THE fwelling dome of courtly magnificence undergoes many a ftorm, which the humility of the villager's fituation keeps from breaking on his little fhed.

On SIMPLICITY.

HAIL, artlefs Simplicity, beautiful maid,
In the genuine attractions of nature array'd;
Let the rich and the proud, and the gay and the vain,
Still laugh at the graces that move in thy train.

No charm in thy modeft allurements they find,
The pleasures they follow, a fting leave behind:
Can criminal paffion enrapture the breaft
Like virtue, with peace and ferenity bleft?

O! would you Simplicity's precepts attend,
Like us with delight at her altar you'd bend;
The pleasures the yields wou'd with joy be embrac'd,
You'd practise from virtue, and love them from taste.

The linnet enchants us the bushes among, Tho' cheap the mufician, yet fweet is the fong; We catch the foft warbling in air as it floats, And with extacy hang on the ravishing notes.

Our water is drawn from the clearest of springs,
And our food, nor difeafe, nor fatiety brings;
Our mornings are cheerful, our labours are bleft,
Our ev'nings are pleafant, our nights erown'd with reft.

From our culture yon garden its ornament finds,
And we catch at the hint for improving our minds;
To live to fome purpose we conftantly try,
And we mark by our actions, the days as they fly.

Since fuch are the joys that Simplicity yields,
We may well be content with our woods and our fields:
How ufelefs to us then, ye great, were your wealth,
When without it we purchate both pleasure and health!
SENSIBILITY,

SENSIBILITY, with all its inconveniencies, is to be cherished by those who understand and wish to mantain the dignity of their nature. To feel for others, difpofes us to exercife the amiable virtue of charity, which our religion indifpenfably requires. It constitutes the enlarged benevolence which philofophy inculcates, and which is indeed comprehended in Chriftian charity. It is the privilege and the ornament of man; and the pain which it caufes is abundantly recompenfed by that fweet fenfation which ever accompanies the exercife of beneficence.

TO feel our own mifery with full force is not to be deprecated. Affliction foftens and improves the heart. Tears, to speak in the ftyle of figure, fertilize the foil in which the virtues grow. And it is the remark of one who understood human nature, that the faculties of the mind, as well as the feelings of the heart, are meliorated by adverfity.

VERSES by WILLIAM MASON,

In memory of his Wife who died at the Hot-Wells, 1767.

TAKE, holy earth, all that my foul holds dear,
Take that belt gift which heav'n fo lately gave:
'To Briftol's fount I bore, with trembling care,
Her faded form: the bow'd to tafte the wave,
And died. Does youth, does beauty, read the line?
Does fympathetick fear their breasts alarm?
Speak, dead Maria! breathe a strain divine;

Ev'n from the grave, thou fhalt have pow'r to charm.
Bid them be chatte, be innocent, like thee;
Bid them in duty's fphere as meekly move;

And, if fo fair, from vanity as free,

As firm in friendship, and as fond in love; Tell them, tho' tis an awful thing to die,

('Twas ev'n to thee) yet the dread path once trod, Heaven lifts its everlafting portals high,

And bids "the pure in heart behold their God."

THERE

THERE is no greater inftance of good fenfe and found judgment, than to be capable of receiving advice.

HOW beautiful's the setting fun!
Its daily courfe now almost run,
We can behold its charms;

More pleafing are its fainter rays,
Than when in full meridian blaze
It dazzles whilft it warms.

CUSTOM and example create wants for the wealthy which the poor are ignorant of.

of

BEAUTIFUL women, fays Bacon, are feldom poffeffed any great accomplishments, because they, for the most part, ftudy behaviour rather than virtue.

The CHARACTER of an AMIABLE WOMAN.

