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WHAT a blessing is it to beings, with such limited capacities as ours confessedly are, to have God himself for our instructer, in every thing which it much concerns us to know! We are principally concerned in knowing -not the origin of arts, or the recondite depths of science -not the histories of mighty empires, desolating the globe by their contentions-not the subtilties of logick, the mys teries of metaphysicks, the sublimities of poetry, or the niceties of criticism. These, and subjects such as these, properly occupy the learned leisure of a few; but the bulk of human kind have ever been, and must ever remain, ignorant of them all.

II. We are all, of every rank and condition, equally concerned in knowing-what will become of us after death ;and, if we are to live again, we are interested in knowingwhether it be possible for us to do any thing whilst we live here, which may render that future life a happy one. Now, "that thing, called Christianity," as you scoffingly speakthat last best gift of Almighty God, as I esteem it, the gospel of Jesus Christ, has given us the most clear and satisfactory information on both these points. It tells us what de ism never could have told us, that we shall certainly be raised from the dead-that, whatever be the nature of the soul, we shall certainly live forever-and that, whilst we live here, it is possible for us to do much towards the rendering that everlasting life a happy one. These are tremendous fruths to bad men; they cannot be received and reflected on with indifference by the best ; and they suggest to all such a cogent motive to virtuous actions, as deism could not furnish even to Brutus himself.

WATSON to PAINE.

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BENEVOLENCE AND HUMANITY.

YOUTH is the proper season for cultivating the benev olent and humane affections. As a great part of your h p. piness is to depend on the connections which you form with others, it is of high importance that you acquire betimes the temper and the manners which will render such con

nections comfortable. Let a sense of justice be the foun dation of all your social qualities. In your most early intercourse with the world, and even in your youthful amusements, let no unfairness be found. Engrave on your minds that sacred rule of "doing in all things to others, according as you wish that they should do unto you." For this end impress yourselves with a deep sense of the original and natural equality of men. Whatever advantages of birth or fortune you possess, never display them with an ostentatious supe. riority.

II. Leave the subordinations of rank, to regulate the intercourse of more advanced years. At present, it becomes you to act among your companions as man with man. Remember how unknown to you are the vicissitudes of the world; and how often they, on whom ignorant and contemptuous young men once looked down with scorn, have risen to be their superiors in future years. Compassion is an emotion of which you ought never to be ashamed. Grace. ful in youth is the tear of sympathy, and the heart that melts at the tale of woe. Let not ease and indulgence contract your affections, and wrap you up in selfish enjoyments. Accustom yourselves to think of the distresses of human life; of the solitary cottage, the dying parent, the weeping orphan. Never sport with pain and distress in any of your amusements, nor treat even the meanest insect with wanton cruelty. BLAIR.

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DEAR Sensibility source inexhausted of all that is precious in our joys, or costly in our sorrows! thou chainest the martyr down upon his bed of straw, and it is thou who liftest him up to heaven. Eternal fountain of our feelings! It is here I trace thee, and this is thy divinity which stirs within me; not, that in some sad and sickening moments, my soul shrinks back upon herself and startles at destruction"- -mere pomp of words !-but that I feel some generous joys and generous cares beyond myself—all comes from thee, great, great Sensorium of the world! which vibrates,

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if a hair of our head but fall upon the ground, in the remotest desert of thy creation.

II. Touched with thee, Eugenius draws my curtain when I languish; hears my tale of symptoms, and blames the weather for the disorder of his nerves. Thou givest a por. tion of it sometimes to the roughest peasant, who traverses the bleakest mountains-He finds the lacerated lamb of another's flock. This moment I beheld him leaning with his head against his crook, with piteous inclínation, looking down upon it-Oh! had I come one moment sooner!-It bleeds to death-his gentle heart bleeds with it. Peace to thee, generous swain! I see thou walkest off with anguishbut thy joys shall balance it; for happy is thy cottage, and happy is the sharer of it, and happy are the lambs which sport about you. STERNE.

