VICE NOT WITHOUT USE.

THE lives of bad men are not without use,--

and whenever fuch a one is drawn, not

with a corrupt view to be admired, but on purpose to be detefted-it muft excite fuch a horror against vice, as will strike indirectly the fame good impreffion. And though it is painful to the last degree to paint a man in the shades which his vices have caft upon him, yet when it ferves this end, it carries its own excuse with it. SERMON IX. PAGE 173.

EFFECTS OF MISFORTUNE.

WHA

HAT by fucceffive misfortunes; by failings and cross accidents in trade; by miscarriage of projects-what by unfuitable expences of parents, extravagances of children, and the many other fecret ways whereby riches make themselves wings and fly away; fo many furprising revolutions do every day happen in families,

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families, that it may not seem strange to fay, that the posterity of fome of the most liberal contributors here, in the changes which one century may produce, may poffibly find shelter under this very plant which now they fo kindly water. Nay, fo quickly fometimes has the wheel turned round, that many a man has lived to enjoy the benefit of that charity which his own piety

SOMETIMES, in his wild way of talking,

he would fay that gravity was an errant fcoundrel; and he would add, of the most dangerous kind too, becaufe a fly one; and that he verily believed, more honeft, well-meaning people were bubbled out of their goods and money by it in one twelvemonth, than by pocketpicking and fhop-lifting in feven. In the naked temper which a merry heart difcovered, he would fay, there was no danger, but to itself: whereas the very effence of gravity was defign, and confequently deceit ;-'twas a taught

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trick to gain credit of the world for more sense and knowledge than a man was worth; and that, with all its pretenfions,—it was no better, but often worse than what a French wit had long ago defined it, viz.-A mysterious carriage of the body to cover the defects of the mind.

T. SHANDY, VOL. I. C. II.

REFLECTION UPON MAN.

WHEN I reflect upon man; and take a view

of that dark fide of him which represents

his life as open to fo many causes of troublewhen I confider how oft we eat the bread of affliction, and that we are born to it, as to the portion of our inheritance-when one runs over the catalogue of all the crofs reckonings and forrowful items with which the heart of man is over-charged, 'tis wonderful by what hidden refources the mind is enabled to stand it out, and bear itself up, as it does against the impositions laid upon our nature.

REVENGE.

REVENGE from fome baneful corner shall

level a tale of dishonour at thee, which no innocence of heart or integrity of conduct shall fet right.

-The fortunes of thy houfe fhall totter,thy character, which led the way to them, shall bleed on every fide of it,-thy faith queftioned, -thy works belied,-thy wit forgotten,-thy learning trampled on. To wind up the last scene of thy tragedy, CRUELTY and coWARDICE, twin ruffians, hired and fet on by MALICE in the dark, fhall strike together at all thy infirmities and mistakes: the best of us, lie open there,-and trust me,-trust me,-when, to gratify a private appetite, it is once refolved upon, that an innocent and an helpless creature fhall be facrificed, 'tis an easy matter to pick up sticks enow from any thicket where it has ftrayed, to make a fire to offer it up with.

T. SHANDY, V. I. C. 12.

EJACULATION.

EJACULATION.

IME waftes too faft: every letter I trace

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tells me with what rapidity life follows my pen; the days and hours of it, more precious, my dear Jenny! than the rubies about thy neck, are flying over our heads like light clouds of a windy day, never to return more-every thing preffes on-whilst thou art twisting that lock,fee! it grows grey; and every time I kifs thy hand to bid adieu, and every abfence which follows it, are preludes to that eternal feparation which we are shortly to make.

T, SHANDY, V. iv. c. 67.

THERE is a fatality attends the actions of fome men: order them as they will, they pass through a certain medium which fo twists and refracts them from their true directions→→→ that, with all the titles to praife which a rectitude of heart can give, the doers of them are nevertheless forced to live and die without it.

T. SHANDY, V. I. C. 10.

CONJUGAL