The

HEALTH is a bleffing that every one wishes to enjoy ; but the multitude are fo unreasonable, as to defire to purchase it at a cheaper rate than it is to be obtained. continuance of it is only to be fecured by exercise or labour. But the misfortune is, that the poor are too apt to overlook their own enjoyments, and to view with envy the cafe and affluence of their fuperiors, not confidering that the ufual attendants upon great fortunes are anxiety and disease.

GOD feems to have intended more by almfgiving than what we apprehend at first fight; fince the indigent are not only fupported thereby, but the perfons who confer the bounty have an opportunity offered them of promoting their own divine intereft, inafmuch as charity is more advantageous to him that giveth than to him that receiveth.

POOR is the best that man can pay

That Pow'r, who guards him ev'ry day;
Yet if his beft, tho' e'er fo poor,

Heav'n takes the mite-and asks no more!

VIRTUE rejoice! tho' heaven may frown awhile;
That frown is but an earnest of a smile.
One day of tears prefages years of joy,
For fuff'rings only mend us, not deftroy.
Who feels the lafhes of an adverse hour,
Finds them but means to waft him into pow'ri
As health to bodies, bitter draughts impart,
So trials are but phyfic to the heart.

Extract from a POEM on DREAMS.

THE virtuous mind, to whom all-righteous heav'n The pow'r of bounty, with the will has giv'n, Feels the fame joys in fleep, he waking feels, And, heav'n's bleft delegate, its mercy deals; With facred joy, he ftops the rifing figh, And wipes the falling tear from forrow's eye.

HOW

HOW happy are those who have obtained the important victory of conquering their paffions, after which man is no longer the flave of fear, nor the fool of hope; is no more emaciated by envy, inflamed by anger, emasculated by tenderness, or depreffed by grief; but walks on calmly through the tumults or the privacies of life, as the fun pursues alike his course through the calm or the stormy sky.

HAPPY are those who live without ambition, distrust, or difguife. And happy is he who limits his defires to a private and peaceable manner of life, wherein it is less difficult to be virtuous.

A MAN may be happy any where, that knows how to be contented: nature is ferved with a little, and we ought to esteem our irregular appetites as foreigners: if our fortune be not extended to the larger measure of our wishes, it is easy to contract our minds to our fortune.

BE ever steady to your word; yet be not afhamed to confefs your errors, nor flow to indemnify those who may have fuffered by your mistake.

KNOWLEDGE will foon become folly, when good fense ceases to be its guardian.

SOLITUD E.

SWEET folitude, in which the good delight,
Serene by day, and peaceful is thy night.
Thou nurse of innocence, fair virtue's friend!
Silent, tho' rapt'rous pleasures thee attend.
Earth's verdant fcenes, the all-furrounding fkies,
Employ my wand'ring thoughts, and feaft my eyes.
Nature in every object points the road

Whence contemplation wings my foul to God.
He's all in all, his wifdom, goodness, pow'r,
Spring in each blade, and bloom in ev'ry flow'r;
Smile o'er the meads, and fhine in every hill,
Glide in the stream, and murmur in the rill.

Extract from a Piece addressed to HAPPINESS.

ARDENT I feek the flow'ry road
That leads to thy divine abode;
O deign to be my guide!

Waft my low bark with profp'rous fail
Thro' ev'ry rough and boift'rous gale
That fwells life's rapid tide.

And fteer me to that happy fhore,
Where no rude tempeft's fullen roar,
Disturbs thy peaceful reign;
There with thy genial influence blefs'd,
Sweet fmiling peace fhall fill my breaft,
And pleasure banish pain.

3

THE fweeteft revenge is to do good to our enemies.

SINCE afflictions cannot be avoided, let them be patiently borne: it is not for any fort of men to expect an exemption from the common lot of mankind; and no perfon is truly great, but he that keeps up the fame dignity of mind in all conditions.

KEEP me from each prefumptuous vice,
From fin's dominion free;

Then ever undismay'd I'll walk

In bold integrity.

Let all my words, and every thought,
Meet thy affenting nod:

O! view me with benignant eye,

My Saviour, ftrength, and God!

HE who would be rich in time, must be as frugal of his minutes and the fmaller portions of it, as he who would be rich in worldly wealth, must be of his fmaller and inconfiderable fums.

HOW vain are all their pretences to love God who know little or nothing of him, who are neither acquainted with

the

the glorious perfections of his nature, nor with the wondrous discoveries of his grace! Love must be founded in knowledge. How vain are their pretences to love God with all their heart, and in a fupreme degree, who never faw him to be a being of tranfcendent worth, of furpassing excellency, and capable of making them for ever happy; who value their corn, and their wine, and their oil, their business, their riches, or their diverfions, more than God and his love!

SUBMIT thy life to heav'n's indulgent caret
Tho' all feems loft, 'tis impious to despair.
The tracts of Providence like rivers wind,
Here run before us, there retreat behind:
And tho' immerg'd in earth from human eyes,
Again break forth, and more confpicuous rife.

THERE is fomething ungenerous in confecrating the remains of a ruin'd constitution, and fhatter'd health, to the Deity, while we have been dedicating all our youth and ftrength to the fervice of the world.

LET libertines their boift'rous pleasures boaft,
They are but noify wretchedness at most:
The tott'ring bafe of all the joys they know
Is fleeting tumult, or delufive fhew;

They rend the breaft, as whirlwinds rend the sky,
And, like the inftant light'nings, glare and die.
That lafting blifs, which bears a calm review,
None but the wife and virtuous ever knew:
And from this pleafing retrofpe&t will rife
The op'ning profpects of eternal joys;
In thofe bright realms, where perfect spirits live,
Poffefs'd of ev'ry good Omnipotence can give.

The CLOSE of the YEAR.

SERIOUS and folemn tolls the bell,
Which bids us blefs the parting foul:
Serious and folemn verfe fhould flow,
Which fays the year has reach'd its goal.
Refcction

VOL. II.

B

Reflection bring thy wond'rous pow'rs,
Aid us to recollect the past ;
Well, if the prefent day fhall yield

A mind compos'd to meet the laft.
For fure as fummer funs fhall roll,

And fure as wintry ftorms defcend,
Life, too, fhall reach its deftin'd goal,
And all ideal profpects end.

'The mind refolved, the foul ferene,
May cheerful meet its latest hour;
And thro' each various change that comes,
Defy the feasons, and their power.

WE fhould not fo often hear complaints of the inconfancy and falfenefs of friends, if the world in general were more cautious than they ufually are, in forming connections of this kind. But the misfortune is, our friendships are apt to be too forward; and thus either fall off in the bloffom, or never arrive at just maturity.

THE general duty of a friend is an induftrious pursuit of his friend's real advantages; fidelity in all his trufts; affiftance in all his warts; and a constant endeavour for his advancement in piety and virtue: for fo clofe is the connection, that it is the expreffion of God himself, fpeaking of a friend: " Thy friend, which is as thine

own foul." Deut. 13.

OUR GOD is confined to no fpot: his regards are limited to no community: he rides on the circuit of the heavens his eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth hell itself is open before him, and destruction hath no covering. He maketh the clouds his chariot, and the winds his meffengers: all the elements fulfil his commands. Darkness is his pavilion; the earth is his footstool, and in the deep waters his wonders are seen. All nature is his temple, all space his abode, every living thing is the workmanship of his hand; and over all his parental care and tender mercies extend, without the leaft fhadow of partiality, or the smallest tincture of envy,

Can