LXI.-SMALL BEGINNINGS NOT TO BE
DESPISED.

1. Despise not the day of small things. This sentence contains much wisdom and philosophy. It is very easy and natural to sneer at small beginnings and humble means; but it is not always wise to do so. It is better to commence on a humble scale, and come out in good style at last, than to suffer a severe collapse after an extensive and ridiculous flourish..

2. We have heard it told of a man worth his millions, that he commenced by selling fruit at a street stall. We have seen boys at school roll a handful of snow on the ground, till, by its accumulated matter, it became so bulky that a dozen could scarcely move it. Sands make the mountains, moments make the year, drops make the ocean, and so little endeavors, earnestly, unceasingly, and honestly put forth, make the great men in the world's history.

3. We say, then, do not despise the day of small things. If you have an undertaking to accomplish, or a good thing to bring about, begin according to your means, and never be discouraged because you can not make so magnificent a commencement as you could wish. Old King John, the Frenchman, five hundred years ago, conceived the idea of founding a library, and he began with what do you suppose?-two volumes! But he knew what he was about; for that library — the Royal Library of Paris-is now the most magnificent public library in the world, and contains 1,000,000 volumes!

4. A whale one day came frolicking into the harbor of Nantucket, a short time after the first settlement of that island; and as it continued there for many hours the enterprising inhabitants were induced to contrive

and prepare a large barbed iron with a strong cord attached, with which they finally succeeded in securing this aquatic monster. A small matter, truly; but it was the commencement of a business which has added millions to the wealth of the people.

5. Two fishermen in Holland once had a dispute in a tavern, on the question whether the fish takes the hook, or the hook takes the fish. From this trivial circumstance arose two opposing parties, the "Hooks" and the "Cobble-Joints," who for two centuries, divided the nation, and maintained a contest not unlike that between the red and the white roses in England.

6. There is a traditionary counterpart to this in our own history. We allude to the story of the pig, whose stupid obstinacy, we are gravely told, involved us in a war with Great Britain, in 1812. There is nothing incredible about it, however; and as many of our readers may not have heard the anecdote we will venture to repeat it.

7. Two neighbors, both of the old federal school of politics, who lived in the city of Providence, chanced to quarrel; and it so happened that one was the owner of a pig, which had an irresistible inclination to perambulate in the garden of the other. The owner of the garden complained. The neighbor replied that the pig troubled him because he kept his fences in such ill repair. One morning soon after, the pig was surprised in the act of rooting up some very valuable bulbous roots. This was the last "feather;" the owner of the garden put a pitchfork into his tender sides, and killed him outright.

8. At the coming election, the owner of the garden was a candidate for a seat in the Legislature, and failed by one vote the vote of his incensed neighbor, who voted against him. At the election of a senator, the

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democratic candidate was elected by one vote; and when the question of war with England was before the senate, it was declared by the majority of one vote; so that but for this pig we should probably have been saved from this war.

9. It is related of Chantrey, the celebrated sculptor, that, when a boy, he was one day observed by a gentleman, in the neighborhood of Sheffield, very earnestly engaged in cutting a stick with a penknife. This gentleman asked the lad what he was doing, and, with great simplicity, the boy replied, "I am cutting old Fox's head." Fox was the schoolmaster of the village.

10. On this, the gentleman asked to see what he had done, and pronouncing it an excellent likeness, presented the youth a sixpence. This may be reckoned as the first money Chantrey ever received for the production of his art; and from such a beginning it was that one of the greatest of modern artists arose.

11. Again we say, despise not small beginnings, nor look with supercilious contempt upon every thing which appears insignificant and trifling. Trifles are not so plenty in this world as many of us imagine. A philosopher has observed that wars, involving mischief to great nations, have arisen from a ministerial dispatch being written in a fit of indigestion! When Alexander Pope received his present of Turkey figs, he little thought that a twig from the basket was to be the means of introducing the weeping willow into England and America ; but so it was.

12. And so it is that this world, in all its various departments, is made up of and governed by trifles too small at first to attract notice. The wise man will not only cultivate sharp eyes, but attentive habits, and make the most and the best of every thing, however insignificant it may seem to be.

LXII.-AN APRIL DAY.

1. All day the low-hung clouds have dropt
Their garnered fullness down;

All day that soft gray mist hath wrapt
Hill, valley, grove and town.
There has not been a sound to-day
To break the calm of nature:
Nor motion, I might almost say,
Of life or living creature;

Of waving bow, or warbling bird,
Or cattle faintly lowing;

I could have half believed I heard

The leaves and blossoms growing.

2. I stood to hear, I love it well,
The rain's continuous sound;

Small drops, but thick and fast they fell,
Down straight into the ground.

For leafy thickness is not yet

Earth's naked breast to screen,
Though every dripping branch is set

With shoots of tender green.

Sure, since I looked at early morn,

Those honeysuckle buds

Have swelled to double growth; that thorn

Hath put forth larger studs;

That lilac's cleaving cones have burst,

The milk-white flowers revealing;

Even now upon my senses first

Methinks their sweets are stealing.

3. The very earth, the steamy air
Is all with fragrance rife;

And grace and beauty everywhere
Are flushing into life.

Down, down they come, those fruitful stores!
Those earth-rejoicing drops

A momentary deluge pours,

Then thins decreases stops;

And ere the dimples on the stream
Have circled out of sight,

Lo! from the west a parting gleam
Breaks forth of amber light.
But yet behold! abrupt and loud
Comes down the glittering rain;
The farewell of a passing cloud,
The fringes of her train.

G. CHAUCER,

LXIII. DEATH OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON.*

1. A short time since, and he who is the occasion of our sorrows was the ornament of his country. He stood on an eminence, and glory covered him. From that eminence he has fallen - suddenly, forever fallen. His intercourse with the living world is now ended; and those who would hereafter find him must seek him in the grave.

2. There, cold and lifeless, is the heart which just now was the seat of friendship; there, dim and sightless, is the eye whose radiant and enlivening orb beamed with

*An eminent American statesman and writer, born in 1757. He was a member of the convention that formed the constitution of the United States; afterwards secretary of the United States treasury; and in 1799, on the death of Washington, he succeeded to the chief command of the United States army. On the 11th of July, 1804, he was shot, and fell mortally wounded, at Hoboken, N. J., in a duel with Aaron Burr. He died in the afternoon of the next day. His death caused a sensation surpassed only by the tragic death of Abraham Lincoln; for in his death the nation lost a good man of transcendent abilities, and one in whom the people had the greatest confidence.