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To endeavour to conceal indigence by the affectation of extravagance, is committing a great offence, both against ourselves, and the community to which we belong. The means of fupport should always be attended to. A conformity to thefe will render you more refpected for prudence, than a deviation for the fake of fhow without fubftanee, can make you admired.

"Louifa and Clarinda are ftrik ing examples. They were both the daughters of reputable parents, whofe fituations in the world were eafy and comfortable, though not affluent. They were able to give their children a good education, but no other portion. Gay, volatile, and ambitious, Louifa was the votary of fafh ion. A fuperior in drefs excited the keenest fenfations of envy in her bofom ; and a rival in appearance gave her unfpeakable mortification, Diffatisfied with her natural charms, cofmetics and paints added to her expenfes, and betrayed her folly. She had many profeffed admirers, who found her a willing dupe to flattery, and who raised her vanity by praifing her excellent tafte.

"Leander, a gentleman of liberal education, fuperior merit, and handfome property, caft his eye around for a companion to flare and enjoy thefe advantages with him. Louifa caught his attention. The elegance of her perfon, and fplendor of her appearance, charmed his imagination, and infpired the idea of a fortune fufficient to fupport her expenfive ftyle of living. He paid his addreffes, and was received with the most flattering encouragment. But how great was his difappointment, when he discovered the fmallnefs of her resources, and the imprudence of her management! This, faid he to himself, will never do for me."

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Were my income far fuperior to what it is, it would not be adequate to fuch unbounded extravagance. Befides, where fo little economy is practifed, while under parental government, what must be the confequence of that unlimited indulgence, which the confidence due to a wife demands? Were I to abridge her expenfes, and endeavour to rectify her fantastical tafte, it would doubtlefs foment diffenfion, discord, and animofity, which must terminate in wretchednefs. He refolved, however, to try her real difpofition, by gently hinting his difapprobation of her gaiety. This she refented; and a rupture, which ended in a final feparation, enfued. She found, too late, the value of the man, whom she had flighted; and ever after regretted that folly which had irretrieveably alienated his affections.

"The modefty and neatnefs of Clarindia's garb next caught Leander's eye. Converfing with her on the fubject of drefs, the juftnefs of her fentiments gave him the highest ideas of the rectitude and innocence of her mind. A coftly article was offered for her purchase; but she refused it. It would not become me, faid fhe, nor any other perfon who has not an affluent fortune. If I had a fufficiency to buy it, I would procure fomething more fimple and neceffary for myfelf; and the overplus might render an object of diftrefs contented and happy.

"Yet was Clarinda always clegantly neat; always genteelly fashionable. Frugality and economy, free from profufion and extravagance, enabled her to indulge her own tafte entirely; and while fhe enjoyed that, the repined not at the fancied fuperiority of others. Leander found her all he wished, in appearance; all he hoped for, in reality.

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As their tastes were correfpondent, and their highest aim, when united, to pleafe each other, they were not dependent on the breath of fafhion for their happiness. A compliance with its forms did not elate their pride, nor a departure from them, fill their hearts with peevishnefs and

difcontent."

The Author has justly confidered the art of letter-writing among the firft of female accomplishments. To render her work complete, fhe has added an epistolary correfpondence between Mrs. W. her daughters and late pupils. These letters embrace a variety of fubjects, general and local, and are marked with that fentiment and vivacity, which form the first qualities of this fpecies of com pofition. Though this art, like that of converfation, is acquired more by practice than precept, good models are abfolutely neceffary for the beginner, as imitation must always precede excellence.

The letters ferve as a comment on the didactic part, furnished by experience from the common occurrences of life. While the young correfpondent finds in them a ready affiftant, as a formulary, fhe will derive from then a greater acquifition.

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in the cultivation of taste and inprovement in knowledge and virtue. We know of no book of modern production, which may be more fafely recommended or promises greater utility to the daughters of America.

While man, ambitious to enroll his name on the lift of fame, can fee it written in characters of blood with exultation, and trace it in the enormity of his crimes without à blufh; it affords pleafure to the philanthropic mind to fee woman afferting a fairer claim, and building the fuperftructure of her fame on the firm bafis of the focial affections and domeftic virtue. To cultivate and extend thefe, appears to be the laudable object of our fair Author. The real friend of" focial order," we wish every fuccefs to the efforts of her pen. While fhe and her kindred fifters devote their labours to the cultivation of the vineyard of domeftic happinefs, we hope their example will draw the mifemployed talents of our own fex, from the beaten and barren field of political calumny, and convince them that laurels planted in fuch a foil, will foon wither, and that public good muft grow out of private virtue.