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DISGUISE thyself as thou wilt, still, Slavery! still thou art a bitter draught; and, though thousands in all ages have been made to drink of thee, thou art no less bitter on that account. It is thou, LIBERTY! thrice sweet and gracious goddess, whom all, in publick or in private, worship, whose taste is grateful, and ever will be so, till nature herself shall change-no tint of words can spot thy snowy mantle, or chymick power turn thy sceptre into iron-with thee, to smile upon him as he eats his crust, the swain is happier than his monarch, from whose court thou art exiled. Gracious Heaven! grant me but health, thou great Bestower of it, and give me but this fair goddess as my companion; and shower down thy mitres, if it seem good unto thy di vine providence, upon those heads, which are aching for them. STERNE.

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PURSUING these ideas, I sat down close by my table, and leaning my head upon my hand, I began to figure to myself the miseries of confinement, I was in a right frame

for it, and so I gave full scope to my imagination. I was going to begin with the millions of my fellow creatures, born to no inheritance but slavery; but finding, however affecting the picture was, that I could not bring it nearer me, and that the multitude of sad groups in it did but distract meI took a single captive, and having first shut him up in his dungeon, I then looked through the twilight of his grated door to take his picture. 1 beheld his body half wasted away with long expectation and confinement, and felt what kind of sickness of the heart it was, which arises from hope deferred.

II. Upon looking nearer, I saw him pale and feverish : in thirty years the western breeze had not once fanned his blood-he had seen no sun, no moon, in all that time-nor had the voice of friend or kinsman breathed through his lattice. His children-but here my heart began to bleedand I was forced to go on with another part of the portrait. He was sitting upon the ground upon a little straw, in the furthest corner of his dungeon, which was alternately his chair and bed a little calendar of small sticks were laid at the head, notched all over with the dismal days and nights he passed there he had one of those little sticks in his hand, and with a rusty nail he was etching another day of misery to add to the heap.

III. As I darkened the little light he had, he lifted up a hopeless eye towards the door, then cast it down-shook his head, and went on with his work of affliction. I heard his chains upon his legs, as he turned his body to lay his little stick upon the bundle-He gave a deep sigh-i saw the iron enter into his soul-I burst into tears-I could not sustain the picture of confinement which my fancy had drawn. STERNEW

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GUIDED by reason, man has travelled through the ab struse regions of the philosophick world. He has originated rules, by which he can direct the ship through the pathless ocean, and measure the comet's flight over the fields of un

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He has established society and government. He can aggregate the profusions of every climate and every season. He can meliorate the severity, and remedy the imperfections, of nature herself. All these things he can perform by the assistance of reason.

II. By imagination, man seems to verge towards creative power. Aided by this, he can perform all the wonders of sculpture and painting. He can almost make the marble speak. He can almost make the brook murmur down the painted landscape. Often, on the pinions of imagination, he soars aloft, where the eye has never travelled; where other stars glitter on the mantle of night, and a more effulgent sun lights up the blushes of the morning. Flying from world to world, he gazes on all the glories of creation; or lighting on the distant margin of the universe, darts the eye of fancy over the mighty void, where power creative never yet has energized; where existence still sleeps in the wide abyss of possibility.

III. By imagination, man can travel back to the source of time; converse with the successive generations of men, and kindle into emulation while he surveys the monumental trophies of ancient art and glory. He can sail down the stream of time, till he loses "sight of stars and sun, by wandering into those retired parts of eternity, when the heavens and earth shall be no more." To these unequivocal char. acteristicks of greatness in man, let us adduce the testimony of nature herself.

IV. Surrounding creation subserves the wants and prociaims the dignity of man. For him day and night visit the world. For him the seasons walk their splendid round. For him the earth teems with riches, and the heavens smile with beneficence. All creation is accurately adjusted to his capacity for bliss. He tastes the dainties of festivity, breathes the perfumes of morning, revels on the charms of melody, and regales his eye with all the painted beauties of vision. Whatever can please, whatever can charm, whatever can expand the soul with ecstacy of bliss, allures and solicits his attention. All things beautiful, all things grand, all things sublime, appear in native loveliness, and proffer man the richest pleasures of fruition. BURGES

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