SABINUS AND OLINDA.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH.

1. In a fair, rich, and flourishing country, whose cliffs are washed by the German Ocean,' lived Sabinus, a youth formed by nature to make a conquest wherever he thought proper; but the constancy of his disposition fixed him only with Olin da. He was, indeed, superior to her in fortune; but that defect on her side was so amply supplied by her merit, that none was thought more worthy of his regards than she. He loved her, he was beloved by her; and, in a short time, by joining hands publicly, they avowed the union of their hearts.

2. But, alas! none, however fortunate, however happy, are exempt from the shafts of envy, and the malignant effects of ungoverned appetite. How unsafe, how detestable are they who have this fury for their guide! How certainly will it lead them from themselves, and plunge them in errors they would have shuddered at, even in apprehension!

3. Ariana, a lady of many amiable qualities, very nearly allied to Sabinus, and highly esteemed by him, imagined herself slighted, and injuriously treated, since his marriage with Olinda. By incautiously suffering this jealousy to corrode in her breast, she began to give a loose to passion; she forgot those many virtues for which she had been so long and so justly applauded.

4. Causeless suspicion and mistaken resentment betrayed her into all the gloom of discontent: she sighed without ceasing; the happiness of others gave her intolerable pain; she thought of nothing but revenge. How unlike what she was, the cheerful, the prudent, the compassionate Ariana! She continually labored to disturb a union so firmly, so affectionately founded, and planned every scheme which she thought most likely to disturb it.

5. Fortune seemed willing to promote her unjust intentions. The circumstances of Sabinus had long been embar rassed by a tedious lawsuit, and, the court determining the

cause unexpectedly in favor of his opponent, it sunk his for. tune to the lowest pitch of penury from the highest affluence. From the nearness of relationship, Sabinus expected from Ariana those assistances his present situation required; but she was insensible to all his entreaties, and the justice of every remonstrance, unless he first separated from Olinda, whom she regarded with detestation.

6. Upon a compliance with her desires in this respect, she promised that her fortune, her interest, and her all, should be at his command. Sabinus was shocked at the proposal; he loved his wife with inexpressible tenderness, and refused those offers with indignation, which were to be purchased at so high a price. Ariana was no less displeased to find her offers rejected, and gave a loose to all that warmth which she had long endeavored to suppress. Reproach generally produces recrimination; the quarrel rose to such a hight, that Sabinus was marked for destruction, and the very next day, upon the strength of an old family debt, he was sent to jail, with none but Olinda to comfort him in his miseries.

7. In this mansion of distress they lived together with resignation and even with comfort. She provided the frugal meal, and he read to her while employed in the little offices of domestic concern. Their fellow-prisoners admired their contentment, and, whenever they had a desire of relaxing into mirth, and enjoying those little comforts that a prison af fords, Sabinus and Olinda were sure to be of the party.

8. Instead of reproaching each other for their mutual wretchedness, they both lightened it by bearing each a share of the load imposed by Providence.' Whenever Sabinus showed the least concern on his dear partner's account, she conjured' him by the love he bore her, by those tender ties which now united them forever, not to discompose himself; that so long as his affection lasted, she defied all the ills of fortune, and every loss of fame or friendship; that nothing could make her miserable but his seeming to want happiness, nothing pleased, but his sympathizing with her pleasure.

9. A continuance in prison soon robbed them of the little they had left, and famine began to make its horrid appearance, yet still was neither found to murmur; they both looked upon their little boy, who, insensible of their or his own dis tress, was playing about the room, with inexpressible, yet silent anguish, when a messenger came to inform them, that Ariana was dead, and that her will, in favor of a very distant relation, who was now in another country, might easily be procured and burned, in which case all her large fortune would revert to him, as being the next heir at law.

10. A proposal of so base a nature filled our unhappy couple with horror; they ordered the messenger immediately out of the room, and falling upon each other's neck, indulged an agony of sorrow, for now even all hopes of relief were banished. The messenger who made the proposal, however, was only a spy sent by Ariana to sound the dispositions of a man she loved at once and persecuted.

