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and degradation and abasement can be carried no farther. In this "lowest depth there is no lower deep." The only hope of change is from the "ignea vis" of the human mind, springing up with elastic recoil proportioned to the depth of its fall, and "in its proper motion reascending up to its native seats." But the operation of such a state of things is to quench this fire, and repress its upward tendencies. Hence it is, that history no where shows us a direct transition from military despotism to free government. But there is no state of things so subject to partial changes, affecting the individual interests of the oppressor and his instruments, but rather aggravating than redressing the wrongs of the oppressed. The Janissaries will sometimes rebel against the Sultan; the Prætorian bands, impatient for new largesses, may raise up a candidate for empire, whose success may amply reward their services. Such things no otherwise affect the great body of the people, than as they are fatal to the property and lives of all who may become involved in them.

gives the character of established right to that which at first was gratuitous bounty: the great baron, when called on to show the title deeds of his estate, displays his sword, and in return receives the same answer from his subordinate vassal. Hence, jealousies arise; hence, ill will takes the place of grateful attachment; and the same causes which sunder the baron from the prince above him, and the vassal below, tend to unite both in common cause against him. This tendency indeed is counteracted by the pride of place and birth, and generations may pass away before a prince is found who can bring himself to subdue this feeling to his interest; to "enfeoff himself to popularity," and, by his favor to the people, to purchase their co-operation against the power of the nobility. But let a monarch appear, who proclaims himself the people's king-who foments their discontents against their immediate superiors, and encourages resistance to their authority, seeking to detach the vassal from his former holdings, and by favor and flattery to bind him immediately to the throne. The

shall it stand without them, when all the elements of society are tossing in wild confusion around it? It cannot stand. The next moment sees it fall with fearful crash, and its fragments, together with the wrecks of aristocratic power, are scattered abroad to fertilize the earth, and enrich its cultivators.

But to the ruler himself they are of the last import-natural consequence of this coalition will soon be seen ance; and when Tiberius and Nero and Caligula and in the degradation of all that intervenes between the Otho and Vitellius and Domitian have received the crown and the lowest populace. The privileges of punishment of their crimes at the hands of their own rank and rank itself will be abolished; the rights of minions, some wiser prince, some Trajan Adrian, or property will be threatened and invaded; and, finally, Antonine, perceives the necessity of creating a new or- the lofty pillar of royal authority will alone remain of der of men to stand between him and the sword of the all the fabric of government. But how long will it remercenary. The materials for this will be sought main? If the props and buttresses of aristocracy were among the valiant, the good, and wise, on whom ample necessary to support it, while predominating over a and permanent benefits will be bestowed-the enjoy-wide waste slumbering in the calm of despotism, how ment of which, depending on the life and power of the donor, will make them faithful in his defence. The establishment of such an aristocracy is seen to be necessary by him, who, not dizzy and drunk with the giddy height of his elevation, looks down from the lofty column of autocratic power, on the bleak expanse spread out below in one dead level of abject degradation. He sees nothing to break the force of the storms which every wind of Heaven directs against his throne. He feels it continually shaking on its narrow base; and he feels the want of something to screen him from the blast, and of buttresses to prop and support him against its fury. If he is wise to choose his materials; if he selects the members of this aristocracy from among those whose public services, whose valor, whose virtue, whose wisdom, or whose descent from men so distinguished, has already gained them favor with the soldiery and the people, he will want nothing but time to establish himself and his posterity firmly on the throne. But to such a work time is indispensable. The life of one man is too short to perfect it; and its accomplishment depends upon a succession of princes aiming to effect the same purpose by the same means.

Then again comes liberty-to a people not prepared to enjoy and cherish it, a single moment of wild and frightful anarchy-well exchanged for the despotism which presently follows. Here we find ourselves at the close of the cycle, returning after a long series of ages of revolution and convulsion, of oppression and blood and rapine, to the point from which we first set out.

In the various phases of political society, as seen in its progress through these mutations, we perhaps catch glimpses of all the forms in which government is capable of being moulded. Unfortunately, of those which we would wish to perpetuate, we have little more than glimpses, while those aspects on which it is impossible to look without horror, we have full leisure to contemplate and study. For, in considering the causes which lead to these various changes, it is lamentable to observe, that that which is good is ever pregnant with a principle of self-destruction, while all the tendencies of evil are of a nature to perpetuate it, and can only be cor

When, in the providence of God, such a succession is vouchsafed to any people, it results in the establishment of a limited monarchy, based upon a virtuous aris-rected by counteracting causes. tocracy, endeared to the multitude below by the benefits which flow down from it, and shed their balm on hearts bruised by past oppressions; and heal the wounds the sword of the mercenary had inflicted, and refresh the waste places which his rapacity had made desolate.

