So home the clown with his good fortune went, And quickly soaped himself to ears and eyes. 4. Being well lathered from a dish or tub, 'Twas a vile razor! Then the rest he tried: All were impostors. "Ah!" Hodge sighed ; 5. Hodge sought the fellow, found him, and begun : "P'r'aps, Master Razor-rogue, to you 'tis fun That people flay themselves out of their lives. Sirrah, I tell you you're a knave, 6. "Friend," quoth the razor-man, “I'm not a knave. As for the razors you have bought, Upon my soul I never thought That they would shave." "Not think they'd shave!" quoth Hodge, with wonder ing eyes, And voice not much unlike an Indian yell; "What were they made for, then, you dog?" he cries. "Made!" quoth the fellow, with a smile,-" to sell." DEFINITIONS.-2. Bump'kin, an awkward, heavy rustic. 4. Impos'tors, cheats. 5. Flay, to skin. 89.-CHARACTER OF MAHOMET. EDWARD GIBBON was born at Putney, England, April 27, 1737. He went to Magdalen College, Oxford, but remained there only a short time, completing his studies in Switzerland. In 1776 he published the first volume of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and finished this great work in 1787. His style is terse and powerful, and displays the vast learning of the writer. Guizot says of him, "Few men have combined, if we are not to say in so high a degree, at least in a manner so complete and so well regulated, the necessary qualifications of a writer of history." He died January 16, 1794. 1. ACCORDING to the tradition of his companions, Mahomet was distinguished by the beauty of his person,-an outward gift which is seldom despised, except by those to whom it has been refused. Before he spoke, the orator engaged on his side the affections of a public or private audience. They applauded his commanding presence, his majestic aspect, his piercing eye, his gracious smile, his flowing beard, his countenance, that painted every sensation of the soul, and his gestures, that enforced each expression of the tongue. 2. In the familiar offices of life he scrupulously adhered to the grave and ceremonious politeness of his country: his respectful attention to the rich and powerful was dignified by his condescension and affability to the poorest citizens of Mecca; the frankness of his manner concealed the artifice of his views, and the habits of courtesy were imputed to personal friendship or universal benevolence. His memory was capacious and retentive; his wit, easy and social; his imagination, sublime; his judgment, clear, rapid, and decisive. He possessed the courage both of thought and action; and, although his designs might gradually expand with his success, the first idea which he entertained of his divine mission bears the stamp of an original and superior genius. 3. The son of Abdallah was educated in the bosom of the noblest race, in the use of the purest dialect of Arabia, and the fluency of his speech was corrected and enhanced by the practice of discreet and seasonable silence. With these powers of eloquence, Mahomet was an illiterate barbarian: his youth had never been instructed in the arts of reading and writing; the common ignorance exempted him from shame or reproach, but he was reduced to a narrow circle of existence and deprived of those faithful mirrors which reflect to our mind the minds of sages and heroes. Yet the book of nature and of man was open to his view; and some fancy has been indulged in the political and philosophical observations which are ascribed to the Arabian traveler. 4. He compares the nations and the religions of the earth, discovers the weakness of the Persian and Roman monarchies, beholds with pity and indignation the degeneracy of the times, and resolves to unite under one God and one king the invincible spirit and primitive virtues of the Arabs. Our more accurate inquiry will suggest that, instead of visiting the courts, the camps, the temples of the East, the two journeys of Mahomet into Syria were confined to the fairs of Bostra and Damascus, that he was only thirteen years of age when he accompanied the caravan of his uncle, and that his duty compelled him to return as soon as he had disposed of the merchandise of Cadijah. 5. In these hasty and superficial excursions the eye of genius might discern some objects invisible to his grosser companions; some seeds of knowledge might be cast upon a fruitful soil; but his ignorance of the Syriac language must have checked his curiosity, and I cannot perceive in the life or writings of Mahomet that his prospect was far extended beyond the limits of the Arabian world. 6. From every region of that solitary world the pilgrims of Mecca were annually assembled by the calls of devotion and commerce; in the free concourse of multitudes, a simple citizen in his native tongue might study the political state and character of the tribes, the theory and practice of the Jews and Christians. Some useful strangers might be tempted or forced to implore the rights of hospitality; and the enemies of Mahomet have named the Jew, the Persian, and the Syrian monk, whom they accuse of lending their secret aid to the composition of the Koran. 7. Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius; and the uniformity of a work denotes the hand of a single artist. From his earliest youth Mahomet was addicted to religious contemplation; each year, during the month of Ramadan, he withdrew from the world and from the arms of Cadijah. In the cave of Hera, three miles from Mecca, he consulted the spirit of fraud or enthusiasm, whose abode is not in the heavens, but in the mind of the Prophet. The faith which, under the name of Islam, he preached to his family and nation is compounded of an eternal truth and a necessary fiction, -that there is only one God, and that Mahomet is the apostle of God. Im DEFINITIONS.-2. Seru'pu loŭs ly, with great exactness. put'ed, charged. 3. En hånçed', increased. Il lit'er ate, unlearned. Ex emp'ted, freed or released. 4. De ġěn ́er a çy, loss of goodness. Prim'i tive, belonging to the early times. 7. Ad diet ́ed, accustomed. NOTES.-1. Ma hom'et, or Mo hăm'med, was born at Mecca, Arabia, about the year 570 A. D., and was the son of a poor merchant named Ab dǎl'láh. In his fortieth year he claimed to have received his first revelation as embodied in the Koran. He died in 632. €ä dï'jäh was one of his wives. 7. Răm a dăn', the great annual fast or Lent of the Mohammedans. İş'lam, the religion of Mohammed; and also the whole body of those who profess it throughout the world. 90.-ON WHITEWASHING. FRANCIS HOPKINSON was born in Philadelphia in 1737. He was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and a writer of ability. His style is elegant, and his writings abound in humor. He died in 1791. 1. WHEN a young couple are about to enter on the matrimonial state, a never-failing article in the marriage treaty is that the lady shall have and enjoy the free and unmolested exercise of the rights of whitewashing, with all its ceremonials, privileges, and appurtenances. A young woman would forego the most advantageous connection, and even disappoint the warmest wish of her heart, rather than resign the invaluable right. You will wonder what this privilege of whitewashing is; I will endeavor to give you an idea of the ceremony, as I have seen it performed. 2. There is no season of the year in which the lady may not claim her privilege, if she pleases; but the latter end of May is most generally fixed upon for the purpose. The attentive husband may judge by certain prognostics when the storm is nigh at hand. When the lady is unusually fretful, finds fault with the servants, is discontented with the children, and complains much of the filthiness of thing about her, these are signs which ought not to be neglected; yet they are not decisive, as they sometimes come on and go off again without producing any further effect. every 3. But if, when the husband rises in the morning, he should observe in the yard a wheelbarrow with a quantity of lime in it, or should see certain buckets with lime dissolved in water, there is then no time to be lost. He immediately locks up the apartment or closet where his papers or his private property is kept, and, putting the key in his |