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8. If I knew a mifer, who gave up every kind of comfort able living, all the pleasure of doing good to others, all the efteem of his fellow-citizens, and the joys of benevolent friendship for the fake of accumulating wealth, Poor man, faid I, you do indeed pay too much for the Whifle.

9. When I meet with a man of pleafure, facrificing every laudable improvement of the mind, or of his fortune, to mere corporeal fenfations, and ruining his health in the purfuit; miftaken man, fay I, you are providing pain for yourself in ftead of pleafure; you give too much for your Whiftle.

10. If I fee one fond of fine clothes, fine furniture, fine houfes, fine equipage, all above his fortune, for which he contracts debts, and ends his career in prifon; alafs ! fay I he has paid dear, very dear for his While.

11. In short I conceived that great part of the miferies of mankind were brought upon them by the falfe eftimates they had made of the value of things, and by their giving too much for their Whistles.

1.

HISTORY OF POCAHONTAS.

PERHAPS they who are not particularly acquainted

with the history of Virginia, may be ignorant that Pocahontas was the protectrefs of the English, and often fcreened them from the cruelty of her father.

2. She was but twelve years old, when captain. Smith, the braveft, the most intelligent, and the most humane of the first colonists, fell into the hands of the Savages.-He already understood their language, had traded with them feveral times, and often appeafed the quarrels between the Europeans and them. Often had he been obliged also to fight them, and to punish their perfidy.

3 At length however, under the pretext of commerce he was drawn into an ambush, and the only two companions who accompanied him fell before his eyes; but though alone, by his dexterity he extricated himself from the troop which furrounded him; until, unfortunately imagining he could fave himfelf, by croffing a morafs, he ftuck faft, fo that the favages against whom he had no means of defending himself, at last took and bound him, and conducted him to Powhatan.

4. The king was fo proud of having Captain Smith in his power, that he fent him in triumph to all the tributary princes,

and ordered that he fhould be fplendidly treated, till he re turned to fuffer that death which was prepared for him.

5. The fatal moment at laft arrived. Captain Smith was laid upon the hearth of the favage king, and his head placed upon a large stone to receive the ftroke of death; when Pocahontas, the youngest and darling daughter of Powhatan, threw herself upon his body, clafped him in her arms, and declared that if the cruel fentence was executed, the first blow fhould fall on her.

6. All favages (abfolute fovereigns and tyrants not excep ted) are invariably more affected by the tears of infancy, than the voice of humanity. Powhatan could not refift the tears

and prayers of his daughter.

7. Captain Smith obtained his life, on condition of paying for his ranfom a certain quantity of mufkets, powder, and iron utenfils; but how were they to be obtained? They would neither permit him to return to James-Town, nor let the Eng lish know where he was, left they fhould demand him fword in hand.

8. Captain Smith, who was as fenfible as courageous, faid, that if Powhatan would permit one of his fubjects to carry to James-Town a leaf which he took from his pocket book, he fhould find under a tree, at the day and hour appointed, all the articles demanded for his ranfom.

9. Powhatan confented; but without having much faith in his promifes, believing it to be only an artifice of the Captain to prolong his life. But he had written on a leaf a few lines, fufficient to give an account of his fituation. The meffenger returned. The king fent to the place fixed upon, and was greatly aftonished to find every thing which had been de

[graphic]

manded.

10. Powhatan could not conceive this mode of tranfmit ting thoughts; and Captain Smith was henceforth looked up. on as a great magician, to whom they could not how too much refpect. He left the favages in this opinion, and haf

tened to return home.

11. Two or three years after, fome fresh difference arifing amidst them and the English, Powhatan, who no longer thought them forcerers but ftill feared their power, laid a horrid plan to get rid of them altogether. His project was to attack them in profound peace, and cut the throats of the whole colony.

12. The night of this intended confpiracy, Pocahontas took advantage of the obfcurity; and in a terrible storm which kept the favages in their tents, escaped from her father's house, advised the English to be on their guard, but conjured them to fpare her family; to appear ignorant of the intelligence fhe had given, and terminate all their differences by a new treaty. 13. It would be tedious to relate all the fervices which this angel of peace rendered to both nations. I fhall only add, that the English, I know not from what motives, but certainly against all faith and equity, thought proper to carry her off. Long and bitterly did the deplore her fate; and the only confolation she had was Captain Smith, in whom she found a se cond father.

14. She was treated with great refpect, and married to a planter by the name of Rolfe, who foon after took her to Eng land. This was in the reign of James the first; and it is faid, that the monarch, pedantic and ridiculous in every point, was fo infatuated with the prerogatives of royalty, that he expreffed his difpleasure, that one of his fubjects fhould dare to marry the daughter even of a favage king.