But the gratitude of the nobles for the favor of the prince, and that of the people for the patronage of the nobility, is not of long duration. A generation or two

There is certainly little in this thought to encourage us in our researches. Yet our only hope of success depends on our bearing this thought continually in mind. Could we certainly know what form of government was best for the happiness of man in its present operation, we should have accomplished but half our task, unless we can devise some means to counteract that tendency to change, which makes the history of all that is excellent in human institutions, but the history

of things that have been. Does it not seem that theo-quence of Henry, and the political sagacity of Jefferson. retical perfection involves so much of the principle of These he will collate with Solon, and Lycurgus, and change and self-destruction, as to lead us to doubt whe- Thales, and Miltiades, and Cimon, and Aristides, and ther it may not be necessary to surrender something of Demosthenes; with Numa, and Camillus, and Cincinwhat, in itself, is good for the sake of preserving and natus, and Cicero, and Cato; and while, in their ensecuring the rest? during fame, he finds assurance of the high rewards I have little doubt that this is true, and that our best that await his own labors in the cause of freedom and hope of discovering that scheme of things which will virtue, his heart will bleed at the thought that his lamost conduce to the permanent welfare of society, de- bors themselves, like theirs, shall fade away, and leave pends upon the relinquishment of some present advan-his countrymen nothing but the sad remembrance of tages, as the price of stability and security for those blessings wasted by abuse, lost by supineness, and forthat we retain. feited by crime.

If then, in looking through the history of man in all Do you, my young friends, propose to add your names ages, we can fix upon some one form of government, to that bright constellation, which revolving around the which for the time being has been most favorable to steady pole of virtue and truth, shall never dip below the happiness, and to the development of those moral and horizon, but while the world shall stand, and long after the intellectual qualities, of which happiness is the natural sun of our glory shall be set forever, will continue to shed fruit and deserved reward; if we find the recurrence of its melancholy light on your benighted country? Do that form uniformly attended by the recurrence of the you propose to add yourselves to the number of those like desirable consequences; and if we can then devise to whose tombs, in future ages, the Muse shall point, certain changes and modifications, which without de- reproaching your descendants with their degeneracy? tracting materially from such results, shall be calculated | Or, turning aside from the pursuit of truth and the culto prevent any farther change, we shall have accom-tivation of virtue, will you familiarize your lips with plished all that the political philosopher can propose to himself.

the cant of the demagogue or courtier, and qualify yourselves to minister to the licentiousness of the people, or the pride, vanity and ambition of their rulers?

I believe that the framers of the constitution of Virginia (and here, alas! I speak of that which has been, If the latter is your choice, I advise you to avoid this not of that which is) made as near an approach to the place. You will hear nothing here which shall prepare discovery and practical application of this arcanum, as you to play the part of parasite or demagogue, the flatany statesmen that ever lived. The devisers of the terer of prince or people. I dare not indulge the hope federal constitution had before them a more difficult that your nobler aspirations will derive any essential task; but they went to it with the same general views aid from my suggestions, but I can, at least, promise and purposes, and executed it in a manner that well you that my best endeavors shall be faithfully exerted deserves the admiration of mankind. to search out the truth and lay it plainly before you. Nor shall I profess a treacherous indifference to the choice which you shall make, between what is popular and what is true. However agreeable it may be to cherish our own prejudices; however politic it may seem to cultivate and flatter the prejudices of others, I shall never cease to endeavor to convince you that such are not the means of true happiness or true honor. That "echo of folly and shadow of renown," which is the short-lived reward of the demagogue, who goes to his grave dreaming of fame, and straightway is forgotten, I trust will have no charms for you. Do what you will, so long as you retain a love of truth and honor, you will be easily outstript in the race of vulgar popularity, by men every way your inferiors, who have but divested themselves of any inconvenient regard for these troublesome and cumbrous principles. While you are working out the complex problem of expediency and right, men who think only of the expedient, will already have chosen their part, and accomplished their purposes, leaving you no other honor but that of being esteemed half a fool, because not wholly a knave.

