vances to maturity, the mind and the body should divide the leisure hour; and pleasure and improvement go hand

in hand."

The pupils listened to their master with becoming atten tion, and ever after were extremely orderly in their pas times. They shunned danger-they avoided excess; and not a few of them, from this benevolent and judicious recommendation, preferred mental improvement to desultory play, even when the choice was free."

Greenock Advertiser, 1805.

Art of Swimming.

MEN are drowned by raising their arms above water, the unbuoyed weight of which depresses the head. Other animals have neither notion nor ability to act in a similar manner, and, therefore, swim naturally. When a man falls into deep water, he will rise to the surface, and will continue there if he does not elevate his hands. If be move his hands under the water in any manner he pleases, his head will rise so high as to allow him fice liberty to breathe; and if he move his legs as in the act of walking, (or rather of walking up stairs) his shoulders will rise above the water; so that he may use less exertion with his hands, or apply them to other purposes. These plain directions are recommended to the recollection of those who have not learned to swim in their youth, as they may be found highly advantageous in preserving life.

Even. Courant.

Since writing the above, I have the pleasure to inform you, that some of our most approved teachers have admitted your little work into their schools, and are teaching their scholars to read and recite the most useful and beautiful pieces to such the above communication will, doubtless, be acceptable. If you reckon me of any avail in support of your present laud able undertaking, I will endeavour to transmit to you a few pieces from time to time*.

A. A

* From the above specimens of the ability of our obliging corres pondent as a selector, we are induced to solicit a continuance of h favours. Juvenile Amusements, which we observe is the production

Rules for Conversation.

(From M. GENER, or "Letters on life and manners.") THERE is no subject, on which man or woman may not converse freely, provided they understand it, and do not desire to shine at the expense of their friends.

The first rule in conversation is, to please the people with whom you converse. The difficulty of pleasing consists in not knowing what will please; and the mistakes originate in this radical defect, that our great aim in conversation is to please ourselves. A certain and easy way of pleasing is to avoid all the tricks which disgust us in others.

It is desirable to have the subjects on which we converse so general as to give no man offence, and treated in so easy a manner, as to allow every person in company either to be silent from choice, or to be able to join in the conversation. Every person there has the same rights with ourselves, his taste is to be gratified as well as ours, and he is intitled to an equal share of the common stock of time to be consumed, and no talents, rank, or fortune should raise one above another when met for mutual satisfaction.

Persons are not equally fitted for conducting conversation; but every person possesses the power and capacity of being pleased, we must pay attention as well as speak, and the former of these is an acquisition of greater importance than the latter. By speaking in the very best manner, we discover the extent of our understanding, and sometimes our vanity; but by hearing as we ought to do, we discover our humility, our cheerfulness, and our understanding, without the imputation of vanity.

A. A.

i a celebrated modern literary character, to whom we are already inder patricular obligations, (Dr MAYOR) may be considered a very uitable appendix to our paper on dangerous situations, plays, and ports, p. 596, vol, I. and the Art of Swimming may be read with dvantage after what is said on the subject, p. 235, of the preent volume. Such hints, indeed, cannot be too universally known, nd if, through the medium of our pages, they are the means of saymg one life, the Cheap Magazine shall not have been published in

ain.

Hints on the Morals of the Peasantry.

Sir,

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHEAP MAGAZINE,

WISHING well to a work which has for its object the prevention of crimes and the improvement of morals, and being convinced of the truth and importance of the maxims which you have adopted as your mottos, I submit the following observations to your inspection. If I have not been anticipated in any of your earlier numbers, I should be glad to see that you think them proper for insertion; at all events, I shall have a satisfaction in having expressed my desire of promoting the valuable and benevolent purposes of your undertaking.

ON nothing does the happiness of individuals and of society so much depend, as the purity of their principles and the correctness of their morals. It is with honourable pride then, that our country, distinguished for science, en terprise, and heroism, boasts also her social and domestic virtues. The general propriety of conduct in the peasan try, mechanics, and middling classes of Scotland, is particu larly remarkable. The rigid principles of the first refor mers, the early and continued advantages of religious instruction, and the invaluable parochial institutions, have principally contributed to form their character; and the refinement of latter times has rendered it less austere and forbiding, but scarcely less decided, and not less exemplary. In the populous and manufacturing towns, indeed, many vices have originated or increased, but fewer and Jess flagrant than in other places of a similar description.

