WHAT embitters the common accidents of life to moft people is their entertaining a foolish notion, that calamities are unnatural, and that we have a right to the pleasures of life; whereas the true ftate of the cafe is, that affliction is what we greatly need, and rightly deferve, and that the pleafures of life are the mere gift of God, which therefore may withhold or beftow as he fees fit.

he

On AUTUMN.

HOW barren now the trees appear!
Lo! winter comes apace;
With rapid flight the circling year
Departs with eager hafte.

The flow'rs, with odorif’rous fweets,
No more perfume the air;
But every scene our profpect meets,
Difplay'd in wild despair.

Thus will your lovely form decay;
Your blooming beauties fade;
Those transient charms fhall die away,
And age will be difplay'd.

Then gain the charm that ne'er will fade,
That never droops and dies:

At death's approach be not difmay'd,
For you again shall rise.

The frowns of fortune ne'er regard,
But truft almighty love;

Virtue fhall meet her fure reward
In realms of blifs above.

JOHN, LORD HARRINGTON, was the eldest fon of that Lord Harrington to whom King James the First committed the education of his eldest daughter, the Princess Elizabeth. He had excellent natural endowments, and had acquired a confiderable stock of useful learning; but was

moftly

moftly eminent for his knowledge in the work of his falvation. He manifested a principle of true life in his heart, by his love to all who were truly godly. And fuch were his bowels of compaffion, that he gave the tenth part of his yearly income to charitable uses. At the beginning of his last fickness, he strongly apprehended that death would be the end of it, and accordingly prepared for the grave. He declared his faith in, and undoubted hope of falvation by Chrift; and faid, with much cheerfulness, "That he feared "not death in what shape foever it might affail him.” In the midst of many heavenly things, which dropped from time to time from his mouth, he defired to be diffolved, and to be at home with the Lord, declaring, not above two hours before his death, "That he ftill felt the comfort and joys of affured falvation, by Chrift Jefus." And when the hour of his departure was come, he faid, " O, that "joy!-0, my God! when fhall I be with thee?" And with the like words, expreffive of a tender heavenly frame: of mind, he peacefully expired.

66

The STORY of PYRRHIAS.

A MERCHANT of Ithaca being at fea efpied an antient man, a captive, in a pirate's hip; he took compaffion on him, and redeemed him; and bought his commodities, which the pirates had taken from him, which were certain barrels of pitch. The old man perceiving,, that not for any good fervice he could do him, nor for the gain of that commodity, but merely out of pity and charity he had done this, difcovered a great mafs of treasure hidden. in the pitch, whereby the merchant in a very fhort time became very rich. "He that foweth liberally, fhall reap "liberally; the liberal foul fhall be made fat; the liberal "devifeth liberal things, and by liberal things he fhall. "ftand."

NEVER indulge yourfelves in ridicule on religious fubjects; nor give countenance to it in others, by feeming diverted with. what they fay. This, to people of good breeding, will be a fufficient check.

On CONTINTMENT.

WHEN I furvey the world around,
And see what objects may be found,
Afflicted and diftreft;

Some on the confines of the dead,
And others wanting daily bread,
Nay ev❜n a place of rest.

When I have thefe before my fight,
My troubles feem fo fmall and light,
They scarce deserve the name:
Alike my heart and tongue declare
How good my great Creator's care,
I fuffer not the fame.

Suppofe that God fhould grant me more,
My heart may not so often foar,

And tafte the joys above;

The world and things of time and fenfe
May draw my heart and thoughts from thence,
And hurt me with their love.

Then I'll no more with grief repine,
And fay how hard this lot of mine,
But will with patience wait,
And cheerfully embrace the load
Affigned me by my Maker God!

Till he fhall change my state.

WE want as much moderation not to be corrupted with our good fortune, as patience not to be dejected with our bad.

TO fuppufe a man fo truly humble, though he may live in all the appearances of pride and vanity, is as abfurd, as to fuppofe a man fo inwardly fober, that he need refuse no ftrong liquors; fo inwardly charitable, that he need not avoid quarrels; or fo holy, that he need not refift temptations to fin.

Extracts

Extracts from CHARITY-a POETICAL ESSAY.

O! THERE are

Who figh unheard, unfeen, who drop the tear
Of anguish; fore by every ill opprefs'd
That flesh is heir to, famine, cold, disease,
And infamy, that dagger to the heart,
Deadlier than all the reft, who yet deny
Their tongue to tell the forrows of their foul.

BUT why await entreaty? ye ordain'd
The ftewards of the poor! to whom is giv'n
The means of bleffing,-fly, unasked, to bless!
Unak'd go forth! go penetrate the shade
That wraps the modeft mourner from the world!
Pierce the dark dungeon's horrors, and unbind
The cruel chain that galls the debtor's foul.

THUS to employ the pow'rs by heav'n bestow'd,
Thus to explore the hidden paths of woe,
And rescue from the hovering vulture's fangs
The weak, the wounded-tell me, ye who've tried
These walks, and thofe of pleasure, which purfued,
Conduct the mind to moft unmingled bliss!
Tell me, if ever in the giddy round
Of gaiety, ye find one scene that stamps
Such fatisfaction on the foul, as that
By deeds of mild humanity diffus'd !
And tell me,-truly tell me, if such deeds
Doing, or done, did ever fail to charm!

"BLESSED are ye, when men fhall revile you, and perfecute you, and fay all manner of evil of you falsely for my fake; rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven." Christ does not endeavour to comfort us in this state, as if it was a hard or melancholy state, which we must bear, because it is made easier with patience, or because God has pleased to impose it upon us; but he looks at it in quite another view, not as needing comfort, but as having matter fit for congratulation.

What

What Chriftians are they therefore, what ftrangers to the Spirit of Chrift, who reckon thofe things amongst the hardfhips of religion, which Chrift recommends to us as reasons of rejoicing, and being exceeding glad?

VIRTUE and Vice in one fole point agree;

Each would be glad alike themselves might be.

IT should be an indifpenfible rule in life to contract our defires to our present condition; and whatever may be our expectations, to live within the compass of what we actually poffefs.

THE Mahometans, who affect, after the antient manner of the eastern writers, to exprefs their moral doctrine in a kind of proverbial chain of parallels, fay, there are five things which a wife man will ground no hopes on the colour of a cloud, because imaginary; the friendship of the covetous, because mercenary; beauty, becaufe frail; praise, because airy; and the pleafures of this world, because deceitful.

THAT the moft permanent pleasure we can enjoy in this life, confifts in content, is undoubtedly true: he who with little, is content with that little, fhould be confidered as the only happy man. There is no happinefs in this world but what the philofophic mind enjoys in its own contemplation; and no ftudies or reflection is fo likely to confer happinefs, even in this world, as that of the Divine Being. He who would be happy here, fhould aim at being happy hereafter; he should meditate on those great and fublime truths which religion teaches; he fhould contemplate that glorious immortality which the good wifh to enjoy, but the wicked fear to believe,

THE divine perfections fhine through all nature, and the goodness and bounty of the Creator to all his creatures, imprefs the obligation of imitating this wifeft and beft of Beings upon every man's heart and confcience.

THE