In considering then, what government should be, abstractedly from its tendency to change, and devising the cheapest and most efficient means of restraining that tendency, we shall find ourselves following in great measure the footsteps of the authors of our institutions. In marking those changes which have taken place, we must mark their fitness to the great end originally proposed, and especially their tendency to promote or counteract the farther progress of innovation. We may thus discover what progress we have made in performing that political cycle, which it may be our destiny, as it has been that of every other people, to accomplish. We may discover whether there is any hope that we may escape its fulfilment, and even though we may conclude that we cannot retrace our steps and turn back the appointed course of events, it may be of service to ascertain the means of checking the car of destiny in its fatal career, and postponing the evil day when the history of the liberty and happiness of Virginia shall but furnish school-boy's themes in distant lands. The sun of freedom seems fated to pursue its westward course around the globe, carrying with it the blessings of art and science, and virtue and religion, to lands never yet warmed by its rays; and finally, perhaps, to shed its full glory on the same classic scenes which first glowed under its kindling beams. In that day, when the statesman of the future Greece or Rome shall look back through thousands of years to the history of what his country once had been, his eye may rest midway on the page that records the virtues and triumphs of Washington, the mild wisdom of Franklin, the elo

But, gentlemen, in the faithful pursuit of political truth; in the diligent study of political philosophy, a high and sure reward awaits you. For speculate as we may, we have an interest in what the world shall think of us when we are no more, though of that, he who lived a thousand years ago, and he who died but yesterday, alike know nothing. But such is the nature of man.

"For, from his birth the sovereign maker said,
That not in humble, nor in brief delight,
Nor in the fading echoes of renown,

Power's purple robes, nor pleasure's flowery lap,
The soul should find enjoyment.

For why was man so eminently raised
Above the fair creation? why ordained
Thro' life and death to dart his piercing eye,
With thoughts beyond the limit of his frame ?
But that the Omnipotent might send him forth,
In sight of mortal and immortal powers,
As on a boundless theatre to run
The high career of justice; to exalt
His generous aim to all diviner deeds;

To chase each partial purpose from his breast;
And thro' the mists of passion, and of sense,
And thro' the tossing tide of chance and pain,
To hold his course unfaltering, while the voice
Of Truth and Virtue up the steep ascent
Of nature, calls him to his high reward,
The approving smile of Heaven."

FLOWERS.

"What a blessing are innocent pleasures! Vulgar and vicious habits are put to shame by a rose in a cottage garden-and a polyanthus, with its verge of wiry gold, beaming from the poor man's window, is at once a presumption of its owner's taste, and a security for his virtue."

Review of Elliott's Poems. Edingburgh Review.

Ye have, sweet flowers, ye have a spell,
Whether in garden or whether in dell;
Whether ye spring by the mountain's side,
Or rise in your glory, the Florist's pride,
Ye have a spell, a spell

As pure, as sweet, and as noiseless too,
As the scent ye breathe on the early dew;
Wreathe it, oh, wreathe it around the heart,
Childhood will cherish, nor youth will part,
Nor age the charm dispel.

Memory points to the oak-crown'd hill,-
Joyous gambols are ringing still;—
The columbine from the cleft-rock springs,
And its gold and coral chalice flings

With its nectar drop to the sportive breeze-
Tantalus' cup to the lurking bees.

And the acorn, bright, and its cup, I see,-
Not the fall'n fruit of the old oak tree,
But finely fashion'd, like china fair,
As Mab had holden a banquet there,

And feasted her fairy ring;

And over that hill-O, the sky! the sky!
'Tis ever cloudless, in memory's eye,
The wing of the tempest afar does bear,
And the sun, forever, is shining there,
And the birds, forever, sing.

The oak-top'd hill is far away,
And long gone by is the cloudless day,
And the columbine with its coral horn
Has garnish'd many a bright Spring's morn,
And sunk to the grassy dell;

But the bloom of the pleasure is purple still,
Nor fashion's follies nor forms can thrill
The heart with joy, nor the taste allure,

That was form'd at a fountain of bliss, so pure,
And has drank at the crystal well.

Beautiful rose, at the cottage door,
With blushing petals and carmine core,

Drinking the dews of the morning hour,
And scenting the breath of the evening bower,—
So fair, so fragrant, it may not be

The vulgar or vicious have care for thee.

