THE LADIES' GARLAND. As several of our obliging correspondents have furnished us with articles illustrating the beautiful engraving that embellishes our present number, we have been obliged to make a selection from them. They are all well written; and those that are not given at this time, shall appear hereafter. It will be observed that we give two articles on the same subject, but as they differ in form, they also differ somewhat in sentiment, and are both pretty, pleasing, and interesting in themselves, without reference to the subject illustrated. ORIGINAL. CHILDHOOD. BY SUSAN WILSON. "That little corner in the human heart, which has Rank weeds and pois'nous blossoms But is there not a little part, ORIGINAL. CHILDHOOD. BY THOMAS MCKELLAR. It is the How beautiful is childhood! period when the heart has no suspicion; when artless sincerity prompts every action; when love like a seraph abides in the bosom. I love a child! Its eye is so bright; its step is so light; and its voice, like a running rill grow-little child seems as if it lately came from in spring-time, is so sweet and musical. A [ing, heaven, and it bears an imprint too pure and innocent for earth. Care and sorrow and the consciousness of sin have not yet made one furrow on its brow. Peace and beauty sit there. Health runs through every vein, and her crimson seal is stamped upon its cheek. Its lip is the portal of truth; and its tongue is untainted with slander. Truly, the seed of sin is sown within; but its germination and development are as yet imperceptible. To deep, and pure, and holy feeling, Where pulses sometimes warmly thrillRich depths of tenderness revealing. And if a talisman there be, To touch the chord of sympathy, No shade of sin or sorrow showing. Is there a heart that does not feel Until life's pilgrimage be ended? [ed, The child knows nothing comparatively of the world, and it cares as little. It finds its happiness in trifles, and it looks no further. It loves, indeed; and this would seem to be its sole employment now. It unconsciously calls forth love, and as unconsciously returns it. Even the babe looks up to its mother's face, and rejoices in her love. Love strengthens with its years, until the blighting selfishness of sin endeavors to wither it. How merciful in its Creator, that a child's life begins in love-that its earliest days are days of affection. Whose heart is not gladdened at beholding the tottering steps of early childhood? Whose ear rejoices not to drink in the liquid notes 265 that trickle like heavenly music from the lips of infancy! Oh! infancy is very, very beautiful; and childhood is but infancy matured. The step has become firm and elastic; the voice, which before trickled in disconnected drops, now flows in a full stream; and it now intelligibly utters notes of affection, which looks only could previously express. The friendships formed in childhood are never forgotten. Their very remembrance is delightful; and throughout life they exercise a hallowed influence that blesses many an hour, even though the friends be separated, by deep waters and broad lands,-though one. of them has gone to the silent and solitary grave. my Childhood has its love-scenes. Well do i remember one Christmas night, some twenty years ago, when, sitting beside a sweet girl, (who with her mother was on a visit to parents,) a little boy's heart beat with delightful emotion. The interchange of offices of kindness served to deepen the impression made on him. He often thought of Angeline, and connected with her his future plans. She was bright and graceful, kind-hearted and confiding. Her hair was like the silken web that floats in the sunbeam; and her eyes were blue and full of tenderness. Her sister was also pretty; but her beauty was of a bolder kind; her hair was dark, and her eyes were dark and frolicksome. Our hero loved the gentle girl; but her mother arranged the matter differently, and playfully promised him Mary Jane. When the years of manhood had sobered his thoughts, he was far from the scenes of his childhood; and the love of his childhood was like a dimly-remembered dream. Angeline and Mary Jane found other loves, and became happy wives; but the memory of early affection was never obliterated. Childhood is the blossoming time of life. How sad when the cold and blasting winds of penury and neglect nip the flowers in the bud, and impoverish or destroy the fruit! How blest when wise and kindly culture, and judicious education, and a careful training in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, prepare it to bring forth fruits of usefulness and beauty in the maturity of life. A REMEDY FOR EARTH'S TROUBLES. Would'st thou their sweetness taste? Look up to heaven, FIVE NEGATIVES. It is known that two negatives in English are equivalent to one affirmative. They destroy each other. But it is not so in Greek. They strengthen the negation, and a third negative makes it stronger still, and so a fourth, and a fifth. How strong five negatives must make a negation. But do five ever occur? Whether they ever occur in the Greek classics I do not know; but in the Geek of the New Testament there is an insta ce of the kind. And what is that? Are the five negatives used to strengthen any threatenings? No. They are connected a promise, one of the "exceedingly great and previous promises," which are given unto us. The case occurs in Heb. xiii. 5, "For He said, I never leave thee nor forsake thee." There five negatives are employed. We translate bet two of them, but there they all are, as any one may see who looks into his Greek Testament. Now they need not all have been there. They are not all necessary to express the simple idea that must have been desi in multiplying negaGod will never forsake is people. There tives so. I do not believe