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Is it in wealth? oh nó, beyond difpute
Meer wealth, of all things in the poor purfuit,
Yields the leaft pleasure, and the meanest fruit.

Is it in pow'r? take Solomon and read
What thousand thorns furround the royal bed.
Is it in fame? that fleeting airy breath
For which the foldier rufhes into death;
Let Julius Cæfar's fate inform us then,
Cæfar fo fam'd amongst the fons of men:
Some who have penn'd his character relate,
All human virtues join'd to make him great;
Others take equal pains to let us know
He was a traitor and his country's foe.

Is it in wit, that fparkling gift of heav'n,
The best or worst of all its bounties giv'n?
Afk the philofopher and poet too,

In times of deep diftrefs what this can do ;
Their answer is, This charming talent's vain
And ferves to give a quicker fenfe to pain.
Is it in mortal love too well I know
How hazardous the blifs, how great the woe
If we're deceiv'd..

Is it in friendship's bright etherial flame?
Sure this if any thing deferves the name
Of happiness

See e'en this brilliant paffion, even in this
The great uncertainty deftroys the bliss;

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For tho' our friends fhould juft and faithful prove, And we're belov'd, by thofe whom moft we love, The dread of lofing what we held most dear, Allays our joy with a corroding fear.

Say then my foul!-thou bufy flutt'ring guest!
Where can't thou go in fearch of peace and reft?
Fly to thy native refidence above,

And feck thy blifs in pure feraphic love;
Bow thy whole felf before thy Maker's feet,
And thus in huinble ftrains thy wants relate:
Omniscient God, who canft alone furvey
My inmoft foul, thus wrapt in mould'ring clay,

Thou

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Thou whofe almighty fiat gave me breath!
And thou who haft redeem'd my foul from death!
-Regard my prayer.

Wretched, oh! very wretched have I been,
Pursued by mifery, and clogg'd with fin;
My restlefs mind no happiness hath known,
Because I fought it not in thee alone.
Mortal attractions, drew me from my God,
'Till thou didst fend thy kind chastizing rod,
To purge from fin and pride my erring mind,
And gave me light to fee I had been blind.
Confirm thy mercy-gifts of grace difpenfe,
And let me truly know thy excellence!
Then fhall I find what yet in vain I've fought,
And to unfading happiness be brought,

A SMALL degree of knowledge of the fpirit of Chriftianity, feems to be enough to convince us, that no education can be of true advantage to young women, but that which trains them up in humble industry, in great plainnefs of life, in exact modefty of drefs, manners, and carriage, and in strict devotion."

For what fhould a Chriftian woman be, but a plain, unaffected, modeft, humble creature?

HE that lives clofe, lives quiet.

He needs fear no

body, of whom nobody is afraid. He that ftands below upon the firm ground needs not fear falling.

OH ignorance! thou chaos of the mind!
Th' eclipfe of reafon, to improvement blind;
Thou, like the owl, doft fhun the glorious light,
Enwrapp'd in darkness, and the shades of night;
All-pow'rful wifdom does difpel the gloom,
Makes thee expire, and reft within thy tomb;
Erects a trophy o'er thy mould'ring duft,
Of highest polish, cleans'd from foulest ruft.

CHRISTOPHER

CHRISTOPHER HATTON, a little before his death, advised his relations to be ferious in the fearch after The will of God in the holy word: for, faid he, it is defervedly accounted a piece of excellent knowledge to understand the law of the land, and the cuftoms of a man's country; how much more fo to know the ftatutes of heaven, and the laws of eternity, thofe immutable and eternal laws of justice and righteoufnefs to know the will and pleasure of the great Monarch, and universal King of the world." I have seen an end of all perfection, but thy commandments, O God, are exceeding broad."-Whatever other knowledge a man may be endued with, could he by a vaft and penetrating mind, and an heart as large as the fand upon the fea-fhore, command all the knowledge of art and nature, of words and things; could he attain a mystery in all languages, and found the depth of all arts and sciences; could he discourse of the interefts of all ftates, the intrigues of all courts, the reafon of all civil laws and conftitutions, and give an account of all hiftories; and yet not know the author of his being, and the preferver of his life, his fovereign and his judge, his fureft refuge in trouble, his best friend, the fupport of his life, and the hope of his death, his future happiness, and his portion for ever; he doth but, with a great deal of wisdom, go down to deftruction.'

CONTENT and tranquility are fifter virtues. How can the moments of life roll on in tranquil ease without content?

OUR friends are diminished by time, they often defert us to follow fortune, and fometimes renounce us through defires which we could not gratify, or through mistakes which we could not forefee. But from his own blood no man fhould be fevered; and yet to the fhame of human kind be it spoken, we fee the bonds of nature are not strong enough to tie the ambitious and felf interested.

ALL good things proceed from God, his power is unbounded, his wifdom is from eternity, and his goodness endureth for ever.

SMALL

SMALL is the province of a wife
And narrow is the sphere in life,
Within that sphere to move aright
Should be her principal delight.

IT is remarkable that men, when they differ in any thing confiderable, or which they think confiderable, will be apt to differ in almost every thing elfe; their differences beget contradiction-contradiction begets heat, heat quickly rifes into refentment, rage, and ill-will. Thus they differ in affections as they differ in judgment, and the contention which began in pride, ends in anger.

SINGULARITY is laudable when, in contradiction to a multitude, it adheres to the dictates of conscience, morality, and honour, In these cafes we ought to confider that it is not cuftom, but duty which is the rule of action, and that we should be only fo far fociable, as we are reafonable creatures. Truth is never the less fo for not being attended to, and it is the nature of actions, not the number of actors, by which we ought to regulate our behaviour. Singularity in concerns of this fort is to be looked upon as heroic bravery, in which a man leaves the fpecies only as he foars above it. What greater inftance can there be of a weak and pufillanimous temper, than for a man to pass his life in oppofition to his own fentiments; or not to dare to be what he thinks he ought to be?

MAN being made a reasonable, and fo a thinking creature, there is nothing more worthy of his being, than the right direction and employment of his thoughts; fince upon this depends both his usefulness to the public, and his own prefent and future benefit in all refpects.

THE violence of forrow is not at the firft to be refifted; it being, like a mighty beaft, fooner tamed by following, than overthrown by withstanding.

IT is the intereft of every man who wishes to be happy himself, to endeavour to make others so.

RELIGION

RELIGION ought to give the mind a greatnefs and equality in profperous or unhappy events; but there are fome inftances wherein reafon and philofophy feem but empty names when we come to try their force.

THE principle of virtue and excellency lies in a power of denying ourselves the fatisfaction of our own defires, where reason and religion does not authorise them.

NO preacher is liftened to but time, which gives us the fame train and turn of thought that elder people have tried n vain to put into our heads before.

REFLECTIONS on PROVERBS, Chap. xix. ver. 11. "It is the glory of a Man to pafs by a Tranfgreffion." THUS Wifdom fpeaks aloud, and yet Pride hardly will refign; Though to forgive, and to forget, Is God-like-is divine.

When injur'd, I can fcarce tell how
To pafs the inj'ry by;
My angry fpirit will not bow,

Nor let refentment die.

The heaving billows fwell within,
Till all is tempeft grown;

And thus I fhare another's fin,

And make his guilt my own.

But come, my proud, my selfish heart,
One ferious thought beftow;

Do I thus act the Chriftian part?
Has Jefus acted fo?

breaft

Juft the reverfe: his generous
Did kind compassion move;

When finners curs'd, the Saviour bleft,
And inj'ries paid with love.

Although

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