The house of feasting too often becomes an avenue to the house 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 passions, there is a strong and intimate connexion. When any one of them is adopted into our family, it seldom quits us until it has fathered upon us all its kindred.

Charity, like the sun, brightens every object on which t shines; a censorious disposition casts every character inte the darkest shade it will bear.

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

The appearances of our security are frequently deceitful. When our sky seems most settled and serene, in some unobserved quarter gathers the little black cloud in which the tempest ferments, and prepares to discharge itself on our heads.

The man of true fortitude may be compared to the castle built on a rock, which defies the attacks of surrounding waters: the man of a feeble and timorous spirit, to a hut placed on the shore, which every wind shakes, and every wave overflows.

Nothing is so inconsistent with self possession as violent anger. It overpowers reason; confounds our ideas; distorts the appearance, and blackens the color, of every object. By the storm which it raises within, and by the mischiefs which it occasions without, it generally brings on the passionate and revengeful man, greater misery than he can bring on the object of his resentiment.

The palace of virtue has, in all ages, been represented as placed on the summit of a hill; in the ascent of which, labor is requisite, and difficulties are to be surmounted; 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 candor. But in judging of ourselves, we ought to be exact and severe.

Let him that desires to see others happy, make haste to give while his gift can be enjoyed; and remember, that every moment of delay, takes away something from the value of his benefaction. And let him who proposes his own happiness 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 sensual persons, hardly any thing is what it appears to be and what flatters most, is always farthest from reality. There are voices which sing around them; but whose strains allure to ruin. There is a banquet spread, where poison is in every dish. There is a couch which invites them to repose; but the slumber upon it, is death.

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

The book is well written; and I have perused it with pleasure and profit. It shows, first, 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, lastly, that it is most conducive to our happiness.

There is certainly no greater felicity, than to be able to look back on a life usefully and virtuously employed; to trace our own progress in existence, by such tokens as excite neither shame nor sorrow. It ought therefore to be the care of those who wish to pass the last hours with comfort, to lay up such a treasure of pleasing ideas, as shall support the expenses of that time, which is to depend wholly upon the fund already acquired.

SECTION V.

WHAT avails the show of external liberty, to one who has lost the government of himself?

He that cannot live well to day, (says Martial) will be less qualified to live well to morrow,

Can we esteem that man prosperous, who is raised to a situation which flatters his passions, but which corrupts his

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principles, disorders his temper, and finally oversets his virtue ?

What misery does the vicious man secretly endure !Adversity! how blunt are all the arrows of thy quiver, in comparison with those of guilt!

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

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

How many have had reason to be thankful, for being disappointed in designs which they earnestly pursued, but which, if successfully accomplished, they have afterwards seen, would have occasioned their ruin!

What are the actions which afford in the remembrance a rational satisfaction? Are they the pursuits of sensual pleasure, the riots of jollity, or the displays of show and vanity? No: I appeal to your hearts, my friends, if what you recollect with most pleasure, are not the innocent, the virtuous, the honorable parts of your past life.

The present employment of time should frequently be an object of thought. About what we are now busied ? What is the ultimate scope of our present pursuits and cares? Can we justify them to ourselves? Are they likely to produce any thing that will survive the moment, and bring forth some fruit for futurity?

Is it not strange (says an ingenious writer) that some persons should be so delicate as not to bear a disagreeable picture in the house, and yet by their behavior, force every face they see about them, to wear the gloom of uneasiness and discontent ?

If we are now in health, peace and safety; 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 greatest prosperity add to such a state? Will any future situation ever make us happy, if now, with so few causes of grief, we imagine ourselves miserable? 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 pleasures, and of vicious companions, is allowed to amuse young persons, to

engross their time, and to stir up their passions; the day of ruin-let them take heed and beware! the day of irrecoverable ruin begins to draw nigh. Fortune is squandered; health is broken; friends are offended, affronted, estranged; aged parents, perhaps, sent afflicted and mourn ing to the dust.

On whom does time hang so heavily, as on the slothful and lazy? To whom are the hours so lingering? Who are so often devoured with spleen, and obliged to fly to every expedient, which can help them to get rid of themselves? Instead of producing tranquillity, indolence produces a fretful restlessness of mind; gives rise to cravings which are never satisfied; nourish a sickly, effeminate delicacy, which sours and corrupts every pleasure.

SECTION VI.

We have seen the husbandman scattering his seed upon the furrowed ground! It springs up, is gathered into his barns, and crowns his labors with joy and plenty. Thus the man who distributes his fortune with generosity 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 misery.

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

An elevated genius, employed in little things, appears (to use the simile of Longinus) like the sun in his evening declination; he remits his splendor, but retains his magnitude; and pleases more, though he dazzles less.

If envious people were to ask themselves, whether they would exchange their entire situation with the persons envied, (I mean their minds, passions, notions, as well as their persons, fortunes and dignities,)-I presume the self love, common to human nature, would generally make them prefer their own condition.

We have obliged some persons: very well! what would we have more? Is not the consciousness of doing good, a sufficient reward ?

Do not hurt yourselves or others, by the pursuit of pleas

ure. Consult your whole nature.
not only as sensitives, but as rational beings; not only as
Consider yourselves
rational, but social; not only as social, but immortal.

Art thou poor? Show thyself active and industrious, peaceable and contented. Art thou wealthy? Show thyself beneficent and charitable, condescending and humane. Though religion removes not all the evils of life, though it promises no continuance of undisturbed prosperity, (which indeed it were not salutary for man always to enjoy) yet, if it mitigates the evils which necessarily belong to our state, it may justly be said to give "rest to them who labor and are heavy laden."

What a smiling aspect does the love of parents and children, of brothers and sisters, of friends and relations, give to every surrounding object, and every returning day! With what a lustre does it glide even the small habitation, where such placid intercourse dwells! where such scenes of heartfelt satisfaction succeed uninteruptedly to one

another !

How many clear marks of benevolent intentions every where around us! What a profusion of beauty and appear ornament is poured forth on the face of nature! What a magnificent spectacle presented to the view of man! What supply contrived for his wants! What a variety of objects set before him, to gratify his senses, to employ his understanding, to entertain his imagination, to cheer and gladden his heart.

The hope of future happiness is a perpetual source of consolation to good men. Under trouble it soothes their minds; amidst temptation, it supports their virtue; and in their dying moments, enables them to say "O death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory ?"

SECTION VII.

AGESILAUS, king of Sparta, being asked, "What things he thought most proper for boys to learn," answered; "Those which they ought to practice when they come to be men." A wiser than Agesilaus has inculcated the same sentiment: "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."

An Italian philosopher expressed in his motto, that "time was his estate." An estate, indeed, which will produce nothing without cultivation; but which will always abun