of gross and earthly dispositions their own enemies! How do they strive to feed their heaven-born minds with the unsatisfying and nauseous objects of sense; depriving them of that sublime entertainment for which they were intended, and which is ever offering itself to them the contemplation and enjoyment of Divinity, the possession of infinite perfection! Open thy narrow mind, unthinking mortal. Enlarge thy confined desires. Raise thy groveling ambition. Quit the trifling objects which now possess, and which will in the end disappoint thee. Trample under thy feet the wretched amusements of riches, honours, and pleasures; and aspire to what is worthy of the dignity of thy nature, and thy Divine Original. It is thy Maker himself that is ready to take possession of thy mind. It is the Divinity himself that would pour into thy soul delights ineffable, that would dwell in thee, and join thee to himself in an eternal union, which will raise thee to bliss and glory above thy most extensive wishes, beyond thy most elevated conceptions.

SECTION IX.

Miscellaneous Thoughts, and Directions, chiefly Moral.

Ir the reader should find, among the following aphorisms, some thoughts to much the same purpose with others, in other parts of this work, it is hoped he will excuse such a repetition in consideration of the variety of matter, and the usefulness of the subjects, which will bear being inculcated in the most copious manner.

It is not the part of a wise man to be eager after any thing but improvement in goodness: all things else may be dispensed with.

To learn to talk well, learn first to hear.

Resist vice at the beginning, and you will conquer it

in the end.

A clear conscience is better than a clear estate.

Never think a thought, speak a word, or do a deed, but what you may be safe in setting about with the following preface: "O God, my Maker and Judge! I do not forget that thou art witness to what I am about."

Has not fashion a considerable share in the charities of

the age? Let every one who gives carefully consider from what motives he acts.

If you have a welldisposed mind, you will go into no company more agreeable or more useful than your own. All is not well with those to whom solitude is disagreeable. It is no shame to learn: the shame is to be ignorant. Forgive every body rather than yourself.

If you have health, a competency, and a good conscience, what would you have besides? Something to disturb your happiness?

To expect, young man, that your life should be one continued series of pleasure, is to expect to meet with what no mortal, from Adam down to the present times, has yet met with; and what, by the nature of things, would be more strange than the throwing the same number with a die ten millions of times successively.

When you hear in company, or read in a pamphlet, somewhat smart and lively, and quite new to you, urged against any opinion, or maxim, allowed by men of the freest sentiments, and most improved understandings; do not let yourself be immediately perverted by it, but suppose that though it may be new to you, it may have been eften started and answered; and though you cannot at once confúte it, others can: and make it your business, if the point be of consequence, to find out those who can. Nothing is more weak, than to be staggered in your opinion by every trifle that may fall in your way.

Accustom yourself to think the greatest part of your life already past; contract your views and schemes, and set light by a vain and transitory state, and all its vain enjoyments.

To feel old age coming on, will so little mortify a wise man, that he can think of it with pleasure; as the decay of nature shows him that the happy change of state, for which he has been all his life preparing himself, is drawing nearer and surely it must be desirable to find himself draw nearer to the end and the reward of his labours. The case of an old man, who has no comfortable prospect for futurity, and finds the fatal hour approaching which is to deprive him of all his happiness, is too deplorable for any words to represent,

It is easy to live well among good people; but show me the man who can preserve his temper, his wisdom, and his virtue, in spite of strong temptations and univer sal example.

It is hardly credible what acquisitions in knowledgé one may make, by carefully husbanding and properly applying every spare moment.

Are you content to be for ever undone, if you should happen not to live till the time you have set for repentance? If so, put it off a little longer, and take your chance. It is a shame, if any person poorer than you, is more contented than you.

Strive to excel in what is truly noble : mediocrity is contemptible.

Judge of books as of men: there is none wholly faultless, or perfect. That production may be said to be a valuable one, by the perusal of which a judicious reader may be the wiser and better; and is not to be despised for a few deficiencies, or inconsistencies.

Do not think of lying for the truth, or working the works of the devil for God's sake.

