116 Ib. Ib. CRUELTY TO INSECTS. And just in his account, why bird and beast Adds tenfold bitterness of death by pangs By budding ills, that ask a prudent hand To check them. But, alas! none sooner shoots, Than cruelty, most dev'lish of them all. Of temper as envenomed as an asp, Laughs at the reputations she has torn, And holds them dangling at arm's length, in scorn. Unkindness has no remedy at law. Ed. Then let public indignation arise in her majesty, and command unkindness and oppression to cease. [See 565, 661, 688.] 190. CRUELTY TO INSECTS. Cowper. I would not enter on my list of friends, ть. (Though graced with polished manners and fine sense, Yet wanting sensibility,) the man Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm. An inadvertent step may crush the snail CUNNING, CUPID. With eloquence, that agonies inspire, Of silent tears and heart-distending sighs! 117 Johnson. The whole power of cunning is privative: to say nothing, and to do nothing, is the utmost of its reach. Yet men thus narrow by nature, and mean by art, are sometimes able to rise by the miscarriages of bravery, and the openness of integrity, and watching failures, and snatching opportunities, obtain advantages which belong to higher characters. Em. Of all animals, I most heartily detest the fox. The more cunning one shows, the more others distrust him, and, consequently, the less can his cunning prevail. Ed. This may apply to open cunning, but cunning is cunning for all that.' 192. CUPID, OR FALLING IN LOVE. Sh. Tell this youth what 't is to love. It is to be all made of sighs and tears; It is to be all made of faith and service; It is to be all made of fantasy, All made of passion, and all made of wishes; All humbleness, all patience, and impatience, O, brawling love! O, loving hate! O anything, of nothing first create! O heavy lightness! serious vanity! Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! I leave myself, my friends, and all for love. Made me neglect my studies, lose my time, War with good counsel, set the world at naught; Unstaid, and skittish in all motions else, Save, in the constant image of the creature Rouse yourself; and the weak wanton Cupid And, like a dew-drop from the lion's mane, Be shook to air. Ed. The above is worth admiring for its description, smiling at for its subject, and reflecting upon, as an exposure of a too common folly and weakness in youth. 193. CUSTOM. Custom surpasses nature: therefore be careful what you accustom yourself to do. Adopt a proper and useful course of conduct, and custom will soon make it the most agreeable. Custom in childhood becomes nature in manhood. Custom is second nature. [See 413.] 194. CUSTOMS, SINFUL. Ed. Who wages war with sinful customs, is making peace for the church and world. Em. A thousand sinful actions are not so injurious to the public as one sinful custom. Sinful actions are transient, produce their effects, and immediately cease. But a sinful custom is permanent, and may continue its destructive influence for ages. Ib. There is nothing which men are more afraid of, than opposing sinful customs. It requires no great strength, no great knowledge, no great expense to oppose sinful customs. But it does require great courage and fortitude of mind. Here lies the only difficulty. But this difficulty is generally insurmountable. Men, who can brave the perils of the wilderness, the perils of war, and the perils of the sea, shrink back from the dangers of opposing sinful customs. The bravest general, who has often led his army into the hottest battle, is afraid to reprimand his fellow officer, or to correct his fellow soldier, for a sinful custom. Ib. God will excuse none from opposing sinful customs. Though he knows that all wish to be excused, yet their wishes will not move him to excuse them from a plain duty. He has expressly said to every person, "Thou shalt not follow a multi DANCING, DANGER. 119 tude to do evil." "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." "Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him." After God has laid such solemn injunctions on men to avoid and oppose sinful customs, they must be guilty of the greatest presumption, to imagine that the Lord will pardon or excuse them, if they neglect their duty. in this thing. Ib. Christ will not excuse any from opposing sinful customs. He came into the world to condemn sin in the flesh. And while he lived among sinful customs, he uniformly and strenuously opposed them. He began his ministry by preaching against what had been said and done by them of old time. He attacked without fear or favor the reigning sinful customs of the Jewish nation. Ib. Sinful customs have destroyed their thousands and ten thousands. To prevent such dreadful evils, must be the duty of every person, so far as his power and influence extend. Nor will any one's conscience excuse him, if he neglects this plain and important duty. Though men desire to be excused; though they devise arguments of excuse; and though the arguments they devise in their own defence may lead others to excuse them; yet nothing will effectually excuse them before their own enlightened consciences. 195. DANCING. Dancing makes many graceless, where it makes one graceful. N. Y. Evangelist. Fanny Ellsler took passage for Europe in 1841 with one hundred thousand dollars in pocket as the fruit of dancing in the United States for a little over one year. Ed. Fanny Ellsler, by dancing, made more vice than money, more discovery of the fools than of the face of the country, and carried home more of the coin than the thanks of the good people of the United States for her visit. Ed. Dancing is a crazy excitement, a costly amusement, and a dissipating, irreligious custom, when arrayed by the side of the true dignity and duty of man. 196. DANGER. Prof. Park. Where is there not peril on this earth, spread all over with snares and pitfalls, as the signs and results of transgression? Peril! If we take the wings of the morning, and fly anywhere within the confines of probation, we shall find peril. He who made us meant to try us, and danger is our trial. Sh. The path is smooth that leadeth unto danger. The danger most despised, is the greatest, and commonly arrives the soonest. Better face a danger once, than to be always in fear. ous. Ed. All the dangers God has created are needed to restrain wickedness. It is the presence of danger, that tests presence of mind. What is done in the night appears in the day. ль. Ib. O majestic NIGHT! Nature's great ancestor! Day's elder-born! And fated to survive the transient sun! By mortals and immortals seen with awe! An azure zone thy waist; clouds, in heaven's loom Thy flowing mantle form; and, heaven throughout, By night an atheist believes a God. Night is the good man's friend and guardian too; |