the phraseology was accidental, I think it not anticult to guess the design. God meant to be believed dence of his children in that particular. He in that thing. He would secure the confiknew how prone they were to dout his constancy-how strongly inclined to t. at form of unbelief-and how liable to be barassed by the dread of being forsaken by him; and he would therefore make assurance diably sure. So, instead of saying simply. "I wili not leave thee," which alone would ta e been enough, he adds, "nor forsake thes," leave thee, I will not forsake thee," he tox and instead of leaving it thus, “I will not language equivalent to the following, "I wil not, I will not leave thee; I will never, never. never forsake thee." There is a stanza, which very faithfully as well as beautifully explains it. The Saviour is represented as saying"The soul that on me hath leaned for repose, I will not, I will not desert to its foes; How earnest God appears in this matter. How unworthy it is in his children, after such an assurance as this, to suspect that he will forsake them. He cannot. It is impossible for God to lie. Here one who was never known to break his word, assures his people, each of them individually, and five times in a single sentence, of his continued presence with them. Under these circumstances, what man of reputed veracity would be discredited? and shall not the God of truth be believed in a like manner. For the Ladies' Garland. MISPLACED AFFECTION; OR, ELEONORA AND ALONZO. behind a delightful grove of trees, with which a taste and forethought, too seldom exercised, had adorned the academy grounds -then, I say, my thoughts would stray forward to College days and College honors, and advantageous situations in the business world. Now that I feel the emptiness of all these, I retire often from the bustle and excitement, to think of those calm moments: "Remembering with an envious sigh, The days that are no more." desirable only as they give us greater influence among our fellows, and greater opportunity to benefit them. The village of R- is located about five miles from one of those beautiful lakes in central New York. When I first became a resident of it, my travels had been very limited. I had read, with glowing admiration, descriptions of beautiful prospects on the banks of the Hudson,-in the environs of Paris, and the vales of Italy; and had longed to visit those enchanted spots. Lit- Be assured, you who, in sequestered life, tle did I suppose that after the lapse of years are looking to fame and notoriety as the dehad shown me considerable of the world, my sideratum of your existence, there is more thoughts would recur to those early scences, solace to the agitated human bosom in one as some of the most lovely which my eyes word of heart-felt sympathy, than in all the ever beheld. Doubtless, interesting associa-empty voice of praise. Stations of note are tions contribute much to heighten their charms. But had I the power of graphic description, I hesitate not to say that I could vindicate the claim of the scenery about But pardon the digression. Six years these lakes to a very high degree of beauty. have elapsed, since I was associated, in the Imagine to yourselves, kind readers, "a stroll village academy, with about one hundred out of town," somewhat late in the afternoon and fifty young persons of both sexes. of a July day. Recollect that you are on the interesting to watch the progress of so many east side of the lake, which is nearly forty persons on the threshhold of life, during such miles long, by three broad, calm and quiet-a period. It is a time sufficiently long, geneyes, as its own bosom; for comparison is rally, to manifest character. Fortune will beggared. The silvery sheen of its waters have had opportunity to dispense her favors assumes, as they recede from a direction be- and her frowns. tween yourselves and the sun, a darker and darker hue. The land for ten miles on either side is descending gradually, and away to the northwest, the gentle hills lose them selves in the dusky distance. The landscape is very moderately undulating, and from a luxuriant soil, is clothed with the richest vegetation. Deep green orchards and woodlands exhibit the utmost chastness and delicacy. But I pause. I am doing nature injustice. It is Last June I spent, in the village, an agreeable day, with one of my former school-mates. We had abundant subjects of conversation, in recurring to "old times." Thinking it would be a pleasant exercise, we took up the old catalogue, and read over, together, the names of those associated with us in school. Of most, one or the other could give some account. I need not remark that some were in their graves-some had made shipwreck of all the fond hopes of parents and friends, while others, whom they regarded their inferiors, had arisen, by dint of personal exertions, to All such things respectability and promise. preparaare ordinary phenomena. There are two individuals whose history is so interesting, that I have determined to complete my paper with its narration. They are Eleonora Brentwood, and Alonzo Williams. Yet there are recollections connected with this place, to me far more interesting than its natural beauties. Here was spent-what is ordinarily the happiest period in one's existence-the time devoted to studies tory to entering college. This is the time for phantom hopes and ideal visions, which are dissipated as one awakes to "the rude realities of life." It is the time when the heart is open to ingenuous friendships. And now that I have witnessed-ah! shall I say Just down, say half a mile south-west of it?