Honesty sometimes fails; but it is because diligence of abilities are wanting: otherwise it is naturally by far an overmatch for cunning

A bad reputation will lie a stumbling-block in your way to rising in life, and will disable you from doing good to others.

If ever you was dangerously ill, what fault or folly lay heaviest upon your mind? Take care to root it out, without delay, and without mercy.

An unjust acquisition is like a barbed arrow that must be drawn backward with horrible anguish; else it will be your destruction.

To excel greatly in music, drawing, dancing, the pedantic parts of learning, play, and other accomplishments, rather ornamental than useful, is beneath a gentleman, and shows, that to acquire such perfection in trifles, he must have employed himself in a way unworthy the digni ty of his station. The peculiar accomplishments, in which a man of rank ought to shine, are knowledge of the world, acquired by history, travel, conversation, and business;

of the constitution, interest, and the laws of his country; and of morals and religion; without excluding such a competent understanding of other subjects as may

sistent with a perfect mastery of the accomplishments which make the gentleman's proper calling.

The meanest spirit may bear a slight affliction. And in bearing a great calamity, there is great glory, and a great reward.

A wise man will improve by studying his own past follies. For every slip will discover some weakness still uncorrected, which occasioned his misbehaviour; and will set him upon effectually redressing every failure.

There is somewhat arch in the Roman Catholics putting their carnivals before lent. Mirth is generally the prelude of repentance.

To be drawn into a fault, shows human frailty. To be habitually guilty of folly, shows a corrupt mind. To love vice in others, is the spirit of a devil, rather than a man; being the pure disinterested love of vice, for its own sake. Yet there are such characters!

Remember, your bottle companions will not bear you company at your death; nor lighten your sentence at the dreadful day of judgment. Let the vicious therefore go alone at present; since their company may heighten, but will not abate your punishment.

Proofs of genuine repentance are, abstaining from all temptations to the same vice, thorough reformation, and all possible reparation.

Take care of those vices which resemble virtues.

To abuse the poor for his poverty, is to insult God's providence.

Seek virtue rather than riches. You may be sure to acquire the first, but cannot promise for the latter. No one can rob you of the first without your consent; you may be deprived of the latter a hundred ways. The first will gain you the esteem of all good and wise men ; latter will get you flatterers enough; but not one real friend. The first will abide by you for ever; the latter will leave you at death, to shift as you can for eternity.

the

Moral truths are as certain as mathematical. It is as certain that good is not evil, nor evil good, as that a part is less than the whole, or that a circle is not a triangle.

What matter what you know, if you do not know yourself?

It is pity that most people overdo either the active or contemplative part of life. To be continually immersed in business, is the way to become forgetful of every thing truly noble and liberal. To be wholly engaged in study, is to lose a great part of the usefulness of a social nature. How much better would it be, if people would temper action with contemplation, and use action as a relief to study?

You may easily know whether you are in earnest about reforming and living virtuously. If you be, you will fly from every temptation to vice, and carefully pursue every help to virtue. As you may know whether you love money, by observing whether you carefully pursue the means for getting, and cautiously avoid occasions of expense or loss.

Never force nature: when study becomes a burden, give it over for that time: you will not improve by it if it goes against the grain.

Preserve, if you can, the esteem of the wise and good; but more especially your own. Consider how deplorable a condition of mind you will be in when your conscience tells you you are a villain.

It is not eating a great quantity of food that nourishes most, nor devouring of books that gives solid knowledge. It is what you digest that feeds both body and mind. Have your learning in your head, and not in your library.

You had better find out one of your own weaknesses, than ten of your neighbours'.

There is only one single object you ought to pursue, at all adventures; that is virtue. All other things are to be sought conditionally. What sort of man must he be who resolves to be rich or great at any rate?

If you give only with a view to the gratitude of those you oblige, you deserve to meet with ingratitude. If you give from truly disinterested motives, you will not be discouraged or tired out by the worst returns.

Rather be the bubble, than the biter.

Do your duty, if the world should laugh. Obedience to the Almighty Governor of the universe, is what one would hardly think should draw ridicule upon a man. But, how