and to wind among hills and thickets, cooled with fountains, and murmuring with waterfalls. Here Obidah paufed for a time, and began to confider whether it were longer safe to forfake the known and common track; but remembering that the heat was now in its greatest violence, and that the plain was dufty and uneven, he refolved to purfue the new path, which he fuppofed only to make a few meanders, in compliance with the varieties of the ground, and to end at laft in the common road.

Having thus calmed his folicitude, he renewed his pace, though he fufpected that he was not gaining ground. This uneafiness of his mind inclined him to lay hold on every new object, and give way to every fenfation that might footh or divert him. He liftened to every techo; he mounted every hill for a fresh profpect; he turned afide to every cafcade; and pleafed himfelf with tracing the courfe of a gentle river that rolled among the trees, and watered a large region with innumerable circumvolutions. In these amufements, the hours paffed away unaccounted; his deviations had perplexed his memory, and he knew not towards what point to travel. He flood penfive and confufed, afraid to go forward left he fhould go wrong, yet confcious that the time of loitering was now pak. While he was thus tortured with uncertainty, the y was overfpread with clouds; the day vanished from before. him; and a fudden tempeft gathered round his head. He was now roufed. by his danger to a quick and painful remembrance of his folly; he now faw how happiness is loft when eafe is confulted; he lamented the unmanly impatience that prompted him to fcek fhelter in the grove; and defpifed the petty curiofity that led him on from trifle to trille. While he was thus reflecting, the air grew blacker, and a clap of thunder broke his meditation.

power,

He now refolved to do what yet remained in his to tread back the ground which he had paffed, and try to find fome iffue where the wood might open into the plain. He proftrated himfelf on the ground, and commended his. life to the Lord of Naturs. He rofe with confidence and tranquillity, and preffed on with refolution. The beafts of the defert were in motion, and on every hand were heard the mingled howls of rage and fear, and ravage and expiration. All the horrors of darknefs and folitude fur

rounded him : the winds roared in the woods; and the torrents tumbled from the hills.

Thus forlorn and distressed, he wandered through the wild, without knowing whither he was going, or whether he was every moment drawing nearer to fafety, or to detruction. At length, not fear, but labour began to overcome him; his breath grew fhort, and his knees trembled and he was on the point of lying down in refignation to his fate, when he beheld, through the brambles, the glimmer of a taper. He advanced towards the light; and finding that it proceeded from the cottage of a hermit, he called humbly at the door, and obtained admiffion. The old man fet before him fuch provifions as he had collected for himself, on which Obidah fed with eagerness and gratitude.

When the repaft was over, "Tell me," faid the hermit, "by what chance thou hast been brought hither? I have been now twenty years an inhabitant of the wilderness, in which I never faw a man before." Obidah then related the occurrences of his journey, without any concealment or palliation.

Son," faid the hermit, "let the errors and follies, the dangers and efcape of this day, fink deep into thy heart. Remember, my fon, that human life is the journey of a day. We rife in the morning of youth, full of vigour and full of expectation; we fet forward with fpirit and hope, with gaiety and with diligence, and travel on a while in the direct road of piety towards the manfions of reft. In a fhort time, we remit our fervour, and endeavour to find fome mitigation of our duty, and fome more cafy means of obtaining the fame end. We then relax our vigour, and refolve no longer to be terrified with crimes at a distance; but rely upon our own conftancy, and venture to approach what we refolve never to touch. We thus enter the bowers of eafe, and repofe in the fhades of fecurity. Here the heart foftens, and vigilance fubfides; we are then willing to inquire whether another advance cannot be made, and whether we may not, at least, turn our eyes upon the gardens of pleafure. We approach them with fcruple and hesitation; we enter them, but enter timorous and trembling; and always hope to pals through them without lofing the read of virtue, which

for a while, we keep in our fight, and to which we purpose to return. But temptation fucceeds temptation, and one compliance prepares us for another; we in time lose the happiness of innocence, and folace our difquiet with fenfual gratifications. By degrees, we let fall the remembrance of our original intention, and quit the only adequate object of rational defire. We entangle ourselves in bufinefs, immerge ourselves in luxury, and rove through the labyrinths of inconftancy; till the darkness of old age begins to invade us, and disease and anxiety obstruct our way. We then look back upon our lives with horror, with forrow, with repentance; and wifh, but too often vainly wifh, that we had not forfaken the ways of virtue. Happy are they, my fon, who fhall learn from thy example, not to defpair; but fhall remember, that, though the day is paft, and their strength is wafted, there yet remains one effort to be made that reformation is never hopeless, nor fincere endeavours ever unaffifted; that the wanderer may at length return after all his errors; and that he who implores ftrength and courage from above, shall find danger and difficulty give way before him. Go now, my fon, to thy repofe; commit thyfelf to the care of Omnipotence; and when the morning calls again to toil, begin anew thy journey and thy life."

