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may be confidered as indications of a certain native, original greatnefs in the human foul, fwelling beyond the limits of its prefent condition; and pointing at the higher objects for which it was made. Happy, if these latent remains of our primitive ftate, ferved to direct our wishes towards their proper destination, and to lead us into the path of true bliss!

But in this dark and bewildered ftate, the afpiring tendency of our nature unfortunately takes an oppofite direction, and feeds a very misplaced ambition. The flattering appearances which here prefent themfelves to fenfe; the diftinctions which fortune confers; the advantages and pleasures which we imagine the world to be capable of beftowing, fill up the ultimate wish of most men. These are the objects which ingrofs their folitary mufings, and ftimulate their active labours; which warm the breasts of the young, animate the industry of the middle aged, and often keep alive the passions of the old, until the very clofe of life.

Afsuredly, there is nothing unlawful in our wishing to be freed from whatever is difagreeable, and to obtain a fuller enjoyment of the comforts of life. But when these wishes are not tempered by reason, they are in danger of precipitating us into much extravagance and folly.

Defires and wishes are the first fprings of action. When they become exorbitant, the whole character is likely to be tainted. If we fuffer our fancy to create to itfelf worlds of ideal happinefs, we fhall difcompose the peace and order of our minds, and foment many hurtful pafsions. Here, then, let Moderation begin its reign; by bringing within reafonable bounds the wifhes that we form. As foon as they become extravagant, let us check them, by pro

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per reflections on the fallacious nature of those objects, which the world hangs out to allure defire.

You have ftrayed, my friends, from the road which conducts to felicity; you have difhonoured the native dignity of your fouls, in allowing your withes to terminate on nothing higher than worldly ideas of greatnefs or happiness. Your imagination roves in a land of fhadows. Unreal forms deceive you. It is no more than a phantom, an illufion of happiness, which attracts your fond admiration; nay, an illufion of happiness, which often conceals much real mifery.

Do you imagine, that all are happy, who have attained to thofe fummits of diftinction, towards which your wishes afpire? Alas! how frequently has experience fhown, that where rofes were fuppofed to bloom, nothing but briers and thorns grew? Reputation, beauty, riches, grandeur, nay, royalty itself, would, many a time, have been gladly exchanged by the poffefsors, for that more quiet and humble ftation, with which you are now dissatisfied. With all that is fplendid and fhining in the world, it is decreed that there fhould mix many deep fhades of woe. On the elevated fituations of fortune, the great calamities of life. chiefly fall. There, the ftorm fpends its violence, and there, the thunder breaks; while, fafe and unhurt, the inhabitant of the vale remains below.-Retreat, then, from those vain and pernicious excurfions of extravagant defire. Satisfy yourfelves with what is rational and attainable. Train your minds to moderate views of human life, and human happiness. Remember, and admire, the wifdom of Agur's petition: "Remove far from me vanity and lies. Give me neither poverty

nor riches.

Feed me with food convenient for me:

Left I be full, and deny thee; and fay, who is the Lord? or left I be poor, and steal; and take the name of my God in vain.”

BLAIR.

SECTION XV.

Omniscience and Omnipresence of the DEITY, the Source of Confolation to good Men.

I was yesterday, about fun-fet, walking in the open fields, till the night infenfibly fell upon me. I at first amufed myself with all the richness and variety of colours, which appeared in the western parts of heaven. In proportion as they faded away and went out, feveral stars and planets appeared one after another, till the whole firmament was in a glow. The blueness of the ether was exceedingly heightened and enlivened, by the season of the year, and the rays of all thofe luminaries that pafsed through it. The galaxy appeared in its most beautiful white. To complete the fcene, the full-moon rofe, at length, in that clouded majesty, which Milton takes notice of; and opened to the eye a new picture of nature, which was more finely fhaded, and difpofed among fofter lights, than that which the fun had before difcovered to us.

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As I was furveying the moon walking in her brightnefs, and taking her progress among the constellations, a thought arose in me, which I believe very often plexes and disturbs men of serious and contemplative David himfelf fell into it in that reflection; "When I confider the heavens, the work of thy fingers; the moon and the stars which thou haft ordained; what is man that thou art mindful of him, and

natures.

the fon of man that thou regardeft him!" In the same manner, when I confidered that infinite hoft of stars, or, to speak more philofophically, of funs, which were then fhining upon me; with thofe innumerable fets of planets or worlds, which were moving round their respective funs; when I still enlarged the idea, and fuppofed another heaven of funs and worlds, rifing still above this which we discovered; and these still enlightened by a fuperior firmament of luminaries, which are planted at fo great a diftance, that they may appear to the inhabitants of the former, as the stars do to us; in fhort, while I purfued this thought, I could not but reflect on that little infignificant figure, which I myself bore amidst the immenfity of God's works.

Were the fun, which enlightens this part of the creation, with all the host of planetary worlds that move about him, utterly extinguished and annihilated, they would not be mifsed, more than a grain of fand upon the fea-fhore. The fpace they pofsefs is fo exceedingly little in compariton of the whole, it would fcarcely make a blank in the creation. The chaẩm would be imperceptible to an eye, that could take in the whole compaís of nature, and pafs from one end of the creation to the other; as it is pofsible there may be fuch a fenfe in ourselves hereafter, or in creatures which are at prefent more exalted than ourfelves. By the help of glasses, we fee many flars, which we do not difcover with our naked eyes; and the finer our telescopes are, the more ftill are our difcoveries.— Huygenius carries this thought fo far, that he does not think it impofsible there may be ftars, whofe light has not yet travelled down to us, fince their firft creation. There is no queftion that the univerfe has certain

bounds fet to it; but when we confider that it is the work of infinite Power, prompted by infinite Goodness, with an infinite space to exert itself in, how can our imagination fet any bounds to it?

To return, therefore, to my first thought, I could not but look upon myself with fecret horror, as a being that was not worth the smallest regard of one who had so great a work under his care and fuperintendency. I was afraid of being overlooked amidst the immenfity of nature; and loft among that infinite variety of creatures, which, in all probability, swarm through all thefe immeasurable regions of matter.

In order to recover myfelf from this mortifying thought, I confidered that it took its rife from those narrow conceptions, which we are apt to entertain of the Divine nature. We ourselves cannot attend to many different objects at the fame time. If we are careful to infpect fome things, we must of courfe neglect others. This imperfection which we obferve in ourfelves, is an imperfection that cleaves, in fome degree, to creatures of the higheft capacities, as they are creatures, that is, beings of finite and limited natures. The prefence of every created being is confined to a certain measure of space; and confequently his obfervation is ftinted to a certain number of objects. The fphere in which we move, and act, and understand, is of a wider circumference to one creature, than another, according as we rife one above another in the scale of existence. But the wideft of these our spheres has its circumference. When, therefore, we reflect on the Divine nature, we are so used and accustomed to this imperfection in ourselves, that we cannot forbear, in fome measure, afcribing it to HIM, in whom there is no

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