Every man at first worked at every thing; and the same man dug his ground, caught his wild-fowl, gathered the eggs from the nests in the rocks, and repaired his house when necessary. In short, every man was what we call a jack-of-all-trades, and as happens commonly in such cases, hardly any was master of one. But when the first clothes which they had got from the ship were almost worn out, and every man tried to patch and mend his own, they began to think it would be better if one or two of the party should take that business into their own hands, and it was then given up to the women. When the looms were set to work, the two weavers were chiefly employed in making a coarse kind of cloth from a sort of hemp which grew on the island, from which, after it was steeped in water and beaten with sticks, a strong thread could be spun. Of this cloth, of various thicknesses, they helped the women to make coats and gowns, boots and shoes, and stockings. They made hats of a strong flat rush which grew on the sand-hills near the sea. This work took up so much of their time that the land of the two weavers was overrun with weeds, and it was found better for them to give up their farm to a neighbor, who should be paid for the produce in boots, coats, and money. The carpenter also was but a poor farmer, and his crop failed. So he gave up farming, and worked away at building houses, and making tables, and chairs, and bedsteads, receiving payment in potatoes, corn, wild-fowls, eggs, or sometimes in money. In the course of two or three years, some were bakers only, some poulterers, some potato merchants, and only about half of the company were farmers; of which the consequence was the land was better tilled, the corn better ground and baked, the fowls better fed, eggs more easily to be had, the potatoes better, and the huts kept in better repair. Each man had a trade of his own, and each knew his trade pretty well. Each man was consequently better fed, clothed, and lodged, than when he worked at every trade himself.
The individual whom we have mentioned as the Philosopher, was not an idle man among all these working people. He was schoolmaster to all the children, who were so fond of him, that he was seldom to be seen without the strongest of them scrambling over the rocks or along the coast after him. He measured out and divided the land which was each man’s portion. He taught the rest of the men to select some of the roots with which the island abounded; and to cultivate near their dwellings the graceful trees which were natural to the soil. He made curious nets, which enabled others to catch a constant supply of fish and of birds. He constructed clocks of wood, which were found very useful in the different huts; and he taught some of the bigger boys to make vessels of clay as well as bricks, the latter of which made the foundation of the houses better able to resist the storms that now and then swept across the island. He also managed to make two or three musical instruments, on one or other of which he would occasionally play in an evening, whilst the children, and indeed often their fathers and mothers also, would dance on the grass after the labors of the day. He was the only person in the island who could keep an account of time; and he was of much use to the farmers in advising them when to sow different seeds, and in what soils. In short, there was no end to his contrivances. He also found time to make a collection of all the different plants that grew on the island, from some of which he prepared medicines for those who happened to be sick. He made a survey of the whole of the island, and made drawings of it and of the little town in which the shipwrecked people lived; cheering them by saying they would some day look at them in England. He persuaded every man and woman in the island to rest from work one day in seven; on which day he used to have them collected together, and on the long winter evenings, to read some prayers to them, and a chapter or two from a Bible which had come ashore with some other books. He taught many of the men and women to sing the hymns and ballads of their own country; and contrived to make them so busy and so comfortable, that many of them ceased to sigh for home; whilst their children, too, were growing up in the peaceful island, ignorant of all that was doing in any other land upon the globe, except what they learnt from the lessons and books of the good Philosopher.
HINTS ON READING.
A proper and judicious system of reading is of the highest importance. Two things are necessary in perusing the mental labors of others;—namely, not to read too much, and to pay great attention to the nature of what you do read. Many persons peruse books for the express and avowed purpose of consuming time; and this class of readers forms by far the majority of what are termed the “reading public.” Others, again, read with the laudable anxiety of being made wiser; and when this object is not attained, the disappointment may generally be attributed, either to the habit of reading too much, or of paying insufficient attention to what falls under their notice.
It is recorded of Madame De Stäel Holstein, that before she was fifteen years of age, she had “devoured” 600 novels in three months, so that she must have read more than six a day, upon an average. Louis XVI, during the five months and seven days of his imprisonment immediately preceding his death, read 157 volumes, or one a day. If this species of gluttony is pardonable in circumstances like those of Louis, it is less so in those of a young lady of fourteen or fifteen. No one can have time for reflection who reads at this rapid rate; and, whatever may be thought, these devourers of books are guilty of abusing nature to an extent, as much greater than those who overcharge their stomachs, as the intellectual powers are higher than the animal propensities. Thousands of young persons spend their time in perpetual reading, or rather in devouring books. It is true, the food is light; but it occupies the mental faculties for the time in fruitless efforts, and operates to exclude food of a better quality.
The manners of a people are not to be found in the schools of learning, or the palaces of greatness, where the national character is obscured or obliterated by travel or instruction, by philosophy or vanity; nor is public happiness to be estimated by the assemblies of the gay, or the banquets of the rich. The great mass of nations is neither rich nor gay: they whose aggregate constitutes the people, are found in the streets and villages, in the shops and farms; and from them, collectively considered, must the measure of general prosperity be taken.
W. P.