Star.
London, England, 1817-12-31 00:00:00

THOtiGirtS iM4:111..• it. •
The close of each revolving year ii an nwCwlle.
riod to a :effecting mind ; to every age lad Awry
rank it presents a subject of serious meditation. The
young aati giddy, just entering on the busy stage of
the world, look forward to the commencement a a
new year with all the proud exultation of hope and
expected pleasure; but, slas t they behold not ib the
gaudy perspective before them, a thousand disgust-
ing objects, which on a nearer approach, may fill
them with dismay and horror. Love and friendship
stretch forward their inviting arms to welcome thew
but pe tidy and disappointment lurk behind, to plant
daggers in the bosom of unsuspecting innoeence. Sur.
rounded by parents and kindred, most tenderly be.'
loved, they conclede the preient year in mirth and
festivity, white the next tray leave them desolate and
forlorn. The advantages of fortune too are equally
,precarious ; those who enjoy competence and ease.
may, in the rapid course of twelve short months, find
themselves surrounded with difficulties, and over.
whelmed with calamity. The admiring circle, now
drawn round them by hospitality and gay spirits, will
shun the abode of indigence; beauty may become
the spoil of villainy, and talent may be obscUred be-
neath the dark cloud of penury. Then may some
ezclaiiii, in bitterness of heart. " What claim have I
on the compassion of others ? In the spring of my
life I lived but for myself ; I neglected the cry of
misery; I administered only to the palate of 'usurp
and triumphed only in the proud extravagance of
dress ; how then do I complain of being disregarded,
who have so seldom attended to the wants of others?"
Nor let the aged think themselves secure from the
hopeless pangs of remorse. Though the security of
independence may seem to place diem beyond the
reach.of such vicissitudes, there are other tears to
appal their minds. The present year may terminate
all their prospects of temporal felicity, may call them
into a new existence, and perhaps bring them to an
awful account of their past conduct. How neces-
sary then most be a serious self-examination at this
momentous crisis ! Few there are who can look back
and say, " by so much have I amended my life since
this day twelve-months." Far different are the ex-
pressions we hear at the cloie of every year—•' I
will provide such and such dresses for the winter and
spring ; I will have my habitation repaired and bean-
nified ; I will order in my wine and spirits; I will
bat% ety children from scbcol, and take them to
both the playhouses."
Thus all is expectation and preparation. But wel
hear not—" I Will begin the new year Pith a steady
determination of abjuring my former kin; I will.
see that my family punctually attend divine service:
I will discharge all my' profligate servants; I will
relinquish the society of my dissolute compantoos •
I will look untimi east wardrobe, and distribute it
among he neighbouring poor; I will set aside halt
the sum usually expended in wine, to purchase coals

for the poor wretches who are shivering at my doors."
These would be resolutitios worthy of a Christian,
and which might be made frith far less inconvenience
than Wily will allot theifiselves to imagine.
Then might we hope that,ahe coming Spring would
fill our bosoms with gladness; the Summer crown,
our sanguine wishes with •pleateous harvest, and its
choicest traits; and the succeeding Winter find as
blest with every social comfort. Year' after year
would thus roll on is the swee: consciousness of a
well.speat his. The unavoidable evils of this mor.
tai State might manilas, but reflection would calmly
repose on the bosom of resignation, and the emana.
tioos of hope timer the gloomy path of this earthly
pilgrimage. Let us then, ye young, exhort you, to
tall your w;rudering thoughts back Irom the alluring
poiut irk which they were directed; btuld not on pia
mused pleasures, which flatter but to decoy; which,
bke the illusive meteor of a marshy soil, leads your
ing footsteps ipto a track you never can retrace,
Flasad then treacherously leaves you, bewildered. and
' unprotected, is the miry waste. Follow aso gpide,
but religion; own no friend but iratue ; admit no
guest but asi approving conics: nce. Then - will your
home be a palace g yoir table the seat of conviviality;,
and your pillow the soil soother of every transient
grief. Each season will in turn odminister.iu plea-
sures, and each closing year add but. a page of
commendation to a volume of enteitainaleat and
inmaction. - •

Mrs. Courts has made the following most liberal
Christmas donation to the poor of the parish pt
Woodham Walters, in Estee ;--600 pounds of beef,
401, roamer loaves, 404 pounds of iugar, bU poucas
at tea, /50pairs of blankets, and 960 articles of clothing.
The Duke of PoititataD, in consideration of the
,bad harvest of 1816, loss granted a deduction of rent'
49 hie tenants in Ayrshire, of from twenty to forty
per cent. according to c►rcumstances. .
On the 26th of October a roan was found dead on
a name and mountainoss part of the fainted Glen-
rathois Peebleskins, near -foot-path leading between
Selkirk and Tweeddale. Medical Gentlemen who
'Opened the body, gave it as their op►nion, chat the
wren had died from want I Is his pocket wornfonnd
imilateniala of ,his character; signed by. the Minisiee-
.4 Shasta, treat which it appeared that,bie astse.wa►l
'ltdps Sleckrand that ha had mainteittod a blemelets:
Ligniation dories sue tweatpeight years he 111141.1*K1
a that parish. •
Bp the death of the Rev. Dr. Hansa beim. who
heal Mat. week is the eighty.einth year of t: -e'
litectury et Warm, wear poising, in Somme and,
►'nbeadary Steil in Winchester Cathedral Ow—
/awn.

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