The ladies' garland. [volume], July 28, 1827, Page 43, Image 3

About The ladies' garland. [volume] (Harpers-Ferry, Va. [W. Va.]) 1824-1828

Image provided by: West Virginia University

                
W'c cl no hesitation ,n ha.:.tiding the opiuum,
Unit of all human b« mgs, tin- t’i m.de sex might to
be (lie b •! educated. This would secure (lie mo
rals of society, aid ensure a race of.enlightened
and virtuous citizens.
The first years of children are spent under the
eve and in t lie company of their mother. Hoys, un
til 'hey are ten or twelve years old, and girls until
they marry, may be said to he tinder the manage,
men*, of their mother. I low necessary is it, there
fore, that the minds of women should be well culti
vated j especially when we recollect that early im
pression- and habits, whether moral or intellectual,
are hardly ever effaced ! If mothers are wise and
prudent, their children will in general he the same.
It lias been remarked by persons of the greatest ob
servation, that m ist men who have been eminent
for 1 > anting and piety have owed the germs of that
eminence to their mothers. Men are but rhiblmi
ijra larger groirth ; and our dispositions and habits
in after life are nothing more than the develope
ment of those principles which w ere imbibed dur
ing our tender years.
PAR I IIQI AKKS.
“ Pome years ago, immediately after a shock of
a tremendous earthquake had alarmed the inhabi
tants (if Grenada, the conversation at the Governor’s
table turned upon the latent cause of such an awful
phenomenon. After every one of the company had
assigned to it a different cause, an old domestic was
asked her ideas upon the subject. She replied that
she thought the Great God was passing by, and that
the earth made him obeisance !
“ This reply a as striking, and discovered a bright
spark of intellect in an untutored mind. It reminds
us of that sublime passage in the Psalms, ' lie look
eth on the earth, and it trcmbleth; he touclieth the
hills, and they smoke.’
“ Montgomery, in his poem, entitled the Thun
der Storm, has a similar thought.
‘ Hear ye not his chariot wheels,
As tlie mighty thunder rolls?
Nature, startled Nu'lire reels,
Prom the centre to the poles;
Tremble!—Ocean, Karth, and Skv!
Tremble!— Hod is {Hissing hr.”
1 While earthquakes have doubtless some impor
tant use in the natural world, they may also stand
committed with the moral system of divine provi
dence and mercy.
“ A merchant in Tennessee observed, during the
earthquakes in 1 fd 11 and 1810, that before these
took place he used In ■•sell ten par/.•? r,f curds where he
sold one Bible, nerw be t til ten Bilks -where he sold
oui n e'b of curds!”
Genius, in due respect, is Ike gold; numbers of
persons are constantly writing' about both, who
h ire neither I'he no ftificalions of nit tapliv>ics,
anil tlie quackeries ot craniology, maybe c.,unbilled
still conglomerated without end, and without limit,
in a vain attempt to enable common sense to grasp
am! to comprehend the causes of genius, or the
modes of their operation.—[Lacom.
How can we expect tout another should keep
cur 1/.>, when it is more than w. can do otusi.H t
11 s a common fault to be never satisfied With our
fortune, not dissatisfied with Q\ir understanding.
3?5IE S^OWETOK.
fffkcts of fkkhit.
A\ e arc indebted to the Boston Spectator for
(lie extract below. The writer observes, ‘‘the
following circumstance I know to lie a fact, it
was related hv a |:ulv of undoubted veracitv>
who was on the spot when the atiair occurred,
ami may serve as a w arning to those who are
fond of a comedv. which too often turns out a
tragedv ’’
In the town of 1 lampion, in Middlesex. Eng
land. a spot ctdel rated on account of the state
Iv palace erected there hv the magnificent Far
diual Wolscv. was kept, same \ears since, a
yoituif 1 «dies‘ hoarding school A Miss Courte
nay. the only child of iimneiix !y w ealthy parents,
in the county id Hampshire, was one of the
scholars. To prevent h r suIFering through
life, from the morbid cowardice to which, from
nature and education, the softer sex are much
prone, her parents and teachers had taken un
wearied pains, nut otiiy tc» brace her mind
against the terrors of imagination, but of those
: terrifying realities that flesh is Imir to. Titov
succeeded effectually, little dreaming. poor
weak-sighted mortals as we are, that this very
; acquirement would one day prove fatal to her.
M ifil.la Courtenay was about sixteen, amiable,
accomplished, and as lovely in h r person as the
fabled Houri Her disposition was gay as that
