houfe of mourning. Short, to the licentious, is the interval between them.

It is of great importance to us, to form a proper estimate of human life; without either loading it with imaginary evils, or expecting from it greater advantages than it is able to yield.

Among all our corrupt paffions, there is a strong and intimate connection. When any one of them is adopted into our family, it feldom quits us until it has fathered upon us all its kindred.

harity, like the fun, brightens every object on which it fhines; a cenforious difpofition cafts every character into the darkeft fhade it will bear.

Many men mistake the love, for the practice of virtue; and are not fo much good men, as the friends of goodness. Genuine virtue has a language that fpeaks to every heart throughout the world. It is a language which is underftood by all. In every region, every clime, the homage paid to it is the fame. In no one fentiment were ever mankind more generally agreed.

The appearances of our fecurity are frequently deceitful. When our sky feems most fettled and ferene, in fome unobferved quarter gathers the little black cloud in which the tempeft ferments, and prepares to discharge itself on our head.

The man of true fortitude may be compared to the castle built on a rock, which defies the attacks of furrounding waters: the man of a feeble and timorous fpirit, to a hut placed on the fhore, which every wind fhakes, and every wave overflows.

Nothing is fo inconfiftent with felf poffeffion as violent anger. It overpowers reafon; confounds our ideas; diftorts the appearance, and blackens the colour, of every object. By the ftorm which it rifes within, and by the mifchis which it occafions without, it generally brings on the paffion t ate and revengeful man, greater mifery than he can bring of the object of his refentment.

The palace of virtue, has, in all ages, been reprefented as placed on the fummit of a hill; in the afcent of which, labour is requifite, and difficulties are to be fumounted; and where a conductor is needed, to direct, our way, and to aid our steps.

In judging of others, let us always think the best, and employ the spirit of charity and candour. But in judging of ourfelves, we ought to be exact and severe.

Let him that defires to fee others happy, make hafte to give while his gift can be enjoyed; and remember, that every moment of delay, takes away fomething from the value of his benefaction. And let him who propofes his own happinefs reflect, that while he forms his purpose, the day rolls on, and "the night cometh, when no man can work."

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To fenfual perfons, hardly any thing is what it appears to be and what flatters moft, is always fartheft from reality. There are voices which fing around them; but whofe ftrains allure to ruin. There is a banquet fpread, where poison is in every dish. There is a couch which invites them to repofe; but the flumber upon it, is death.

If we would judge whether a man is really happy, it is not folely to his houses and lands, to his equipage and his retinue, we are to look. Unlefs we could fee farther, and difcern what joy, or what bitterness, his heart feels, we can pronounce little concerning him.

The book is well written; and I have perufed it with pleafure and profit. It fhows, firft, that true devotion is rational and well founded; next, that it is of the highest importance to every other part of religion and virtue; and, laftly, that it is moft conducive to our happiness.

There is certainly no greater felicity, than to be able to look back on á life ufefully and virtuously employed; to trace our own progrefs in existence, by fuch tokens as excite neither fhame nor forrow. It ought therefore to be the care of those who wish to pass the laft hours with comfort, to lay fuch a treasure of pleafing ideas, as fhall fupport the expenfes of that time, which is to depend wholly upon the fund already acquired.

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SECTION V.

WHAT avails the fhow of external liberty, to one who has loft the government of himself?

He that cannot live well to day, (fays Martial,) will be lefs qualified to live well to-morrow.

Can we efteem that man profperous, who is raised to a fituation which flatters his paffions, but which corrupts his

principles, diforders his temper, and, finally, overfets his virtue ?

What mifery does the vicious man fecretly endure !-Adverfity how blunt are all the arrows of thy quiver, in comparifon with thofe of guilt!

When we have no pleasure in goodness, we may with certainty conclude the reafon to be, that our pleasure is all derived from an oppofite quarter.

How ftrangely are the opinions of men altered, by a change in their condition!

How many have had reafon to be thankful, for being difappointed in defigns which they earneftly purfued, but which, if fuccefsfully accomplished, they have afterwards feen, would have occafioned their ruin !

What are the actions which afford in the remembrance a rational fatisfaction? Are they the purfuits of fenfual pleafure, the riots of jollity, or the difplays of fhow and vanity? No I appeal to your hearts, my friends, if what you recollect with moft pleafure, are not the innocent, the virtuous, the honourable parts of your paft life.

The prefent employment of time should frequently be an object of thought. About what are we now bufied? What is the ultimate fcope of our prefent purfuits and cares? Can we juftify them to ourselves! Are they likely to produce any thing that will furvive the moment, and bring forth fome fruit for futurity?

