Love, thou sportive, fickle boy,
Source of anguish, child of joy;
Ever wounding, ever smiling,
Soothing still, and still beguiling;
What are all thy boasted treasures?
Tender sorrows, transient pleasures;
Anxious hopes, and jealous fears,
LAUGHING HOURS, AND MOURNING YEARS.
What is FRIENDSHIP’s soothing name?
But a shadowy, vap’rish flame;
Fancy’s balm, for ev’ry wound,
Ever sought, but rarely found.
What is BEAUTY? but a flow’r,
Blooming, fading, in an hour;
Deck’d with brightest tints at morn,
At twilight, with’ring on a thorn;
Like the gentle ROSE of spring;
Chill’d by ev’ry Zephyr’s wing;
Ah! how soon its colour flies,
Blushes, trembles, falls, and DIES.
What is YOUTH? in smiling sorrow,
Blithe to-day, and sad to-morrow:
Never fix’d, for ever ranging,
Laughing, weeping, doating, changing;
Wild, capricious, giddy, vain,
Cloy’d with pleasure, nurs’d with pain;
Ev’ry moment LIFE’s decaying,
BLISS expires, while TIME’s delaying;
AGE steals on with wintry face,
Ev’ry rapt’rous HOPE to chase;
Like a wither’d sapless tree
Bow’d to chilling FATE’s decree;
Stripp’d of all its foliage gay,
Drooping at the close of day.
What of tedious LIFE remains?
Keen regrets, and cureless pains;
Till DEATH appears a welcome FRIEND,
And bid the scene of SORROW end.
_NEW-YORK: PRINTED BY JOHN TIEBOUT, NO. 358, PEARL-STREET, FOR THOMAS
BURLING, JUN. & CO. +Subscriptions+ for this +Magazine+ (at 6s. per
quarter) are taken in at the Printing-Office, and at the Circulating
Library of Mr. J. FELLOWS, No. 60, Wall-Street._
* * * * *
* * * *
* * * * *
THE NEW-YORK WEEKLY MAGAZINE;
or, Miscellaneous Repository.
+Vol. II.+] +Wednesday, May 17, 1797.+ [+No. 98.+
_For the +New-York Weekly Magazine+._
* * *
It has often been made a question on my mind, Whether the multiplicity
of books in circulation are an advantage or disadvantage to the morals
of youth?--That every book ought to be investigated, and that with an
impartial eye before we condemn it, is a fact incontestible. None but
the prejudiced, the weak and the ignorant, will ever attempt to persuade
youth from the pursuit of wisdom. A man possessed of the least spark of
knowledge, would blush to advise others from the investigation of truth.
That book has never yet been printed, which, when examined by the eye of
reason and candor, did not contain something by which we may be
profited. Yet, how numerous are they who will discard the writings of an
author, merely because they have heard it was an improper book. How
forcible is such reasonings! What will be the opinion of the rational
part of the creation concerning such persons, if they argue with such
inconsistency? Will they not justly conclude that a _weak_ head, and
_unprincipled_ heart, guides their opinion? And while they continue thus
to argue, they ought to reflect, if capable of reflection, that by
condemning them without investigating one single principle whereby they
may substantiate their charge, they expose themselves to censure and
contempt. Thus we behold books too often branded with detestation, and
consigned to oblivion, by those pests of society. For such they truly
are, in my opinion, who have the audacity to persuade youth from a
search after knowledge. Consider, O youth, that while you are obeying
the dictates of these _all-knowing men_, you are sacrificing your own
opinion at the shrine of _ignorance_. It is ignorance, united with
impudence and conceit, that prompts them to trespass on your judgment.
If they were duly to consider from what source their knowledge
arises--if they would give themselves more time to reflect, and that
with candor, they would find that all their profound search and
erudition is nothing more than a “sounding brass or tinkling symbol.”
And that as long as they suffer themselves to be led by the wrong
principles which some of our ancestors imbibed, they will be considered
as a mere BLANK in society.
I will readily admit, that there are books which, by a constant
application to them, will corrupt and lead astray the minds of youth,
whose principles are not fully established. Yet, are they to be
prohibited from a perusal of those books? No!--But guard them well
against the danger, and then let them examine such authors with
attention and candor. Let their youthful minds bestow on them their just
sentence. By being thus accustomed to judge for themselves, they will be
able with clearness and precision to detect impostors, if any of that
description should attempt to impose on their understandings. That they
will have to combat with such characters at some period of their lives,
is beyond a doubt, then being unprepared to answer them, will they not
expose THEIR folly in obeying the dictates of men who were guided by
self-conceited, superstitious, and bigotted principles. They are
self-conceited, because THEIR knowledge is deemed by them to be
_superior_ to the rest of mankind; superstitious, because they worship
as their gods a select number of books by which their rule of life is
formed, and from which they dare not deviate, least they should by
transgression seal their ruin; bigotted, because they are _callous_ to
the voice of reason, and determined to adhere to their own principles,
however unfounded.--Such are the men to whose care the instruction of
youth has been too often committed; and who, instead of expanding and
cultivating their juvenile minds with useful knowledge, by a thorough
investigation of every book, have bred them up in superstitious
ignorance, preparing them for the reception of every vice, which finally
proves their ruin.