A tempest ensued, in which the greater part of the French fleet was wrecked. The Duc D'Auville, the principal general, and his second in command, both committed suicide. Many died from disease, and thousands found a watery grave.
A late President remarks—"I am bound, as an inhabitant of New England, to declare, were there no other instance than the above to be found, the blessings communicated on the occasion now referred to would furnish ample proof, concerning answers to prayer, to every sober and intelligent man."
A HINT TO PARENTS.
In writing upon the education of the young, a thoughtful writer has made the following observations:—
"The little triumphs and successes of the young mind should never be lightly passed over without a token of just and fitting praise from the lips of its parents. The love of approbation is one of the strongest incentives to improvement and industry which the Creator has implanted in the human mind. In the child, this feeling is very predominant; and, if disappointed of its justly-earned tribute, will be checked, and the child disheartened and mortified.
"Benjamin West relates that he owed his success in life to the fond kiss of delighted approval bestowed on him by his mother, on his bringing her a rude production of his pencil when quite a little boy. 'That kiss,' said the great artist, 'made me a painter.'
"Praise, then, when merited, should never be withheld. It is the chief—indeed, generally the only—recompense to which children look; and it is a bitter and injudicious cruelty to deprive them of it. The approval and the censure of its parents and teachers should, in this sense, be the guiding stars of a child's existence. But care should be taken that neither should be bestowed carelessly or with partiality, so as to induce vanity, or, on the other hand, bitterness of feeling."