THAT which pleases in her, is her filence, her modefty, her love of retirement, her affiduous labour, her industry; her application to manage all her father's houfe ever fince her mother's death; her contempt of vain dresses and ornaments; the forgetfulness or ignorance which appears in her of her beauty. She is mild, fimple-hearted, difcreet; her hands despise not labour; fhe forefees from afar; fhe provides for every thing; the acts confequentially, fweetly, and without violence; fhe is always employed; fhe is never in disorder, or at all embarraffed, becaufe fhe doth every thing properly, and feasonably; the good order of her houfe is her glory; fhe is with it more adorned, than with her beauty; though the have the care of all, and though it be her place to correct, to refufe, and to fpare, (three things which make all women fo to be hated) yet is fhe hereby rendered rather the more amiable to all the family, which is, because there is not found in her either paffion, or opinionativenefs, or levity, or humourfomnefs, as in other women; with a look only the makes herfelf to be underftood, and they are afraid of difpleafing her; the gives exact orders; the commands nothing but what can be executed;

fhe

fhe reproves with kindness, and in reproving alfo at the fame time encourages. She is a treasure worthy to be fought for in the remoteft ends of the earth; her mind, no more than her body, is ever fet off with vain ornaments; her imagination, though lively, is bridled by her difcretion; fhe speaks not, but from neceffity; and if fhe open her mouth, the most sweet perfuafions, and native graces, diftil from her lips: fo foon as ever the speaks, every one is prefently filent, and the blushes at it; fhe is hardly prevailed with not to suppress what she had a mind to utter, when she perceives they hear her fo attentively. And to crown all, the love and fear of God is the fource from whence all these virtues flow.

IF the principles of the Chriftian Religion were well rooted in the hearts of all mankind, what excellent fruit would they produce!—There would be no more wars, nor rumours of wars. Kingdom would not rise against kingdom, nor nation againit nation; but all princes would be at peace with their neighbours, and their fubjects at unity amongst themselves, ftriving about nothing but which should. ferve God beft, and do most good in the world.

NOTHING fpoils human nature more than false zeal. The good nature of a heathen is more god-like than the furious zeal of a Chriftian.

REPUTATION is a very tender bloffom, which the leaft breath of foul detraction will fometimes blast.

A WISE and good man will turn examples of all forts to his own advantage. The good he will make his patterns, and ftrive to equal or excel them; the bad he will by all means avoid.

WEAK understandings may be content to appear happy, but good ones endeavour to be really fo.

AN induftrious and virtuous education of children is a better inheritance for them than a great estate.

2

HOW

HOW inconfiderable is vice on its first appearance in the human mind, and how eafily fuppreffed; how subtle, and how rapid in its progrefs, and how infurmountable in its excefs-A fpark,-a fire,-a conflagration.-Yet how little pains do those who have the care of us in early life; or we, when we have the guidance of ourselves, exert to prevent, or to fmother it.

A LETTER from JAMES EARL of MARLBOROUGH, a little before his Death, in the Battle at Sea, on the Coast of Holland, &c. Sir Hugh Pollard.

"I believe the goodness of your nature, and the friendship you have always borne me, will receive with kindness the laft office of your friend. I am in health enough of body, and through the mercy of God in Jefus Chrift, well difpofed in mind. This I premife, that you may be fatisfied, that what I write proceeds not from any fantastic terror of mind, but from a fober refolution of what concerns myself, and earnest defire to do you more good after my death, than mine example (God of his mercy pardon the badnefs of

it!) in my life-time may do you harm. I will not speak aught of the vanity of this world; your own age and experience will fave that labour: but there is a certain thing that goeth up and down in the world, called Religion, dreffed, and pretended fantastically, and to purposes bad enough, which yet, by fuch evil dealing, lofeth not its being. The great good God hath not left it without a witnefs, more or lefs, fooner or later, in every man's bofom, to direct us in the purfuit of it, and for the avoiding of those inextricable difquifitions and entanglements with which our vn frail reafon would perplex us. God, in his infinite mercy, hath given us his holy word, in which, as there are many things hard to be understood, fo there is enough plain and eafy, to quiet our minds, and to direct us concerning our future being. I confefs to God and you, I have been a great neglecter, and, I fear, defpifer of it; God, of his infinite mercy, pardon me the dreadful fault!-But, when I retired myself from the noise and deceitful vanity of the world, I found no true comfort in any other refolution, than VOL. II.

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