[figure description] Page 007.[end figure description]

Sidney Romilly, the eldest of a numerous family,
was a native of New Hampshire. The local situation
of the little village in which he was born, offered few
temptations to the speculator, and the soil promised no
indulgence to the idle; but it abundantly repaid the
industrious cultivator. It was therefore inhabited, almost
exclusively, by husbandmen, who tilled their own farms
with their own hands, laboring actively six days in the
week, and on the seventh, offering, to that Being who
alone could crown their labors with success, the unfeigned
homage of contented minds and grateful hearts.

In short, some twenty or thirty years since, the inhabitants
of this retired place displayed, in the simplicity
and purity of their manners and morals, a model, which
Jeremiah Belknap, when describing so admirably what

[figure description] Page 008.[end figure description]

constituted a “happy society,” might have quoted as an
illustration of his “picture.”

Among this unsophisticated people, where men are
esteemed more for merit and usefulness, than rank and
wealth, James Romilly, Esq., the father of our hero, was
a very honorable man; yet it was not wealth which gave
him consideration, for he was only what is called in middling
circumstances, and the deference with which he was
treated was the more gratifying as he knew it to be an
unpurchasable tribute paid by freemen to his abilities
and integrity.

He, like almost all the New England yeomanry, married
young, and lived most happily with his wife; for
she was the woman of his choice, and truly and faithfully
a helpmeet for him in his labors, and a tried and discreet
friend, in whose sympathy and counsels he found
he might always rely.

When they first came to reside on their farm, it was
almost a wilderness; but unremitting industry soon
altered its appearance—the thrifty orchard occupied the
place of the maple forest, the garden bloomed where the
wild briar had sprung, and a comfortable house quite
eclipsed the log hut, which had, at first, afforded them
shelter.

But the complacency with which Mr. Romilly surveyed
the outside of his new habitation, was nothing to
the pleasure he enjoyed while contemplating the beloved
and happy faces within; and among a family of fine
promising children, his dearest hope, perhaps unconsciously,
rested on the eldest.

There is an emotion of the soul awakened at the birth
of the first-born, which seems to place that child in a
nearer connexion with the parents than any subsequent
offspring; and in most civilized countries, the laws give
the eldest some peculiar privileges, as the right of birth.

The wisdom or justice of such regulations, however, it
is not now my intention to discuss. I would only remark,
that if parental partiality was ever justifiable, the parents
of young Sidney might well be excused for selecting

[figure description] Page 009.[end figure description]

him as their favorite. He was very handsome, and
although personal beauty is of little consequence to the
man, it gives much interest to the child. In the spring,
who does not like to gaze on the most beautiful flowers?
But yet it is the intelligence and vivacity displayed in
the countenance that create the strongest interest, as the
odor of the flower is prized more than the beauty of its
tints, because we know it will longer continue.

Sidney, even from infancy, exhibited uncommon aptitude
for learning, and it is not strange if his parents, at
least, should think his large, luminous eyes and expansive
forehead gave promise of uncommon genius; he
was, besides, very docile and sweet-tempered; what was
considered most remarkable, his father often declared he
never heard him tell an untruth, nor even attempt the
least prevarication.

Falsehood may be termed the besetting sin of infancy,
and the child who has the mental courage to adhere
strictly to truth, even when it may expose his own faults
to punishment, certainly deserves our warmest admiration,
and gives the most unequivocal promise of future
excellence.

Indeed, the only fault of our little hero, (which in a
child would scarcely appear one) was the facility with
which he yielded his own opinions and inclinations to
the perseverance or persuasions of others. A boy of this
facile, generous temper, which melts like wax, is liable
to every impression, and requires more constant watchfulness,
and unremitting restraint, than those sturdy, stubborn,
self-willed varlets, who, by turbulent opposition to
necessary regulations, perhaps often require punishment.
The former is always liable to adopt the faults of others,
which the latter from his very stubbornness resists.

It must not, however, be inferred from this, that a condescending
temper is a misfortune; it only becomes so
by mismanagement. Chiefly because parents or guardians,
weary of the task of rational discipline and instruction,
relax whenever they can without immediate
inconvenience; and although they may be sufficiently

[figure description] Page 010.[end figure description]

assiduous to drive out the evil spirit, seem to forget it is
necessary to be equally alert to prevent its re-entering.

