HOPE, FEAR, ANXIETY, AND DISTRUST. How many things there are that fancy makes terrible by night, which the day turns into ridiculous. There is no condition so low, but may have hopes; nor any so high, that is out of the reach of fear. He that wants hope, is the poorest man living. Hopes and disappointments, are the lot and entertainment of human life; the one serves to keep us from presumption, the other from despair. A noble spirit must not vary with his fortune; in your worst estate, hope; in the best, fear; and, in all be circumspect. The apprehension of evil is many times worse than the evil itself; and the ills a man fears he shall suffer, he suffers in the very fear of them. When faith, temperance, and other celestial powers, left the earth; hope was the only goddess that staid behind. The expectation of future happiness is the best relief of anxious thoughts, the most perfect cure of melancholy, the guide of life, and the comfort of death. Anxiety and distrust when excessive, takes away fervour from piety, vigour from action, health from the body, light from the reason, and repose from the conscience. It were no virtue to bear calamities, if we did not feel them. More perish through too much confidence than by too much fear; where one despairs, there are thousands that presume. Let not your expectation from the years that are to come, rise too high, and your disappointments will be fewer and more easily supported. A wise man is provided for occurrences of any kind; the good he manages, the bad he vanquishes; in prosperity he betrays no presumption, in adversity he feels no despondency. To keep ourselves above painful solicitude, is our duty and interest. However, none but souls of the first rate seem qualified for the undertaking. There is but one way of fortifying the soul against all gloomy presages and terrors of mind; and that is, by securing to ourselves the friendship and protection of that Being, who disposes of events, and governs futurity. Anxiety is the poison of human life. It is the parent of many sins, and of more miseries. In a world where every thing is so doubtful where we may succeed in our wish, and be miserable; where we may be disappointed, and blessed in the disappointment: what means a restless stir and commotion of the mind? Solicitude cannot alter the course, or unravel the intricacy of human events. Curiosity cannot pierce through the cloud which the Supreme Being hath made impenetrable to the human eye. Wisdom commands man to retire after he has done all that was incumbent on him, and to possess his mind in peace. Practised in the ways of men, we are apt to be suspicious of sign and fraud; for the |