-have experienced so much of the cold-the village, stands the rather elegant resi ness of the world, I know how to prize the dence of Eleonora's father. It is off from the warm sympathies I then enjoyed. Let the public highway-indeed, fronting a private students of an Academy esteem their privi-road, running parallel with the public one, leges. We do not live enough in the pre-made purposely for its accommodation. The Our enjoyments are mainly drawn situation is, in all respects, such as a poet from anticipations of the future, and reminis-would love. Her father, though not wealthy, cences of the past. When, with happy as-is in perfectly easy circumstances. Of this sociates, I was attending recitations in that house Eleonora is still perhaps not the most. beautiful edifice, modestly screening itself happy occupant. I was well acquainted with, sent. the circumstances destined to give a color-Eleonora, are the last one who should depreing, doubtless, to all her after life. ciate him." This last expression was a severe rebuke to the poor girl: for Alonzo Williams had been guilty of the great crime of showing her some partialities! Nothing else possibly could have made her disesteem him. She could not but acknowledge his superiority. No one do I feel prouder to call my friend, than Alonzo Williams. Emergene, though scarce eighteen, appreciated his character in a manner which would have done honor to age and experience. In ability to read character, she was the superior of Eleonora Brentwood, while she was wanting in none of her qualities. She was also her superior in a noble liberality of mind, and in disposition to do justice to real merit. Alonzo, three years older than herself, knew her well. He knew, too, that he had only to ask her tribute to him, after a long acquaintance, is that of slighting the tendered affection of Emergene, and paying his devotions to the disinterested Eleonora Brentwood. It will not be supposed that such a dull, prosing moralizer as the writer has already shown himself to be, is any great adept in love matters. Reader, you have guessed rightly. But I am going to relate an affair of love; for, notwithstanding all the sy cophancy of love-lorn stories, there is reality in the business. Ever since it was asserted by the Creator that "it is not good for man. to be alone," the sexes have been inclined to union. One of the most worthy dispositions which a man can exercise, is to "seek the sympathy of a female heart." I would not give countenance to the popular notion that the whole business of a young lady is "to get married;" but so essentially does her fortune and happiness depend upon this act, that there seems indeed much reason for the opinion. It is the sickly sentimentalities-love. And the only faults which I can atlachrimoneous lamentations and moanings, and unreasonably blind attachments of braincracked swains, and soft headed maidens which are ridiculous. The superstitious notion that fate has destined a particular one Thus it is; we prize not what costs us no to be a companion, and if that one is not se- labor. It was the coyishness of Eleonora cured, a person must go crazy, or commit which bewitched my amiable friend. I will suicide, ought to have no place in a sensible not say she was unworthy of him, for he was mind. Yet it is the principle on which too hardly capable of placing his affections on an many of our love tales are constructed. Al- unworthy object. Had she reciprocated his most invariably, "disappointment of the affection, I should have been more reconheart," resolves itself into error of the head. ciled to his neglecting one so admirably Eleonora, I forewarn the reader, was no adapted to be his counterpart as Emergene. "coquette." Without being a beauty, she I never could accuse Eleonora of a disposition was rather handsome. Her form was someto trifle with the feelings of Alonzo. She what tall and graceful; her complexion was actuated by the same principle which light, though slightly freckled. She had was even then influencing him. Before redark, glossy hair, deep blue eyes, remark-ceiving his attentions, she regarded him with ably expressive. Her mind was of a superior order, and she had a warm, sensible heart. "What a worthy young gentleman is Mr. Williams," said Emergene Ross, to her intimate friend, Eleonora, as they were walking across the academy green, on a beautiful May morning. "What an excellent lecture before the lyceum last evening! so much good sense and original thought. So free from bombastic display, which I do say often appears disgusting in our academic lecturers. He has a noble mind, and is destined, doubtGeorge Dowling, the son of a wealthy and less, to very high attainments in the profes-respectable gentleman, in a neighboring vilsion of his choice." 66 the highest respect; and had the idea of his becoming her suitor, occurred to her mind, she would have thought it a most desirable event. But now she thought little of what seemed so easy a conquest-the heart of Alonzo Williams! But he could not complain. He had done injustice to Emergene, and might expect that Eleonora would do him injustice. He had misplaced his affection-she afterwards did the same. lage, was of about the same age of the Yes, Mr. Williams is a worthy, noble || young ladies. He was what some might call young gentleman. But then-" handsome; but to me, there was a want of "But then what?" Emergene earnestly original force and determination manifest in inquired, after waiting some time. "What his countenance, so essential to masculine exceptions will you make? Has he not a beauty. He was at school because his father commanding address-affable, pleasing man-had sent him; where he performed his duners a heart susceptible of the warmest ties as regularly and faithfully-and I might and most faithful friendship? Who then add-as thoughtlessly as clock-work. He can doubt his sincerity of character? You, li seldom failed of a good lesson, but it was |