LESSON XLV. Absurdities in Dress.-DR. DRAKE. 1. THESE begin with our existence. The young infant is compressed in swaddling cloths, which often bind the trunk of its body like a well-hooped keg. 2. Thus a proper play and development of the viscera is prevented, and a foundation laid for disorder in their functions. The brain on which the heart is incessantly pouring such torrents of blood as predispose it to disease, is confined in its own heat with caps by day and by night, throughout summer as well as winter. 3. Before the child is able to take the floor, its feet are encased in shoes and stockings; and when it can crawl abroad, they are never suffered to touch the earth, whose impress is almost as necessary to the healthful and perfect growth of man, as to the worn on which he tramples. 4. All children delight to go barefooted on the ground. It is one of their instincts-they flourish well under it. 5. Indulged in this exposure, their feet are better knit together and stronger; they are more likely to escape that fundamental scourge of civil society, corns; they run faster, jump higher, and take inore exercise; they are less liable to celds and croup, and as they grow up are less of noxious to consumption. Mr. Locke advised that children should wear shoes with holes in them. 6. Did our daughters escape from the trammels of custom when they escaped from their leading strings, one source of our professional income would be dried up. 7. But fortunately for the faculty, a time arrives, when, fascinated by fashion, as the sparrow by the serpent, they yield themselves up and walk deliberately into new shack. les, prepared, and brandished to their view, by maternal affection. 8. Now comes the bed of Procrustes-not, however, to bring all our daughters to the same length, but the same breadth. The shaft of the animated column must Le compressed in the middle; its proportions improved, till it shall, approach the beau ideal of the beau monde, and captivat, the beaux. 9. What does it signify, if the stomach and lungs and heart, like plants sprouting beneath logs and stone, should germinate in new and unnatural directions, or be arrested in their growth, or fall into disease-will not the end jus tify the means? 10. Who would wish to grow up according to nature, when art has wrested the sceptre from her hand? Who so grovelling as to prefer sound health to the admiration of the fashionable world? 11. Who would not violate the laws of nature rather than those of civilized society. Who would not prefer sickness and premature death, to the criticisms of the haut ton? But to be grave, compression of the chest from twelve to eighteen, is a prolific cause of dyspepsia, palpitations of the heart, and consumption; of which all parents should be warned, and against which every physician should raise his voice. 12. The great organs are not only more or less displa ced, and impeded in their functions, but from the difficulty of making deep inspirations, a due degree of exercise can not be taken, and the individual suffers all the superadded effects of idleness and inactivity. ki ab LESSON XLVI. The Cobbler.-PORT FOLIO. A COBBLER Once, no able stitcher, Though great his ends, his means were small, Resolved at length on his condition, Though meanest of the empiric race, He thus made shift the hinds to pillage, One morn a traveller chanced to drop, He felt his pulse, then gravely said, The dead man then was heard to mumble "Crispin! can't you my visage scan? I'm Hodge, your next door neighbor-man; LESSON XLVII. Parental Tenderness. 1. DURING the Indian wars which preceded the American revolution, a young Engiish officer was closely pursued by two savages, who were on the point of killing him, when an aged chief interfered, took the officer by the hand, encouraged him by his caresses, conducted him to his hut, and treated him with all the kindness in his power. 2. The officer remained during the winter with the oll chief, who taught him their language, and the simple arts with which they were acquainted. But when sprin returned, the savages again took up arms, and prepared for a more vigorous campaign. The old chief followed the young warriors until they approached the English camp, when, turning to the young officer, he thus addressed hims 3. "You see your brethren preparing to give us battle: I have saved thy life; I have taught thee to make a canoe, a bow and arrows; to surprise the beasts of the forest, and to scalp your enemy: wilt thou now be so ungrateful as to join thy countrymen, and take up the hatchet against us?” The Englishman declared that he would sooner perish himself than shed the blood of an Indian. 4. The old savage covered his face with both his hands, and bowed down his head. After remaining some time in this attitude, he looked at the young officer, and said in a tone of mingled tenderness and grief, "Hast thou a father?” "He was living," said the young man, "when I left my native country." "Oh! how unhappy he must be!" said the savage. 5. After a moment's silence, he added, “I have been a father, but I am one no longer; I saw my son fall by my side in battle. But I have avenged him; yes, I have avenged him," said he with emphasis, while he endeavored to suppress the groans which escaped in spite of him. He calmed his emotions, and, turning towards the east, where the sun was rising, he said; "Dost thou behold the heavens with pleasure?" "I do," responded the young man. do no longer," said the savage, bursting into tears. 6. A moment after, he added, "Do you look with delight upon yonder beautiful flower?" "I do," answered the young man. "I do no longer," said the savage, and immediately added, "Depart to thine own country, that thy father may still view the rising sun with pleasure, and take delight in the flowers of spring." LESSON XLVIII. The House of Sloth.-DR. DWIGHT. BESIDE yon lonely tree, whose branches bare, Rise white, and murmur to the passing air; There where the twining briars the yard inclose, The house of sloth stands hushed in long repose. In a late round of solitary care, My feet instinct to rove, they knew not where, I thither came. With yellow blossoms gay, The tall rank weed begirt the tangled way; Curious to view, I forced a path between, And climbed the broken stile, and gazed upon the scene. On an old well, the curb half fallen spread, A half made wall around the garden lay, The cottage gaped with many a dismal yawn, One window dim, a loop hole to the sight, Two little boys, half naked from the waist, On a lean hammock, once with feathers filled, |