Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1838-11-28


Beside tits known he could speak Greek
As naturally as pigs squeak:
That Latin was more diffcile
Than 10 q biackbIrd It's 10 whistle
lie was 10 logic great critick,
Profoundly skilled in analytck
For Rhetorick he could not one
His mouth, but out there flew a trope.
In Mathematics he was greater
Than Tyeho Brahc or Ezra Paier;
For he by geometrck scale
Could take the size of pots of ale
Resolve BY sines and tangents straight,
II brca or butter waited weight,
And wisely tell, what hour OF the day
The clock does strike, by Algebra.
HuDIBRAs.
Some persons think that all mankind
are born with mental capacities alike
How preposterous the idea that, when
the mass of inert matter is wrought into
innumerable diverse forms, and when an.
mated existence appears under every
specification oi color, figure and energy,
that immaterial and divine essence, the
mind, should exist in all rational beings
exactly the same, evincng no modifica-
ton and discovering itselfin but one de-
velopement; and that all the grades of
intelligence are purely adventi,ious-th
effects ofcircumstance, education and OBJ
servation.
Consult Nature! Behold the grea: hi
srarch of day, eldest of the suns of light
when God said, Let light be, and light
was," and then contemplate the pale star
that gems the coronal of night-from the
mountain, whose proud head o'ertops the
clouds, turn to the lowly plain and more
lowly valley-from the lion-hearted sea.
whose roar is heard around the globe,
turn to the purling rivulet-from the un.
wieldy Kraken of the North to the spor.
tive shrmp-from the elephant, beneath
whose tread the earth quakes, to the CHR
ping grasshopper-from the soaring con-
dor, that cleaves the storm-cloud, to the
tiny nudge that quivers, like moth, in
the sunbeam-from the mountain oak to
the plant ozier-from the blazing da-
mond to the dull and opaque sandstone,
and by analogy Of reason, as you run
through the different genera and species,
and the innumerable shades of variety in
the same species, you mast come to the
irresistible conclusion, that the Creator
has specified in man every grade of intel.
Iigence,-diversifed by various degrees
Of power, brillance, and energy-the ma.
jestic intellect that is calculated to grasp
the universe-the patient investigating
mind, slow we, successful in lnquiry-the
penetrating mind that, like sunbeam, at
glance comprehends truth-and the dull,
Opaque mind, that neither has light of it,
self nor can reflect the light of others.
But without any process of reasoning,
observation must establish the fact, that
there is an infinite disparity in the minds
of different individuals; for many, pos.
sessed of every facility for expanding their
intellects and devoting their days and
nights to unremittiug study, are never
able to attain to distinction; while others,
not enjoying like advantages and bestow-
ing less attention, rise to emlnence and
obtain an envlable fame among men. And
this difference of mental ability is alike
obvious, whether we look at the great
arena of intellect, the world, where often
by mere mental energy, the obscure hind
has risen above nobility itself, to sway the
rod of empire-or, at the cradle of intel
ect, the gymnasium, where the careless
and cratic, though gifted son of genius,
bears away the scholastic prize from the
dull and Flooding student.
But to our story. Aud now smile not,
gentle reader, when you find the above
philosophical reflections designed as an
introduction 10 the "short and simple an
nails ofthe poor" for one of the princi
pal persona dramatis Of our story, though
munifcently endowed with the riches of
he understanding, was poor in outward
circumstances. Clara Lawson was the
daughter OF humble and obscure parents.
Her mother was native of New York,
and, after short acquaintance, married
an Englishman, greatly her senior in
years, who, after living with her about
three years, converted what moveables
she had into money, and abandoning his
wife and infant daughter to the charities
ofthe world, embarked for New Orleans,
where he fell victim to the diseases Of
The climate and his own RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Clara's mother thus stripped of every
hing, had no friends to whom she could
npply, but was dependent upon her own
1ertlons for a precarious subsistence
The occupation which she adopted was
mat of washerwoman and, although
her earnings were small, she was enabled
BY a strict economy to provide tor her.
self and child fare sufficient, though home
\ y, and procure comfortable attire, though
OF the coarsest fabric. Time passed on,
and she was generally known throughout
NE city as the melancholy washerwo-
man with the pretty child" for from the
lands OF no other did the linen come as
purely white, or the lrill or ruillo as neat
Ily plated. And meyer WAS any enithet