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: 1 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 employ ment of time should frequently be an object of thought. About what are we 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 that is 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 ingress

their time, and to stir up their passions; the day of ruinlet 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 mourning 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 expe dient which can help them to get rid of themselves? Instead of producing tranquillity, indolence produces a fretful rest、 lessness of mind; gives rise to cravings which are never satisfied; nourishes a sickly effeminate delicacy, which sourg and corrupts every pleasure.

SECTION VL.

WE have seen the husbandman scattering his seed upon the furrowed ground! It springs up, is gathered into his barus, and crowns his labors with joy and plenty.- l'hus 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 (o use the simile of Longinus) like the sun in his evemag elination he remits his splendor but retains his magnitud: ; and pleases more though he dazzles fess.

If envious people were to ask themselves, whether they would exchange their entire situations with the persons envi ed, (incan 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?

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

ure.

Consult your whole nature.

Consider yourselves not only as sensitive, but as ratioual beings; not only as 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 (winch 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 chil dren, of brothers and sisters, of friends and relations, give to every surrounding object, and every returning day! With what a lustre does it gild even the small habitation, where such placid intercourse dwells! where such scenes of heartfelt satisfaction succeed uninterruptedly to one another!

How many clear marks of benevolent intention appear every where around us! What a profusion of beauty and 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 im to gratify his senses, to employ his understanding, to entertain his imagination, to chcer 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 abundantly

repay the labors of industry, and satisfy the most extensive desires, if no part of it be suffered to he waste by negligence; to be overrun with noxious plants; or laid out for show ra ther than use.

When Aristotle was asked, "What a man could gain by telling a falsehood," he replied, "not to be credited when he speaks the truth.”

L'Estrange, in his Fables, tells us, that a number of frolicsome boys were one day watching frogs, at the side of a pond, and that, as many of them put their heads above the water, they pelted them down again with stones. One of the frogs, appealing to the humanity of the boys, made this striking observation; "Children you do not consider, that though this may be sport to you it is death to us."

Sully, the greatest statesman of France, always retained at his cable, in his most prosperous days, the same frugality to which he had been accustomed in early life. He was fc

quently reproached, by the courtiers, for this simplicity; but he used to reply to them, in the words of an ancient philosopher: If the guests are men of sense, there is sufi, cient for them: If they are not, I can very well dispense with their company."

Socrates, through primarily attentive to the culture of his mind, was not negligent of his external appearance. Dis cleanliness resulted from those ideas of order and decency, which governed all his actions; and the care which he took of his health, from his desire to preserve his mind free and tranquil:

Eminently pleasing and honorable was the friendship between David and Jonathan. "I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan," said the plaintive and surviving David; 50 very pleasant hast thou been to me: thy love for me was wonderful; passing the love of women."

Sir Philip Sidney, at the battle near Zutphen, was wounded by a musket ball, which broke the bone of his thigh. He was carried about a mile and a half to the camp; and being fat with the loss of blood, and probably parched with thirst through the heat of the weather, he called for drink. It was immediately brought to him: but, as lie was putting the vessel to bis mouth, a poor wounded soldier, who happeneat that instant to be carried by him, looked up to it with wishful eyes. The gallant and generous Sidney took the

bottle from his mouth, and delivered it to the soldier, saying "Thy necessity is yet greater than mine.”

Alexander the Great demanded of a pirate whom he had taken, by what right he infested the seas? "By the sameright,” replied he, "that. Alexauder enslaves the world But I am called a robber, because I have only one small vessel; and he is styled a conqueror, because he commands great fleets and armies." We too often judge of men by the splendor and not by the merit of their actions.

Antonius Pius, the Roman Emperor, was an amiable and good man. When any of his courtiers attempted to inflame him with a passion for military glory. he used to answer: "That he more desired the preservation of one subject, than the destruction of a thousand enemies.

Men are too often ingenious in making themselves miserable, by aggravating to their own fancy, beyond bounds, all the evils which they endure. They compare themselveswith none but those whom they imagine to be more happy ; and complain, that upon them alone has fallen the whole load of human sorrows. Would they look with a more impar tial eye on the world, they would see themselves surrounded with sufferers; and find that they are only drinking out of that mixed cup, which Providence has prepared for all.. "L. will restore thy daughter again to life," said the eastern sage, to a prince who grieved immoderately for the loss of a be-loved child, "provided thou art able to engrave on her tomb, the names of three persons who have never mourned. The prince made enquiry after such persons; but found the auquiry vain, and was silent.

SECTION VIIL

He that hath no rule over his own spirit, is like a city that broken down, and without walls.

A soft answer turneth away wrath; but grievous words stir up anger..

Better is a diter of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith..

Pride goeth before destruction; and a haughty spirit be. fore a fail

Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou may be tru! wise.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kimses of an