The tree that grows straight of itself, seems to require
no care of the gardener, yet its very luxuriance often prevents
its becoming fruitful; while the crooked, crabbed
shrub, that requires constant pruning and grafting, becomes
at length a sightly tree, producing abundantly, and
of the best quality. “But these observations are out of
place here,” says the novel reader; “reserve them for a
treatise on education.”

Mr. Romilly was well read in English history, and from
admiration of the splendid talents and devoted patriotism
of the famous Algernon Sidney, selected the same name
for his own son. He would have given him both names,
but Mrs. Romilly objected seriously to Algernon. It
sounded, she said, too much like “Algerine,” and she
detested it.

Her husband, laughing, told her he had no fear of their
son turning pirate; “but,” added he, “I dislike double
names myself, and so, if you please, we will call him only
Sidney.”

And Sidney he was called; and although Mr. Romilly
was a man of too much sense to imagine a certain combination
of letters would impart qualities to the mind of
his boy, yet the noble sentiments and exalted character
of the British statesman were so inwoven in his memory
with the name of Sidney, that, at times, when pronouncing
it, he would almost feel an assurance of his own son's
future usefulness and distinction.

Indeed, few conditions in this world of care can be
imagined more enviable than that of Mr. Romilly, when
of a winter evening, with every chore done, he seated
himself before a “rousing fire,” “monarch of all he surveyed,”
and listening to the roaring of the tempest without,
contrasted it with the peace, plenty, and security
reigning within.

The ample fire-place, piled with wood, soon sent forth
a blaze which illuminated every corner and object in a
neat and comfortably-furnished apartment; his wife, with

[figure description] Page 011.[end figure description]

her knitting-work in her hand, or work-basket beside
her, looked the presiding genius of domestic felicity, and
his children, their little faces bright and beautiful as animated
innocence could make them, sported around him;
all eager to share his caresses, or listen to the stories he
related. It was at such seasons, he often repeated those
lines from Cowper, (for Cowper was his favorite poet):

Thus smoothly passed the years over the happy dwelling
of the Romillys, bringing no changes save those quiet
and expected ones which the heart anticipates and blesses,
and affording no diversity except in the occasional absences
from home, which, to Mr. Romilly, public business
made necessary.

The bustle of political life was not at all congenial to
his disposition or habits; but he considered every freeman
under sacred obligations to serve his country whenever
and in whatever manner she required his services;
and the confidence of his own townsmen placed him,
almost every year, in some office, which, had he consulted
his inclination or interest, he would unhesitatingly have
refused. These separations from his family and farm,
were the only interruptions to the domestic happiness of
Mr. Romilly, which occurred till Sidney had entered his
twelfth year, beloved and praised not only by his own
parents, but the whole neighborhood.

But there always “lurks some wish in every heart,”
and many who can truly estimate the world for themselves,
will yet overrate it for their children; and thus
Mr. Romilly, although he was indifferent to public honors
for himself, and felt convinced that happiness seldom resided
in the bosoms of the ambitious and celebrated, yet
he ardently desired to give Sidney an opportunity of distinguishing
himself. For this purpose he was daily planning
how to bestow on him a liberal education.

Literature is the star and garter of a Yankee. It
claims precedence and gains privileges to which wealth

[figure description] Page 012.[end figure description]

alone is not entitled. This Mr. Romilly well knew. His
own education had, in youth, been neglected; but good,
natural sense, a sound judgment, and uncommon taste
for reading, in a great measure supplied the deficiency;
at least, it enabled him to discharge much of the public
business of his own town to the entire satisfaction of his
employers, and he had twice sat in the Legislature of
New Hampshire, as a representative. But there he met
with superiors, and although he was, by nature, remarkably
free from an envious or repining disposition, yet he
could not avoid feeling some mortification while comparing
his own acquirements with those of “College learned”
men; and he resolved to hazard suffering almost any
inconvenience, rather than Sidney should thus be cast
into the shade for the want of understanding a Latin
quotation, or a reference to the customs of antiquity.

p561-016

Previous section

Next section