KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



263 



settlement lay at a distance of five hundred 

 miles. His spirits drooped under the vivid 

 sense of his desolation and distress. Still, 

 his confidence in the providence of God had 

 not entirely forsaken him ; and he recollected 

 that, even in the wilderness, there was the 

 stranger's friend. At this moment, the ex- 

 traordinary beauty of a small moss, in flower, 

 irresistibly caught the traveller's eye. The 

 whole plant, he says, was not larger than the 

 top of one of his fingers. He gazed with 

 admiration upon the beautiful formation of 

 the leaves. " Can that Being," thought 

 Park, " who planted, watered, and brought 

 to perfection, in this obscure part of the 

 world, a thing which appears of so small im- 

 portance, look with unconcern upon the situa- 

 tion and sufferings of creatures formed after 

 his own image?'" The thought kindled his 

 dying energies, and revived his fainting 

 spirit. He started up, pursued his journey, 

 and in a short time arrived at a small village. 

 What slight circumstance could be more 

 beautiful than this ? 



Let us now take an illustration of the 

 shade. It has been remarked by philosophi- 

 cal writers, that the slightest annoyances in 

 life are often the most painful. Kidicule 

 stings more than injury. The Narrative of 

 Humboldt may supply an illustration. " How 

 comfortable must people be in the moon !" 

 said a Saliva Indian to Father Gumilla; she 

 looks so beautiful and so clear, that she must 

 be free from moschettoes." We frequently 

 hear exclamations of the same character in 

 the walks of life. " Man never is, but always 

 to be blest." Some slight change of situation 

 or of employment would make us happy; and 

 from the want of it we are miserable, and 

 burn in perpetual 



Wishing, that constant hectic of a fool. 



Slight Circumstances are our moschettoes. 

 Christianity remedies this fretfulness of the 

 mind. It cools that tingling irritability of 

 feeling, which urges us into scenes of frivol- 

 ity for the mere purpose of change. It 

 teaches us not only to endure the difficulties 

 and annoyances that surround us, but to 

 endure them with placid resignation. In 

 whatsoever situation we may be placed, we 

 are to be content. That one word carries a 

 sermon within it. 



Let us, one and all, settle the matter by 

 acknowledging the truth of the Poet's dic- 

 tum — 



Whatever is, is right. 



The Creator never " made" the world with 

 a view to its usurping His power. In wisdom 

 were we created ; by wisdom are we sus- 

 tained ; in wisdom is it ordained that our lives 

 shall be extended just so long as shall be 

 needful to accomplish some grand purpose. 



We are atoms in the scale of society ; and 

 form links in a chain which can never be bro- 

 ken till time shall be no more. If this be 

 not " a happy way" of settling the question, 

 we know not what is. 



VTJLGAS FESTIVITIES. 



HOW WE DO WISH THAT OUR PEN 



could work a reformation in the tastes of 

 the people of England ! With few excep- 

 tions, they see more delight in the pesti- 

 lential fumes of tobacco, " qualified " by 

 beer and spirits, than in all the glories of 

 nature unfolding from day to day in the 

 fields and hedge-rows. We speak not exclu- 

 sively of the lower orders ; but of those 

 who, from their position in the world, ought 

 to know better and set a better example. 

 The lovely air of heaven is everywhere 

 poisoned at this season. Gardens are con- 

 verted into pot-houses — the public highways 

 are polluted — our youth are little better than 

 skunks. You may nose them half a mile off. 

 Of course, the lower orders must " imitate " 

 their superiors ; and therefore is it that 

 during the holiday season so much de- 

 bauchery prevails. Mirth is good, and we 

 love dearly to witness country festivities. 

 But, as our contemporary, the Times, justly 

 remarks, "it is indeed a sorry business 

 when the British people has it in mind to be 

 festive ! As though bewildered at the very 

 thought of twenty-four hours 1 absolution 

 from toil, the artisan betakes himself to 

 strongest beer to nerve his frame for the 

 contrast, and inspires fumes of blackest to- 

 bacco to dim his perception as to the diffi- 

 culties of his position ; and to this beclouded 

 and frenzied condition of their supporters do 

 the caterers of holiday amusement address 

 themselves. In no country in the world is 

 so little art employed, so little invention ex- 

 erted, such obstinate attachment to worn-out 

 routine, as among our show people. All is 

 coarse, supremely silly, or simply disgusting. 

 There is no genuine mirth, no healthy expan- 

 sion of the spirits. Riot and low debauchery 

 are its substitutes." — We hold to our belief 

 that all this arises from the influence of bad 

 example. If "gentlemen " will make chim- 

 nies of their noses, volcanoes of their 

 throats, and spirit-vats of their stomachs, it 

 is really no matter for wonder if the lower 

 classes do the same. When will the fashion 

 for smoking, drinking, and (it is no use 

 mincing the word) spitting, go out ? These 

 have surely ranked long enough amongst our 

 — " modern accomplishments I" 



THE FOECE OF EXAMPLE. 



Example is a living law, whose sway 

 Men more than all the written laws ohey. 