The eye that loves in the rose to trace
The form of beauty, the lines of grace,--
To see the drops of the night dews rest,
Purer than pearls on its virgin breast,
And the modest petals with care uncurl'd,
As fearing the gaze of the gairish world ;-
The eye that glow'd with so pure a light-
In the haunts of vice, can it shine as bright?
And smile on the form of sin?

It cannot be, oh, it cannot be !

Sinner, away from your revelry,

For your own sweet rose hath a voice for thee,
To chide, if it may not win.

Eve, gentle nurse of the Eden flowers,
Did you turn again to your floral bowers,
Beneath the glance of the Cherub's eye,
And the glittering sword that flam'd on high,
When the doom denoune'd had reach'd your heart-
"Thou from thy Eden, for aye, must part,
For a wide, wide world, that no flower adorns;
From your rosy world, to a world of thorns!"

Did you turn again, and the boon implore?—
"A rose, a rose, for that desert shore,—
A flower to comfort the exile's eye
Beneath the shade of that frowning sky?"—
Or filch'd you a rose from the garden walk,
While the thorn shot out on its trembling stalk,—
Fitting rebuke for the bold misdeed,—
Earnest of doom to the earth decreed?

"Twas kind, 'twas kind, in the Heavens to give,
To the sentenced world in which we live,

Sweets, from a sinless land;

The bright-hued flower in cottage window glowing,-
The rose and pink, in cottage garden growing,
Oh, what a charm for weary care!
What thoughts of pleasure it wakens there!
And gives to the poor man's home a smile,
That the heart of its burdens may well beguile,
And 'lures him there, with a voiceless power,
At fragrant eve's returning hour,

To joy with the household band.
They mind the heart of a world to come-
A blooming, beautiful Eden-home,
The "Tree of Life," unguarded, grows,
And blossoms, thornless, again the rose;
Nought shall the heart from that Eden sever,
Nor its Eden wither for aye and ever.

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THE OLDFIELD SCHOOL.

BY BUCKSKIN.

"Beside yon straggling fence that skirts the way,
With blossom'd furze unprofitably gay,
There in his noisy mansion, skill'd to rule,
The village master taught his little school."--Goldsmith.

by a stile of rude blocks. My feelings of awe on first crossing that stile can never be forgotten. I had never seen a school-master, but had formed a dreadful idea of one, having heard so much of the instructive jerk of his arm. A buzzing sound proceeded from the house, which I could not understand. I approached and knocked, and as soon as the door was opened, such a scene met my eyes, and such a Babel of noise assailed my ears, that I stood for some time rooted to the spot.

marked with the small-pox, was scuffling with an overgrown boy, who used in his defence, with no little dexterity, a rule, from one end of which hung a string and lead pencil. After a smart rap over the knuckles of the pedagogue, I heard the boy exclaim, “I'll be bound

two sides of the room were ranged desks and benches, covered with large splotches of ink, and whittled almost to pieces, and around sat about twenty boys of all sizes. One little chubby-faced fellow, whose feet could not reach the floor, was crying out, at the very top of his

in the most abominably loud and dissonant tones, and with that peculiar whine which a child at first considers as the distinctive characteristic of reading as opposed to talking. Some were at great A, little a, r-o-n; some at a-bom-i-na-ble and some at con-cat-e-na-tion—and such a concatenation of abominable sounds I certainly had never heard in my life before. The instant they saw

