TOM, THE BRICKLAYER'S SON. Dr Aiken of Manchester relates the following circumstances, as having fallen under his own observation : There was a journeyman bricklayer in this town—an able workman, but a very drunken fellow-who spent at the alehouse almost all he earned, and left his wife and children to shift for themselves as they best could. This is, unfortunately, a common case, and few kinds of wickedness are more detestable. The family might have starved but for his eldest son, whom, from a child, the father brought up to help him in his work, and who was so industrious and attentive, that when at the age of thirteen or fourteen, he was able to earn pretty good wages, every farthing of which that he could keep out of his father's hands he brought to his mother. And when his brutal father came home drunk, cursing and swearing, and in such an ill humour that his mother and the rest of the children durst not come near him for fear of a beating, this good lad (Tom was his name) kept near him, to pacify him, and get him quietly to bed. His mother, therefore, justly looked upon Tom as the support of the family, and loved him dearly. It chanced that one day Tom, in climbing up a high ladder with a load of mortar on his head, missed his hold, and fell down to the bottom on a heap of bricks and rubbish. The bystanders hastened to him, and found him all bloody, and with his thigh broken, and bent quite under him. They raised him up, and sprinkled water in his face to recover him from a swoon into which he had fallen. As soon as he could speak, looking round with a lamentable tone, he cried, "Oh! what will become of my poor mother?" He was carried home. I was present while the surgeon set his thigh. His mother was hanging over him half distracted. "Don't cry, mother!" said he, "I shall get well again in time." Not a word more or a groan escaped him while the operation lasted. Tom was a ragged boy, who could not read or write-yet Tom has always stood on my list of heroes. LOVE OF OUR COUNTRY. A LOVE of the country in which we were born and brought up, is one of the affections of our nature. It is felt by the natives of almost every land, however rude they may be, or however worthless the country may appear to other people. There is a use in this affection when it is kept within rational bounds. It gives the people of cach country an interest in their common soil, prompting them to defend it from the attacks of other nations, to promote its general interests, and to feel kindly towards all who belong to it. Thus, for example, a Dutchman loves Holland and the Dutch better than any other country or any other people he would expose his life to defend Holland from a hostile attack: he wishes to see industry flourish in Holland, and to see all that is good befall his fellow-countrymen; he is well-disposed to the government, because it is the ment of his country; he likes the institutions for dispensing law, supporting religion, and regulating all matters of social policy, because they are the institutions of his country— hence he becomes an obedient subject and peaceable citizen, and the affairs of the country prosper in the union and mutual good-will of its people, which could not be the case if Holland were under a foreign government and foreign institutions, however suitable these might be in the country to which they belonged. govern But the love of country, while thus good in moderation, becomes absurd and mischievous when carried to excess, or not governed by reason. We must not allow it to blind us to our defects as a nation, or to errors calling for correction in our social policy. We must not, because we love our own country, hate or despise other countries and their inhabitants; that would be as bad as if every man were to think so highly of himself, as to believe that no other person had equal honour or virtue. While ready, also, to defend our country from unjust aggression, we must take care lest a disposition arise in us to use arms without sufficient provocation against neighbouring countries; for war is a tremendous evil, which should never be resorted to but under the strongest necessity. While seeking to promote the interests of our country in its manufactures and commerce, we must not allow ourselves to suppose that, by injuring other countries in these respects, our own country will be benefited. Every country has, on the contrary, an interest in the prosperity of all other countries; for when any one is prosperous, it becomes able to buy from others what those others have to sell. In short, all the rules for the conduct of individuals apply equally to nations. We are to love ourselves so far as to seek by all fair means to advance our own interests, but we are also to love our fellow-creatures, and do them all the good in our power. So a nation may love itself so far as to seek by all fair means to advance its own interests; but it is also to love its neighbours, and to do them all possible good, and certainly no evil. Such conduct, in both cases alike, is good for both parties; for the more comfortable, happy, and good our neighbours are, it is the pleasanter and more profitable for us to live in the midst of them; and the more prosperous, contented, and peaceable other countries are, it is the better for the prosperity and tranquillity of our own. NATIONAL ANTHEM. [TO BE SUNG TO THE TUNE OF "GOD SAVE THE KING."] God bless our native land, On war no more. Through every changing scene, Her throne maintain. May just and righteous laws Home of the brave and free, And not this land alone, That men should brothers be, The wide world o'er. THEMISTOCLES AND THE LACEDÆMONIAN FLERT. Themistocles, the leader of the Athenian armics, was a great soldier, but not a conscientious man. From an undue love of his own country, he was anxious to ruin its neighbour and rival-the state of Lacedæmon. One day, in a public assembly, he informed the Athenians that he had formed a design for raising them permanently above the Lacedæmonians, but he could not communicate it to them, because its success required that it should be carried on with the greatest secrecy. He desired them to appoint a person to whom he might explain the design, and who should judge whether they were to allow it to be executed. For this purpose they unanimously pitched upon Aristides, the individual of their number in whose honesty and prudence they had the greatest confidence. Themistocles THE PATRIOTS OF CALAIS. 159 then took Aristides aside, and told him that the design he had conceived was to burn the fleet belonging to Lacedæmon and the rest of the Grecian states, which then lay in a neighbouring port. By this means, he said, Athens could not fail to become the undisputed mistress of all Greece. Aristides now returned to the assembly, and merely told them that nothing could be more advantageous for the interest of Athens than the scheme of Themistocles, but that nothing could be more unjust. The people immediately, without hearing another word, ordained that Themistocles should desist from his project. Rollin the historian says of this decree of the Athenians: "I do not know whether all history can afford us a fact more worthy of admiration. It is not a company of philosophers (to whom it costs nothing to establish fine maxims of morality) who determine on this occasion, that the consideration of profit and advantage ought never to prevail in preference to what is honest and just. It is an entire people, who are highly interested in the proposal made to them, who are convinced that it is of the greatest importanco to the welfare of the state, and who, nevertheless, reject it with unanimous consent, and without a moment's hesitation, and that for this only reason-that it is contrary to justice." THE PATRIOTS OF CALAIS. Edward III., king of England, had besieged the town of Calais for upwards of a year, with a great loss of troops, so that he had become greatly incensed against the citizens. When they could no longer exist for want of food, they intimated their wish to yield the place into his hands. He gave them to understand that he would not receive their surrender, unless they yielded implicitly to his mercy, without any capitulation either for their lives or property. When this severity was objected to even by his own commanders, Edward would agree to show no further favour than to the following extent:-He demanded that six of the chief burgesses of the town should come before him barehended, barefooted, and in their shirts, having halters around their necks, bearing the keys of the town and castle |