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add to my patience, temperance, and self-control. Keep to such good rules, my dear son, at school and every where; fear God and obey His Divine Commandments: let truth be supreme in your heart; there can be no honour, no praise, no happiness, without truth."

NOVELTY.

In our memoir of Dr. Isaac Barrow we presented to the reader a pleasing ode, which was written by that illustrious scholar and divine, in early life, entitled "To Novelty ;" and we observed that the love of variety in youth was a very dangerous passion, for this short life which may close upon the youngest and healthiest before they have acquired any habit of virtue or wisdom.

The rage for novelty is a very great misfortune, and most injurious to happiness in this short life. If peace is only a temptation to lead multitudes of travellers, old and young, away from their native country; war, with all its terrible evils, may, ultimately, be more desirable. Nothing can be more unfortunate than those habits, (so very general since the peace of 1815) by which many thousands have left Britain and Ireland to wander on the Continent of Europe with giddy levity, without reaping any real advantage, or any satisfaction to be compared with the sober prudent happiness and good habits of home. If this most unfortunate propensity for novelty is not checked, it must gradually lead the way to the decline of Great Britain. we read the eight volumes of the " Spectator,"

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written by Mr. Addison, and other distinguished men, in the reign of Queen Anne, we shall find that after a long war, in which the Duke of Marlborough had gained great victories, while literature and science flourished in Britain by the admirable talents of Sir Isaac Newton, Mr. Locke, and others, that celebrated paper was read every week in London, and in all other parts of the kingdom, by all ranks, and the happiness of peace was deeply felt and acknowledged. At that period families entertained no thoughts whatever of going to France and Italy, to ramble about, or to educate their children in a foreign land; the only travellers at that time, were a few young gentlemen of rank and fortune, who had finished their education at Oxford or Cambridge, they went only for a short time to the Continent, but decidedly to return and fix at home. Agriculture and Commerce were the great and deserving objects of attention, in which Great Britain was proud to be distinguished and pre-eminent. By such honourable and patriotic feelings were British subjects greatly respected abroad and happy at home

Where, blest with independence, void of strife,
Home formed the true felicity of life.

Many military men were glad to leave the army, and take up the plough. Agriculture was considered honourable employment for gentlemen ; inasmuch as by it the future happiness and provision for the young was secured by wise parents;

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and education abroad, at that period, would have been considered madness. If sons engaged in commercial pursuits abroad, daughters were happy and busy at home, while they enjoyed comforts and sure independence, with health and exercise, instead of daily rambling abroad, with new and unprofitable excitements. Their business and pleasure were to superintend all the interior female arrangements of a mansion in the country, where only one hundred acres, or even less, would afford most interesting employment, and secure pecuniary comfort and permanent maintenance for a family.

It would be delightful to see every acre in England well cultivated with crops of wheat, barley, potatoes, and turnips, like the Netherlands, by which means the markets at Brussels, Ghent, Antwerp, and other towns, are supplied with cheap provisions. If every encouragement was given by noblemen in England to promote the improvement of agriculture, by premiums, or by small farms of fifty or a hundred acres to half-pay officers, such true patriotism would soon give cheap food and employment to the poor, and prosperity to the country.

It is a painful fact, that 30,000l. a day of British money has been spent on the Continent since the peace. History has not recorded another such unfortunate and fatal proof of the vanity and folly of multitudes led to act so erroneously, by a general peace, after twenty-four years of war. The example of all past experience affords no precedent or

excuse for the conduct of these absentees. By their children being educated abroad, the good habits of home, the observance of the Sabbath, and all the superior domestic virtues, which Britain could formerly boast of, are weakened or destroyed. With regard to economy or any frugal virtues, the result of all this will be greater and greater pecuniary difficulties. If some articles are cheaper abroad than in England, yet many extra expenses will unavoidably occur in travelling and other particulars. Besides, when absent for many years (as great numbers have been), in France and Italy, it cannot be a matter of doubt, that the pecuniary difficulties of all the absentees will be increased, not diminished, by their residence on the Continent. It may be justly anticipated that the children of those parents will live to feel and to regret the error of having been so long absent from their native country. Though in youth, all that affords constant novelty has particular charms; yet, by the giddy pursuit of what is new, the mind is not provided with that patience, diligence, fortitude, and attainment of mental strength, by which very great men have distinguished themselves. It is in early life that the important foundation is to be laid for wisdom in advanced life. The good and great scholar will not be found where every excitement to give variety and frivolous pleasures has reduced the mind to weakness, by the example and absolute influence of giddy novelty. Serious, sedate, fixed habits are good for the young. Not melancholy;

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