The Wheeling repository — Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.], 1808-01-14 00:00:00, page 1

WHEELING REPOSITORY.
(VOL. I.)
Thursday, 14th January, i808.
(No. 36.)
MIS C ELL ANT.
On the Close of the Year.
By W. Cow per*
Thankless for favours from on high,
Man thinks he fades too soon ;
Though ’tis his privilege to die,
Would he improve the boon.
But he, not wise enough to scan
His best concerns aright,
Would gladly stretch life’s little span
To ages-if he might.
To ages in a world of pain,
To ages, where he goes
Ciall’d by alHiction’s heavy chain,
And hopeless of repose !
Strange fondness of the human heart,
Enamour’d of its harm 1 f smart,
Strange world, that costs it so much
And yet has power to charm /
W hence lias the world its magic pow’r/
Why deem we death a foe ?
Recoil trom weary life’s best hour,
And court a larger woe ?
Du cause is Conscience—Conscience
Her tale of guilt renews; [oft
Her voice is terrible though soft—
And dread ol Death ensues /
Then anxious to be longer spar’d,
Man mourns his fleeting breath’:
An evil then seems light, compar’d
With the approach of death.
I is judgment shakes him /—There’s
the fear
That prompts his wish to stay;
He has inclin’d a long arrear,
And must despair to pav.
Fly 1 Follow Ch ist, and all is paid !
His death your peace ensures—
Think on th< grave where he was laid,
And calm descend to yours.
4 .4-4 .4..4 . ^
Amxdotk.
Rhenczr r Adams, of Philadelphia, a
odebrated Gfuaker, on visiting a lady ol
rank, whom he found, six months after
the death of her husband, sitting on a
sopha covered with black cloth, and in
all the dignity of woe, approached her
with great solemnity, and gently taking
her hand, thus accosted her : “So friend,
I see that thou hast not yet forgiven the
Almighty.” This seasonable reproof
had such an effect upon the person to
whom it was addressed, that she imme
diately had all her trappings of grief de
stroyed, and went about her necessary
avocations and soon after took another
husband J
As long liveth a merry man as a sad\
This proverb affords an antidote a
gainst dejection and despair. A man,
in his passage through this sublunary
state, had much better tread the path of
ot life cheerfully, skipping lightly over
the thorns and briars that obstruct his
way, than sit down under every hedge
lamenting his hard fate, in being placed
in a world so over-run with them.—
1 he thread of a cheerful man's life is not
suoner severed by the fates, than that of
one who is continually sad*|and despon
ding. Then what does care avail P A
prudential conduct in the general con
cerns of life, is undoubtedly in the first
place to he attended to ; and without it,
the cheerfulness here proverbially re
commended, can be but transitory : but,
if that should prove unsuccessful, anti
distress unavoidably succeed, dejection
and despair will be' far from affording
relief.
A writer in a late Philadelphia paper,
estimates the quantity of wood annually
consumed in the city and liberties of
Philadelphia, at three hundred thousand
cords ; and the cost of the fuel, hauling,
sawing, 8cc. at one million eight hun
dred thousand dollars.
It is stated that there are now more
than two thousand post-offices establish
ed in the United States, and upwurds
of thirty thousand miles of post road.
THE JUNKET.
By Richard Rummager, Esq*
No. X.
<l Teach me to feel another's woe9
'To hide the faults 1 see ;
The mercy I to others shew,
That mercy shew to me.*’
How seldom do we find mankind act
ing according to this amiable principle/
In rummaging up the causes of fail
ure, I find they may generally be im
puted to the weakness of reason and the
influence of passion. Men (and women
too) in speaking of the faults of others,
or too apt to censure without giving
themselves the trouble, or doing those
whom they condemn the justice, to ex
amine fairly the principles upon which
i they are censuring. They too readily
shut up the avenues to their judgment,
and set up the cry of Crncifu him ! Cru
cify him !
A. tew simple questions as to the pro
priety of such exclamations, would
hardly fail to prevent both public and
private slander. For instance : Ought
I to pass my opinion while in the heat
of passion ? No; for then I cannot be
impartial. Is it not an error of youth?
Have I not children or friends, who arc
also liable to err. Is it not an error of
judgment ? Ought I to attack any pro
fessional character in his individual ca
pacit) ? In all censure, should there not
be a proper discrimination ? And above
all, ought I, in censuring, to give public
proof of my spirit, at the expense of mV
understanding ?
Not long since, I asked the charac
ter of a man from one of his neighbours.
The answer was, “ he is a drunken,
worthless fellow.” At the same time,
I knew this man to he infected with the
same disease, (for it is a disease, and a
very bad om ») Such is the depravity
of our nature, that we afe even ready
to find fault with others, without seem
ing to know that we have any of our
own. A beam in our own eye, seems
less an object of notice than a mote in
the eye of another.