REFLECTIONS ON THE NEW YEAR. 123 the sound of music, and presently I heard a loud knock at my cabin-door: not anticipating any such salutation in a man of war, I could not collect myself soon enough to return the happy new year," which a voice from without bestowed on me. But it broke my sleep, 66 and brought on a train of those reflections, which it is perhaps the wisdom of every man to welcome on the opening of a new year. As I retraced the events of the last twelvemonth I saw much occasion for regret: I found that I had "followed too much the devices and desires of my own heart;" and that many things had been left undone which it was my duty to do. Alas! how often in the course of a man's life will such reflections arise, and how often will they be turned aside and blunted by worldly pleasure and ambition! The current of time is frequently checked by the impediments and restraints of conscience, but it rushes on, rising higher and higher, till the opposing mound is swept away and hurried into the common vortex of oblivion. As pebbles in the stream are the penitentiary regrets of human life-there is a little additional bubble—a momentary tarriance of the waters of 124 REFLECTIONS ON THE NEW YEAR. error, and then all flows on smooth and untroubled as before! My mind recurred to the land of my nativity, with "Thoughts of many, and with fears for some." Surrounded by the ocean, which dashed against the sides of my cabin, and separated by thousands of miles from that community to which I had been so long accustomed and attached, I felt all the uncertainty natural to the situation in which I was placed. My friends!-do they now and then send To tell me, I yet have a friend,— Tho' a friend whom I never may see?" There is nothing which so much soothes and quiets the heart as the belief that some one is interested in its welfare. But then, when I recollect how many, who called themselves my friends in the early spring of youthful affection, have become estranged, and, to all moral purposes, dead to me; when I recal the various chances which may be busy in estranging others, the retrospect almost paralyzes hope, and deadens the activity of every REFLECTIONS ON THE NEW YEAR. kindly feeling. The friends of 125 my childhood are scattered over the world; some of them perhaps deceased:-I know nothing of their fate. The friends of a more advanced age appear but as those who linger on the confines of eternity, as if about to bid a last adieu to the reciprocity of early attachment. Those of the other sex with whom I have had intimacy and correspondence for youth is indiscriminate in its friendships, and feels not the danger that it does not see,-have, one by one, fallen from the list: "star after star decays," and the remembrance of the mild and beautiful light which they afforded, is a source of just regret, while it argues not much for the permanency of those to come. There was change of situation and of pursuits, and of ideas arising from both. Well, at least, I have made other friends; they have been tried, and have not been found wanting,—at least, I believe so. The mind is a plastic thing, and soon associates itself with new forms, and receives new impressions. If they be not so strong, perhaps they are as durable. We grow more careful as we grow older; and observing the fragility of these fine porcelain vases of 126 REFLECTIONS ON THE NEW YEAR. humanity, we touch them with a lighter hand, and use them but on rare occasions. For the future, for the "new year," will it be " happy?" Yes, if it be virtuous. We are less dependent creatures than we believe less the children of circumstance than we wish to suppose ourselves. An undeviating rectitude of character, a strong and rooted principle of religion, will create and then multiply felicity in every varied stage of existence. Like the diamond, religion carries light along with it. It is bright even in "utter darkness," yet let but a beam of temporal prosperity shine there, and mark how gloriously it will sparkle! Without it, the treasure is to the full as valuable; the diamond is equally costly; but then the world's eye overpasses it, and, overpassing it, men fancy that the thing does not really exist! How false and how foolish a mode of estimating worth! The fable of the cock and the jewel, in Æsop, can only be its parallel. The sun rose magnificently this morning, as if celebrating the birth-day of a new year. It gilded the mountains at the entrance of the Gulf of Smyrna, and it irradiated the sea in one long glowing volume. So shines the "Sun SMYRNA-DRESS OF THE ARMENIANS. 127 of Righteousness" upon those who follow his course. The As we passed up the gulf, a vast number of sea-birds were seen disporting themselves; amongst which were pelicans and swans. latter are rare at this period of the year; but in summer they are numerous. A string of camels were reposing upon the shore; and, as the first indication of another continent, even at this distance, gave considerable life to the prospect. We passed a Turkish fort, of singular construction, which commands the bay; and observed huge granite balls lying upon the beach in terrorem, I suppose. A fair wind brought us presently to Smyrna, where we found the Seringapatam, and, before long, the dragoman, an Armenian interpreter, (of which nation the interpreters generally are,) came on board. The dress of the Armenians is peculiar. They wear a sort of high cap, somewhat resembling a double pair of boxing gloves, meeting one another in friendly embrace. A silk or cotton vest, covered by a cloak of ample sleeves, forms also part of their array. With the first opportunity I went on shore, and wandered at random among the narrow and dirty streets of |