant career crowned him with fresher and greener laurels, with a richer and nobler greatness, than can be justly claimed for any other man of ancient or modern history. A sacred halo surrounds his name, his fame is imperishable, his god-like actions will be rehearsed by millions yet unborn, his memory will be cherished and revered through all future time. Adams, Samuel — born at Boston, Mass., Sept. 22, 1722. He was educated at Harvard college, for the gospel ministry, but was diverted from this profession by the event of the American Revolution — died, October 3, 1803. Adams, JonN — born at Quincy, Mass., Oct. 1 9, 0. S., 30, N. S., 1735. He graduated at Harvard college, at the age of twenty — died, July 4, 1826, about four o'clock in the afternoon, a few hours subsequent to the demise of Thomas Jefferson. TO Tin: PROBK. 43 Bartlett, JosiAii — bom at Amesburg, Mass., in Nov. 1729. He received an academical education, studied iiiedicinc under Dv. Oidway, became a successful practitioner — died. May 19, 1795. Braxtox, Carter — born at Newington, Va., September 10, 1736, was educated at the college of AVilliam and Mary — died, of paralysis, October 10, 1797. Carroll, Charles, of Carrollton — born at Annapolis, Md., September 20, 1737 — was a man of liberal views, pure patriot- ism, and universal charity, lie died, November 14, 1832. Clark, Abraham — born at Elizabeth town, N. J., February 15, 1726. He was a self-taught man, with a clear head and good heart — died suddenly, from a stroke, of the sun, in June, 1794. Clymer, George — born in Philadelphia, in 1739. He lost his father at the age of seven, and was brought up by his uncle, William Coleman. He was a man of great originality, a virtuoso, an amateur, a logician, a mathematician, and a philosopher — died, January 24, 1813. Chase, Samuel — born in Somerset county, Md., April 17, 1741. He was a lawyer by profession, a man of warm tem- perament, bold, open, independent, honest, patriotic, and pure in motive. He headed the party that commenced the burning of stamped paper — died, June 19, 1811. Ellery, William — born at Newport, R. I., Dec. 22, 1727. He was educated at Cambridge college, and graduated at the age of twenty. He was a successful practitioner at the bar, a man of energy and magnanimity of soul — died, Feb. 15, 1820. Floyd, William — born at Suffolk county, N. Y., Dec. 17, 1734. He was liberally educated, enjoyed an ample fortune, was a man of great urbanity and of an amiable disposition — died, after four days' illness, August 1, 1821. Franklix, Benjamin — born, Jan. 17, 1706 — was a self-made man, a sage, patriot, and philosopher. He was the first man who made a plaything of lightning, and invented the conductor of that powerful element — died at Philadelphia, April 17, 1790. Gerry, Elbridge — born at j\Iarblehead,]Mass., July 17,1744. He was a graduate of Harvard college, was in the front rank of 44 APPENDIX. patriots, and was elected Vice President of the U. S., in 18] 2 — died at Washington city, November 23, 1814, highly esteemed and deeply mourned. GwiiVXETT, Button — born in England, in 1732, and settled in Georgia, where he rose, politically, with the rapidity of a kite in ^ gale of wind. He fell as suddenly, a victim to the unhallowed practice of duelling, and died from his wounds, May 27, 1777. Hall, Lyman — born in Connecticut in 1721. He graduated at Yale College, studied medicine, and settled at St. John's, Ga., where he became a successful practitioner, and the advocate of Freedom — died, in 1790, deeply lamented by his numerous friends and acquaintances. Hancock, John — born in Quincy, Mass., in 1737. He gra- duated at Cambridge college at the early age of seventeen, and was among the first who raised the standard of liberty in our belov^ country. He was a man of elegant person and man- ners, and worthy of the great esteem he enjoyed — died of the gout, October 8, 1793. Harrison, Benjamin — born in Berkeley, Va. Of the time, no record can be found. He was a graduate of William and Mary college, and at an early age became a stern opposer of British oppression — died of the gout in April, 1791. Hart, John — ^was born at Hopewell, Hunterdon