11. This lady, though warped by wrong passions, was naturally kind, judicious, and friendly. She found that all her attempts to shake the constancy or the integrity of Sabinus, were ineffectual; she had, therefore, begun to reflect, and to wonder how she could so long and so unprovoked injure such uncommon fortitude and affection.

12. She had, from the next room, herself heard the reception given to the messenger, and could not avoid feeling all the force of superior virtue; she, therefore, re-assumed her former goodness of heart; she came into the room with tears in her eyes, and acknowledged the severity of her former treatment. She bestowed the first, care in providing them all the necessary supplies, and acknowledged them as the most deserving heirs of her fortune.

13. From this moment, Sabinus enjoyed an uninterrupted happiness with Olinda, and both were happy in the friendship and assistance of Ariana; who, dying soon after, left them in possession of a large estate, and, in her last moments, confessed that virtue was the only path to true glory,

and that, however innocence may for a time be depressed, a steady perseverance will, in time, lead it to a certain victory.

EXERCISE IV.

1. HOL'-I-DAY, (that is, holy day,) is, literally, a holy day, or day set apart to sacred uses; hence it came to indicate a day of exemption from ordinary labors or occupation, and thence, also, a day of joy and festivity or amusement. It is often written holyday.

2. SIR FRANCIS BACON, Baron of Verulam, was born at London in 1561, and died in 1626. He is celebrated as a great reformer of philosophy, or, rather, of the modes of conducting philosophical inquiries.

3. O-LYM'-PI-AN VICTORS, that is, victors in the Olympic games, which were celebrated every fifth year at Olympia, a sacred spot on the banks of the Alpheus, near Elis in ancient Greece.

THE PROPER EDUCATION FOR FEMALES.

HANNAH MORE.

1. Since there is a season when the youthful must cease to be young, and the beautiful to excite admiration; to learn how to grow old gracefully is, perhaps, one of the rarest and most valuable arts which can be taught to woman. And, it must be confessed, it is a most severe trial for those women to be called to lay down beauty, who have nothing else to take up. It is for this sober season of life that education should lay up its rich resources. However disregarded they may hitherto have been, they will be wanted now.

2. When admirers fall away, and flatterers become mute, the mind will be compelled to retire into itself; and, if it find no entertainment at home, it will be driven back again upon the world with increased force. Yet, forgetting this, do we not seem to educate our daughters exclusively for the transient period of youth, when it is to maturer life we ought to advért? Do we not educate them for a crowd, forgetting that they are to live at home? for the world, and not for

themselves? for show, and not for úse? for tíme, and not for etérnity?

3. Not a few of the evils of the present day arise from a new and perverted application of terms; among these, perhaps, there is not one more abused, misunderstood, or misapplied, than the term accomplishments. This word, in its original meaning, signifies completeness, perfection. But I may safely appeal to the observation of mankind, whether they do not meet with swarms of youthful females, issuing from our boarding-schools, as well as emerging from the more private scenes of domestic education, who are introduced into the world under the broad and universal title of accomplished young ladies, of all of whom it can not very truly and correctly be pronounced, that they illustrate the definition by a completeness which leaves nothing to be added, and a perfection which leaves nothing to be desired.

4. It would be well, if we would reflect, that we have to educate not only rational, but accountable beings; and, remembering this, should we not be solicitous to let our daughters learn of the well-taught, and associate with the wellbred? In training them, should we not carefully cultivate intellect, implant religion, and cherish modésty? Then, whatever is engaging in manners, would be the natural result of whatever is just in sentiment and correct in principle; softness would grow out of humility, and external delicacy would spring from purity of heart. Then the decorums, the proprieties, the elegancies, and even the graces, as far as they are simple, pure, and honest, would follow as an almost inevitable consequence; for to follow in the train of the Christian virtues, and not to take the lead of them, is the proper place which religion assigns to the graces.

5. Whether we have made the best use of the errors of our predecessors, and of our own numberless advantages, and whether the prevailing system be really consistent with sound policy, true taste, or Christian principle, it may be worth cur while to inquire.