To assist our fellow-creatures is the noblest privilege of mortality: it
is, in some sort, forestalling the bounty of Providence.
There is no doubt that memory, although it may be cultivated, is
originally a gift of nature; so, also, application must be regarded as a
natural endowment; for there are some men, however well disposed, who
can never bring themselves to grapple closely with any thing.
It has been suggested that man has no real necessity for clothing. All
other creatures are furnished with every necessary for their existence,
and it is improbable one nobler than them all should be left in a
defective condition: there are some nations, in severer climates than
ours, who have no notion of clothing; and, even in civilized life, the
most tender parts of the body are constantly exposed, as the face, neck,
&c.
It is the temper of a blade that must be the proof of a good sword, and
not the gilding of the hilt or the richness of the scabbard; so it is
not his grandeur and possessions that make a man considerable, but his
intrinsic merit.
F.
* * * * *
THE KNIGHT'S RETURN.
FROM THE GERMAN.
(_For the Mirror_.)
"Page, what sound mine ears is greeting,
Whence the lime-trees wave in pride?"
"'Tis, sir knight, the herds that bleating,
Wander o'er the mountain's side.
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