RHAPSODY.

Half a word to the wife, and the other half to the otherwise.

HAPPINESS is the avowed purfuit of all mankind, from the king to the beggar; and the latter as often approaches it as the former. Ambition fires the breast of princes, and few confider the real welfare of their fubjects, but are animated, in most of their pursuits, by mifguiding pride, or delufive vanity. From thefe motives thousands of their people are often facrificed to accomplish

fome rafh defign, which will only tend to lead them into a labyrinth of perplexities, that may endanger their crowns, or even their perfonal fafety. The beggar's ideas are all confined to the fuftenance of life and fufficient cloathing: thefe ends obtained, it matters not to him, whether the Corfican Peacemaker reigns in Egypt or France, whether the Conftitution is kept whole or Je fer

fon

fon is made Prefident. Having gained fufficient alms, he fits down to a comfortable meal at night, and enjoys his coarfe repaft beyond all the dainties of the greatest monarch on earth, who, cloyed with niceties, and the refinements of the table, his appetite is vitiated, and he has no relish for all the profufions of the culinary art.

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To defcend a step lower, let us view the statesmen at eternal warfare with oppofition; daily and nightly he fees and hears himself abused; his plans are marred and his projects circumvented his abilities, nay his probity called in queftion. His pillow is ftrewed with thorns; rest is a ftranger to him; his thoughts are totally occupied for the good of his country, (for we will fuppofe him honeft) whilft his ungrateful country revile him, and reprefent him as a monster in human shape.

Even in more private life, a thou fand anxieties await the rich and great. Solicitude for family connexions-a fpendthrift fon-an ir regular daughter-a careless or indifcreet wife, with a variety of other cares, throw a melancholy gloom over the life of the supposed moft happy man.

In a word, happiness, though the ultimate purfuit of every human being, from infancy to dotage, if we look round among our acquaintance, how few fhall we find who have ap

proached the goal of their conftant purfuit and wishes? Thofe ingredients of felicity which are in our poffeffion, or within our reach, we def pife and contemn, because we know we can command them; whilft we foar at other objects that are unat tainable, and which render us miferable, When we hear of a man who unexpectedly fucceeds to a great ef tate, and whofe abilities and merit we are apt to think inferior to our own, we naturally fay, at leaft to ourselves-" What a lucky fcoun drel; what right had he to fuch a fortune!" Yet fuch reflections are mean and ridiculous, and only prove our envy and our folly.

The only man who can be confidered happy, is he who can reconcile himself to his circumstances, be they what they may; who can live within the limits of his income, and be independent of the world. But how few are there who have the fortitude and refolution to purfue fuch a plan of conduct! Not one in a thoufand, I might fay ten thou fand. The luft of power, the blan dishments of wealth, the phantom of honour, whether it ftalks forth with a coronet or a ribband, a title or a place, are so many stumbling blocks to our felicity, which, as the poet happily expreffes it, is "O'erlook'd-feen double by the fool and wife."

X.

FASCINATING POWER OF SERPENTS. [From the Travels of Le Valliant into Africa.]

IN the additional volumes of the Travels of LE VALLIANT into Africa, appear fome very striking facts relative to the fascinating power of ferpents. Two of them are authenticated on the evidence of the

author himself, and the other is fanetioned by his belief in the veracity of the relator.

The bafilifk of the ancients, the rattlesnake, &c. have been adduced as inftances of animals who poffefs

the

the power of killing by their look. The power in the former has been, perhaps prematurely, treated as a fable-that of the latter has been better, though vaguely, afcertained, but the fact has not been implicitly relied on by our naturalifts. The teftimony, however, of fo refpectable a traveller as Le Valliant, leaves it no longer in doubt, and Phyfiologifts have now before them the curious queftion to determine, as far as poffible, relative to the caufe of this extraordinary property in ferpents.

Le Valliant fuppofes the effect may be produced by a power fomewhat like that of electricity, as poffeffed by the torpedo and the electrical eel of Surinam, This opinion may deserve confideration it does not, however, account for an effed produced without actual contact. The inftances produced by Le Valliant are briefly as follows

FIRST INSTANCE.

