English language -- Glossaries, vocabularies, etc.; English literature; Readers; Recitations
The song of the canary is not in this country at all like that of the
bird in a state of nature, for it is a kind of compound of notes learned
from other birds. It may be taught to imitate the notes of the
nightingale, by being placed while young with that bird. Care must be
taken that the male parent of the young canary be removed from the nest
before the young ones are hatched, or it will be sure to acquire the
note of its parent. The male birds of all the feathered creation are the
only ones who sing; the females merely utter a sweet chirrup or chirp,
so that from the hen canary the bird will run no risk of learning its
natural note.
* * * * *
INDUSTRY AND APPLICATION.
Diligence, industry, and proper improvement of time are material duties
of the young. To no purpose are they endowed with the best abilities, if
they want activity for exerting them. Unavailing, in this case, will be
every direction that can be given them, either for their temporal or
spiritual welfare. In youth the habits of industry are most easily
acquired; in youth the incentives to it are strong, from ambition and
from duty, from emulation and hope, from all the prospects which the
beginning of life affords. If, dead to these calls, you already languish
in slothful inaction, what will be able to quicken the more sluggish
current of advancing years? Industry is not only the instrument of
improvement, but the foundation of pleasure. Nothing is so opposite to
the true enjoyment of life as the relaxed and feeble state of an
indolent mind. He who is a stranger to industry, may possess, but he
cannot enjoy. For it is labour only which gives the relish to pleasure.
It is the appointed vehicle of every good man. It is the indispensable
condition of our possessing a sound mind in a sound body. Sloth is so
inconsistent with both, that it is hard to determine whether it be a
greater foe to virtue or to health and happiness. Inactive as it is in
itself, its effects are fatally powerful. Though it appear a
slowly-flowing stream, yet it undermines all that is stable and
flourishing. It not only saps the foundation of every virtue, but pours
upon you a deluge of crimes and evils.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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