Here all my better faculties confine,
And be this hour of facred filence thine.
If by the day's illufive fcenes mifled,
My erring foul from virtue's paths has ftray'd,
Snar'd by example, or by paffion warm'd,
Some falfe delight my giddy fenfe has charm'd;
My calmer thoughts the wretched choice reprove,
And my beft hopes are center'd in thy love.
Depriv'd of this, can life one joy afford!
Its utmost boast, a vain, unmeaning word.
Bat, ah! how oft my lawless paffions rove,
And break thofe awful precepts I approve!
Purfue the fatal impulse I abhor,

And violate the virtue I adore!

Oft when thy better spirit's guardian care,
Warn'd my fond foul to fhun the tempting fnare,
My ftubborn will his gentle aid repreft,

And check'd the rifing goodness in my breaft;
Mad with vain hopes, or urg'd by falfe defires,
Still'd his foft voice, and quenched his facred fires.
With grief oppreft, and proftrate in the duft,
Should't thou condemn, I own the fentence juft.
But, oh! thy fofter titles let me claim,
And plead my caufe by mercy's gentle name-
Mercy, that wipes the penitential tear,
And diffipates the horror of defpair;
From rig'rous juftice fteals the vengeful hour,
Softens the dreadful attribute of pow'r,
Difarms the wrath of an offended God,
And feals my pardon in a Saviour's blood.
All-pow'rful grace, exert thy gentle fway,
And teach my rebel paffions to obey,
Left lurking folly, with infidious art,
Regain my volatile, inconftant heart.
Shall every high refolve devotion frames,
Be only lifelefs founds and fpecious names?
Oh! rather while thy hopes and fears controul,
In this still hour, each motion of my soul,
Secure its fafety by a fudden doom,
And be the foft retreat of fleep my tomb:

A 5

Calm

Calm let me flumber in that dark repofe,
'Till the last morn its orient beam difclofe;
Then when the great archangel's potent found
Shall echo thro' creation's ample round,
Wak'd from the fleep of death, with joy furvey
The op'ning fplendors of eternal day.

PRIDE hides a man's faults from himself, and magnifies them to others.

"THERE is nothing (fays Plato) fo delightful, as the hearing or fpeaking of truth." For this reafon, there is no converfation fo agreeable, as that of the man of integrity, who hears without any intention to betray, and speaks without any intention to deceive.

Truth is always confiftent with itself, and needs nothing to help it out. It is always near at hand, and fits upon our lips, and is ready to drop out before we are aware. Whereas a lie is troublesome, and fets a man's invention on the rack; and one trick needs a great many more of the fame kind to make it good.

MORAL virtues themfelves, without religion, are but cold, lifelefs and infipid. It is religion only which opens the mind to great conceptions, fills it with the moft fublime ideas, and warms the foul more than fenfual pleasures.

BY reading we enjoy the dead, by converfation the living, and by contemplation, ourfelves. Reading enriches the memory, converfation polishes the wit, and contemplation improves the judgment.

THE commands of Heaven (in the obfervance of which religion principally confifts) are very plain and obvious to the meanest understanding, and are nothing elfe but exhortations to love, and directions for focial happiness.

GREAT

-GREAT is the fteadiness of foul and thought,
By reafon bred, and by religion taught,
Which like a rock amidst the stormy waves,
Unmov'd remains, and all affliction braves.

WISDOM's an evenness of mind and foul,
A fteady temper which no cares controul;
No paffions ruffle, no defires inflame;
Still conftant to itself, and still the fame.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS by Heaven were first defign'd,
Lefs to adorn, than to amend, the mind.
Each fhould contribute to this gen'ral end,
And all to virtue as their centre tend.
Th' acquirements which our best esteem invite,
Should not project, but foften, mix, unite;
In glaring light not ftrongly be display'd,
But fweetly loft, and melted into fhade.

AS the gay flowers which nature yields
So various on the vernal fields,
Delight the fancy more than those
The garden gives to view in equal rows;
As the pure ftream, whofe mazy train,
The prattling pebbles check in vain,
Gives native pleasure, while it leads
Its random waters swiftly thro' the meads;
As birds on boughs, in early fpring,
Their wood-notes-wild near rivers fing,
Grateful their warbling ftrains repeat,
And footh the ear irregularly fweet ;.
So fimple drefs and native grace,
Will beft become the lovely face:
For the judicious man fufpects

In artful ornaments conceal'd defects.

MOST of the miseries of life, undoubtedly refult from our ftraying from the path which leads to content.

FRIENDSHIP delights in equal fellowship,
Where purity of rank, and mutual offices,
Engage both fides alike, and keep the balance even.
'Tis irkfome to a gen'rous grateful heart,
To be opprefs'd beneath a load of favours ;
Still to receive and run in debt with friendship,
Without the power of paying fomething back.

NEVER fay any thing directly tending to your own praife; nor when you have done or faid any thing that deferves it, receive it from others with indifference. Be neither too covetous of it, nor appear difpleafed or confufed at receiving it: but when you have done any thing worthy of praife, fuffer yourfelf to be told of it, without rebuffing those who are doing you justice. In your private thoughts diveft yourfelf of it, and return it to God, as the giver of the gift, and the bleffer of the action. Give him unfeigned thanks, for making you an inftrument of his glory for the benefit of others.

THE advice of Pythagoras is, that as the body is no more than the fervant of the foul, it should only be nourifhed fo as it may best perform an humble and obedient fervice to it.

THE duties that are owing to friends are integrity, love, counfel, and affiftance. It is not intimacy and frequency of converfation, that makes a friend, but a difinterested obfervance of thefe duties.

THERE is no manner of life fo ftrait, or miferable, that hath not fome folace and confolation. Jonah had leifure to make his prayer unto God, even in the belly of the whale, and was heard.

IT is fome fhort refreshment to friends and relations, to fee and hear from one another; but it paffeth away, and we have here no continuing city, no abiding delights in this world: cur reft remains elfewhere. I hose we have, lofe much of their fweetnefs, from the thoughts of parting with them, even while we enjoy them; but the happiness to come is eternal. BE

BE very careful in your promises, and juft in your performances, and remember it is better to do, and not promife, than to promife, and not perform.

NEVER do any thing for your friends, that is not confonant to your honour and your confcience; you ought always to prefer thofe to your friends.

-WITH ftealing foot,

Time follows mortals; overtakes the fwift;
Stops the career of youth, and clogs the wheels
Of trembling age; and to one common doom
Brings kings and peasants, conquerors and flaves.

RELIGION's force divine is best display'd
In deep defertion of all human aid.

To fuccour in extremes is her delight,

And chear the heart, when terror ftrikes the fight.
We, disbelieving our own fenfes, gaze,

And wonder what a mortal's heart can raise
To triumph o'er misfortunes, fmile in grief,
And comfort thofe, who come to bring relief:
We gaze, and as we gaze, wealth, fame, decay,
And all the world's vain glories fade away.

WE need not travel, feeking ways to bliss,
He that defires contentment cannot mifs;
No garden-walls this precious flow'r embrace,
It common grows in every defart place.

THE varying feafons ev'ry virtuous foul
With various pleafures, in their changes blefs;
Raife chearful hopes, and anxious fears controul,
And form a paradise of inward peace.

WHEN conftant faith, and holy hope fhall die,
One loft in certainty, and one in joy;
Then thou, more happy pow'r, fair charity,
Triumphant fifter, greatest of the three,
Thy office and thy nature ftill the fame,
Lafting thy lamp, and unconfum'd thy flame,

Shalt