Among the reprehensible customs which now obtain in the United States, none are more affrontful to the good sense of the community, and few more pernicious in their effects on youth and inexperience, than LOTTERIES, and the disgusting advertisements connected with them, which daily appear in the public journals. The funds which constitute a lottery, are principally derived from the pockets of those whose straitened circumstances, prompt them to grasp at the glittering phantoms, paraded before their eyes by professional jugglers.—Their minds become unsettled; a love of idleness and extravagance is excited; and their attention diverted from the true sources of prosperity—industry, frugality and sound morals. This cautionary advice may be deduced from the best and brightest of books; "Make not haste to be rich."[2] Experience and observation unite in confirming its wisdom. We need but contemplate the consequences, which have almost universally resulted to those who have been so fortunate as to draw large prizes! Nine times perhaps out of ten, bankruptcy and ruin have trodden close on the heels of the dissipation and thoughtlessness they have occasioned. Lotteries are made by legislation, (which ought to be much better employed,) a species of legalized gambling, altogether destitute, in every point of view, of the slightest recommendation, to the countenance and patronage of the public. Being thus prejudicial to individual and social happiness, is it not to be lamented, that respectable editors instead of branding it as they ought, with its proper characteristics; should, to augment the profits of their papers, give to this system of deception, the widest circulation, among all classes of readers. These gentlemen should remember, that pecuniary sacrifices should sometimes be made at the shrine of virtue.
Another source of imposture may be traced to the venders of QUACK MEDICINES. Few persons are, perhaps, aware of the amount of this tax, levied by unprincipled charlatans, on the afflicted and credulous portion of the community. But it is not their money only that is sacrificed, but frequently their constitutions and their lives. He, whose constant companions have long been Pain and Disease, is easily persuaded to listen to the confident promises of impudent pretenders to medical science. He indulges the flattering but false anticipation of returning health, until his symptoms assume an incurable character, and nature gives him the "signal for retreat." It is not to be expected, that for all the multiform shapes which vice is constantly assuming, remedies can be furnished by statutory provision. For many evils, and some of them of a positively mischievous character, no other cure can be relied on with certainty, than the virtue and intelligence of the public. In proportion as these shall be cultivated, will be the augmentation of social enjoyment, and the increasing splendour of the orb of truth.
It has been observed by an eminent writer, that although all argument is against the existence of GHOSTS, all opinion is in its favour.—The celebrated John Wesley, it is said, believed in them; and Edward Cave asserted confidently, though he avoided dwelling on the subject, that he had himself seen an apparition.—The story of Mrs. Veal, prefixed to Drelincourt on Death, though not conclusive, tended to strengthen such opinions. Few of those who held them, were countenanced by stronger evidence than that detailed in the following authentic narrative. In the earlier periods of the settlement of Pennsylvania, public houses of entertainment were few and distant from each other. A farmer, who resided in Montgomery then Philadelphia county, was returning from market at a late hour, of a cold winter night. As he was passing a meeting house, he discovered through the interstices of the door, a light which proceeded from a fire-place; there having been public worship held there during the preceding day. Having dismounted and hitched his horse, he proceeded to the door, and having opened it, beheld a large fire burning, a man laying before it, and between this mysterious personage and the door, a coffin! He instinctively shrunk back, as the time, the place, and the circumstances he witnessed, were well calculated to produce considerable excitement.—Summoning his resolution, however, he advanced to the fire-place, where he found a person asleep, and a new coffin along side of him. The man informed him, that being a joiner, he was employed to make a coffin for a relation who died a few miles above, and that he was taking it up from Germantown where he resided. It appeared that they had both turned in with the same object, to warm themselves; and the honest farmer was pleased to find the spectral apparition subside into a sober reality. How fortunate would it be if on all occasions, investigation were equally honest and determined. Then, indeed, would error and falsehood frequently be forced to "SHAME AND LIGHT."
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FOR THE RURAL MAGAZINE.
THE VILLAGE TEACHER.
