WHENCE THE FAIRNESS OF NATURE?

But were not nature still endow'd at large
With all which life requires, though unadorn'd
With such enchantment? Wherefore then her form
So exquisitely fair? her breath perfum'd

With such ethereal sweetness?

Whence her voice

Inform'd at will to raise or to depress

The impassion'd soul? Whence the robes of light
Which thus invest her with more lovely pomp

Than fancy can describe. Whence but from Thee,
O Source Divine of overflowing love?

Akenside.

THE SOUL, WHEN VIEWING THE PROSPECTS OF IMMOR-
TALITY, COMPARED TO THE PRISONER ENLARGED
FROM A DUNGEON.

As when a wretch, from thick polluted air,
Darkness, and stench, and suffocating damps,
And dungeon horrors, by kind fate discharg'd,
Climbs some fair eminence, where ether pure
Surrounds him, and Elysian prospects rise,
His heart exults, his spirits cast their load;
As if new born he triumphs in the change;
So joys the soul when from inglorious aims,
And sordid sweets, from feculence and froth
Of ties terrestrial, set at large, she mounts
To reason's region, her own element,
Breathes hope immortal, and affects the skies.

Young.

THE ADORNMENT OF NIGHT.

Would heaven her beauty should be hid from sight,
Ne'er would she thus adorn herself with light,

With sparkling lamps; nor would she paint her throne,
But she delighted to be gaz'd upon.

And when the glorious sun goes down,
Would she put on her star-bestudded crown,
And on her masking suit, the spangled sky
Come forth to bride it with her revelry.
Heaven gave this gift to all things in creation,
That they in this should imitate their fashion.

Spenser.

DO PARENTS THINK ON THE EVILS OF A BAD

EDUCATION?

I suppose it never occurs to parents, that to throw vilely educated young people on the world is, independently of the injury to the young people themselves, a positive crime, and of very great magnitude; as great, for instance, as burning their neighbour's house, or poisoning the water in his well. In pointing out to them what is wrong, even if they acknowledge the justness of the statement, one cannot make them feel a sense of guilt, as in other proved charges. That they love their children, extenuates to their consciences every parental folly, that may at last produce in the children every desperate vice.

Foster.

ΤΕΜΡΤΑΤION OF MΟΝΕΥ.

An old Greek said well, there is amongst men nothing perfect, because men carry themselves as persons that are less than money, servants of gain and interest. We are like the foolish poet that Horace tells of: let him but have money for rehearsing his comedy, he cares not whether you like it or no; and if a temptation of money comes strong and violent, you may as well tie a wild dog to quietness with the gut of a tender kid, as suppose that most men can do virtuously, when they may sin at a greater price.

Jeremy Taylor.

THE INEXPRESSIBLE PLEASURE OF SELF-DEVOTION

TO GOD.

How inexpressible the pleasure of the soul in devoting itself to God, when bemoaning itself, and returning with weeping and supplication, it says, "Now, lo I come to thee, thou art the Lord my God. I have brought thee back thine own, what I had sacrilegiously alienated and stolen away, the heart which has gone astray, that hath been so long a vagabond and a fugitive from thy blessed presence, service, and communion. Take now the soul which thou hast made; possess thy own right, enter upon it, stamp it with the entire impression of thine own seal, and mark it for thine. Other lords shall no more have dominion. What have I to do any more with the idols wherewith I was wont to provoke thee to jealousy? I

will now make mention of thy name, and of thine only. I bind myself to thee in everlasting bonds, in a covenant never to be forgotten."

The self-denial which is included in this transaction, hath no little pleasure in it. When the soul freely quits all pretence to itself, and by its own consent passes into his (now acknowledged) right; disclaims itself, and all its own former interests, inclinations, and ends, and is resolved to be to him and no other;-when this is done unreservedly, without any intention of retaining or keeping back anything from him; absolutely, and without making any condition of its own, but only agreeing to, and thankfully accepting his; peremptorily, and without hesitation, and without halting between two opinions, shall I or shall I not? (as if it were ready in the same breath to retract and undo its own act). How doth it now rejoice to feel itself offer willingly! They that have life and sense about them, can tell there is pleasure in all this. And the oftener repetition is made hereof (so it be done with life, not with trifling formality), they so often renew the relishes with themselves of the same pleasure. Howe.

CHRIST'S INCARNATION.

Christ took our nature on him, not that he
'Bove all things lov'd it, for the purity:
No, but he drest Him with our human trim,
Because our flesh stood most in need of Him.

Herrick.

THE WAY TO HEAVEN.

If the way to heaven be narrow, it is not long; and if the gate be strait, it opens into endless life.

Bishop Beveridge.

KEEPING THE BANKS OF THE SABBATH.

The streams of religion run deeper or shallower, as the banks of the Sabbath are kept up or neglected.

Calcott.

THE UNHAPPY DIVISION OF FAITH AND WORKS.

'Twas an unhappy division that has been made between faith and works. Though in my intellect I may divide them, just as in the candle I know there is both light and heat; but yet, put out the candle, and they are both gone, one remains not without the other; so it is with faith and works.

Selden.

LIP-LABOUR.

In the Old Scripture I have often read,
The calf without meal ne'er was offer'd;
To figure to us nothing more than this,
Without the heart, lip-labour nothing is.

Herrick.