OLD age never appears with greater dignity, than when, tempered by mildnefs, and enlivened with goodhumour, it acts as the guide and patron of youth. Religion difplayed in fuch a character, ftrikes the beholders, as at once amiable and venerable. They revere its power, when they fee it adding fo much grace to the decays of nature, and fhedding fo pleafing a luftre over the evening of life. The young wish to tread in the fame fteps, and to arrive at the clofe of their days with equal honour. They liften with attention to counfels, which are mingled with tenderness, and rendered refpectable by grey hairs. For, notwithstanding all its prefumption, youth naturally bend before fuperior knowledge and years.

Extract of a LETTER, written by the EARL of ESSEX, to his particular Friend the EARL of SOUTHAMPTON, fometime before his Death.

"With refpect to your natural gifts and abilities, remember, first, that you have nothing which you have not received. Secondly, that you poffefs them, not as a lord over them, but as one who muit give an account for them. Thirdly, if you employ them to ferve this world, or your own worldly delight, which the Prince of this world will seek to entertain you with; it is ingratitude, it is injustice, yea, it is perfidious treachery. For what would you think of fuch a fervant of your's, who should convert your goods, committed to his charge, to the advantage or fervice of your greatest enemy? And what do you lefs than this with God; fince you have all from him, and know that the world, and the princes thereof, are at continual enmity with him. Therefore, if ever the admonition of your truest friend fhall be heard by you; or if your country, which you may ferve in fo great and many things, be dear unto you; if your God, whom you must (if you deal truly with yourself) acknowledge to be powerful over all, and juft in all, be feared by you; yea, if you be dear unto yourself, and prefer an everlasting happiness before a pleafant dream, out of which you must fhortly awake, and then repent in the bitterness of your foul; if any of these things be regarded by

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you,

you, then, I fay, call yourself to account for what is past; cancel all the leagues you have made without the warrant of a religious confcience; make a regular covenant with your God, to ferve him with all your natural and spiritual, inward and outward gifts and abilities: and then he who is faithful, and cannot lie, and hath promifed to honour those who honour him, will give you that inward peace of foul, and true joy of heart, which till you have, you will never reft, and which, when you have, you shall never be fhaken; and which you can never attain to any other way."

ODE to SPRING.

HAIL, gentle Spring! whofe genial pow'r
Calls to new life each fragrant flow'r,
In richest tints array'd;

Whose balmy breath revives each scene,
The fhady grove, the daified green, ♪
In verdant beauty clad.

At thy approach the feather'd trains-
Renew their long neglected ftrains;
Sweet mufick floats around;
Whilft lift'ning echo's busy tongue
Repeats the burden of each fong,
In faint imperfect found.

Thy prefence prompts the lab'ring fwain
To give, with equal hand, the grain
To the kind foft'ring foil;
Mild funs autumnal fhall mature
The golden crop, in happy hour,
To recompenfe his toil.

Long had the clear meand'ring rill,
Confin'd in icy chains, ftood ftill,

Doom'd then to glide no more;
But by thy lenient hand fet free,
It moves to liquid melody,

Adown the shelving fhore.

The

The mute fojourners of the brook
Had long their wonted paths forfook,
Cramp'd by ftern winter's reign;
But, rous'd by thy reviving beam,
Again they gambol in the stream,
And skim the glaffy plain.

Ah! fhort-liv'd joys! the angler keen
Shall foon to forrow change the scene,
With the deceptive fly;

The fpeckled rovers feize the bait,
And swallow unfufpected fate;

They flounce, they gafp, they die.

Thy healing hand deftroys difeafe;
Thy breath brings health in every breeze; -
Before thee, agues fly :

Thou giv'ft each heart with joy to glow,
All blood in brifker streams to flow;
Health laughs in every eye.

What tribute, then, fhall mortals bring, -
To offer to the genial spring?

What trophies fhail we raife?

With grateful fongs, at least, let's try
To waft her praises to the sky,

In loud accordant lays.

THE rich man fills a ftation wherein ample opportunity is afforded him of doing much good in the diftribution of his wealth to the poor, the hungry, and the naked, among his brethren. He is furrounded by thofe whofe afflictions claim his fympathy and affistance; and to whom he may lend a part of his treasure, on the beft fecurity, and most profitable ufury.

NONE can be so infenfible of the obligations to charity, as to think themselves excufable in not lending their affiftance to lighten that load of affliction which lies fo heavy on thousands of their fellow-creatures. ADDISON

ADDISON has remarked, with equal piety and truth, that the "creation is a perpetual feast to the mind of a good "man." To the truth of this pofition every good man will affent, not only from its reasonablenefs, but from the concurring teftimony of his own experience.

AS vice is the proper object of averfion to every rational being, all the avenues that fecretly admit it ought to be guarded with the utmoft caution. And as vice is never fo dangerous as when it aflumes the mask of harmless pleasure, whatever tends to introduce it under that alluring form, ought to be most studiously avoided.

THE duration of life is uncertain, and its bufinefs of the highest importance. No time is to be loft; the voice of wisdom is calling aloud for diligence. The hour is haftening when the dream of vanity will be broken up,/ when every illufion will vanish, when mifcarriage cannot be repaired, and repentance will prove vain. Every terrestrial bleffing will then ceafe to afford its wonted comfort; our hopes and fears will be concentered in one dreadful point, on which is fufpended our portion in eternity.

THE beft means to exterminate pride from the human heart, is diligently to ftudy that excellent fcience, the knowledge of ourselves. If we examine our own imperfections, they will exhibit an humiliating profpect. When we reflect how little can be known, confidence will give place to modeft doubt, and humble inquiry. When we confider how many deviations the best of us are making from the path of unerring rectitude, pride will ftand abashed, and all the aspirings of ambition will be laid in the duft From a confcioufnefs of our own weakness, we shall look with pity on the weakneffes of our brethren, and endeavour to cover them with the veil of celeftial charity.

IT is only in proportion as men wifely and profitably employ the time allotted them in this ftate of being, that they can reivew life with fatisfaction when its folemn clofe approaches.

DEPRAVED

DEPRAVED as human nature is, men do not fuddenly become really wicked. It is by flow gradations that vice, as well as virtue, gains abfolute dominion in the mind.

The DISTINCTION.

THE fhape alone let others prize,
Or features of the fair;

I look for fpirit in her eyes,
And meaning in her air.

A damask cheek, a fnowy arm,
Shall ne'er my wishes win;

Give me the animated form

That speaks the mind within.

A face where awful honour fhines,
Where fenfe and sweetness move,

And angel innocence refines

The tenderness of love.

These are the foul of beauty's frame,
Without whofe vital aid,
Unfinish'd all her features feem,
And all her roses fade.

AVARICE, ambition, luxury, and pride, are the very tyrants of the mind; they act without counfel, are above all reftraint, and having once depofed reason from her throne, render her even fubfervient to their bafeft aims.

ONE of the principal concerns of thofe who have youth placed under their tuition fhould be to make inftruction appear as amiable as poffible, and take every method in their power to render it pleafing and delightful.

WHEN Socrates was afked, which of mortal men was to be accounted nearest to perfect happinefs; he anfwered, That man who is in want of the fewest things."

The