and buried, but am now quite well, thank God, and want no absolution from father M'Grath, bad luck to him. And what's more to the point, I have just received a batch of prize money, the first I have handled since I have served his majesty, and every farthing of which I now send to you, that you may get back your old cows and the pig, and all the rest of the articles seized to pay for my fitting out; so never again ask me whether I am not ashamed of myself: more shame to you for abusing a dutiful son like myself, who went to sea at your bidding, and has never had a real good potatoe down his throat ever since. I'm a true O'Brien, tell my mother, and don't mane to turn Protestant, but uphold the religion of my country; although the devil may take father M'Grath and his holy water to boot. I sha'n't come and see you, as perhaps you may have another stool ready for my head, and may take better aim next time; so no more at present from your affectionate son, 'TEAGUE O'BRIEN.' About three weeks afterwards I received a letter from my father, telling me that I was a real O'Brien, and that if any one dared hint to the contrary, he would break every bone in his body; that they had received the money, and thanked me for a real gentleman as I was; that I should have the best stool in the house next time I came, not for my head but for my tail; that father M'Grath sent me his blessing, and had given me absolution for all I had done or should do for the next ten years to come; that my mother had cried with joy at my dutiful behavior; and that all my brothers and sisters, (bating Tim, who had died the day after I left them,) wished me good luck, and plenty more prize money to send home to them. This was all very pleasant; and I had nothing left on my mind but to get another ship; so I went to the port admiral, and told him how it was that I left my last ; and he said, "That being dead and buried was quite sufficient reason for any one leaving his ship, and that he would procure me another, now that I had come to life again." I was sent on board of the guard ship, where I remained about ten days, and then was sent round to join this frigate-and so my story's ended; and there's eight bells striking-so the watch is ended too. Jump down, Peter, and call Robinson, and tell him that I'll trouble him to forget to go to sleep again as he did last time, and leave. me here, kicking my heels, contrary to the rules and regulations of the service.' (To be continued.) 348 OLD SAWS FOR YOUNG LADIES.-No II. BY ANDREW PICKEN, Finding that these old saws and quaint morsels of colloquial didactics, which I have been able to gather from among the musty records of literature, have been considered peculiarly suitable to the necessities of young ladies at this particular juncture, and that the world is, after all its experience, disposed for a moment to go back to old-fashioned things, and to pull a thread out of the web of our forefathers' wisdom, I sit down to spin out a few more of these pithy scraps of proverbial mother-wit, which, though apt to be forgotten, are never entirely out of season, and to which my fair readers will do well to take heed. Indeed, I consider it a great charity to do something of this sort at this time; for, as I took the liberty of hinting in my last paper, the making of young ladies clever only (after a manner,) and accomplished only (after a system,) being the sole object of modern female up-bringing, old common sense, with all her wise maxims and far-seen experience, has no chance whatever against everlasting fine ladyship; and so she has for a long time past been banished out of all genteel society, and sent a begging for her bread into the remote corners of the kingdom. ' But as, amongst all this progress of society,' there is an universal cry in the land, of want of money among the men, and want of husbands among the ladies, and of other necessaries of life among all classes, it is evident that something must be wrong, after all, which wise men (if there be any) would do well to look into. Upon this subject, I confess I have my own opinion, which nobody perhaps would thank me for expressing; but, in the mean time, I shall proceed with a few more of those old proverbs which used to form the floating literature of former days, merely to remind young ladies and others, that once on a time there did exist such a personage as common sense, whose directing assistance, notwithstanding all their fine accomplishments, they may yet come sorely to need. Not that I would discourage young ladies from being well accomplished, as it is called, in certain matters, under certain circumstances; for, although I could wish that every one of them were able to dance like Taglioni, or play pianos as brilliantly as Monsieur Jiggfallero (I forget his name,) the Frenchman, or work as many other wonders as Monsieur Katterfelto, the conjurer-yet, as the real duties of life consist neither primarily in dancing quadrilles and boleros, nor in playing Italian wonderments on stringed instruments, I am only desirous that the one should not be entirely lost sight of for the other, and that in giving young ladies what is called education, we should not entirely forget that they are rational beings. In all this, it may be seen that I blame more the parents than the children. How can I help this, unless I should deny the truth of the proverb, that The church stands in the churchyard.' which it was never a sin to assert, when it is visible before our eyes. But parents, as well as children, are very apt to be carried away with a fashion; and now the fashion is in, to spend all a daughter's dowry in teaching her to perform a dozen things like a professor, and all in order to decoy a high husband. This is very well known to sensible mothers; and yet the fashion of shaping out everything in a lady's rearing for mere expense and show, is become so universal even to the daughters of the meanest tradesmen, that husbands who have not large incomes are banished entirely out of the market, and thus three-fourths of the women are left to be old maids by the gentlemen, merely