When the storm of human life has passed, and the tumultuous passions have subsided into a calm, it is plea-The master, a rough looking Irishman, dreadfully sant to look back upon the dangers we have encountered, and the narrow escapes we have had from impending destruction. Riding at anchor in the quiet haven of old age, memory loves to wander back over the past, and to contemplate the successive events by which we have been brought to our present condition. How mysteri-you'll never write AVOIRDUPOIs Weight* again." On ously connected seem occurrences the most distant from one another, forming links in that long chain to which our lives may be compared! Thus, seated at ease, in my old arm chair, my snug harbor, and having recourse to that peaceful enjoyment of age, the pipe, which helps one to think, it is my purpose to recur to some in-voice, b-l-a, bla, and all the rest were spelling or reading cidents of my life, which illustrate the mysterious connexion alluded to, and show how circumstances, the most trivial in their nature, and apparently requiring no circumspection on our parts, often give a color to our fates. With the mind's eye, I can now see the cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, which arose to spread over and darken my heavens.Reader, I do not like my exordium; it is a style alto-me, all save the combatants were as still as Tam gether unnatural to me, and savors too strongly of the O'Shanter's witches, when he cried out "Weel done circumlocutory vice of the day to be agreeable. I shall Cutty Sark." Before I had power to move from the stanever tell my story, if I go on in that fashion-so, I tion I occupied, the scuffle between the boy and the pray you, let me fall into my natural gait. school-master terminated in favor of the latter, who proved game, while the former showed the dunghill, and attempted a precipitate retreat through the door. As he approached, I started on one side to give him a free passage, but unfortunately he was not aware of my movement, and we came in contact, by which means the whole party, school-master and all, tumbled heels over head into the yard. The rebellious boy, by this means, was caught, and received in my presence such a lashing, as proved our teacher to be fully as expert as "the most expert flogger in all Oviedo."

Such was my initiation into the mysteries of an oldfield school-and the reader will see at once, that I cannot be held responsible for the defects of my education. What could I learn in this Babel but the confusion of tongues? There reigned here a constant struggle be

Well, to begin at the beginning-My parents were poor, "but not so d poor neither," as an old fellow once said to his lawyer, interrupting him in the midst of his speech, in which he was pathetically depicting the abject poverty of his client. Every thing depended upon the establishment of his poverty, but pride took alarm at the degrading picture, and the old man rose indignantly, and hitching up his breeches with a peculiar jerk, exclaimed as I have said, "not so d— poor neither," thereby completely overthrowing the attorney, whose risible muscles could no more be controlled than could those of the whole court. My parents were poor, but still they were able to educate me, as most parents then did, by sending me to an oldfield school, where the three R's, as I have somewhere read, (Reading, Riting, and 'Rithmetic,) were taught in per-tween democracy and despotism; and notwithstanding fection, and some Latin besides. Here I spent the morning of my existence, and while "winters of memory" are rolling over me, I look back to this school as the fountain of all the misfortunes of my life. While others recur to their school-boy days as the bright spotthe Oasis in the desert of their lives,-I see in mine nothing but the Upas tree, which blighted every thing around it. I can recall in perfect freshness the picture of our school-house and the surrounding scenery. In the centre of a large field of broom-straw, skirted on every side but one by pines, stood the house, a plain building of sawed logs, crammed, as we say in Virginia, with mud; on the side excepted there was a fine grove of oaks, through which passed the public road; a common worm fence enclosed the yard, which was entered

the strong arm of authority was against us, the physical force was on our side—and so various were our means of annoying our tyrant, that he was ultimately obliged to succumb and wink at our enormities. When I first entered this school, I was as innocent as original sin would permit me to be: I was a good boy, and said my prayers regularly night and morning, but was soon laughed out of this; for the doctrines of infidelity had penetrated at that time almost every hovel in the land, and even school-boys might be heard promulgating the sentiments of the deists. I soon followed the example of those around me, and found with Mr. Feathernest

A famous copy at school, which, with "Evil communication corrupts good manners," will doubtless be remembered by many of my contemporaries. VOL. III.-28

Hens, like women, though the deed be cruel,
Won't have a cock that will not fight a duel.

Having sunk at last the whole of my little patrimony, and finding myself sinking fast in the estimation of those who flee with "the lees of the wine cask,” I resolved on removing to a distant county and turning over a new leaf. Sated with pleasure, as it is foolishly called, and pressed by necessity, I determined to try that sort of life which had been so often recommended to me by my excellent friend, and by dint of industry and economy was doing very well, when, as Providence ordered my evil genius, Benson strayed to the same