"One day, in one of our excurfions in hunting, we perceived a motion in the branches of one of the trees. Immediately we heard the piercing cries of a fhrike, and faw it tremble as if in convulfions. We first conceived that it was held in the gripe of fome bird of prey; but a closer attention led us to difcover upon the next branch of the tree, a large ferpent, that with ftretched-out neck, and fiery eyes, though perfectly ftill, was gazing at the poor animal. The agony of the bird was terrible; but fear had deprived it of ftrength, and, as if tied by the leg, it feemed to have loft the power of flight. One of the company ran for a fufee; but before he returned, the fhrike was dead, and we only fhot the ferpent. I requested that the distance between the place where the bird had experienced the convulfions, and that occupied by the ferpent might

be measured. Upon doing fo, we found it to be three feet and a half, and we were all convinced that the fhrike had died neither from the bite, nor the poifon of its enemy. I ftripped it alfo before the whole company, and made them obferve, that it was untouched, and had not received the flightest wound.”

SECOND INSTANCE.

"Hunting one day, in a marfhy piece of ground, I heard, all at once, in a tuft of reeds, a piercing and very lamentable cry. Anxious to know what it was, I ftole foftly to the place, where I perceived a fmall moufe, like the fhrike on the tree, in agonizing convulfions, and two yards farther a ferpent, whofe eyes were intently fixed upon it. The moment the reptile faw me, it glided away: but the bufinefs was done. Upon taking up the mouse, it expired in my hand, without its being poffible for me to difcover, by the moft attentive examination, what had occafioned its death.”

THIRD INSTANCE.

"The Hottentots, whom I confulted upon this incident, expreffed no fort of aftonishment. Nothing, they faid, was more common; the ferpent had the faculty of attracting and fafcinating fuch animals as it wifhed to devour. I had then no

faith in fuch power: but fome time after, fpeaking of the circumftance in a company of more than twenty perfons, in the number of whom was Colonel Gordon; a captain of his regiment confirmed the account of the Hottentots, and affured me it was an event which happened very frequently. My teftimony,' added he, ought to have the more weight, as I had once nearly become myself a victim to this fafcination. While

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in garrifon at Ceylon, and amufing myfelf, like you, in hunting in à

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marfh, I was, in the course of my Sport, fuddenly feized with a convulfive and involuntary trembling, different from any thing I had ever. experienced, and at the fame time was ftrongly attracted, and in fpite of myself, to a particular fpot of the marsh. Directing my eyes to this fpot, I beheld, with feelings of horror, a ferpent of an enormous fize, whofe look inftantly pierced me. Having, however, not yet loft all power of motion, I embraced the opportunity before it was too late, and faluted the reptile with the con

tents of my fufee. The report was a talifman that broke the charm. All at once, as if by miracle, my convulfion ceased; I felt myself able to fly; and the only inconvenience of this extraordinary adventure was a cold fweat, which was doubtless the effect of my fear, and of the violent agitation my fenfes had undergone."

"Such was the account given me by this officer. I do not pretend to vouch for its truth; but the ftory of the mouse, as well as of the fhrike, I aver to be a fact."

For the COLUMBIAN PHENIX.
THE LAUGHER.
Dulce eft difcipere in loco.

MONK, be not frightened-Rev-
erend Gentlemen of the scarf,
be not grieved-Deacon Numbhead,
do not reel; for I affure you I will
never laugh unfeafonably.-Fellow
Laughers, marvel not, although I
thus publickly affume a title, which
the rigid Chesterfieldians call clownish,
and although I, with the fame pub-
licity, in open effrontery to many of
their straight-haired maxims, declare,
that I am glad I can laugh. I could
never fee the harm in fhaking one's
fides, any more than in fhaking one's
head, or shaking hands.

Fifty incontrovertible arguments might be adduced to prove the great utility of this practice, as it refpects the health-here, "Friends to Phyfic," fneer not; as it refpects the features and the ornaments of beauty: we never hear the poet chant the praife of the coral lip, without pene trating, at leaft, as far as the row of ivory, which he fometimes calls pearls. Now pray tell how he would have fo exactly deferibed his mif

No. I.

HORAT.

trefs, and efpecially thofe invifible enchanters, if the angel had never taken it into her head to have laughed at him.

I do not pretend to originality fufficient to keep me conftantly in stock, did I not occafionally laugh at other folks; and now, Gentlemen, you are called on to point out the harmin this; provided always, that I never laugh at a stranger, an honest or poor man, merely because he is honeft or poor, or any other perfon whomfoever, without defcribing to him, in a good-natured and tolerably polite manner, the real and primary caufe of my mirth. If he is diffatiffied or angry, he is just fit for my fhafts, and may expect more; if otherwife, the great object is obtained, he is reformed-I am gratified.

If I laugh at a man's foibles, which have become troublefome to my neighbors and myself; if I farcaftically fhrug at his vices, which are effecting his fpeedy ruin, and endaggering fociety, I plead fpecially,

that

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