The North-Carolina standard., 1845-10-15
THRILLING EMPLoYMENTs.

John Wesley thought it right to denounce all
stop gaps in passing our time " Never be unem-
Ipoyed, never be triflingly employed, never while
away time" Now, this is precisely the sort of
advice we should have expected from one of whom
Johnson has leh this character /" John Wesley's
conversation is good, but he is never at leisure.
He is always obliged to go at certain hour.
This is very disagreeable to man who loves to
fold his legs and have out his talk, as do. To
be sure it is, aud to everybody else. And Lord
Collngwood, so forcibly, unaffected, and discern
ing, committed a still deeper error of Judgment
" They should not only read" was his caution re-
specting the education of his daughters, but 1t
requires careful selection Of books; nor should
they ever have access to two at the same time ;
but when arsubject is begun, it should be tlnIshed
before any thing else is undertaken: All hIsto-
ry and all experience refute the opinion of Col
lingwood The birds of the air say that it is a
mistake The blackbird in that tree before my
window is an eloquent witness. He grew tired
of the same bough, though very warm and abund-
ant in leaves, and is now finishing his song upon
branch that swings him more into the sun ne
wanted a change. Then, with regard to Wesley
what is Willing away tme7 He whose attention
lis apparently absorbed in the contemplation of the
most sordid objects may be creating new element
of philosophy, or discovering some principle in
science from which his lever may move the world
of commerce. When Watt sat in the chimney
corner watching the cover of the saucepan, as the
steam forced it up, he only excited the indignation
of his relative but he was designing the steam en-
CINE. Millions had seen the phenomenon be-
fore without possessing the facilities of association
to analyze and combine its peculiarities. So it
has been observed IN the case of specific gravity.
Every man before ArchImides had seen water run
over the side of a vessel when another substance
was immersed in it. The fact was as common
and as naturally anticipated as that fire would
produce heat but it was the quantity of the water
and the depth of the immersion together which
struck the philosopher Yet Wesley would have
said that Watt and ArchimideS were both trihing
ly employed, both Willing away their time The
hasty attempts to fill up an hour have frequent
ly Influenced an intellectual life. The Arabian
Nights used to be in the parlor-window of the old
vicarage where the father of Colerfdge resided
and he has recorded the strange mixture of desire
and apprehension with which, in his early boy
hood, he was accustomed to look at the volume
and watch it till the morning sun had reached and
nearly covered it, when, selzing the treasure he
hastened to some sunny corner of the playground
and soon lost his own identity in the magnificent
capital of AL Raschid Who does moi see that
the Temperament of the poet was influenced by
this his first loveq Johnson has, indeed, Ottribu-
ted his own desultory Of life and neglect Of
choosing a profession to love for Spanish ro- |
mances, which he acquired during summer spent ,
in country parsonage. But this is simply rldl- /
culous: he would have folded his legs and had
his talk out if no Cervuntes had ever invented /
Quixotte His careIessness often led him to ad- |
vantage. Upon one occasion, believing that his
brother had concealed some apples beneath large
folio upon an upper shelf in his fathers shop, he
climbed up TO make the capture, and, finding no
apples, attacked the folio, which proved 10 be the
works of Petrarch; and thus his very idleness in
structcd. and the apples led him to literature.
Fraser.