:

DR. JOHNSON.

CHAP. III.

DIDACTIC PIECES.

SECTION I.

THE IMPORTANCE OF A GOOD EDUCATION.

I CONSIDER a human foul, without education, like marble in the quarry which fhows none of its inherent) beauties, until the kill of the polifher fetches out the colours, makes the furface fhine, and difcovers every ornamental cloud, fpot, and vein, that runs through the body of it. Education, after the fame manner, when it works upon a noble mind, draws out to view every latent virtue and perfection, which, without fuch helps, are never able to make their appearance.

If my reader will give me leave to change the (allufion

fo foon upon him, I fhall make ufe of the fame instance to illuftrate the force of education, which Aristotle has brought to explain his doctrine of fubftantial forms, when he tells us that afftatueflies hid in a block of marble; and that the art of the ftatuary only clears away the (fuperfluous)matter, and removes the rubbish. The figure is in the ftone, and the fculptor only finds it. What fculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human foul. The philofopher, the faint, or the hero, the wife, the good, or the great man, very often lies hid and concealed in a(plebeian,, which a proper education might have difinterred, and have brought to fight. I am therefore much delighted with reading the accounts of favage nations; and with contemplating thofe virtues which are wild and uncultivated to fee courage exerting itfelf in fiercenefs, refolution in obftinacy, wildom in cunning, patience in fullenness and despair.

Men's paffions operate variously, and appear in different kinds of actions, according as they are more or less rectified and fwayed by reafon. When one hears of ne-groes, who, upon the death of their masters, or upon changing their fervice, hang themfelves upon the next tree, as it fometimes happens in our American plantations, who can forbear admiring their (fidelity though it expreffes it felf in fo dreadful a manner? What might not that favage greatness of foul, which appears in these poor wretches on many occafions, be raised to, were it rightly cuhivated? And what colour of excule can there be, for the contempt with which we treat this part of our fpecies; that we fhould not put them upon the common foot of humanity; that we fhould only fet anfinfignificant fine upon the man who murders them; nay, that we fhould, as much as in us lies, cut them off from the profpects of happiness in another world, as well as in this; and(deny them that which we look upon as the proper means for attaining it?

It is therefore an funfpeakable bleffing, to be born in those parts of the world where wifdom and knowledge flourish; though, it must be confefled, there are, even in thele parts, feveral poor uninftru&ied persons, who are but little above the inhabitants of thofe nations of which I have been here fpeaking; as thofe who have had the advantages of a more liberal education, rife above one another by

feveral different degrees of perfection. For, to return to our statue in the block of marble, we fee it fometimes only begun to be chipped, fometimes rough hewn, and but just fketched into a human figure; fometimes, we fee the man appearing diftinctly in all his limbs and features; fométimes, we find the figure wrought up to great elegancy; but feldom meet with any to which Ue hand of a Phidias or a Praxiteles could not give feveral nice touches and finishings. ADDISON.

SECTION II.

ON GRATITUDE.

THERE is not a more pleafing excrcife of the mind, than gratitude. It is accompanied with fuch inward fatisfaction, that the duty, is fufficiently rewarded by the performance. It is not, like the practice of many other virtues, difficultand painful, but attended with so much pleasure that-were there no pofitive command which enjoined it, nor any recompenfe laid up for it hereafter, a generous mind would indulge in it, for the natural gratification which it affords.

If gratitude is due from man to man, how much more from man to his Maker? The Supreme Being does not only confer upon us thofe bounties which proceed more immediately from his hand, but even thofe /benefits which are conveyed to us by others. Every bleffing we enjoy by what means foever it may be derived upon us, is the gift of Him who is the great Author of good, and the Father of mercies.

If gratitude, when exerted towards one another, naturally produces a very pleafing fenfationin the mind of a grateful man, it exalts the foul into rapture, when it is employed on this great object of gratitude; on this beneficent Being, who has given us every thing we already poffefs, and from whom we expect every thing we yet hope for.

SECTION III.

ON FORGIVENESS.

ADDISON.

THE moft plain and natural fentiments of equity concur with divine authority, to enforce the duty of forgiveness. Let him who, has never in his life done wrong, be allowed the privilege of remaining incxorable. But let fuch as are