My favourite occupation between school hours, during the Spring and Summer, is GARDENING. The munificence of some village Lorenzo has bequeathed, for the use of the schoolmaster, several acres of ground, well situated for tillage or ornamental purposes. Since I have been the incumbent, I have taken much pains to improve it by surrounding the chief part with hedges of cedar and thorn, and planting a good selection of fruit and forest trees. The lower part of the field is in grass, and a winding gravel walk leads from one group of trees to another. Here, according to their various tastes and habits, may be seen the magnolias of our own and the southern states, the walnut, the locust, the elm, the tulip tree, and the different varieties of pine, and larch, and fir, which it has been my study to arrange so as to diversify the view, and exhibit as much as my slender means would allow, the great families into which the vegetable kingdom is divided. A brook as clear as crystal babbles along through an adjoining lot, and enters mine towards the lower end. I have conducted it to a natural hollow in the ground, and have thus, at a trifling expense, formed a fish-pond, which adds greatly to the beauty of my little domain, and furnishes me not only with wholesome food for my own and my friends' tables, but is well suited, from the natural moisture of its banks, for the cultivation of many of our beautiful ferns and aquatic plants. The middle of the lot I have planted with the various fruit trees in which our climate is so rich, if, indeed, it may not challenge a competition in this respect with the world. The upper and smaller portion of the lot, I have appropriated to what is called gardening in the stricter sense of the word. In marking out the walks, I have endeavoured to follow, as nearly as I could, what the painters, perhaps a little fantastically, call the line of beauty, so as to have but few sharp corners or square beds. At the prominent angles and the centres of the beds, are planted the Rhododendron; the two Kalmias; the scarlet, the tri-coloured and the flowering Azaleas; the Clethra and the Philadelphus, mingling with the most beautiful of the domesticated foreign shrubbery—the different Roses, Honeysuckles, and Jessamines. Underneath, and among this shrubbery, are seen the blue and scarlet Lobelias, the native Lily, the Gerardia, the Arethusa, the Orchis, the Bartsia, the Epigea, and all those beautiful flowers that spring up in our woods and meadows, and so frequently bloom and die unseen or unappropriated. These native flowers make a fine show and not an unfavourable comparison even with those beauties of Europe and the East that I have been able to collect and arrange by their side.
I have been thus particular and egotistical in describing my garden, perhaps from vanity, but partly from a wish that the plan may be followed. Our native shrubbery and flowers are not surpassed in beauty and splendour by those of any region in the temperate zone, and many of them in magnificence of foliage and colours are truly tropical. They are sought for abroad with great eagerness, and form an indispensable part of every gentleman's collection. I wish it were more the custom for our farmers and cottagers to domesticate them in their gardens and around their houses.—They improve materially by cultivation, and new varieties are frequently formed. What can be a more beautiful ornament to the front of a farm-house, or a neat white-washed cottage, than a Sweet-briar, winding between the windows and over the door? or the Carolina Passion flower, the Alleghany Vine, the Clematis, or the scarlet Trumpet flower? These rural decorations add more than one would imagine, who had not tried them, to the innocent pleasures of a family; they have no small influence in forming the taste of children; they form a favourite retreat for the birds; and they fling over the whole country an air of peace, and contentment, and innocent enjoyment, which no one, who has not travelled in the more beautiful and retired parts of England, can fully appreciate.
I recollect once in riding through the valley of Chester county with some foreign gentlemen, that they were struck with the nakedness and rudeness of the farm-houses. It appeared to them the most beautiful region they had ever seen, and they exclaimed, with one voice, that the inhabitants did not seem worthy of possessing it. On the side of some sloping hill and in front of a lawn as smooth as velvet, or laden with the riches of the harvest, would be seen a barn and a house that looked as if the master and horse had changed lodgings, both of rude unhewn stone, without a single tree, or shrub, or a trailing vine, for shade or ornament. Such an insensibility to the beauties of rural decoration, in a region where every thing seems calculated to call out and quicken the taste, is unnatural, and can only arise from sordid habits or ignorance.