Alexandria gazette, commercial and political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1812-1817, 1816-05-21

From tkc ccurant.
THE BRIEF REMAREER.

| ~ w nile some HcH j uiii tiCH ~ StN''
stances by their incidence. others Go i
Iby their restlesness; always busy, but
never pursuing any plan of regular N
dustry. No sooner are they settled dow
In ore business, than they change ii g.
another They are :" every thing By
turns, and nothing long" Their at ell
/ tons thus dissipated, turn TO In account,
Poverty oyeitakes them whilst they arc
flying 50 MANY different ways to ESCAPE
il. Whereas a steady stra!ght.forN a. q
course, IN almost any single Kind Of Su'
.siness, might have scared them com
petence.
! Il is neither an imaginary nor a rare
character that have now been descrio.
ing: it is to be m with every where ir
town and count,'y. Thousands are un-
done by means of this single foible; eve
ry thing else in their habit, and di8pos
+, tons giving promise Of success.
This restlessness is owing sometimes t.
natural temper, but most commonly per.
haps. to the peculiar cumstances Of
the country in which we live. In China
a Boy must follow the occupation of his
father, and stick to that or >tarye. In
India no one can raise himself above the
level of the Cast in which he happens to
be born. Nor is the mass of Europeans
altogether free from shackles that bind
J them down to occupations in which thrii
own choice has had no concern. If d
man there be b ed a cobler, he hardy
may aspire to the honor OF making shoes.
But here, On the other hand man may
Iput off his calling almost as easily as his
clothes; or he may patch together seve-
raj callings, and pursue them alternate
ly, Or all at once. as best suits his own
fancy. Here the field of individual en-
terpfize is alike open to all. Here no
he is of q family so humble as to be pre-
Guided from the possibility OF raising
himself net only to opuience, bat to Of
ice aud rank. Here wealth is shifting
hands with such rapidity as that, in a
generation or two the Hills sink, and The
Valies rise.
Now as this condition Of things AM
mates ten thousand young minds viii
the spirit OF enterprise, so it occasions,
in great many, restieness ard insta.
Utility of feeling. Possessing freedom Of
choice, and having before them SO many
tobiects to choose betwixt, they never
come to an election that fully satisfies
Add to this, that the last
twenty-five years, by reason CT the un-
cxampled state of Europe, nave furnish I
| ed instances, in almost every district OF
our country, of some Or others rising sud
Idenly to great opulence by single
stroke in the experiments of speculation,
and without any attention at all to the
process CT patient industry. A circum.
stance that has operated powerfully on
Young minds, and 81 minds not young,
In rendering them dissatisfied with slow
gains or small profits, and impatient Of
the drudgery Of any laborious calling -
Not to mention that our own country has
Of itself, for a very long time past, fur
|nished magnificent scenes and numerous
opportunities of speculation altogether
innexampled perhaps IN the history OF
man.
Moreover it is ovious to remark that
Jour enterprizing youth are necessarily as
lit were tinctured with a romantic disPo-
sition. The books that are the most read
lby them are Of the romantic kind: alike
Iinfaming the imagination and mislead-
ing the judgment by descriptions " of
la world Of wonders where events arc
produced by causes widely and mani
testify different from those which regu,
late the course OF human afairs'' Also.
for almost the term of whole genera
Ition there has been constantly exhibited
to view such series of marvcls II the
civilized world, that the history OF real
life carries on it tie appearance OF ro-
nance.
Nothing very strange is it therefore,
that the minds Of great many are unset
| tied, national, and fraught with extra
VACANT expectations; and this is the less
to be wondered at, as it is customary
for our youth to step into manhood ear
Ilier than in former ages, OF pe1 haps than
lin any country else. Commencing men
at an immature period and under such
powerful impulses to wild extrayasan.
lcies Of Imagination, it would be marvel
.|lous indeed if they were not, many Of
them, averse to any sober, rational and
steady plan Of life.
To contrast the past with the present
I'm a short biographical notice Of one OF
1.-The first and wealthiest merchants of the
! ~ AFRO tho writar remar ke .--SG II was q n