15. It will not perhaps be difficult to decide on this occafion, whether it was the favage king who derived honor from finding himfelf placed upon a level with the European prince, or the English monarch, who, by his pride and prejudices, reduced himself to a level with the chief of the favages.

16. Be that as it will, Captain Smith, who had returned to London before the arrival of Pocahontas, was extremely happy to fee her again; but dared not treat her with the fame familiarity as at James-Town. As foon as the faw him, fhe threw herself into his arms, calling him her father; but finding that he neither returned her careffes with equal warmth, nor the endearing title of daughter, fhe turned afide her head and wept bitterly; and it was a long time before they could obtain a single word from her.

17. Capt. Smith inquired feveral times what could be the caufe of her affliction. "What! faid fhe, did I not fave thy life in America? When I was torn from the arms of my fath er, and conducted amongst thy friends, didft thou not promise to be a father to me? Didft thou not affure me, that if I went into thy country, thou wouldst be my father, and that I should be thy daughter? Thou haft deceived me, and behold me now here a stranger and an orphan."

18. It was not difficult for the captain to make his peace with this charming creature, whom he tenderly loved. He prefented her to feveral people of the first quality; but never dared to take her to court, from which, however, the received feveral favors.

She

19. After a refidence of feveral years in England, an example of virtue and piety, and attachment to her husband, she died, as he was on the point of embarking for America. left an only fon, who was married, and left none but daugh ters; and from these are descended fome of the principal characters in Virginia.

EMILIUS, OR DOMESTIC HAPPINESS.

*THE government of a family depends on fuch various

and oppofit principles, that it is a matter of extreme delicacy. Perhaps there is no fituation in life in which it is fo difficult to behave with propriety, as in the conteft between parental au thority and parental love. This is undoubtedly the reafon why we fee fo few happy families. Few parents are both loved and respected, because most of them are either the dupes or the tyrants of their children.

2. Some parents either from a natural weakness of mind, or an excess of fondnefs, permit, and even encourage their children, in a thousand familiarities, which render them ridiculous, and by diminishing the refpect which is due to their age and station, deftroy all their authority.

3. Others, ruled by a partial and blind affection, which can deny nothing to its object, indulge their children in all their romantic wishes, however trifling and foolish; however degrading to their dignity or injurious to their welfare.

4. Others, foured by misfortunes, or grown peevish and jealous by the lofs of youthful pleasures, and an acquaintance with the deceit and folly of the world, attempt to restrain the ideas and enjoyments of youth by the rigid maxims of age. 5. The children of the first clafs often offend by filly manners and a kind of good natured difrespect. Thofe of the fecond are generally proud, whimsical and vicious. Those of the third, if they are fubdued, when young, by the rigor of parental difciplin, forever remain morofe, illiberal and unfocia ble; or if, as it commonly happens, they find means to escape from reftraint, they abandon themfelves to every fpecies of licentioufnefs.

6. To parents of thefe defcriptions may be added another clafs, whofe fondnefs blinds their eyes to the most glaring vices of their children; or invents fuch palliations, as to prevent the most falutary corrections.

7. The tafte for amusements in young people, is the moft difficult to regulate by the maxims of prudence. In this ar ticle parents are apt to err, either by extreme indulgence on the one hand, or immoderate rigor on the other.

8. Recollecting the feelings of their youth, they give unbounded licence to the inclinations of their children; or hav ing loft all relish for amufements, they refufe to gratify their moft moderate defires.

9. It is a maxim which univerfally holds true, that the best method of guarding youth from criminal pleafures, is to indulge them freely in thofe that are innocent. A perfon who has free access to reputable fociety, will have little inclination to frequent that which is vicious.

10. But those who are kept under conftant reftraint, who are feldom in amufements, who are perpetually awed by the frowns of a parent, or foured by a difappointment of their moft harmless wifhes, will at times break over all bounds to gratify their tafte for pleafure, and will not be anxious to dif criminate between the innocent and the criminal.

11. Nothing contributes more to keep youth within the limits of decorum, than to have their fuperiors mingle in their. company at proper times, and participate of their amufe

ments.

12. This condefcenfion flatters their pride; at the fame time that refpect for age, which no familiarities can wholly efface, naturally checks the extravagant fallies of mirth, and the indelicate rudeneffes which young people are apt to indulge in their jovial hours.

13. That awful distance at which fome parents keep their children, and their abhorrence of all juvenile diverfions, which compel youth to facrifice their most innocent defires, or veil the gratification of them with the moft anxious fecrecy, have as direct a tendency to drive young perfons into a proffigate life, as the force of vicious example.

14. It is impoffible to give to the age of twenty, the feelings, or the knowledge of fixty; as it would be folly to wish to dothe a child with gray hairs, or to ftamp the fading a

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