Is it not ftrange, (fays an ingenious writer,) that fome perfons fhould be fo delicate as not to bear a difagreeable picture in the houfe, and yet by their behaviour, force every face they fee about them, to wear the gloom of uneafinefs and difcontent?

If we are now in health, peace, and fafety; without any particular or uncommon evils to afflict our condition; what more can we reasonably look for in this vain and uncertain world? How little can the greateft profperity add to fuch a ftate? Will any future fituation ever make us happy, if now, with fo few caufes of grief, we imagine ourfelves miferable? The evil lies in the state of our mind, not in our condition of fortune; and by no alteration of circumstances is likely to be remedied.

When the love of unwarrantable pleafures, and of vicious companions, is allowed to amuse young perfons, to engross their time, and to ftir up their paffions; the day of ruin,let them take heed, and beware! the day of irrecoverable ruin, begins to draw nigh. Fortune is fquandered; health is broken; friends are offended, affronted, eftranged; aged parents, perhaps, fent afflicted and mourning, to the duft.

On whom does time hang fo heavily, as on the flothful and lazy to whom are the hours fo lingering? Who are fo often devoured with fpleen, and obliged to fly to every expedient, which can help them to get rid of themselves? Instead of producing tranquillity, indolence produces a fret. ful reftlefsness of mind; gives rife to cravings which are never satisfied; nourishes a fickly effeminate delicacy, which fours and corrupts every pleasure.

SECTION VI.

WE have seen the hufbandman fcattering his feed upon the furrowed ground! It fprings up, is gathered into his barns, and crowns his labours with joy and plenty.-Thus the man, who diftributes his fortune with generofity and prudence, is amply repaid by the gratitude of those whom he obliges; by the approbation of his own mind; and by the favor of Heaven. Temperance, by fortifying the mind and body, leads to happiness intemperance, by enervating them, ends generally in mifery.

Title and ancestry render a good man more illuftrious; but an ill one, more contemptible. Vice is infamous, though in a prince; and virtue honourable, though in a peasant.

An elevated genius, employed in little things, appears (to ufe the fimilie of Longinus) like the fun in his evening declination he remits his fplendor, but retains his magnitude: and pleafes more, though he dazzles lefs.

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If envious people were to ask themfelves, whether they would exchange their entire fituation with the perfons envied, (I mean their minds, paffions, notions, as well as their perfons, fortunes, and dignities,)-I prefume the 'felf love, common to human nature, would generally make them prefer their own condition.

We have obliged fome perfons: very well! what would we have more? Is not the confcioufnefs of doing good, a fufficient reward?

Do not hurt yourfelves or others, by the purfuit of pleafure. Confult your whole nature. Confider yourfelves not only as fenfitive, but as rational beings; not only as rational, but focial; not only as focial, but immortal.

Art thou poor? Show thyself active and industrious, peaceable and contented. Art thou wealthy? Show thyfelf beneficent and charitable, condefcending and humane.

Though religion removes not all the evils of life, though it promifes no continuance of undisturbed profperity, (which indeed it were not falutary for man always to enjoy,) yet, if it mitigates the evils which neceffarily belong to our state, it may juftly be faid to give "reft to them who labour and are heavey laden."

What a fmiling afpect does the love of parents and children, of brothers and fifters, of friends and relations, give to every furrounding object, and every returning day! With what a luftre does it guild even the fmall habitation, where fuch placid intercourfe dwells! where fuch scenes of heartfelt fatisfaction fucceed uninterruptedly to one another !

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How clear marks of benevolent intention appear every where around us! What a profufion of beauty and orna ment is poured forth on the face of nature! What a magnificent fpectacle prefented to the view of man! What fupply contrived for his wants! What a variety of objects fet before him, to gratify his fenfes, to employ his understanding, to entertain his imagination, to cheer and gladden his heart!

The hope of future happiness is a perpetual fource of confolation to good men. Under trouble, it fooths their minds; amidst temptation, it fupports their virtue; and, in their dying moments, enables them to fay "O death! where is thy fting? O grave! where is thy victory!"

SECTION VH.

AGESILAUS, king of Sparta, being afked, "What things he thought moft proper for boys to learn," anfwered; "Thofe which they ought to practife when they come to be men." A wifer than Agefilaus has inculcated the fame fentiment: “Train up a child in the way he fhould go, and when he is old he will not depart from it"

An Italian philofopher expreffed in his motto, that "time was his eftate." An estate indeed, which will produce noth