New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1873-12-14
School Girl Compositions.

|
The following productions were read by
pupils in the Madison Girls School on ex
animation day. These compositions are not
to be read as if emanating from old OF
experienced heads-the authOresses are only
school girls, barely in their teens:
| GOOD CONSCIENCE.
| What is there in all the pomp of the
| world, and the enjoyment of luxury, or the
| qualification of passion, comparable to the
tranquil delight of q good cOnsciencef 1t
| is the health of the mind. 1t is sweet per-
| fume that diffuses its fragrance over every
| thing near it without exhausting its store.
! UDaccompanied by this, the gay pleasures
of the world are like brilliants to diseased
| eye, music to deaf ear, wine IN an ardent
| fever, or dalnties in the languOr of an ague.
70 lie down on the pillow after q day spent
| in temperance. in benefcence, and piety,
how sweet is it How different trom the
state OF him who reclines at an unnatural
hour, with his blood inhamed, his head
throbbing with wine and voracity, his heart
aching with rancorous malice, his thoughts
totally estranged from Him who has pro-
tected him in the day and will watch over
him, ungratetul as he is, in the night season
A good conscience is indeed the peace of
God. Passions lulled to sleep, clear
thoughts, a cheerful temper, disposition
to be pleased with every obvious and inuO-
cent object around these are the effects of
good conscience, these constitute happiness
and these condescend to dwell with the
poor man in his humble cottage, in the vale
OF obscurity. In the magnificent mansion
OF the proud and vain glitter the exterlors
of happiness-the gliding, the trappings,
the pride and the pomp-but in the decent
habitation Of piety is oftener found the
downy nest Of heavenly peace, that solid
good of which the parade of the vain, the
frivolous and the voluptuous is but shad-
owy semblance. VIRGINIA CONYERS.
1t is strange thing how little in general
people know about the sky. 1t ia the part
of creation in Which nature has done more
for the sake of pleasing man; moro for the
sole and evident purpose of talking to him,
teaching him, than in any other of her
works; and 1t is just the partin which we
least attend to her; the noblest scenes of the
earth can be seen and known but by few; it
is not intended that we should live always
i'll the midst of them; we injure them by our
presence; we cease to feel them, if we be
always with them.
The sky is for all,
1T ie not too bright nor
Good for human nature daily food"
It fitted for the perpetual comfort, and
ihS ~ llOm duSt, sOuttIuoS g6OClG,
sometimes awful, never the same for two
moments together; almost humanin its pas.
siOns, spiritual in its tenderners.
And yet we never attend TO it, we never
make it d subject of thought. If, in our
moments of utter idleness, we turn to the
sky as our last resource, (which of it's
phenomena do we speak Off" One saws it
has been wet, and another it has been
warm, and another it has been windy Who
al IF tha In
precipices Of the chain of tall mountains
that gilded the horizon at noon yesterday?
Who among US saw the narrow sunbeams
come out of the south, and observed them
till they melted away in mist of blue raip9
Who among us saw the dance of the dead
clouds when the sunlight left them and the
wind of the west blew them, like whitehead
leaves, before it3
All has passed unseen; and yet it is not in
the broad and fierce powers Of the elemen-
tai energies nor in the clash of the hail, that |
the characters of the sublime are developed. |
God is not always SO eloquent in the earth |
quake, nor In the fire. as in the small voice |
Of ours. 1t is in quiet and calm thought |
which must be sought ere it is seen, loved |
ere it is understood-that things which the |
angels work out daily and eternally for us,
yet are never repeated, which are to be |
found always, yet each found but once.
1t is through these that the lesson of devo- |
ton is chiefly taught, and the blessing Of |
beauty given.
EUGENE GREULING.