when reduced to poverty, who was educated only to magnificence and pleasure? It is highly proper that a man should be acquainted with a variety of things, of which the utility is above a child's comprehension: but is it necessary a child learn every thing it behoves a man to know; or is it even possible? When they fall into sudden difficulties, they are less perplexed than others in the like circumstances; and when they encounter dangers, they are less alarmed. For all your actions, you must hereafter give an account, and particularly for the employments of youth. SECT. IV. The fourth rule for promoting the strength of sentences, is, that a weaker assertion or proposition should never come after a stronger one; and that, when one sentence consists of two members, the longer should, gencrally, be the concluding one. Grammar, p. 279. Key, p. 134. CHARITY breates long suffering to enemies, courtesy to strangers, habitual kindness towards friends. Gentleness ought to diffuse itself over, our whole behaviour, to form our addresses, and regulate our speech. The propensity to look forward into life, is too often grossly abused, and immoderately indulged. The regular tenor of a virtuous and pious life, will prove the best preparation for immortality, for old age, and death. These rules are intended to teach young persons to write with propriety, elegance, and perspicuity. Sinful pleasures blast the opening prospects of human felicity, and degrade human honour. In this state of mind, every employment of life becomes an oppressive burden, and every object appears gloomy. They will acquire different views, applying to the honourable discharge of the functions of their station, and entering on a virtuous course of action. By the perpetual course of dissipation, in which sensualists are engaged; by the riotous revel, and the midnight, or rather morning hours, to which they prolong their festivity; by the excesses which they indulge; they debilitate their bodies, cut themselves off from the comforts and duties of life, and wear out their spirits. SECT. V. A fifth rule for the strength of sentences, is, to avoid con cluding them with an adverb, a preposition, or any inconsiderable word. Grammar. p. 280. Key, p. 135. By what I have already expressed, the reader will perceive the business which I am to proceed upon. May the happy message be applied to us, in all the virtue, strength, and comfort of it! Generosity is a showy virtue, which many persons are very fond of. These arguments were, without hesitation, and with great eagerness, laid hold of. It is proper to be long in deliberation, but we should speedily execute. Form your measures with prudence; but all anxiety about the issue divest yourselves of. We are struck, we know not how, with the symmetry of any thing we see; and immediately acknowledge the beauty of an object, without inquiring into the particular causes and occasions of it. With Cicero's writings, these persons are more conversant, than with those of Demosthenes, who, by many degrees, excelled the other; at least as an orator. SECT. VI. A sixth rule relating to the strength of a sentence is, that, in the members of a sentence, where two things are compared or contrasted with one another; where either a resemblance, or an opposition, is intended to be expressed; some resemblance, in the language and construction, should be preserved. For when the things themselves correspond to each other, we naturally expect to find a similar correspondence in the words. Grammar, p. 281. Key, p. 136. OUR British gardners, instead of humouring nature, love to deviate from it as much as possible. I have observed of late the style of some great ministers, very much to exceed that of any other productions. The old may inform the young; and the young may animate those who are advanced in life. The account is generally balanced; for what we are losers on the one hand, we gain on the other. The laughers will be for those who have most wit; the serious part of mankind, for those who have most reason on their side. If men of eminence are exposed to censure on the one hand, they are as much liable to flattery on the other. If they receive reproaches which are not due to them, they likewise receive praises which they do not deserve. He can bribe, but he is not able to seduce. He can buy, but he has not the power of gaining. He can lie, but no one is deceived by him. He embraced the cause of liberty faintly, and pursued it without resolution; he grew tired of it, when he had much to hope; and gave it up, when there was no ground for apprehension. There may remain a suspicion that we overrate the greatness of his genius, in the same manner as bodies appear more gigantic, on account of their being disproportioned and mishapen. SECT. VII. The seventh rule for promoting the strength and effect of sentences, is, to attend to the harmony and easy flow of the words and members. Grammar, p. 282. Key, p. 135. SOBERMINDEDNESS suits the present state of man. As conventiclers, these people were seized and punished. To use the Divine name customarily, and without serious consideration, is highly irreverent. From the favourableness with which he was at first received, great hopes of success were entertained. They conducted themselves wilily, and ensnared us before we had time to escape. It belongs not to our humble and confined station, to censure, but to adore, submit, and trust. Under all its labours, hope is the mind's solace; and the situations which exclude it entirely are few. The humbling of those that are mighty, and the precipitation of persons who are ambitious, from the towering height that they had gained, concern but little the bulk of men. Tranquillity, regularity, and magnanimity, reside with the religious and resigned man. Sloth, ease, success, naturally tend to beget vices and follies. By a cheerful, even, and open temper, he conciliated general favour. We reached the mansion before noon. It was a strong, grand, Gothic house. I had a long and perilous journey, but a comfortable companion, who relieved the fatigue of it. The speech was introduced by a sensible preamble, which made a favourable impression. The commons made an angry remonstrance against such an arbitrary requisition. The truly illustrious are they who do not court the praise of the world, but who perform such actions as make them indisputably deserve it. By the means of society, our wants come to be supplied, and our lives are rendered comfortable, as well as our capacities enlarged, and our virtuous affections called forth into their proper exercise. Life cannot but prove vain to such persons as affect a disrelish of every pleasure, which is not both new and exquisite, measuring their enjoyments by fashion's standard, and not by what they feel themselves; and thinking that if others do not admire their state, they are miserable. By experiencing distress, an arrogant insensibility of temper is most effectually corrected, from the remembrance of our own sufferings naturally prompting us to feel for others in their sufferings: and if Providence has favoured us, so as not to make us subject in our own lot to much of this kind of discipline, we should extract improvement from the lot of others that is harder; and step aside sometimes from the flowery and smooth paths which it is permitted us to walk in, in order to view the toilsome march of our fellow-creatures through the thorny desert. As no one is without his failings, so few want good qualities. Providence delivered them up to themselves, and they tormented themselves. From disappointments and trials, we learn the insufficiency of temporal things to happiness, and the necessity to godliness. CHAP. IV. Instances of an irregular use of Figures of Speech. No human happiness is so serene as not to contain any alloy. There is a time when factions, by the vehemence of their own fermentations, stun and disable one another. I intend to make use of these words in the thread of my speculations. Hope, the balm of life, darts a ray of light through the thickest gloom. The scheme was highly expensive to him, and proved the Charybdis of his estate. He was so much skilled in the empire of the oar, that few could equal him. The death of Cato has rendered the senate an orphan. Let us be attentive to keep our mouths as with a bridle; and to steer our vessel aright, that we may avoid the rocks and shoals, which lie every where around us. At length Erasmus, that great injur'd name, In this our day of proof, our land of hope, On the wide sea of letters, 'twas thy boast Since the time that reason began to bud, and put forth her shoots, thought, during our waking hours, has been active in every breast, without a moment's suspension or pause. The current of ideas has been always moving. The wheels of the spiritual engine have exerted themselves with perpetual motion. The man who has no rule over his own spirit, possesses no antidote against poisons of any sort. He lies open to every insurrection of ill-humour, and every gale of distress. Whereas he who is employed in regulating his mind, is making provision against all the accidents of life. He is |