THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 413 



18G0.] 



Perseverance. 



There is something noble in any man who 

 breasts difficulties, with the firm determina- 

 tion to conquer them, in spite of the barriers 

 which oppose his onward progress. We 

 would not go as far as a celebrated poet 

 went, when he broadly asserted that a man- 

 might do any thing he chose, because God 

 had given him arms long enough, if he 

 would but take the trouble to extend them • 

 but we do most emphatically say that success 

 is nearer to the grasp of most men than is 

 generally supposed. Indeed, obstacles are 

 but the dykes which prevent the pure water 

 of knowledge from flowing for a time — the 

 inquiring mind, like a sinuous river swells, 

 and presses against the obstructing barrier 

 between it and the wide sea of intellect, 

 hour after hour, day after day it increases, 

 and fed and swollen by numerous tributary 

 streams, it at length sweeps over the now 

 feeble but once formidable impediment, and 

 rejoicing in its self-acquired strength, sweeps 

 onward in triumph. The mind of man was 

 never intended by its great Creator to be in- 

 active. Onward ! is the cry of every one. 

 Alas ! there are some who, thinking them- 

 selves wise, become fools; they travel onward, 

 but like a wanderer in a dark morass, see only 

 flitting and uncertain lights which lure them 

 on to perilous paths. There are others who 

 scorning false gleams seek for the true rays 

 — men who lift their eyes from earth and 

 ovp.rlooking the glow-worm behold the stars 

 of Hope and Truth shining in the clear sky 

 Such as these tread their daily paths in full 

 assurance that the seeds they sow as they 

 travel along life's highway will spring up 

 and bear fruit. They faint not, nor fall by 

 the way; and though torn by thorns and 

 briers, they at last receive the reward of 

 their patient endurance and unremitted per- 

 severance — Success. — Bedford Sentinel. 



Protection of Brickwork. 



The penetration of moisture through the 

 surface of brickwork may be obviated by 

 the following simple remedy : 



Three quarters of a pound of mottled soap 

 are to be dissolved in one gallon of boiling 

 water, and the hot solution spread steadily 

 with a flat brush over the outer surface of 

 the brickwork, taking care that it does not 

 lather; this is to be allowed to dry for 

 twenty-four hours, when a solution formed 

 of a quarter of a pound of alum, dissolved 



in two gallons of water, is to be applied in 

 a similar manner over the coating of soap. 

 The operation should be performed in dry 

 settled weather. The soap and alum mutu- 

 ally decompose each other, and form an in- 

 soluble varnish which the rain is unable to 

 penetrate, and this cause of dampness is 

 thus said to be eifectuaily removed. Another 

 method was some time since described (as, 

 by the way, the previous one was) at the 

 Royal Institute of Architects. It consists 

 of sulphurizing oil as a varnish or paint, and 

 is said to improve the color of brick and 

 stone, as well as preserve them. It is pre- 

 pared by subjecting eight parts of linseed 

 oil and one part of sulphur to a temperature 

 of 278° in an iron vessel. It is said to keep 

 out both air and moisture, and prevent de- 

 posits of soot and dirt, when applied with 

 a brush to the surface of a building of brick 

 or stone, or even of woodwork. — London 

 Builder. 



From the Horticulfurist. 



Love of Nature— Birds— The Chick-a- 

 Bee. 



BY C. N. BEMENT. 



It is impossible that we should be other 

 than an admirer of Nature. In all our soli- 

 tary rambles, whether upon the wild and 

 lonely hill-side, or in the heart of the pasto- 

 ral valley; at the edge of the mirror-like 

 lake, the bank of the babbling brook, or 

 along the border of the mountain rivulet — 

 our eye is always filled with beautiful and 

 picturesque objects. Our ear soon becomes 

 i'amiliar with the light carol of every bird 

 which inhabits the thicket or the forest ; and 

 our eye is soon made acquainted with the 

 whole lovely family of flowers, which enamel 

 the earth, and enrich the air with their per- 

 fume. There is not a wild flower that nods 

 to us from the top of the verdant bank, or 

 the vine- covered precipice, or a bird that 

 salutes us with its voluble overture from its 

 leafy dome, that we cannot recognize and 

 call by name. 



We have ever been lovers of birds, the 

 denizens of the air. They have ever ap- 

 peared to us almost too fair and pure for this 

 grovelling, sensual worUl. In our boyhood 

 we were taught that it was wrong to harm 

 some kinds of birds ; but there was a large 

 class that were proscribed as doing injury to 

 the farmer, (while they were innocently em- 

 ployed in seeking their daily food,) and he 



