The American patriot., 1855-08-04
Energy of Character.

unpleasant taste and smell, but its quality for
a long sea voyage may be tested by allowing it
to stand for while in the open air, when if
good it will purify itself, and become sweet
and wholesome
The difference between good and bad men
is of much the same nature. All have their
errors and their foies, but, with reflection and
the exposure of their consequences, many will,
by wholesome experience, become wiser and
better men. No one is to be despaired of till
he has lost the power of reformation,
A young man boiling over with thousand
conflicting and contradictory impulses, may
dash off in some mercurial fit, but thousands
of such, have, through reflection, been brought
to excel in the very qualities most opposite to
their early errors. As the swift vessel comes
round with broad, strong sweep, and sails
right up into the winds eye when about to
drop anchor, so some men are brought round
to life of chosen virtue, with great breadth
ofcharacterr, and strength ofimpulse, from their
verv experience of the evils of error.
But when the will is palsied and the power
of purpose is paralyzed and decrcpid, when
the man settles down calmly, and gives up all
faith in his own capability of being reformed,
then it is about useless to hope. One might
as well try to steer a vessel in stagnant sea.
The helm has no hold upon the water. Let
the proud ship rise upon the pe,i'ous and crcs.
ted bi'ows, let the wind howl filriously, and
every sail and spar be stretched and strained,
let her be ever dashing madly in wrong di-
rec'ion, and yet the little helm will bring her
round in the very teeth of wind and wave.
But if no ripple stir the CLASSY waters, if all be
smooth as sea of molten lead, and the vessel
bccalmcd, like that of Coridgc's Ancient Mari
ner not breath f1uttorinp sails
"Wth neither tide, nor wind nor motion,
As idle as painted ship
Upon painted ocean,"
and when all would seem as if a turn of the
wheel or touch of the finger might bring the
vessel about, so smooth and oily is the sea !;
it is just then that the best rudder in the world
would not stir it at ALL
Thus is with character. All may be in the
widest confusion; self-will strong impulse,
and furious passions may be madly at work in
the untamed chaos Of the spiritual creation,
and yet faith in reformation and love of self
conquest may throw the whole force of that
strong will in antagonisn. to the very errors
and eXcesscs that now lead the man astrav,
and seem to govern him. Bnt when charac-
ter loses vitality, when it becomes inert, stag
nant and incapable of enterprise, then with
habit strong and resolution weak, and the spir-
it of enterprise and improvement gone, there
is no telling the depth to which he will ulti-
mately tink. An indolcnt drone, lost to all
self respect and manly purpose, is in fair
more helpless condition than the widest and
most reckless youth with honorable and unset
fish principles When an idle man, in the
vigor of life, but in the imbeciity of a decrepid
and decaying character, begins to settle down,
like an old wooden house, upon its rotten sills,
he is harder to be reformed than the most bois-
ferrous California advcnturcr, with hand that
opens frankly to a friend though it may on
the impulse close rather roughly on a foe.
We arc, indeed, far from agreeing with the
philosophy of Eugene Sue or even of Miss
Bremer, that diving deep into all that is evil is
the surest and readiest way to the perfection
of all that is good. The lights of experience
are as Coleridge well says, lights in the stern
of ship, showing only the wild waste of water
over which she has travelled, but not throwing
many rays upon the rocks and breakers ahed,
or even showing the helmsman how to steer
Eternal truths and laws must be our only
guides here they form the future
Indeed the worst effect of the experience of
evil is that it saps the vitality of enterprise,
make men famous critics of the derelctions of
others-sign boards in the patch of truth,
Po"e'A5 ioauo tllCy NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
OFF the mouths of harbours they never enter
or if even overawed by the majesty of virtue,
they have no fresh energy and spirit for its pur.
suit, but stand like Milton's Satan in Paradise,
on first beholding Eve, 'studidity good"
WoNAN.-The English woman is respectful
and proud, the French woman is gay and agree
able; the Italian woman is passionate; the
American woman is sincere and affectionate.
With an English woman love is principle;
with French woman it is caprice; with an
Italian it is a passion; with an American it is
a sentiment. A man is married to an English
woman, is united to a French woman; ; co-hab-
its with an Italian, and is welded to an Ame-
rican An English woman is anxious to Sc
cure lord; French woman companion;
an Italian lover; an American a husband. -
The Englishman respects his lady; the French
man estecms his companion; the Italian adorcs
his mistress; the American loves his wife. The
Englishman at might returns to his house, while
the Frenchman goes to his establishments; the
Italian 20 his retreat; the American to his
home. When an Englishman is sick, his
lady visits him, when the, Frcnchman is sick
his companion rities; when an Italian is sick,
his mistress sighs over him; when an Ameri-
can is sick his wife nurses him. The English
woman instructs her offspring: French wo-
man teaches her progeny; an Italian rcars her
young; while an American educatcs her child.
A MANN OF WAsuINGTon.-" Labor to keen
aliv' in your breast that little spark of celestial
fire, Conscience" was one of a series of max
inns which Washington framed or copied for
his own use when boy. His rigid adherence
to principle, his steadfast discharge of duty,
his utter abandonment Of self, his unreserved
devotion to whatever interests were committed
to his care, attest the vigilance with which he
obeyed that maxim. He kept alive that spark.
He made it shine before men. He kindled it
into flame which illuminated his whole life.