He who would act like a wife man, and build his house on the rock, and not on the fand, should contemplate human life, not only in the funshine, but in the shade.

Let usefulness and beneficence, not oftentation and vanity, direct the train of your purfuits.

To maintain a steady and unbroken mind, amidst all' the shocks of the world, marks a great and noble fpirit.

Patience, by preferving composure within, refifts the impression which trouble makes from without. Compassionate affections, even when they draw tears from our eyes for human mifery, convey fatisfaction to the heart.

They who have nothing to give, can often afford relief to others, by imparting what they feel.

Our ignorance of what is to come, and of what is really good or evil, should correct anxiety about worldly fuccefs.

The veil which covers from our fight the events of fucceeding years, is a veil woven by the hand of

mercy.

The best preparation for all the uncertainties of futurity, confifts. in a well-ordered mind, a good conscience, and a cheerful fubmifsion to the will of Hea

Were we to furvey the chambers of sickness and distress, we should often find them peopled with the victims of intemperance and sensuality, and with the children of vicious indolence and floth.

To be wife in our own eyes, to be wife in the opinion of the world, and to be wife in the fight of our Creator, are three things so very different, as rarely to coincide.

Man, in his highest earthly glory, is but a reed floating on the stream of time, and forced to follow every new direction of the current.

The corrupted temper, and the guilty passions of the bad, fruftrate the effect of every advantage which the world confers on them.

The external misfortunes of life, disappointments, poverty, and fickness, are nothing in comparison of those inward distresses of mind, occafioned by folly, by passion, and by guilt.

No station is fo high, no power so great, no character fo unblemished, as to exempt men from being attacked by rasiness, malice, or envy.

Moral and religious inftruction derives its efficacy, not fo much from what men are taught to know, as from what they are brought to feel.

He who pretends to great sensibility towards men, and yet has no feeling for the high objects of religion, no heart to admire and adore the great Father of the universe, has reason to distrust the truth and delicacy of his fenfibility.

When, upon rational and fober inquiry, we have established our principles, let us not fuffer them to be fhaken by the fscoffs of the licentious, or the cavils of the sceptical.

When we observe any tendency to treat religion or morals with difrespect and levity, let us hold it to be a sure indication of a perverted understanding, or a depraved heart.

Every degree of guilt incurred by yielding to temptation, tends to debase the mind, and to weaken the generous and benevolent principles of human nature.

Luxury, pride, and vanity, have frequently as much influence in corrupting the sentiments of the great, as ignorance, bigotry, and prejudice, have in mifleading the opinions of the multitude.

Mixed as the present state is, reason and religion pronounce, that generally, if not always, there is more happiness than mifery, more pleasure than pain, in the condition of man.

Society, when formed, requires distinctions of property, diversity of conditions, fubordination of ranks, and a multiplicity of occupations, in order to advance the general good.

That the temper, the sentiments, the morality, and, in general, the whole conduct and character of men, are influenced by the example and disposition of the perfons with whom they associate, is a reflection which has long since passed into a proverb, and been ranked among the standing maxims of human wifdom, in all ages of the world.

SECTION III.

THE defire of improvement discovers a liberal mind; and is connected with many accomplishments, and many virtues.

Innocence confers eafe and freedom on the mind; and leaves it open to every pleafing fenfation.

Moderate and fimple pleasures relish high with the temperate: in the midst of his studied refinements, the voluptuary languishes.

Gentleness corrects whatever is offensive in our manners; and, by a conftant train of humane attentions, studies to alleviate the burden of common mifery.

That gentleness which is the characteristic of a good man, has, like every other virtue, its feat in the heart: and, let me add, nothing except what flows from the heart, can render even external manners truly pleasing.

Virtue, to become either vigorous or useful, must be habitually active: not breaking forth occafionally with a tranfient lustre, like the blaze of the comet; but regular in its returns, like the light of day: not like the aromatic gale, which fometimes feasts the sense; but like the ordinary breeze, which purifies the air, and renders it healthful.

The happiness of every man depends more upon the state of his own mind, than upon any one external circumstance; nay, more than upon all external things put together.

In no station, in no period, let us think ourselves fecure from the dangers which spring from our paffions. Every age, and every station they befet; from youth to grey hairs, and from the peasant to the prince.

Riches and pleasures are the chief temptations to criminal deeds. Yet those riches, when obtained, may very possibly overwhelm us with unforeseen miferies. Those pleasures may cut short our health and life.

He who is accustomed to turn aside from the world, and commune with himself in retirement, will, fometimes at least, hear the truths which the multitude do not tell him. A more found instructer will lift his voice, and awaken within the heart those latent fug geftions, which the world had overpowered and fuppressed.

Nothing can be more amiable than a constant defire to please; and an unwillingness to offend or hurt.

He that waits for an opportunity to do much at once, may breathe out his life in idle wishes; and regret, in the last hour, his useless intentions and barreh zeal.

The spirit of true religion breathes mildness and alfability. It gives a native, unaffected ease to the behaviour. It is focial, kind, and cheerful: far removed from that gloomy and illiberal superstition, which clouds the brow, sharpens the temper, dejects the fpirit, and teaches men to fit themselves for another world, by neglecting the concerns of this.

Reveal none of the fecrets of thy friend. Be faithful to his interests. Forfake him not in danger. Abhor the thought of acquiring any advantage by his prejudice.

Man, always prosperous, would be giddy and infolent; always afflicted, would be fullen or defpondent. Hopes and fears, joy and forrow, are, therefore, fo blended in his life, as both to give room for worldly pursuits, and to recal, from time to time, the admonitions of confcience.