Oh, lost to virtue, lost to manly thought,
Lost to the noblest sallies of the soul!
Who think it solitude to be alone,

Communion sweet! communion large and high!
Our reason, guardian angel, and our God!

ON PROSPERITY AND ADVERSITY.

"Also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had be fore. Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an ear-ring of gold." Job xiii. 10, 11.

Or all the dramatic poems, with which readers of taste and sensibility have been delighted and instructed, the book of Job is unquestionably the most pathetic, sublime, and beautiful. The dialogue is in the noblest style of composition, and the interlocutors are all remarkable for character, manners, and sentiment. The fable is extremely artful and well supported, and the moral such as must challenge the approbation of every virtuous mind. He who is habitually negligent of his bible, or indifferent to the

charms of the Oriental muse, will hardly be persuaded, that the book of Job abounds with entertainment as well as instruction. But the fact is indisputable, and the politest scholars and the most rigorous critics have dwelt with rapture, which they felt, upon the beauties of this incomparable performance.

The personage, whose name gives a title to the work, is represented as an eastern nobleman of consummate wisdom, ardent piety, and unbounded wealth. He is neither insolent in prosperity, nor abject in adversity. His character is emphatically described as perfect. Studious of the divine favour, and blind to all the blandishments of vice, he walked so uprightly in a noble and undeviating course of rectitude, that he was universally regarded as the standard of integrity. He was perfectly pure from every taint of avarice, voluptuousness, hypocrisy, vanity, and ambition. He is neither ostentatious, envious, nor revengeful. His hospitality was princely, his justice exemplary, and his charities innumerable. He is a tender parent, a generous master, a constant friend, and a benevolent He was a father to the poor, the champion of the oppressed, the advocate of innocence,

man.

the guardian of orphans, and a physician to the lame and blind. In short, to use his own brilliant and energetic expressions, he put on righteousness and it clothed him. His judgment I was as a robe and a diadem. He caused the

i widow's heart to sing for joy, and the poor man was warmed with the fleece of his sheep. + But neither a prosperous fortune, nor a magnificent expenditure, nor a blameless life, is a sure protection against the vicissitudes of nature, the ravages of disease, or the visitation of melancholy. While Job was thus basking in the meridian of happiness, while he enjoyed favour with God, and popularity among men; while his palaces glittered with the gold of Ophir, the precious onyx, and the sapphire; coral and pearls, the ruddiest of rubies, and the topaz of Ethiopia, a terrible visitation is impending. The genius of misfortune appears before his = distracted eyes in the most horrible form that = fables yet have feigned, or fear conceived. In one hour, his wealth vanished, his servants were slain, and his children consumed. To add to this gloomy catalogue of woes, his body is not only tormented with the scourge of sickness, but

his mind is clouded with all the darkness of des

pair.

In this mournful reverse of circumstances, one who took but a hasty glance at human nature, and who partially looked only at one side, would naturally conclude, that Job would be immediately surrounded by crowds, impati ent to testify their opinion of his value, and their sorrow and solace for his suffering. As he was a man of genius, wisdom, and eloquence; as he had been a character of so much distinction, that he was the companion of princes, and the oracle of the people; as he was a nobleman, a judge, an orator, and a statesman, he had the strongest claim upon the gratitude of some; the friendship of others, and the compassion of all. Let us now count this army of auxiliaries coming to the support of suffering virtue. We shall not laboriously task our arithmetic. Of that swarm, which once buzzed in his courts, and hovered in his palaces, who quaffed the richest of his wines, and anointed themselves in rivers of his oil, only three individuals remain, and this scanty group, so far from pouring balm on his tortured mind, assail him in the angriest terms of reproach and con