in self-defence. Another evil that grows out of this state of things is, that girls are taught, tacitly at least, and by implication, that the great business of life is to catch a husband-to obtain a high, or at least a wealthy match-and that by means, not of the solid virtues of the female character, nor even of beauty, but by perfection in those drawing-room arts, and meretricious and showy accomplishments, which, in many instances, actually tend to corrupt the heart, and bring into operation pride, presumption, emulation, envy, scorn, and strife, qualities which it ought to be the aim of a really judicious education to curb and repress. It is certainly quite natural that, when parents have spent a large sum upon their daughters' education, both they and she should entertain nothing but the most lofty notions for her, although the lady has not a penny of dowry; for who else is she suited for but a gentleman of high degree, who can keep her dancing gallopades and harping on harps all her life. Without further introduction, we now go on to preach a needful sermon against this superfine gentility and tinsel of modern female education, by the help of the proverbs of our fathers; being convinced that is the source of many evils, much false ambition, and a world of folly-according to the saying, Golden dreams make us wake hungry. All this, however, shows the necessity of increasing, instead of diminishing, a mercenary spirit on the part of parents in mak ing for their children the bargain of marriage; for, if the young ladies are reared in a way to increase their wants, and extend 1 When evil fortune works on Folly's side, In which a moment may decide our doom. And where all this may end, forms a saddening tale, particularly as the finest and noblest spirits are most liable to it; for, saith the proverb, The finest metals soonest break. I conclude, by recurring somewhat solemnly to my former advice, to cultivate a spirit of rational and virtuous humility of aim, and soberness of views, as to the future, which will both prevent the heart-burnings, so frequently arising from the vain emulations of showy accomplishments. How prettily and wisely old Sir Henry Wotton, the poet, thus moralizes the question of personal humility, and worldly vanity I would be great, but that the sun doth still Surely it was of women, untortured by ambition or envy, that the proverb was made, which saith, A blyth heart maketh a blooming visage; and long may the heart of the virtuous female be blyth, and dance in its own lightness! and long may her lovely visage bloom! reflecting the calm sunshine of quiet thoughts; and long may her eyes sparkle with the lightsome joy of Nature's contentment, while they look up upon the bright sun, and abroad over the green earth, which rejoices in her joy, and is made almost holy by her presence. And no wonder that I am careful to indite these things concerning her; for truly, as Otway says in the play, There's in her all that we believe of heaven, THE SPY AND THE TRAITOR. But in mere spite To be full quit of this foul, thankless land, Against my canker'd country, with the spleen Yet he shall have a mournful memory- Coriolanus. Ibid. It is now hardly two-score and ten years, since a gallant bark was seen anchored on these very waters, through which we are now urging our rapid course. She was armed-and an enemy. The quiet moonlight was sleeping all around her, and an unusual stillness pervaded every part, as she lay there between the guarded shores. It was a time of trouble in the land. There was a warlike stir on both sides of this deep river; and the heights that you see rising up there like giants over its placid bosom, were then alive with the glancing of bayonets, the gleaming of swords, and the noise of warriors. Red-handed oppression was urging her vengeful way amidst these fair hills with bare steel and a scowling front: and over these waves boomed the deadly shot, carrying destruction into ranks of hardy men who stood every where here to guard the passes to their native mountains. Daily, the straggling reports of skirmishers, and scouting parties, sent their distant echoes round these borders, and often did the night glitter with the blaze of rifled and desolate dwellings. It was when hope was low, and energy almost paralysed among this stricken people-when their councils were low-voiced and the stoutest who stood in the halls of deliberation grew pale-when resource seemed about to fail, and the hero who led them felt his heart quake with doubt and dismay. It was indeed the time of trial: the spirit of the Revolution was retreating to its fastnesses, and from the highlands of the Hudson, it looked out with a determined, but a despairing devotion over the world it had vowed to redeem, or to expire in redeeming. The presence of an armed ship, therefore, so far up the waters of the North River, could not, at any time, fail of being an object of interest, though it was not particularly calculated to excite suspicion at the period to which I refer. There had before been hard contests and bloody struggles in these glens and upon these headlands. The intrepid Wayne had wrested a strong hold here from the unguarded enemy, and these fortresses of nature had sent the thunder of their cannon far into the hills; while below them, in these waters, tall ships hung out their flags, and displayed their embattled sides to the shores, which they at once menaced and protected. It was not matter of serious alarm, then, that a boat might be seen, on the night my story commences, shooting silently from the ship above-mentioned, to the eastern shore of the Hudson. It was near midnight, and a slow, gray mist was floating along the indented banks of the river; and for some distance off upon the water it rested like a thin veil, rendering every thing indistinct that lay beyond it, or approached through the dim medium which it constituted. The vapor, while it was not dense enough to hide objects between the vessel and the land, thus served to deaden the lustre of the moonlight, * Off Stony Point, near Tarrytown, on the Hudson. |