county, N. J., in 1715. His father fought along with Wolfe on the heights of Abraham, and raised a volunteer company called the " Jersey Blues," a name still cherished and retained in that state. John Hart was a good farmer, a firm patriot, and an honest man — died in 1780, from exposure caused by the enemy. Hewes, Joseph — born at Kingston, N. J., in 1730. He was educated at Princeton college, and after graduating, became a successful merchant in Wilmington, N. C. He was a zealous whig, and made great personal sacrifices for his country — died in October, 1790. Heyward, Thomas — born in the parish of St. Luke, S. C, in 1740. He had a liberal education, was a good lawyer, and a sterling patriot — died in March, 1809. Hooper, William — born at Boston, Mass.. June 17, 1743, TO TIIR PROBK. 45 and locatpcl at Wilmins^ton, N. C. lie was a good scliolar, an eloquent preacher, and a discreet legislator — died in Oct., 1790. Hopkins, Stephen — born in Scitnatc, R. I., IMarcli 7, 1707. He was the oldest of tlie signers, except Messrs. Livingston and Franklin, but not the less patriotic. He was pacific, cool, deliberate, but noble in resolve, tirni in purpose, and prompt in action — died, July 19, 1785. HoPKiNsoN, Francis — born in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1737. He lost his father at an early age, and received the first rudi- ments of his education from his mother, who was a woman of superior talents. He graduated at the Pennsylvania University, studied law under Benjamin Chew, and took a high stand among the patriots of the revolution — died. May 9, 1791, of apoplexy. Huntington, Samuel — born in Windham, Conn., July 2, 1732. With a common school education he commenced the study of law, and became one of the brightest ornaments of the bar — died, January 5, 1796. Jefferson,Thoimas — born at Shad well, county of Albemarle, Va., April 13, O. S., 24, N. S., 1732. His name is immortalized by his being the author of the Declaration of Independence — died, July 4, 1826, a few hours previous to John Adams. Lee, Francis Lightfoot — born in Westmoreland county, Va., Oct. 14, 1734. He was educated under the instruction of Rev. Dr. Craig, and became a good scholar, an ardent patriot, and an able statesman — died of pluerisy in April, 1797. Lee, Richard Henry — a native of Westmoreland county, Va., and was sent to Wakefield, Yorkshire. Eng., to be educated, and became a finished scholar. His oratory was emphatically Ciceronean — died, January 19, 1794. Lewis, Francis — born in Llandaff, South Wales, in March, 1713. He became an orphan at the age of five years, and was fostered by an aunt named Llawelling. He was instructed in the Cymraeg, Celtic, and classic languages, and at his majority commenced the mercantile business, and settled in New York city — died, December 30, 1813, loved, esteemed, and regretted. Livingston, Philip — born at Albany, N. Y., January 15, 1706. He was a graduate of Yale College, a patriot dyed in 46 APPENDIX. the wool, a consistent man, and an advocate of equal rights — died, June 12, 1778. Lyxch, Thomas — born in the parish of Prince George, S. C, Aug. 5, 1749. He received a good common education at the Indigo Society school, at Georgetown, in his native state, and completed his classical studies at Cambridge University, Eng- land, and then entered the Law Temple, as a finishing touch to his studies. He acted a bold and dignified part in the revolution. It is supposed that himself and lady were lost at sea, in 1779. IMiDDLETOx, Arthur — born at Middleton Place, S. C, in 1743. He was highly educated in England, and was a promi- nent and efficient member of the Continental Congress — died, January 1, 1787. M'Kean, Thomas — born at New London, Chester county. Pa., March 19, 1734. He was educated by the Rev. Francis Allison. He became a good lawyer, an ardent patriot, and an able judge — died, June 24, 1817. Morris, Lewis — born in the vicinity of the city of New York, N. Y., in 1726. Pie was educated at Yale college, was early an active whig — died in January, 1798. Morris, Robert — born at Liverpool, England, January 20, 1734. He was the great financier of the American Revolution —died, May 3, 1806. Morton, John — born in Ridley, Del. co.. Pa., in 1724. His education was mostly self acquired, and of the most useful kind — died in April, 1777, deeply mourned. Nelson, Thomas — born at York, Va., Dec. 26, 1738. He was educated in England, and became a leading patriot — died, January 4, 1789. Paca, William— born in Hartford, Md., Oct. 31, 1740. He was educated at the University, Philadelphia, became an emi- nent lawyer, a good judge, and discreet governor — died in 1799. Paine, Robert Treat — born at Boston, in 1731. He grad- uated at Harvard college, became an excellent lawyer, an able judge, and an advocate of Independence — died. May 11, 1814. TO Tin: ruoBK. 47 Pen.v, John — born in the county of Caroline, Va., May 17, 1741. lie was a self-educated man, became a strong lawyer, settled in North Carolina, and took an active part against op- pression — died in September, 1788. Read, George — born in Cecil county, Md., in 1734. He was educated under Rev. Dr. Allison, became a distinguished member of the Philadelphia bar, and a warm patriot — died sud- denly in the autumn of 1798. RoDXEY, CxsAR — bom at Dover, Del., in 1730. He was a man of versatile talent, and acted well his part — died of a cancer in 1783. Ross, George — born at Newcastle, Del., in 1730. He was educated under his father, was a man of great strength of clia- racter, an eloquent lawyer, and a friend of Freedom — died, July 19, 1779. Rush, Benjamin — born near Philadelphia, Dec. 24, 1743. He became an eminent physician, and was a whig to the core -—died, April 19, 1813. RuTLEDGE, Edward — born in Charleston, S. C, in 1749. He became a discreet lawyer, and entered his name on the Chart of Liberty. — He died, June 23, 1800. Sherman, Roger — born at Newton, Mass., April 19, 1721. He was self taught, became a lawyer, judge, and sage — died, July 23, 1793. S3IITH, James — a native of Ireland, born in 1713. He was a good man, a sound lawyer, and zealous patriot, but very ec- centric — full of fun — died, July 11, 1800. Stockton, Richard — born near Princeton, N. J., Oct. 1, 1730. He was a graduate of Princeton college, became an eminent jurist, a bold advocate for Liberty, and died, October 5, 1787. Stone, Thomas — born at Pointon Manor, Charles co., 3Id., 1743. He was well educated, an able lawyer, a fervent whig, and modest man — died, October 5, 1787. Taylor, George — born in Ireland in 1716. He absconded to America when a boy, bound himself out to pay his passage, educated himself, hated England, lived respected, and died re- gretted, July 23, 1784. 48 APPENDIX TO THE PROBE. Thornton, Matthew — born in Ireland, in 1714. lie was 3 good physician, a flaming whig, and an honest man — died, June 24, 1803. Walton, George — born in Frederick county, Va., in 1740. He was a self-educated man, with a clear head and a good heart — died, February 2, 1803. Whipple, William — born at Kittery, in Md., in 1703. He was a self-taught man, and became a general, a statesman, and a judge, with a heart of oak, and nerves of steel — died, Novem- ber, 28, 1785. Williams, William — born in Lebanon, Windham co., Ct., April 8, 1731. He was a graduate at Harvard college, took part in the French war, became a merchant, and in all things fulfilled the design of his creation — died, August 2, 1811. Wilson, James — born near St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1742. He had a liberal education, became a strong lawyer, profound judge, and able statesman — died, August 28, 1796. WiTHERSPOON, John — born at Yester, Scotland, Feb. 5, 1722. He was highly educated, an eminent divine, president of Prince- ton college, and a devoted patriot — died, Nov. 15, 1794. WoLCOTT, Oliver — born at Windsor, Ct., Nov. 26, 1726. He graduated at Yale college, took part in the French war, was an active whig, a general, and a judge — died, Dec. 1, 1797. Wythe, George — born at Elizabeth city, Va., in 1728. He was educated by his mother, from whom he acquired Latin, Greek, &c. He was amongst the boldest champions of Liberty, and the preceptor of Thomas Jefferson — died suddenly from the effects of poison, June 8, 1806. THE END. ,ik'^ I'M •^1 •• "* •*. •■^, :-^^^^ ^w\^~