There are, however, dangers to which the morals of these classes of our community are peculiarly exposed, which may be experienced in the best regulated families among them, and which, therefore, require the more can tion and firmness. I know, and with gratitude and exn!tation, the solicitude with which the parents, in general. superintend the education and conduct of their children, and the assiduity with which they instil into their mindthe principles and precepts of the gospel, enforced by their

own example; and I am convinced that very few instances could be produced, wherein individuals, so educated, have, from temptation or seduction, entirely and ultimately abandoned the maxims of their youth. But their temporary, yet fatal abandonment, is not altogether so uncommon. The cause of such melancholy deviations may be found, I think, in those dangers just hinted at, which I shall shortly examine.

The houses of the poorer tenantry, the country mechanics, and the cottagers, have seldom more than one sitting apartment. There parents, children, and servants, (if these are employed) meet promiscuously. From the simplicity of their manners, the consequences of this mode of life are little to be apprehended; nay, it is of essential service to the servants at least, as subjecting them to the constant inspection of their masters, who are laudably atten tive to give them, at convenient seasons, advice and instruction. Hence also the children run less risk of being corrupted by them, and early learn not to value themselves on the distinction which Providence has placed between them.

Under the best possible regulations, however, with servants of the least exceptionable characters, and children of the most amiable dispositions to be expected, there must still be in such a mode of life considerable hazard. In such a promiscuous society, expressions and remarks will be made which children should not hear, and transactions occur which they should not see; and, in the absence of the master and mistress, still greater latitude may be supposed.

THE LAST DAY.

(Concluded from p. 330.)

To be continued.

AFTER viewing so glorious and so glad an host, it is pain

.

ful now to look to that other side, where none are left but wicked men and evil spirits. The day of the harvest is now come, and the wheat and the tares, however much they were mixed in the field, are at length eternally separated. See then, ranked on the left, the rulers who were negligent or unjust, and the subjects who were rebellous and disobedient-the masters who were unmerciful, VOL. II.

I I

and

and the servants who were unfaithful-the parents whe did not travail again till Christ was formed in their chil dren, and the children who were not dutiful to their pa rents-the rich who were not devout and charitable, and the poor who were not content and pious.

Hear, for instance, the motive which determined the unjust judge to relieve the widow: "Though I fear not God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me." See, also, such as JEROBOAM, who made all Israel to sin; and such are thousands more around him, whose example in their respective spheres helped to keep vice in countenance, and to give, as it were, a sanction to impiety. See those who scoffed at ENOCH and NOAH for their singular piety, with those who laughed to scorn the man that was godly. Behold ESAU weeping but not alone, because he sold a better than an earthly birthright for a morsel of meat, and there is no room left for repentance. PHARAOH, with many thousands more, now perceive that no man ever hardened himself against God and prospered. ZIMRI and COZBI are now found by the judgment just as death left them, with all their reeking guilt about them, and denied one moment's warning to prepare their reckoning. In the front of those who sinned presumptuously against the clearest light, and the most convincing knowledge of their duty, behold BALAAM, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. He sees the Messiah now, alas! too nigh, but the dreadful gulph shall soon lie betwixt. See PAUL! what avails it now that he was once amongst the prophets? He and many more perceive now, from their own sad experience, that the most shining gifts, without grace, can procure no man a passport to heaven. NABAL now awakes from his lethargy to find, that although he had saved his goods, he hath lost his soul, which is now empty and hath nothing. What ear does not tingle at hearing the terrible sentence of the sons of ELI? All the children who proved wicked in spite of the best precepts and example of their pious parents, stand around them in fearful expectяtion of the same doom. See how the treacherous are ranked near the Father of Lies; and the cursers and swearers share the same fate as SHIMEI. "Hast thou found

me