Family government gives complexion to the manners of a town: but when we see, every where, children profane, indelicate, rude, saucy, we may depend on it, their parents do not work it right.
I once knew a young man of excellent hopes, who was deeply in love with a lady. The first time he had an opportunity to whisper in her ear; and before he had made any impression on her heart in his favour, he sighed out his sorrowful tale to her in full explanation. The lady was frightened—she soon rid herself of the distressed lover—she said, he did not work it right.
THE TURKS.
In the New England Galaxy we find the following account of the Turks. If the facts are as stated, those that are termed barbarians are Christians in practice, while we who are Christians by name, are barbarians in reality.
"Notwithstanding their religion differs from ours, still I cannot help respecting it. They worship the same God that we do—they esteem our Saviour as a great prophet and lawgiver—their prayers are evidently offered with a sincere heart, and considering that it is the religion of their ancestors, how can we blame them for preferring it to ours? Did you but know in what contempt they hold a renegado, you would agree in opinion with me, that the combined powers of the whole Christian world would not be able to persuade a virtuous musselman to change his faith.
"Honesty, so often sought and rarely found, among the enlightened and religious communities of Europe and America, in this part of Asia and in the Turkish dominions west of the Hellespont, stands unrivalled.
"Whether a sense of virtue or moral obligations to each other contained in the pages of the Koran is the cause, I am unable to say; but all travellers who have visited this country, and are divested of prejudice, will do them the justice to say, that theft is a crime almost unknown throughout the realms of the Grand Seignor.
"A merchant of Smyrna having occasion to send about five hundred pound sterling a distance of about four days journey into the country, requested his brokers to find a suitable person! The first they met in the streets, although one of the lowest porters, they engaged for that purpose.
"The gold was given him in a bag, and without even inquiring his name or residence in the city, he was directed to hand it to the merchant in the village, whose name was given him on a piece of paper: and on his return he should receive the amount agreed on, and about five dollars as a compensation for his trouble.