THE
RURAL MAGAZINE,
AND
LITERARY EVENING FIRE-SIDE.
Vol. I. Philadelphia, Twelfth Month, 1820. No. 12.
FOR THE RURAL MAGAZINE.
THE DESULTORY REMARKER.
No. XI.
Man is a being, holding large discourse,
Looking before and after.
In my last number I availed myself of the occasion, to dwell with some emphasis, on the necessity and advantage of retrospection. The past is rife with lessons of experience, fitted to serve as waymarks and beacons, for the government of human conduct in the subsequent course. Obvious as this may appear, it is nevertheless lamentably true, as the venerable John Adams has somewhere observed, that our attention is too frequently monopolized in the pursuit of present enjoyment, and that each succeeding generation is not satisfied, until it "has made experience for itself." It is, however, gratifying to believe, that many are not so unmindful of their real interests, and so destitute of true wisdom; but are on proper occasions employed, in "looking before and after." To these no apology will be necessary, for recommending a preparation for those duties, which appertain to the severe and dreary season, upon which we are now entering. A season, above all others calculated, to illustrate the generous and benevolent principles of our nature; and which calls most loudly and authoritatively for their exercise. When indigence is gifted with peculiar eloquence, which the powers of a Burke or an Ames, could scarcely heighten. We are fortunately so constituted, that the sight of distress is amply sufficient to awaken our sympathy, without requiring by a conclusive moral deduction, the establishment of the fact, that it is our duty to sympathize with the objects of it. Ere long a wide field will present itself for mitigating the sufferings and relieving the wants of