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life, as they are, not worthy to be compared to what is reserved for him hereafter.

LESSON III.

Astronomy.

IN fair weather, when my heart is cheered, and I feel that exaltation of spirits which results from light and warmth, joined with a beautiful prospect of nature, I regard myself as one placed by the hand of God in the midst of an ample theatre, in which the sun, moon, and stars, the fruits also and vegetables of the earth, perpetually changing their positions or their aspects, exhibit an elegant entertainment to the understanding as well as to the eye.

Thunder and lightning, rain and hail, the painted bow and the glaring comet, are decorations of this mighty theatre; and the sable hemisphere studded with spangles, the blue vault at noon, the glorious gildings, and the rich colors in the horizon, I look on as so many successive

scenes.

When I consider things in this light, methinks it is a sort of impiety to have no attention to the course of nature, and the revolutions of the heavenly bodies. To be regardless of those phenomena that are placed within our view, on purpose to entertain our faculties, and display the wisdom and power of our Creator, is an affront to Providence of the same kind (I hope I was not impious to make such a simile) as it would be to a good poet to fit out a play without minding the plot or beauties of it. And yet how few are there who attend to the drama of nature, its artificial structure, and those admirable scenes

whereby the passions of a philosopher are greatly agitated, and his soul affected with the sweet emotions of joy and surprise.

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How many fox-hunters and rural 'squires are to be found all over Great Britain, who are ignorant that they have lived all this time in a planet; that the sun is several thousand times bigger than the earth; and that there are several other worlds within our view, greater and more glorious than our own!" Ay, but," says some illiterate fellow, I enjoy the world, and leave it to others to contemplate it." Yes, you eat and drink, and run about upon it; that is, you enjoy as a brute; but to enjoy as a rational being is to know it, to be sensible of its greatness and beauty, to be delighted with its harmony, and by these reflections, to obtain just sentiments of the Almighty mind that framed it.

The man who, unembarrassed with vulgar cares, leisurely attends to the flux of things in heaven and things in earth, and observes the laws by which they are governed, hath secured to himself an easy and convenient seat, where he beholds with pleasure all that passes on the stage of nature, while those about him are, some fast asleep, and others struggling for the highest places, or turning their eyes from the entertainment prepared by Providence, to play at push-pin with one another.

Within this ample circumference of the world, the the middle region, the various livery of the earth, and the glorious lights that are hung on high, the meteors in profusion of good things that distinguish the seasons, yield a prospect which annihilates all human grandeur.

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LESSON IV.

A Portrait of Mankind.

VANITY bids all her sons to be generous and brave,and her daughters to be chaste and courteous.-But why do we want her instructions ?-Ask the comedian, who is taught a part he feels not.

Is it that the principles of religion want strength, or that the real passion for what is good and worthy will not carry us high enough!-God! thou knowest they carry us too high-we want not to be-but to seem.—

Look out of your door,-take notice of that man see what disquieting, intriguing, and shifting, he is content to go, through merely to be thought a man of plain-dealing : -three grains of honesty would save him all this trouble : -alas! he has them not.

Behold a second, under a shew of piety hiding the impurities of a debauched life he is just entering the house of God :—would he was more pure-or less pious! -but then he could not gain his point.

Observe a third going almost in the same track, with what an inflexible sanctity of deportment he sustains himself as he advances !-every line in his face writes abstinence; every stride looks like a check upon his desires : see, I beseech you, how he is cloaked up with sermons, prayers, and sacraments; and so bemuffled with the externals of religion, that he has not a hand to spare for a worldly purpose ;-he has armour at least-Why does he put it on? Is there no serving God without all this? Must the garb of religion be extended so wide to the danger of its rending? Yes, truly, or it will not hide the secretand, What is that?

-That the saint has no religion at all.

-But here comes generosity; giving-not to a decayed artist-but to the arts and sciences themselves.-See, -he builds not a chamber in the wall apart for the prophets; but whole schools and colleges for those who come after. Lord! how they will magnify his name !—'tis in capitals already: the first-the highest, in the gilded-roll of every hospital and asylum—

One honest tear shed in private over the unfortunate is worth it all.

What a problematic set of creatures does simulation make us! Who would divine that all the anxiety and concern so visible in the airs of one half of that great assembly should arise from nothing else but that the other half of it may think them to be men of consequence, penetration, parts, and conduct ?—What a noise amongst the claimants about it? Behold humility, out of mere prideand honesty almost out of knavery ;-Chastity, never once in harm's way ;—and courage, like a Spanish soldier upon an Italian stage-a bladder full of wind.—

Hark! that, the sound of that trumpet,-let not my soldier run, 'tis some good Christian giving alms. O Pity, thou gentlest of human passions! soft and tender are thy notes, and ill accord they with so loud an instru

ment.

LESSON V.

Polite Conversation Defective.

IT is, perhaps, one of the most alarming symptoms of the degeneracy of morals in the present day, that the distinctions of right and wrong are almost swept away in polite conversation. The most serious offences are often

named with cool indifference; the most shameful profligacy with affected tenderness and indulgent toleration. The substitution of the word gallantry for that crime which stabs domestic happiness and conjugal virtue, is one of the most dangerous of all the modern abuses of language. Atrocious deeds should never be called by gentle names. This must certainly contribute, more than any thing to diminish the horror of vice in the rising generation. That our passions should be too often engaged on the side of error, we may look for the cause, though not for the vindication, in the unresisted propensities of our constitution : but that our reason should ever be employed in its favour, that our conversation should ever be taught to palliate it, that our judgment should ever look on it with indifference, has no shadow of excuse because this can pretend to no foundation in nature, no apology in temptation, no. palliative in passion.

LESSON VI.

On Intemperance in Eating.

HE is the temperate man whose health directs his appetite-who is best pleased with what best agrees with him-who eats, not to gratify his taste, but to preserve his life-who is the same at every table as at his own-who, when he feasts, is not cloyed; and sees all the delicacies before him that luxury can accumulate; yet preserves a due abstinence amidst them.

The rules of temperance not only oblige us to abstain from what now does, or what we are sure soon will, hurt us; we offend against them, when we avoid not whatever has a probability of being hurtful to us.-They are, far

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