a mass of putrefaction, consisting of a few bones, and a net work or complication of nerves, veins, and arteries. The vital spirit is only a small portion of air, (and that not always the same but every hour drawn in fresh, and again expelled by the action of the lungs. But the third part is the rational soul or governing principle-here make a pause!

Even those events ascribed to fortune or chance are subject to the laws of Nature, and to that complicated series of things established by Fate, and administered by Providence. From this source all things are derived. Indeed every thing is thus fixed and ordered, as necessary for the good of the whole, of which you are a part. Now that which conduces to the good of the whole system of Nature, and to its preservation, must also be good to every part of the universe. Yet this world itself subsists by continual changes, not only of the elements, but of those things which are composed of those elements, in a perpetual circle of successive generation and corruption.

You have a fixed period assigned you, which if you do not improve to calm your passage and procure the tranquillity of your mind, it will be past, never to return, and you yourself will be no more. Take care always to perform strenuously the business in hand, as becomes a man and a Roman, with attention and unaffected gravity, with humanity, liberality, and justice; and call off your thoughts, for the time, from every other object. This you will do, if you perform every action as if it were the last of your life; if you act without levity or dissimulation, free from selfishness and from every passion inimical to right reason; and lastly from peevishness and dissatisfaction at those events, which are necessarily connected with our lot. You see how few things are necessary to a happy and almost godlike state of life.

You will hardly find any man unhappy from being ignorant of what passes in the thoughts of other people; but he that does not attend to the regulaton of his own thoughts, must necessarily be miserable. We ought frequently to reflect on the nature of the universe, and on our own nature; and what that whole is of which we are a part, and how the latter is regulated with regard to the former. We ought further to reflect, that nothing can prevent us from acting and speak ing agreeably to that universal Nature, of which we are a part

For the Universal Nature or First Cause would, neither through ignorance or want of power, or want of skill to prevent or correct what was wrong, be guilty of such an error, as to suffer good and evil to fall promiscuously and in equal proportion to the good and to the bad. Now life and death, glory and obscurity, pain and pleasure, riches and poverty, all these things are equally the lot of the virtuous and of the wicked; and being intrinsically neither honorable nor base, are consequently neither good nor evil. How rapidly do all mortal things vanish and disappear! the things themselves absorbed into the immensity of the universe, and the memo. ry of them, by the lapse of time sunk in oblivion.

What is it to die? If we view it in itself, and stripped of those imaginary terrors in which our fears have dressed it, we shall find it to be nothing more than the mere work of Nature; but it is a childish folly to be afraid of what is natural. Nay, it is not only the work of Nature, but is conducive to the good of the universe, which subsists by change. Finally, a wise man should consider, how man is connected with the Deity, and which part of him is thus connected; and how that rational part of his being will be disposed of when separated from the body.

These things, then, it may be worth while to attend to; first, that as the course of Nature has been the same from all eternity, and every thing comes round in a circle; whether we behold this same scene for one hundred or one hundred thousand years, it comes to much the same thing. Second, that he who lives the longest, and he who dies the earliest when they do die, their loss is equal. For they are only deprived of the present moment, which is all they have to lose. Every thing depends on opinion.

Again; when we take an aversion to any one, and thwart him on every occasion, with an intention to do him some injury; which is generally the case with people that indulge their resentment. Thirdly; a man evidently debases himself, when he becomes a slave to pleasure, or is subdued by pain. Fourthly; when he acts with dissimulation or fraud, or does or says any thing contrary to truth. Lastly; when a man acts without thought or design, and exerts himself at random, without any regard to the consequence; whereas every, the most minute, action ought to be directed to some end or use

ful purpose. Now the chief end of every rational being is to be governed by the laws of the Universe, the oldest and most venerable of all communities.

It is of importance to reflect, not only that our life is continually wearing away, and that every day a still smaller portion of it remains; but likewise that, although it should be prolonged to a more distant period, it is yet uncertain, whether the same vigor of understanding will be afforded us, to comprehend and transact the common affairs of life, or to contemplate accurately the nature of things human and divine. He, then, who has a taste for these speculations, and a capacity to penetrate more deeply into the works of Nature, will discover that there is hardly any thing, which considered in that light, does not form a beautiful harmony and connection with the whole. Such a one will behold, for instance, the extended jaws of savage beasts with no less pleasure in real life, than when represented by the most skilful statuary or painter. Even the marks of mature old age in man or woman, and the tempting bloom of youth will afford equal pleasure to a discerning spectator of this turn.

