ous and other Members of fociety are vicious, however exalted may be their rank or affluent their fortune, you are greater than they— greater in the estimation of the rational part of mankind, and greater in the eyes of that Judge who will confer on you a proportionate reward. Afpire then after this kind of superiority-Cultivate the good qualities that lead to it-be fober, chafte, and temperate in the management of yourselves—In regard to your equals, be meek, civil and obliging—and for those who are set over you, have that veneration and respect which their station demands-comply chearfully with their requests and vie with each other in fhewing a prompt obedience to their orders. Confider, that in all their views they have your interest at heart as well as their own,-even the punishments they may be obliged to inflict receive patiently and without murmuring, fince it must be your benefit and the good of the service alone they consult in having recourse to so painful a measure. Confider, that it is not any human artifice or contrivance but the will of the MOST HIGH that has placed them over you. The Lord is the Maker of you Both. He hath decreed the rank you fhould refpectively hold-Some he has made rich, others poor; You he has appointed to obey, THOSE to command. What an awful confideration is this for a turbulent and refractory difpofition? And how muft it aggravate the crime to think, that in disobeying your Superiors on earth, you rebel also against the King of Heaven, and will affuredly incur his just judgments? Whereas, by a contrary behaviour, by piety and reverence for the Divine Laws, by humility and fubmiffion to your Superiors, by docility and a diligent attention to your duties, as a Body or Military Corps, you will acquire a fame and pre-eminence in the estimation of the Public at large-As Individuals, you will gain the favour and esteem of your Officers and all who know you-you will fecure also the probation of your own confcience, that unspeakable fource of con

ap

folation,

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folation, that ineftimable fund of confidence in all cafes of diftrefs, in sickness when the evil days come upon you and all earthly comforts fail,—and above all, you will hereafter be put in possession of crowns, not perishable ones, like those which adorn Heroes after a conqueft, but crowns full of glory and immortality, referved for those who have fought the good fight and proved themselves faithful Soldiers of JESUS CHRIST.

In addreffing you, Gentlemen, the Commiffioned Officers of this Corps, I feel the burden of my task fit light upon me indeed—because I contemplate in you Characters who, in reaping the advantages of a liberal education, are poffeffed of ingenuous and enlightened minds, of humane and well-disposed hearts, and of course, eminently qualified for the office you have fo generoufly flood forth to support. Or fhould any from youth and inexperience be disposed to derive benefit from a Counsellor or Guide, I reflect with pleasure they may behold in their Commander and Others, confpicuous fubjects for imitation, experienced and accomplished models, of ten times more efficacy than the best digefted precepts of the wifest Philofophers—and how much more so than of a few crude obfervations which my poor abilities enable me to fuggeft? For thefe reafons, if to complete my task I prefume to expatiate with a freedom which the pulpit juftifies on some of the duties incident to your Profeffion, You will recolle& that it is not fo much with a view to inftruct you, as that by informing others of the variety and difficulty of these duties, they may be lefs furprised if they do not fee them punctually and faithfully difcharged in every individual. The grand fundamental principle that ought ever to predominate in your mind and to actuate all your conduct, is a just sense of the great weight and influence of example-a confideration that not only your own intereft and happiness, but allo

that of others, is connected with your management and addrefs. You are Inftruments, in the hands of Providence, of confiderable magnitude-on the regularity and exactnefs of whose movements, the utility and excellence of the whole machine depends. You are Cities fet on a hill, Lights to enlighten thofe around you; and there is not a fentiment you avow, or an action you perform, but what according to its nature may be attended with good or bad effects. Let no confideration, then, of the gifts of fortune or pre-eminence of talents, efface this impreffion from your mind. Let example go hand in hand with precept-and let a diligent attention to your own duties be the happy and effectual method of inclining thofe over whom you are placed to discharge theirs.