: of the lark—till huoyanry and life. It was not
: long ere the \ ouug ladies in the school diseover
cd this trait of fearlessness in her character, for
Matilda bad been so praised by lmr doting pa
rents for its possession, that she. lost-nq opportu
nity of displaying it on every possible Occasion.
Many were the tricks resorted to by her compa
nions with the idea of frightening lmr, such as
starting upon her Irurn a place of concealment ;
making figures with lile physiognomies painted
upon them, and placing them upon lmr bed—
perhaps a mischievous one, conn: a led beneath
the bed-lead, would seize her foot as she uas
stepping into it. At other limes. Dolly the maid
would he hired to get upon the roof ai d throw
brick hats down the chimney of her apartment.
But all was in vain—her listening tormentors
heard no sound save that of a chuckle or a hurst
of joyous laughter. Almost wearied with the
i continued failure of their experiments, ihcv at
; length hit upon an expedient t i frighten the in
nocent girl by a coiij) dc. nnitii. Miss Courtenay
1 had been to visit her parents. Imt was expected
1 ai Hampton that night. A student of medicine
m the neiiili1':>rii'joM was prciailed upon to
bine secretly hi tlir evening .1 skeleton to the
-rhool. Tile hope of at h ielb 11:e'bb-liiie Mi".
! (. uortenay weakened (heir own ieyrs in hand
' lint: this otherwise appaliin/ subject. They
hastened it with thetester within tin- enrttins, at
the font of the bed. so as to conceal ii cifectu
! ally I'roru her obsen ati.m ; tint with the nmvic
| tion, that the moment the bed should be shaken
j liy lirr getting into it, the fillin' would lull upon
j lu r. Matilda did not much Hampton till lied
, tune, hut in more than usually gay spirits retir
; ed to her apartment, saying to her loved, hut
: mischievous companions. “ good night, dear
| girls, good night; I have got hack and to-mor
! row we. shall have a fine game of romps—good
night;” and with a bound was out of sight.
j There was a cause, nav two of them, for Matii
da\ heightened spirits. Henry Melmoth, the
companion of her childhood, and her bn;u iileal
! of all that was perfect in mankind, had brought
her to Hampton in his curricle and four, and
; had whispered something agreeable in her ear,
I and more— had “ looked unutterable things.”—
Besides, Matilda was by nature benevolent, and
her parents, aware that she would make no
1 ill ime of it, hud given her a plentiful supply of
pocket money—and she might build castles
. in the moon, think of Henry undisturbed, and in
her «• mind's eye” dispose of her wealth on the
morrow. \\ ith this sweetest anil most delight
ful feeling of humanity, tin desire of performing
j kind actions, Matilda, after praying as fervently
1 as a girl of sixteen could be expected to pray,
! jumped into bed, where we will leave her for
; the night.
Ivu-ly nn the following morning, those who
had been particularly busy in this cruel affair
were aslir in see its etleets. arid repaired in a.
body to Miss Courtenay's apartmr nt, with the
expectation of lie at mg t!ie joyous bin sts of liter
lament, but imagine their surprise and horror
on liudiug the sue t girl, doubtless in the verv
position she had laid down, with her eves
fixed and rolled up in their sockets; the white
froth framing from her pale mouth, her nostrils
fearfully distended, and showing everv appear
aner of approaching dissolution -the furelingei
and tlimub oi lier right hand held a shred or f
lire which adhered to the skeleton, whose flesh
less arm had fallen across her, arid its eyeless
skull rested on the same pillow with that of the
blooming girl. Medical assistance was called,
but alas ! too late - her extremities were cold.—
The physician pron mncod that siie had fallen
into repeated convulsions from affright, and
there was no remedy. In a feu moments “life
ebbed pulse hy pulse away, ' and the angel spi
rit of the lovely hut ill fated Matilda fled for
ever !
“ 1 .a\ her
er the earth,
a! unpolluted flesh
S. II S.
“ And from her for :eal
" May a inlets s[i; lug ’
I i.rmtrn Despotism—*■ I lie lady of JJi Mac
! noil, llie jiliV'i iau l j She uus-i .11, iv:i« out: day
iu lh*-‘ Zenanah. 1 in 1‘ersia. !eo she obsei v ei}
one of the prince-, a boy of 1 "11 years of a tee,
nith a handkerchief tied ov<-r id* eyes, gropin''
about t!i 1 apartment I fain liupiuing nhat lie
nsis doing, he said that as he knew that vs hen
the Shah, hi* father died, he should have hi*
eyes put out. he was now tiling h'*u he could
do without them.”-1 'Jlltxatidpr's Travels.