He rarely, and never without reference to the good of the community, interferes in other people's concerns; confining his whole attention to his own moral improvement, yet considering the duties which arise from his connection with the universal system of Nature, as the first and most sacred obligations. For that which is alloted to every one by fate, is intended to conduce to the happiness of the whole and of every individual. He likewise reflects that all rational beings are in some sense allied to each other; and that kindness and Humanity to our fellow creatures are essential to the nature of man. However, that the good opinion of every one, indiscriminately, is not worth our attention, but only of those who live in a manner that becomes the dignity of their

nature.

If you have discovered any thing in human life preferable to truth, justice, temperance, or fortitude; in short, any thing more excellent than a mind satisfied with itself, and sufficient to its own happiness; and whilst it acts conformably to right reason, acquiesces in whatever, without its own choice, is allotted it by fate;-if, I say, you have discovered any thing

superior to these virtues, pursue it with your utmost effort, and enjoy your discovery.

Can you be solicitous about your slender share of fame, when you reflect with what a fatal speed all things are tending to oblivion, to that immense chaos of infinite duration, past and to come? Consider also the emptiness and vanity of applause, and how undistinguishing is the judgment of those who are to bestow it, and to what narrow limits it is confined. For this whole globe is, comparatively, but a mere point, and how small a portion of it is inhabited! and of these inhabitants, how small a number of them, and how contempti ble a set of creatures they are, upon whom you must be depen. dant for your applause! remember therefore to retire into this little recess in your own bosom; and above all things, do not distract your thoughts, nor be too intent on any worldly pursuit, but preserve your freedom, and consider things as a man of spirit, as a member of society, as a creature destined to mortality.

This whole scene of things which we now behold will very shortly be shifted and exist no more. And indeed you should bear in mind, how many changes you yourself have already been witness to. The Universe subsists by perpetual changes, and the happiness of life itself depends on opinion. If the intellectual faculty be common to all mankind, then reason, from which we are denominated rational creatures, must be common likewise: and, if so, we must all have the same principle of action and the same law. If this be granted, we are all fellow-citizens of the same commonwealth, and of course the whole Universe is one body politic.

As the earthly particles of my body are imparted to me from the earth, and the watery, the aerial, and the fiery particles are derived from their respective elements, (for nothing which now exists can proceed from nothing, nor be resolved into non-existence,) so likewise the intellectual faculty must proceed from some other cause of its own kind. Our death and our birth are equally the mysterious work of Nature. Death is the dissolution of those elements which at our birth composed our frame. There is nothing in this affair which we need be ashamed of; as their is nothing in it repugnant to the nature of an intellectual being, nor any thing but what is the result of his structure and constitution.

You have subsisted as a distinct part of the universe; but you will in a short time disappear, and return to that general mass from whence you were produced, or rather be again returned into that prolific soul of the world from which you were derived. In your oblations at the altar, one grain of frankincense may fall in and be consumed before another, out the distance of time is inconsiderable.

Do not form your plan of life as if you had a thousand years to live. Death is at hand; but live a good life while you do live, and it is in your power.

The man who is so anxious about a posthumous fame, does not consider, that every one of those, who are to preserve his memory, will themselves in a few years be no more; and in like manner their successors, till after passing through a series of his admirers, they and his very memory will be extinct.

Whatever is really good and beautiful is such from itself, and terminates in itself, and owes no part of its excellence to the applause of the world; being neither better nor worse on that account. And this is applicable to those things which in a popular sense are called beautiful, as all material objects and works of art. Much less do those things which are intrinsically beautiful want any foreign addition, such as justice, truth, benevolence, and modesty. What virtue of this kind is more amiable for being applauded, or less so for being censured? Is an emerald less beautiful in itself for being praised? The same may be said of gold, of ivory, of purple; and in short, of the flowers and shrubs, and of all the other productions of nature or of art.

If our souls exist after death, how can the heavens contain such a number as have had existence from all eternity? A similar question may be asked in relation to our bodies; how can the earth contain the infinite number, which have been buried in it, from so immense a space of duration? But as in the latter case, those bodies which have remained some time in the earth, are changed and dissolved into or make room for other bodies; so our souls, when conveyed into the regions of the air, after some time undergo a change; and are either dispersed or rekindled and resorbed into the seminal spirit or soul of the universe, whence they were originally derived; and thus make room for others to succeed them. This, I trust, is a sufficient answer, upon a