The new year to which we have just been introduced is, in one sense, a perfect stranger, though we have long been intimate with the _family_ to which it belongs, and of course have some general acquaintance with certain features of its character, leading us to anticipate its promises and its failure to perform them in many instances,--its smiles and its tears--its flatteries and its frowns--its gaieties and hopes--its gradual decline--decay and dissolution:--but we have abundant reason too for indulging the belief that we may enjoy thousands of blessings, if we are disposed to cherish proper feelings--to be kind and courteous and obliging, and ever on our guard to avoid unnecessarily wounding the feelings of others; ever ready to acknowledge the favors we receive, and render a suitable return. How easily all this may be done! How often is it grossly neglected! He who consults _his own_ ease and comfort cannot in any manner attain the desired result so readily and certainly, as by habitually consulting the ease and comfort of others, with whom he is in the habit of associating: and this is true politeness also. A man who is dissatisfied with himself and those around him, and laboring under the darkening influence of disturbed or morose feelings "may travel from Dan to Beersheba and say it is all barren;"--to him it will appear so; and the effect would be the same if his journey lay amidst the most delightful scenes of rural beauty. The seasons of the year all give their annual _lessons_ for instruction: It is our wisdom to regard them carefully. _Spring_ summons us all to cheerful activity, with assurances that our labor will not be in vain. _Summer_ performs what _Spring_ had promised, and shews us the advantage of listening to early instruction and wisely improving it. Ten thousand songsters are filling the branches with their animating strains of music and gratitude, and teaching us to enjoy, as they do, the countless blessings and bounties of nature; _their_ music is never failing--nor do we see it ending in _discords_. Let us all, as we journey onward together through the year, learn to tune our _hearts_ as they do their _voices_, and pass the fleeting period in harmony, and in that _cheerfulness_ which the excellent Addison has honored with the name of a _continual expression of gratitude to Heaven_. In Germany the _study_ and _practice_ of music are general among the people. Besides other advantages resulting from making music a part of common education, it is not romantic or utopian to observe that it teaches how easily music--pure and surpassing music--may be made on the _same_ instrument, which under an ignorant or purposed touch will send forth discords in prodigious varieties. He who has become _acquainted_ with the instrument, though not a _master_ of it, well knows how to _avoid_ those combinations of sound which are painful to the ear, and often tend to disturb feelings and passions.