Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1826-11-15

illustrate. Ills Accomplishments, IN that Case,
are not taken for evidences Of effeminacy; ten
denotes to pleasure which he cannot help. They
are attachments Of his WILL and ornaments OF
his victory. The hand, that can g-app'e wei
with a bar, has double grace in dancing over
the flute. The conqueror from the wrestling
ground goes with new zcst to read about the
Greeks aud their palastra. We could lay
wager, that numbers Of the pupils OF Professor
Voelker will be for inouiring into whatis to
be learnt and added 10 their stock IN very dill
feren, quarters. They ill find with pleasure,
that Milton. himself gymnast, as lar as len
cinr went. recommends the recreation OF music
after exercise. Socrates, strong in body as weli
as mind disdai,ed none OF the favors OF those
three ele6ed Graces, which he knew how to
sculpture. Epaminondas, the greatest OF the
| Greek warriors, and one of The most amlablc
of men. was dancer and hute-player. he
German students, from whom the introducer
of our gymnastics has come among us, and
whom il shall be no unbearable antlcllmax 10
mention after these great names, seeing that
they had a hand in pulling down Napoleon, are
the same persons that figure in the war-songs
Of Klest and the tender novels of Augustus La
Fontaine.
These are the ways TO become accomplished.
Body and mind must go hand In hand; not one
be left in the lureh by the other; not spccula-
tive activity swallow up more healthy one, as
il has been too apt to do in our times, when So
ciety has done little but huctuale backwards
and forwards from the contingencies 10 the
news-room. However, it is from our expert
ence that posterity will gain; so we will not
give the toast we were about TO recon-
mend, and which we have sometimes drunk
Z" May our sons have contempt for their ia
4 IL, ri tlo,,
that shall have procured !hem their active SUI
periority.
Now in our zeal for the accomplishments of
the fair sex, which Musselman can have no
more at heart than we have, we must request
Of French, not 10 cease regarding music and
languages as good things; which, after what we
have said, they will not suppose; still less to re-
nonnce their music and their languages, albeit
they may be farmers or tradesmen's daug hters,
or whatsoever other respectable offspring they
choose TO be, or however called upon to do SO
by the envious among their own class, or the
silly and superclious among others; but solely
to vindicate the superiority which their accom-
plshmcnts would imply, by looking into the
real end Of them, and knowing them 10 be more
than the wise and the truly accomplished take
lay down all those ornaments of itself, and still
walk forth, the substantial enjoyer of nature The
possessor of that solid power of receiving and
bestowing happiness, which the accomplish
ments in question do but vary little and adorn
This islhe inward body of wisdom, and beau
ty and loneliness, for which the other forms a
very pleasing investment, but can never be TAX
en- as substitute. Accomplishment, applied
in It's present sense, is in truth foolish term,
and tends to mislead the superficial. II raises
an idea Of completeness aud perfection, which
is as udicrously false in the particular assump-
ton, as il is too apt TO be in the effect. 1t is
like confounding the body of the wine with the
colour Of it, OF the filling up of the cup with
relish added to the contents. BY accomplish
ment we lead people TO suppose that they are
finished; and so they may be in the tailors sense,
but not in the soul ptor's or the philosophers.
The body must be there TO be added TO or "a
dorned; the nature capable of accomplishment
must be there; which is noble thing OF itself,
and may, without any accomplishment at all, in
the ordinary sense of the word, surpass thous-
and natures thar have been more educated -
BY accomplishment we properly mean embel-
lishment. The embellishments may be small or
great, profit or deterioration; for superb
cial accomplishment, oyervalued by the posses
Sor, is nuisance 10 all pal tleS: Out genuine
nature capable of the truest accomplishments,
or even when in, apable of some, carries with it
The privilege Of being its own establishment,
of being at once the substance and the orna-
mcnt When we read of a delightful woman,
the charm Of all who knew her--sueh, for In
stance, as the Duchess of Burgundy at the
court Of Louis the Fourteenth, we do not
think ofenQuiring whether she drew, or spoke
English, or played on the guitar; we are con-
tent 18th her being delightful. 1t is impossi-
bic for any one 10 be more impartial on this
point than we are; for, to say the truth, we are
passionate admirers Of the fine arts, and have
reason 10 be grateful ones. An air of Mozart
or Paessielle runs into our head for week: and
so does head Itself, done 10 admiration, Till
you laugh att, by fair friend ofours, with no
prouder instrument than pair Of scissors
Mrs. Delaney, with her paper trees and roses,
woulc have transported our bosky propensiles
into bower OF bliss; and as 10 Anne killegrew,
the paiutress and the poctcss, she shall see how
we like her, when come to her article under
the head Of h But, in all these fair cases besides
music, and scissors, and painting brushes, there
is fine nature, genuine spirit, worthy OF the
ornaments IL is put among, and able TO oollge