enough to do without a servant; yet when they leave college, and come out into the battle of life, they must do without servants; and in these times it will be fortunate if one half of them get what is called ’a decent living,’ even by rigid economy and patient toil.  Yet I would not that servile and laborious employment should be forced upon the young.  I would merely have each one educated according to his probable situation in life; and be taught that whatever is his duty, is honorable; and that no merely external circumstance can in reality injure true dignity of character.  I would not cramp a boy’s energies by compelling him always to cut wood, or draw water; but I would teach him not to be ashamed, should his companions happen to find him doing either one or the other.  A few days since, I asked a grocer’s lad to bring home some articles I had just purchased at his master’s.  The bundle was large; he was visibly reluctant to take it; and wished very much that I should send for it.  This, however, was impossible; and he subdued his pride; but when I asked him to take back an empty bottle which belonged to the store, he, with a mortified look, begged me to do it up neatly in a paper, that it might look like a small package.  Is this boy likely to be happier for cherishing a foolish pride, which will forever be jarring against his duties?  Is he in reality one whit more respectable than the industrious lad who sweeps stores, or carries bottles, without troubling himself with the idea that all the world is observing his little unimportant self?  For, in relation to the rest of the world, each individual is unimportant; and he alone is wise who forms his habits according to his own wants, his own prospects, and his own principles.

TRAVELLING AND PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS.

There is one kind of extravagance rapidly increasing in this country, which, in its effects on our purses and our habits, is one of the worst kinds of extravagance; I mean the rage for travelling, and for public amusements.  The good old home habits of our ancestors are breaking up—­it will be well if our virtue and our freedom do not follow them!  It is easy to laugh at such prognostics,—­and we are well aware that the virtue we preach is considered almost obsolete,—­but let any reflecting mind inquire how decay has begun in all republics, and then let them calmly ask themselves whether we are in no danger, in departing thus rapidly from the simplicity and industry of our forefathers.

Nations do not plunge at once into ruin—­governments do not change suddenly—­the causes which bring about the final blow, are scarcely perceptible in the beginning; but they increase in numbers, and in power; they press harder and harder upon the energies and virtue of a people; and the last steps only are alarmingly hurried and irregular.  A republic without industry, economy, and integrity, is Samson shorn of his locks.  A luxurious and idle republic!  Look at the phrase!—­The words were never made to be married together; every body sees it would be death to one of them.