that "a good conscience was too expensive a luxury for me a pattern of genuine benevolence and goodness, that I to indulge in." I could not keep pace with my school-loved her like a mother, and in despite of my wildness, mates if I remained too conscientious, and especially would hearken sometimes to her counsels. She cast her with Benson, the overgrown boy, who had given me my bread upon the waters, and it was found afterwards in first lesson in rebellion. He was the incarnation of the circumstance, that although I plunged into every every thing vile, and never forgave me that unlucky species of dissipation, I never lost that sense of honor, tumble which I so innocently gave him on the threshold which kept my hands from picking and stealing, and of our school. He conceived the most inveterate anti- my tongue from evil speaking, lying and slandering. pathy to me, and left no stone unturned to thwart and I injured myself more than any one else, and do not vex me in every thing. So relentless were his persecu- believe that any thing could have tempted me to hurt a tions, that my chief study became revenge; and although hair of any creature's head, Benson's excepted. Fate obliged at first to submit to many a severe drubbing seemed determined to protract our warfare to the scenes from his superior strength, I found frequent opportuni- of after life. We both fell in love with the same girl, ties of retort, which did not leave him altogether victo- and a duel would have been the consequence, had my rious. It is not my intention to describe the multiplied antagonist possessed half the courage of his Emperor incidents of such a life, which are familiar to every Vir- of Germany; but cowardice is always the associate of ginian, at least. Let it suffice, that having triumphed cold-blooded villainy. I know not whether his craven over our tyrant, we declared war against one another, spirit decided our love affair in my favor, but this I as is too often the case with more important communi- know, that the immortal author of the Cockiad has said, ties, and we became divided into Bensonites and Buck-with great truth, that skins. This feud became the all-absorbing matter of the school, and ramified itself into all our sports and occupations. Books were secondary considerations. The substitutes, positive, were boxing, jumping, leapfrog and bandy; the comparative, were cock-fighting and fives; the superlative, a scrub race. In all these various accomplishments I made a rapid progress and in gaffing a cock, I became supreme. I shall not stop to enumerate my successive triumphs over Benson. I foiled him at length in every thing. Our last desperate struggle for the mastery was in a pitched battle between his game cock, the Emperor of Germany, and my King of Prussia. The whole neighborhood assembled to witness the fight, and many were the bets upon the re-neighborhood, and settled himself as a carpenter in our spective combatants. Those who have never partaken of this sport can hardly form an idea of the thrilling interest excited. In the first encounter of our royal personages, the Emperor struck the King a blow, which to all appearance seemed fatal. It was a brain stroke, and for a while my old warrior seemed paralyzed: Benson was in ecstacies. Confident of the valor of his majesty, and conjecturing his situation, I sprang forward, and with all the seeming odds against me, I offered to treble the bet upon the King. It was immediately taken up; and scarcely was it done, when my veteran combatant, rousing from his temporary stupor, flew at the Emperor, and literally cut him to mince-meat. I shall take leave of my school, with the acknowledgment that I issued from thence as finished a devil in most things, as Pandemoniam could have turned loose; and with such exquisite accomplishments as those of cockfighter, horse-racer and five-player, it is not wonderful that I speedily ran through the little property my well meaning and industrious parents had made a shift to leave me. I thank God, they were spared the exhibi-racing and cock-fighting were the elements which tion of my folly, by being removed from this world just seemed necessary to his existence; and how he conas my propensities were blossoming. My reader, if I trived to support the extravagance of his expenditure ever have one, must not, however, suppose from what I upon his slender means as a workman, was more than have said of my vices, that I was altogether corrupt. any one could tell. I never joined in any of his ex"None are all evil." I had not forgotten all the lessons cesses, but as I said before, I could not avoid the disof virtue I had received from my parents, and especially credit of his acquaintance, and came in for my share of those which were occasionally instilled into me by a the odium which insensibly attaches itself to those who being whom I must ever revere, and hold in grateful re-have been familiar with the worthless, and at the same collection: I mean the wife of my school-master, who time I incurred the vindictive hatred of Benson, who was so meek and gentle, so kind and affectionate, such had never forgotten the ancient enmity of our school

little county town. I know not whether there be any thing in the feeling which we call presentiment, but I remember a sort of sinking at my heart when this man first crossed my path. He accosted me in the terms of an old acquaintance, and I did not repel his civilities; but I secretly resolved to have as little to do with him as possible, because I was fully aware of the profligacy of his nature, and I was not so secure in my own resolutions of amendment as not to fear contamination from his company. He seemed determined to force himself upon me, and notwithstanding all my efforts to shun him, I could not avoid altogether the discredit of his friendship. This was particularly disagreeable to me, because I had formed many valuable acquaintances, and depended wholly upon their good opinion for success in my business. It was not long before the peace of our village was disturbed by this serpent, having made his way into our paradise. He corrupted our youths, and introduced the scenes of riot and debauchery where all before was good order and quiet. Gambling,

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