How just the moral in this fcene convey'd!
And what without a moral wou'd we read?
Then mark what Damon tells his gentle maid,
And with his leffon register the deed.
'Tis thus life's cheerful seasons roll away;

Thus threats the winter of inclement age;
Our time of action but a fummer's day;

And earth's frail orb the fadly-varied stage! And does no pow'r its friendly aid difpenfe,

Nor give us tidings of fome happier clime? Find we no guide in gracious Providence

Beyond the stroke of death, the verge of time ? Yes, yes, the facred oracles we hear,

That point the path to realms of endless day:
That bids our hearts, nor death, nor anguish fear,
This future tranfport, that to life the way.
Then let us timely for our flight prepare,

And form the foul for her divine abode;
Obey the call, and truft the Leader's care
To bring us fafe thro' virtue's paths to God.

Let no fond love for earth exact a figh,

No doubts direct our steady steps afide; Nor let us long to live, nor dread to die:

Heav'n is our hope, and Providence our guide.

THE LOADSTONE,

FROM how small and inconfiderable caufes doth the omniscient Creator produce the most important effects! Who would conceive that a mineral of this fort should tend to

in nature hextenfive utility! But we may obferve, that

as well as in grace, the mighty Matter, as it were to teach men humility, and to deride the vast efforts of human power, thus conftantly acteth, using the mean and apparently contemptible things of the earth, to confound, we are told, the ftrong and the wife.--Let not then the low and fervile appearance which our blefied Saviour put on among us; let not the fhameful death he deigned to die; let not the obfcurity of his apoftles, the

lowness

lowness of their births, the fervility of their occupation, their ignorance of human learning, at all difguft or offend us: nay, rather let it confirm our faith, and fatisfy us, that this is moft agreeable to the fovereign Ruler's manner, and the ftrongest proof of his intervening power to whom eafy and arduous are the fame; who can work as effectually by the weak as by the ftrong: and who, from the meannefs of the inftrument, more abundantly confutes the arrogancy of mortals, and establishes his own unparalelled glory.

PHILOSOPHY teaches us to endure afflictions, but Christianity to enjoy them by turning them into bleffings,

COUNT OXENSTIERN, Chancellor of Sweedland, who had had fo great a part in the principal negociations of Europe, being vifited in his retreat from publick business, by the Ambaffador from England, in the conclufion of his difcourfe, faid to the Ambaffador, "I have seen much, "and enjoyed much of this world, but I never knew "how to live till now; I thank my good God, who has given me time to know him, and to know myself."

An Inftance of LIBERALITY in a CHINESE.

LO-OUAI-TE, who had an employment at Nin-que, went one evening to fup with a fuperior magiftrate, who had invited him; the magistrate obferving a more than ordinary alacrity in his countenance, was defirous to know the caufe. I will freely confess, faid Lo, that I feel a true fatisfaction in my mind; about fifteen poor people, whom a barren year had conftrained to quit their village, and feek for fubfiftence elsewhere, having prefented them-1 felves before me, I diftributed amongst them all the perquifites I had received fince I came into my employment, to enable them to return home, and till their lands.This I did with glee; but that which gave me more fenfible pleasure was, that of all my family, and numerous relations, who were witneffes of my liberality, not fo much as one difapproved of it: on the contrary, they all

appeared

appeared very well fatisfied, and this is it that has occa fioned the joy which you perceive in me.

CONSIDER yourself as a citizen of the world; and deem nothing which regards humanity undeferving your notice.

SO idle, yet fo reftlefs, are our minds,

We climb the Alps, and brave the raging winds ;
Thro' various toils to feek content we roam,
Which but with thinking right were our's at home.
For not the ceafelefs change of shifted place
Can from the heart a fettled grief erafe;
Nor can the purer balm of foreign air
Heal the diftemper'd mind of aching care.

