At once there arises the inquiry
Not a day passes, nor scarcely an hour, where there is a family of children, in which there is not a loud call for the qse of this discriminating faculty. Questions of discipline, involving praise or blame, of physical, intellectual, and moral wants, where queries and doubts arise, together with other inevitable issues, demand its exercise almost continually. Let us notice some points by way of illustration. Suppose the question is one of discipline. The child has violated some parental command, and is arraigned for trial. whether his wrongdoing is the result of accident or intention; whether his nervous system is not affected by illness, or something else, to incline him more easily to disobedience; whether he has violated the parental command, with a full and clear understanding of the nature of the evil perpetrated, or, whether partial ignorance is the parent of his wrong; and finally, whether the violation may not have Life all a sum-mer day, Happy hours of child-ish glee, Hours that never more can be! All are gone with years long fled ; Happy hours of child-ish jjlee, Hours that never more can be! Welcome, welcome, festive hours! Light of heart, we hail your light! Rule us with your quiet When above us clouds are scowling—When our light and comfort fail—’Mid the tempest fiercely powers, Sway us by your gentle might; Friendship, spread thy sweets before us, Friendship, howling, Let thy voice of love pre - vail, Shed-ding balm o’er gloom and sadness—’ ehed thy blessings o’er us, Wreaths to deck thy shrine we bring; Friendship reigns, in union Bing. grief to peace and gladness; Higher, purer praises bring! To the source of Friendship sing. POVERTY OF AUTHORS. Few people are aware of the want and suffering that has heen the lot of many whose literary toils have contributed to make the world of letters what it is. American homes are cheered by the writings of men whose penury denied them all the luxuries, and many of the necessaries of life. The following is a somewhat startling enumeration of facts upon this subject. Defoe was a writer of celebrity, and the author of more than two hundred books and pamphlets, yet he died insolvent. He might not have been a competent financier to husband his means, but still the fact of “much writing and poor pay,” was apart of his experience. Goldsmith, whose fame is still bright in the halls of learning, enjoyed but a miserable subsistence, at least in the early part of his career. He wrote his “Inquiry into the State of Polite Learning,” in a small, uninviting apartment, furnished with but a single chair and table. Samuel Boyce was a well-known literary character of the last century, yet he was so indigent, that his friend, Dr. Johnson, often solicited contributions for him. Nor was Dr. Johnson himself, in much better circumstances. With all his talents as a writer, he was frequently known to shun affluent society because his poverty would not allow the purchase of decent apparel. A fine American Essayist writes the following paragraph of Johnson and his cotemporaries: “A large portion of the life of so eminent a man as Dr. Johnson was spent in a desperate and nearly fruitless attempt to keep up the connection between his body and soul, constantly threatened by pressing wants.” The char acter of a considerable portion of professional authors was little highe/ than that of street beggars. Occasionally they would obtain a little money. Kiot and gaming soon relieved them of it. With the proceeds of a successful pamphlet or servile dedication, to use the words of another, ‘they soon diced themselves into spunginghouses, or drank themselves into fevers.’ ‘The art of dodging a bailiff and bilking a landlord, was more important to the poet than the art of pointing an epigram or polishing a period.