From this general principle, a variety of consequences may be deduced the firft I fhall advert to, you will not, I hope, think too lightly of, or as beneath the dignity of this place; fince I cannot imagine that unbecoming in me to impart, which is not uneffential for you to observe—I mean a proper degree of attention to the Perfon in the article of drefs. This, undoubtedly, may be and often is carried to a culpable extreme; it may occupy too great a share in the diftribution of your time, or may degenerate into a kind of effeminacy that tends to excite ridicule and contempt,-there is, however, a happy medium to be observed—a neatness, of all others highly effential to the military character, and which, equally devoid of foppery and rufticity,* feldom fails to produce beneficial effects. The bulk of mankind are left to form their judgments of Persons from appearances. Before we are known, the exterior is the only criterion offered them to decide on the qualities of the mind, the judgement and

* Adhibenda eft munditia non exquifita nimis : ficut fugienda agreftis negligentia. Eadem ratio eft habenda veftitus, in quo, ficut in plerifque rebus, mediocritas optima eft. CIC. OFF.

and tafte—and whoever hesitates to regard an awkward or flovenly deportment as pretty fure indications of ftupidity or indolence? There are, I admit, ftriking examples to the contrary-great and uncommon geniuses may be produced who were deficient in that quality, which the unanimous voice of Mankind has placed in a rank next to godliness-but fuch characters were never defigned for general imitation. We should regard them on the one hand as vivid meteors that dazzle and surprise us by their splendour, rather than as fixed luminaries, that diffuse a steady light for the regulation of our habits-On the other, let them be confidered as monuments of human frailty, and our utter incapacity to attain perfection in all things—and unable as we are to equal them in their excellencies and virtues, what a pitiful affectation muft it be to resemble them in their infirmities and defects? I repeat it, then-by the manner of decorating the person, the nature or portion of mental endowments may be often ascertained. In particular, the faculty of difcriminating and excelling in this refpect is no flight teftimony of that spirit of induftry and diligence which I would recommend to your attention in the Second place.

Seeft thou a Man diligent in business? fays Solomon, he shall ftand before Kings. What a captivating encomium on this virtue? How powerfully must it ftimulate the Ambitious in pursuit of their favourite objects? Does it not seem to imply that honour and promotion are wholly unattainable without it? In recommending it to you, however, I would not be thought to confine myself to the immediate duties of your department, fuch as a regular attendance at those hours which the Service appropriates to particular purposes, or a fcrupulous discharge of the orders of your Superiors. To be deficient in such respects is not merely to betray a want of diligence-it is

*Proverbs xxii. 29.

in

in fact to defert your Post, and abandon the honourable task you have pledged yourselves to fulfil. yourselves to fulfil. But there are other moments, hours of leifure which you are left at liberty to difpofe of, and which if you have inclination may be profitably employed. These moments a laudable ambition will direct you to cherifh and improve. Accomplifhments of the greatest utility in life may be obtained by them. Acquifitions in literature, researches in hiftory, information in the different branches of philofophy, or a cultivation of the fine arts, fuch and more might be mentioned as defirable objects of your purfuit-and how much more advantageous to be engaged in them, than to be fo infenfible of the value of time, as either to ftand idle in the Market-place, (without the excufe of the Labourers in the parable), or to loiter about the public ways deluded and deluding others? Can you imagine the attainments I have mentioned to be unimportant or fuperfluous to the profeffion of a Soldier? But what? Can HE then more than any other be too accomplished as a Scholar or a Man of Letters? Or will it be maintained that the name of a Cæfar is less renowned, because in the midst of an enterprising and laborious life he found time to record in everlasting characters, the most valuable and interefting memoirs? Idleness, some wife man has justly faid, is the root of all evil;-having in view, no doubt, that intemperance and diffipation to which it infallibly leads-for what greater evils can it produce than these? And against what is it more neceffary in the Third place, to caution the Profeffion I am now addressing?

In the fire and impetuofity of youth, when the imagination is fo apt to be heated with delufive dreams, the deftructive confequences of fenfual indulgences are overlooked-the fober fuggeftions and remonftrances of Moralists on these topics are treated as idle declamations or the effufions of bigotry and prejudice. There are, how

ever