Miscellany: Despise Not Small Beginnings

Il isrelatec!, in the Gentlurnan's Magazine, of Cliantry, the celcbmted sculptor, tbat, when a boy, lic was observed by a gentleman in the noighborkood oi Shcfiield, very attentively engaged in cutting a stick with a penknifo. lie asked the lad what he was doing ; when, with great sitnplicity ot marnier but with courtesy, he replied, "Iameutting old Fox's head." Fox was the echoolmaster oí the villagc. On this, the gentleman asked to sec what he had done, and pronouncing it to bc an excellent Hkeness, presented ihc youth with a siepencc. And this may be reckoned the first money Chantry ever receivcd lor the producton6 of his art. Tliisanccdote is but ono of a thousatid that mightbecitcd of as many different men, who, from small beginnings, roso to great stations and influence ; and it shows the iniportance of not despising the day of srnall things, in any condition or circumstances of lifc. All nature, in fact, ia full of instructivo lessons on this point, i which it would be well for us more thoroughly to Btudy and appreciate. ' ■%& The river rolling onward ts accumulatc-il water to the ocean, was in its sniall beginning, but an oozing rill, trickling down soinc mosscovcred rock, and winding, like a silvcr threatl, betwecn the green bauks to which it impartetl verdurc. The tree, that sweeps the air witli its hundred branches, and mocks at the howling of the tempest, was, in its small be'ginñihg, but a littlc seed, trodden under footand unnoticcd. , then n ehoot, that the leaping hare miglu have forever crushcd. Evtry thing around ub tclls ns not to despise small beginnings; for they are the lower rounds of a ladder that reaches to great reeults, ond -wc muat step upon these before we can ascend bigher. Despiac not small beginnings of wealth. The Itothsehilds, Girards. Astor, and most of the richest men, begnn with small means. From cents, they proceeded to dollars : from hundreds to thousands ; from thousands to milliuiis. - Had they neglected these first earnings - had tbey said within themselves, is tho use of savtng these few cents ? they are of not much vnlue, and I will just fipenij'them, and enjoy myselfns I go - they would never have rison to be thecalthieatarnong their Itia only by the .onomical liusbanding of small nicaus iliat they icrense to largc sunis. Il is ilic hurdest pnrt of - iccuss to'ain a link ; iliat lilllc once gained, 01 e will casily follow. ■ Despise not smnll "beginnings of cducaüon. , . Franklin had bnt little carty education ; vet ók nt what hc becanie, and how lic is noiv , enccd. Fcrgiison feeding his'shcep on the liills ' Scotland, picked upnicrely the mdiments o ' arning. btit subsequcntly rose to be one ol the r8t astronoraers iu Europe. Ilerschell. nlso, ie great astronomer, was in his yomh a dnimier-loy to a marching regirncu and reccived . ,it little more thnn a drummer-boy 's education; at his name' is now associated with the brightst discoveries of 6cience, and is -bor.no by the lanet which bis zeal discovered. A host oí in;anccs nseup to tesnfy tlmt, by properly inyirovig the smalLand perhaps imperfect beginnings of j nowjèagejtney may hecorne os faundation-stones l f a temple of learning, which the futuro sliall 1 ... ii aze uponand aclimre. . A rtian can scnrcclybc too avaricious in-theacuisition of knowledgc : hc should hoard up his itollcctual gains with the utmost ossiduity and iligence ; but, unlike the lucre-sceking miser. riust put out his knowledge to usury. and, l.y snding out his stock lo others, increaso by tliis ( ommerce of his thought, bis capital, until lib me Uilcnt shall have bccome live, aud his five lave gained to them oiher five. Despise not the email beginnings of famo or ïonor. The famc which springs up on n sudden, l.ke hc musliroom plant, is scldoni lnsting. True ame anti honor are of sKw, bul generally 8 ure jrowth, ascending hy dugrecs from thelowest ipm to the higliest stations, - from the regard oí x few to the npplauso of a nation. But he who lespises the lower 6tep9 of honor because thej' re low, will eeldom reach the higher ; and ho ivho spnrns 5t the commendation of his own cir;le, as too small i thiiig to séek after, will never secure the eateém and renown of a state or kingJom. Despise not the small beginnings of error. The walls of a castlc have been uii''ermined by the burrowings of small and despised animáis ; and the beginnings of error, tlinugh at first unheeded, will soon. if not checked sap the foundations of truth, and build up their own wretclied dogmas on its ruiii!. All lirst errors are small ; deïpise them not, thoy will soon increase