SOME medicines are naufeous and unpleasant to the tafte, though most efficacious in working a cure; these may represent several croffes and afflictions we meet with in this vale of tears: though they are difpleafing and grievous to the fleth, they tend to the happiness of our immortal fouls, by weaning our affections from earth, and all the fading honours and glories of this world; and fhewing us the vanity and uncertainty of every creaturely comfort they lead us to the great Jehovah, the fountain of all true happiness, and teach us to depend on him alone for glory and felicity, in that future blessed ftate, where all tears fhall be wiped away from our eyes, and affliction, pain, and grief be known no more,

AS there is no profperous ftate of life without its calamities, fo there is no adverfity without its benefits.

An ELEGY on EVENING.

HAIL! fober eve, whofe robe of dusky grey
Each blooming verdant landscape doth invest
Now hush'd the rude tumultuous glare of day;
Now veil'd thofe flow'ry scenes that charm'd
VOL. II.

D

my breaft.

Where

Where now the fhepherd, who at ease reclin'd,
On fome green turf befide yon trick'ling rills?
Where now the breeze, rais'd by the western wind?
Where now the cattle on a thousand hills }

A folemn fhade eclipfes nature's face;

The tuneful tribes in artful nefts are laid;
Each thepherd with his cattle finds a place,
Where toil by balmy fleep is well repaid:
Sweet fleep! infpiring dreams of harmless kind,
Where no ambitious fretful care annoys,
Nor fcene luxurious cloys the fated mind;
Which nature's pureft genuine blifs deftroys.
For feldom doth the lucklefs monarch tafte

Such pure untainted blifs within his breast,
As doth the virtuous fhepherd on the wafte,

When noon-day heat lulls all his frame to reft, Vain, then, the keen purfuit of fortune's plume! And vain the glitt'ring honours earth bestows, Unless it to the owner's breast become

A true perennial fource of calm repofe.
But, ah! 'tis feldom honours can impart
Such true celeftial comforts to the breaft;
Can whisper fweet contentment to the heart,
Or lull difcordant passions into rest.
No:-Like rude Boreas' breath upon the fea,
The gales of wealth to hideous storms arife,
And blown by avarice and vanity,

The facred manfion of the foul disguise.

For let this folemn truth invade your ear,
Ye gaudy tribes, that grafp at pow'r and fame,
That puth with boldness to bring up the rear,
Of those that toil to gain a mighty name:

That earth-born trifles ne'er can blefs the mind;
Like vifionary fhadows quick they pafs;
By fuch the foul is often hurt, we find,
As breathing dims the luftre of the glafs.

For what, alas! is all the pow'r, the wealth,
That earth can yield? how empty is the whole,
Join'd to illuftrious parentage and health,

When put in balance with th' immortal foul
For thefe fhall moulder, perish, and decay;
And ruin o'er creation's face fhall come:
But when the fun and ftars fhall fade away,

The four shall boaft an uncorrupted bloom. Alas! how empty then our hopes and fears, For fancied ills which feldom do moleft! Why wish for transport in this vale of tears, Or let its absence difcompose the breast? What, tho' the bluft'ring ftorms of life arife, And grief ufurp fair joy's alluring place! A milder fcene awaits us in the skies,

Where fm dare never fhew its odious face. The foul that keeps this glorious prize in view, Superior mounts above each trifling aim,. The hydra forms of vice ftrives to fubdue,

And moves towards that heav'n from whence it came.

This is the mark fupreme: my foul attend;

Know thy own dignity, nor fcorn thy worth;
Behold! th' angelic train affiftance lend,

To raife thee from the grov'ling scenes of earth.
For, ah! they fly, like day's iliufive fchemes,
When once the fervent hear of life is o'er;
When facred reafon gilds with clearest beams,
And vifionary fhadows pleafe no more.
Hail, night! thou gentle emblematic fhade
Of that tremendous periud fix'd by God,
When drear forgetfulness fhall veil the dead,
And fame be loft beneath the green grafs fod.

This ends the race of feeble man below;

Nor pow'r, nor honour, fame, nor youthful bloom, Can gain a refpite from the dreadful blow.

'Tis virtue only triumphs o'er the tomb,