which is in every one's power to practise, viz. fhewing a difpofition to be pleafed.

IT often happens, that those are most defirous of governing others, who are least able to govern themselves.

IT is indeed a serious thing to die; but virtue difarms the gloomy king of all his terrors, and brightens the profpect of futurity.

SENECA fays, there is no difference betwixt poffelling a thing, and not defiring it.

VAIN are all forms prefcrib'd by art,
All outward modes of worship vain;
An honeft, gen'rous, pious heart,

Can only true acceptance gain.

FAREWEL, ye vain, I hate your ways,
Ye grov❜ling fons of pride, adieu ;
Poor av'rice, how thy hope decays!
Thy fteps I tremble to pursue.

To Sion's hill I lift my eye,

To Sion's hill direct my feet; From all things learn to live and die, From all the vile and vain retreat.

The Character of the Lady of one of the ancient Earls of Westmoreland, written by her Hufband, and infcribed in the Chimney-wall of a large Room, at Budftone Place, in Kent, once the Seat of that noble Family.

SHE feared God, and knew how to ferve him; fhe affigned times for her devotion, and kept them; fhe was a perfect wife, a true friend; fhe joyed moft to oblige thofe nearest and dearest to me. She was ftill the fame, ever kind, and never troublesome; often preventing my defires; difputing none; providently managing all that was mine; living in appearance above mine eftate, while the advanced it. She was of a great spirit, fweetly tem

B 3

pered,

pered; of a sharp wit, without offence; of excellent fpeech; bleft with filence; of a chearful temper; mildly governed; of a brave fashion to win respect, and to daunt boldness; pleafing to all of her fex; intimate with few ; delighting in the beft; ever avoiding all perfons and places in their honour blemished; and was as free from doing ill as giving the occafion. She died as fhe lived, well; and bleft in the greatest extremity; moft patiently fending forth her pure foul with many zealous prayers and hymns to her Maker; pouring out her affectionate heart in paffionate ftreams to her Saviour.

N. B. The beginning and ending of this infcription being defaced by time, the date is uncertain.

MAN may, in fcenes of ev'ry kind,
Fit leffons of inftruction find:
The bird, for injury and wrong,
Repays th' oppreffor with a fong.

Oh! blush to think, that, Heav'n-infpir'd,
Thy breaft should be with malice fir'd
Learn hence thy paffion to reftrain,
And ftill that god-like rule maintain,
To feek no vengeance on a foe,

But blefs the hand that gives the blow.

IF you defire to live in peace and honour, in favour with God and man, and to die in the glorious hope of rifing from the grave to a life of endless happiness-if thefe things appear worthy your ambition, you must set out in earneft in the purfuit of them. Virtue and happinefs are not attainable by chance, nor by a cold and languid approbation; they must be fought with ardour, attended to with diligence, and every affiftance must be eagerly embraced that may enable you to obtain them.

TO take fincere pleasure in the bleffings and excellencies of others, is a much furer mark of benevolence than to pity their calamities.

EQUALLY

EQUALLY vain and abfurd is every fcheme of life, that is not fubfervient to, and does not terminate in, that great end of our being, the attainment of real excellence, and of the favour of God. Whenever this becomes fincerely our object, then will pride and vanity, envy, ambition, covetoufnefs, and every evil paffion, lofe their power over us; and we fhall, in the language of Scripture, "walk humbly with our God."

Extract from a Poem, called Ancient and Modern Rome.

REFLECTION hath its joy, a penfive calm,
That shrouds the foul, and bears it on the wings
Of vagrant thought, to mem'ry's wide domain !
Now let's indulge it, while we here remark
The mad career of fortune, and behold
Imperial Rome, 'midst all her triumphs, fall'n!
So clofes ev'ry fcene; and thus decay
The works of man-allow'd a little space
To fhine, attract, then fade, and be forgot!
For fee, the paths that lead to pow'r, and fame,
And those which feel the peafant's filent ftep,
End in one point. Obferve ambition's flight,
And laugh at all the wild fantastic dreams
Of human folly. Seeking then thy arms,
Oh, virtue! let us court thee as our good,
Our only treasure, and our only hope;
Our fhield, to guard us 'gainst a faithlefs world,
And all its poifon'd arrows. Thou, unhurt,
Sprung from immortal truth, ferenely bright,
Suftain't the general wreck; and, like the fun,
Shalt ftill appear with undiminish'd light,
When all the boasted monuments of pride
Shall fink, and mingle with the dust they hide!

HABITUAL evils are not quickly chang'd;
But many days muft pafs, and many forrows,

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Confcious

Confcious remorfe, and anguifh must be felt,
To curb defire, to break the stubborn will,
And work a fecond nature in the foul,

Ere virtue can resume the place she loft:
'Tis elfe diffimulation..

IN the works of man, perfection is aimed at, but it can only be found in those of the Creator.

CONSCIENCE is the law of the all-wife Author of nature, written on our hearts, or properly the application of this law, as it regards the judgments we thould form of particular actions.-It is like a cenfor, noting and obferving our actions; and therefore it has not undefervedly been called, by fome, a portion of the virgin foul, as not admitting the leaft blemish of prevarication. Hence good actions beget fecurity in the confcience, but bad caufe anguish and vexation, which is better known by experience than explained by words: for, if it is painful to us to abide by the judgments of those we live with, and to put up with their reprehenfions, it will be more fo to be condemned by our own reason, and to carry about us fo fevere a judge of our actions. And thus it is, that confcience performs the function both of a witness and judge: when it reprimands us for having done amifs, as Juvenal fays

Not fharp revenge, nor hell itself, can find
A fiercer torment than a guilty mind;

Which day and night does dreadfully accufe,
Condemns the wretch, and ftill the charge renews.

RICHES, alas! are tranfient things,

And titles but an airy dream :
Our pleafures flow from nobler fprings,
And give more lafting peace than them.

Let fordid mortals hope for wealth,
This never fhall my pray'r employ ;
Give me but competence and health,
I envy not their short-liv'd joy.

PRIDE

AND

HUMILITY.

MARK how the ftately tree difdainful rears
His tow'ring head, and mingles with the clouds!
But, by his fatal height the more expos'd
To all the fury of the raging ftorm;

His honours fly, the fport of angry winds,
'Till the loud blaft, with direful ftroke, defcends:
Torn from his bafis, low on earth he lies,
And the hills echo to the founding fall.
So pride with haughty port, defies in vain
The force of rough adverfity, which rends,
With double violence, the ftubborn heart.
But, like a tender plant, humility
Bends low before the threat'ning blaft, unhurt
Eludes its rage, and lives through all the ftorm.
Pride is the liv'ry of the prince of darkness,
Worn by his flaves, who glory in their fhame;
A gaudy drefs, but tarnish'd, rent, and foul,
And loathfome to the holy eye of Heav'n.
But sweet humility, a fhining robe,
Beftow'd by Heav'n upon its fav'rite sons;
The robe which God approves, and angels wear;
Fair 'femblance of the glorious Prince of light,
Who ftoop'd to dwell (divine humility!)
With finful worms, and poverty, and fcorn.
Pride is the fource of difcord, ftrife and war,
And all the endless train of heavy woes
Which wait on wretched man! the direful fting
Of envy, and the dreaded frowns of fcorn,
And gloomy difcontent, and black despair.
But fweet humility, the fource of peace,

Of amity and love, content and joy;
Where the refides, a thousand bleffings wait
To gild our lives, and form a heav'n below.
Pride leads her wretched vot'ries to contempt,

To certain ruin, infamy, and death.

But fweet humility points out the way
To happiness, and life, and lafting honours.

B 5

Humility,