THE YOUTH’S CABINET.

349

 

A New Taste.

ANKIND have very different tastes,
even in the same neighborhood,
or the same family. I speak,
here, not only of physical or

bodily tastes, but of intellectual and moral
tastes, likewise. And so it is in different
ages, as well as neighborhoods.

Thus we are told of one ancient nation
that regarded carrion as a perfume, and
actually carried it in caskets, in their bo-
soms ; and there is more than one nation
now, whose people, for the most part, love
the taste or smell of tobacco. Then,
again, there have been nearly whole com-
munities, who thought high-heeled boots
or bell-crowned hats in good taste. And
so of a thousand other things.

Two hundred years ago, when the ven-
erable John Eliot, sometimes called the
Indian apostle, was so anxious to teach
the Indians about Boston the study of
anatomy, there was such a want of taste
for knowledge of the kind, that he entirely
failed to procure for them, or induce them
to receive, the necessary instructions.
Whereas, now, in 1850, you will find a
goodly number of persons, who have quite
a taste for anatomy, physiology, and hy-
giene,

A boy under twelve years of age, said
to me the other day: “ Next year I mean
to have a strawberry bed of my own, for
mother says I may.” “ What will you
do with it?” I asked; “for your parents
will supply you with all the strawberries
you need; will they not?” “Oh, yes,”
said he; “ but I want the strawberries to
sell. I want some money.” “Do you
want money ?” I said. “ Yes,” he said ;
“Ido, very much. I wish I could have
a hundred dollars.” “Could you, at your

 

age, make a wise use of such a large sum
of money?” I asked. “I think I could,”
was the reply. “But would you not lay
it out in such a way, as to be sorry for it
afterward?” “No, sir; I think not. I
would buy but one thing with it.” “And
what would that one thing be?” “I
would buy a skeleton.”

Now this boy was, at the time, as sin-
cere as any other boy ever was; and
really felt grieved that he could not have
a human skeleton. And I have heard
him talk about it in the same way, at
other times. How long he will retain his
taste for the study of anatomy, I cannot
tell; but I hope as long as he lives. And
one thing more, I hope, also, which is,
that this taste will soon become general

among us. W. A, ALCOTT.
W est NewrTon, Mass.

 

The Monkey and Telescope—aA Fable.

HE Monkey of a celebrated astrono-
mer, having seen him continually
looking through his telescope, con-
cluded that there must be some-

thing delightful in it, and one day he
gazed through it a long time, but, seeing
nothing, he concluded his master was a
fool, and the telescope all nonsense, and
he told Rover, the dog, what he thought
of his master. “I don’t know the use of
the telescope, nor how wise our master
may be,” said the Dog, “but I am satis-
fied of two things.” “What are they?”
said the Monkey. “ First,” said the Dog,
“that telescopes were not made for Mon-
keys to look through; and second, that
Monkeys were not made to look through

telescopes.”