mark of goodness in those who sincerely possess it. It is hardly possible it should be otherwise : for the fervors of a pious mind will naturally contract such an earnestness and attention towards a better being, as will make the ordinary passages of life go off with a becoming indifference. By this, a man in the lowest condition, will not appear mean; nor in the most splendid fortune, insolent.

It is a great disgrace to religion, to imagine it an enemy to mirth and cheerfulness, and a severe exactor of pensive looks and solemn faces. The true spirit of religion cheers as well as composes the soul. It is not the business of virtue to extirpate the affections of the mind, but to regulate them.

The greatest and wisest of men, in all ages and countries, were renowned for their piety and virtue. Those in our own nation that have been unquestionably the most eminent for learning and knowledge, were likewise the most eminent for their adherence to the Christian Religion : witness Boyle, Locke, Newton, Addison, Bacon, and others. The examples of such, among many other first names in philosophy, are a sufficient evidence that religious belief is perfectly compatible with the clearest and most enlarged understanding.

Religion I would have you both awfully to reverence, and devoutly to practise; but not as the hypocrites do, as a sort of commutation with the world, for living like a cannibal, and preying upon their fellow creatures. God is a Spirit; worship him then in Spirit and in truth; not with unmeaning words and ostentatious ceremonies. Come before him with the incense of an innocent and virtuous life; and wherever you address him, either with prayer or praise, he will not be slow to hear, or backward to accept the grateful offering. To believe that you are always within the reach, and under the care, of his providence, is an everlasting source of comfort to remember you are ever in his eye, and that all your actions, words, and thoughts, are registered before him, will preserve you sinless, though surrounded with temptations.

Though I would have you consider the present life as a state of probation, and the future as the certain rectifier, and rewarder of all the good and evil committed here; yet, live innocently, live honestly, live usefully, and if possible, apart of that interesting consideration. Men discharge their duty to the world, who act uprightly, whatever is their motive: but they are best acquitted to themselves, who love and practise virtue for its own divine perfections.

"O thou whose power o'er moving worlds presides,
Whose voice created, and whose wisdom guides;
On darkling man in pure effulgence shine,
And cheer the clouded mind with light divine.
'Tis thine, alone, to calm the pious breast
With silent confidence, and holy rest:

From thee, great God! we spring, to thee we tend,
Path, motive, guide, original, and end."

Dr. Johnson.

On the Study of History.

ONE

quarter of an hour's reflection does more toward the improvement of the mind, than a large portion of reading. We have much less to fear from ignorance, than misrepresentation. Reflection is the guide which leads to truth. Facts only are to be considered as authorities for supporting reason, or as subjects to exercise it. The first science of man, is the study of himself.

To study history, is to study the passions and opinions of mankind: it is to unmask their actions, which appeared great, while veiled and sanctioned by success; but when the ruling motive is considered, they become contemptible.

The

motive of an action should be examined before it be applauded.

History may be considered as a register of times, and a picture of manners: it is there where we may discover ourselves, without any offence to our vanities.

Among the many portentous evils that threaten both the present age and posterity, there are few which are more to be deplored than the general diffusion of visionary writings of what are termed novelists: and of all the mirrors fabricated by the press, and held up to the public, there are none more common or more fallacious than those fictitious histories which go under the name of novels and romances; where, for the most part, the modesty of nature is overstepped, reason is degraded into sentiment, human language and human manners are almost lost in rant, affectation, and intrigue. When the world is viewed in such representations, it is scarcely to be known again. For any one to take his ideas from such exhibitions, would be no less an injustice to the world, than a disgrace to his understanding. What can be more deplorable, than that young persons, instead of being taught to consider the present life as a state of serious trial, where much is to be endured and much to be forborne, should be

flattered with the destructive imagination that its great end is pleasure and amusement? What can be more lamentable, than that by wrong principles early imbibed, the few days of man on earth should be embittered by a perpetual disappointment, and at length terminated by a querulous and miserable old age, without any cheering prospect beyond the grave? This, certainly, is but ill to know the world, even in point of present enjoyment; and to know it still less in its relation to the world to come.

There is one volume which describes the world in a manner perfectly unexceptionable; others there may be, but they are such as are` derived from it. In almost all others, it is either flattered or disparaged; it is either transformed into a paradise, or into a howling wilderness: the Bible only represents it as it is; fallen indeed from its primitive glory and happiness, but not into hopeless guilt and misery: not into a condition destitute of the light and grace of heaven, or (to the humble christian,) unprovided with ample support and comfort.

The Bible, if attentively studied, will supply the most sequestered hermit with a comprehensive knowledge of man, both in his individual and collective capacity: there, he may trace human