we are no less so, in the last place, for those which find admittance into our hearts from fupine negligence, from total relaxation of attention, from allowing our imagination to rove with entire licence, "like the eyes " of the fool, towards the ends of the earth." Our minds are, in this cafe, thrown open to folly and vanity. They are prostituted to every evil thing which pleases to take possession. The consequences must all be charged to our account; and in vain we plead excuse from human infirmity. Hence it appears, that the great object at which we are to aim in governing our thoughts, is, to take the most effectual meafures for preventing the introduction of fuch as are finful, and for haftening their expulfion, if they shall have introduced themselves without confent of the will.

But when we defcend into our breasts, and examine how far we have studied to keep this object in view, who can tell, "how oft he hath offended?" In no article of religion or morals are men more culpably remiss, than in the unrestrained indulgence they give to fancy; and that too, for the most part, without remorse. Since the time that Reason began to exert her powers, Thought, during our waking hours, has been active in every breast, without a moment's fufpenfion or paufe. The current of ideas has been always flowing. The wheels of the spiritual engine have circulated with perpetual motion. Let me ask, what has been the fruit of this incessant activity with the greater part of mankind? Of the innumerable hours that have been employed in thought, how few are marked with any permanent or useful effect? How many have either passed away in idle dreams; or have been abandoned to anxious discontented mufings, to unsocial and ma

lignant passions, or to irregular and criminal defires? Had I power to lay open that storehouse of iniquity which the hearts of too many conceal; could I draw out and read to them a list of all the imaginations they have devised, and all the passions they have indulged in fecret; what a picture of men should I present to themselves! What crimes would they appear to have perpetrated in fecrecy, which to their most intimate companions they durst not reveal!

Even when men imagine their thoughts to be innocently employed, they too commonly fuffer them to run out into extravagant imaginations, and chimerical plans of what they would wish to attain, or choose to be, if they could frame the course of things according to their defire. Though such employments of fancy come under the fame description with those which are plainly criminal, yet wholly unblamable they feldom

Befides the waste of time which they occafion, and the misapplication which they indicate of those intellectual powers that were given to us for much nobler purposes, fuch romantic speculations lead us always into the neighbourhood of forbidden regions. They place us on dangerous ground. They are for the moft part connected with some one bad pafsion; and they always nourish a giddy and frivolous turn of thought. They unfit the mind for applying with vigour to rational purfuits, or for acquiefcing in fober plans of conduct. From that ideal world in which it allows itself to dwell, it returns, to the commerce of men, unbent and relaxed, fickly and tainted, averse from difcharging the duties, and fometimes disqualified even for relishing the pleasures, of ordinary life.

SECTION VI.

On the Evils which flow from unrestrained Passions.

WHEN man revolted from his Maker, his passions rebelled against himself; and, from being originally the minifters of reason, have become the tyrants of the foul. Hence, in treating of this subject, two things may be assumed as principles: first, that through the present weakness of the understanding, our pafsions are often directed towards improper objects; and next, that even when their direction is juft, and their objects are innocent, they perpetually tend to run into excess; they always hurry us towards their gratification, with a blind and dangerous impetuofity. On these two points then turns the whole government of our pafsions: first, to afcertain the proper objects of their purfuit; and next, to restrain them in that purfuit, when they would carry us beyond the bounds of reafon. If there be any passion which intrudes itself unseasonably into our mind, which darkens and troubles our judgment, or habitually discomposes our temper; which unfits us for properly difcharging the duties, or disqualifies us for cheerfully enjoying the comforts of life, we may certainly conclude it to have gained a dangerous afcendant. The great object which we ought to propose to ourselves, is, to acquire a firm and fledfast mind, which the infatuation of paf. fion fhall not feduce, nor its violence shake; which, refting on fixed principles, shall, in the midst of contending emotions, remain free, and mafter of itfelf;

able to listen calmly to the voice of confcience, and prepared to obey its dictates without hefitation.

To obtain, if possible, fuch command of passion, is one of the highest attainments of the rational nature. Arguments to show its importance crowd upon us from every quarter. If there be any fertile source of mifchief to human life, it is, beyond doubt, the misrule of passion. It is this which poisons the enjoyment of individuals, overturns the order of fociety, and strews the path of life with so many miferies, as to render it indeed the vale of tears. All those great scenes of public calamity, which we behold with astonishment and horror, have originated from the fource of violent passions. These have overspread the earth with bloodshed. These have pointed the assassin's dagger, and filled the poifoned bowl. These, in every age, have furnished too copious materials for the orator's pathetic declamation, and for the poet's tragical fong.

When from public life we descend to private conduct, though pafsion operates not there in fuch a wide and deftructive sphere, we shall find its influence to be no less baneful. I need not mention the black and fierce pafsions, such as envy, jealousy, and revenge, whose effects are obviously noxious, and whose agitations are immediate misery. But take any of the licentious and fenfual kind. Suppose it to have unlimited scope; trace it throughout its course; and we shall find that gradually, as it rises, it taints the foundnefs, and troubles the peace of his mind over whom it reigns; that, in its progress, it engages him in pursuits which are marked either with danger or with shame; that, in the end, it wastes his fortune, destroys his health, or debafes his character; and aggravates all the miferies in which it has involved him, with the concluding pangs of bitter remorse. Through all the stages of this fatal course, how many have heretofore run? What multitudes do we daily behold pursuing it, with blind and headlong steps?

BLAIR.

SECTION VII.

On the proper State of our Temper, with respect to one another.

It is evident, in the general, that if we confult either public welfare or private happiness, Chriftian charity ought to regulate our difpofition in mutual intercourse. But as this great principle admits of feveral diverfified appearances, let us confider some of the chief forms under which it ought to show itself in the usual tenour of life.

What, first, presents itself to be recommended, is a peacéable temper; a disposition averse to give offence, and defirous of cultivating harmony, and amicable intercourse in fociety. This supposes yielding and condefcending manners, unwillingness to contend with others about trifles, and, in contests that are unavoidable, proper moderation of spirit. Such a temper is the first principle of felf-enjoyment. It is the basis of all order and happiness among mankind. The positive and contentious, the rude and quarrelsome, are the bane.of fociety. They feem destined to blast the small share of comfort which nature has here allotted to man. But they cannot disturb the peace of others, more than they break their own. The hurricane rages first in their own bosom, before it is let forth upon the