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Let us

for a moment, when caufes of difcord occur. anticipate that period of coolnefs, which, of itfelf, will foon arrive. Let us reflect how little we have any profpect of gaining by fierce contention; but how much of the true happiness of life we are certain of throwing away. Eafily, and from the fmalleft chink, the bitter waters of ftrife are let forth; but their courfe cannot be forefeen; and he feldom fails of fuffering moft from their poisonous effect, who firft allowed them to flow.

BLAIR.

SECTION V.

A fufpicious Temper the Source of Mifery to its Pofsefsar.

As a fufpicious fpirit is the fource of many crimes and calamities in the world, fo it is the fpring of certain mifery to the person who indulges it. His friends will be few; and fmall will be his comfort in those whom he possesses. Believing others to be his enemies, he will of courfe make them fuch. Let his caution be ever so great, the afperity of his thoughts will often break out in his behaviour; and in return for fufpecting and hating, he will incur fufpicion and hatred. Befides the external evils which he draws upon himself, arifing from alienated friendship, broken confidence, and open enmity, the fufpicious temper itself is one of the worst evils which any man can fuffer. If "in all fear there is torment," how miferable must be his ftate who, by living in perpetual jealoufy, lives in perpetual dread? Looking upon himself to be furrounded with fpies, enemies, and defigning men, he is a stranger to reliance and truft. He knows not to whom to open

himself. He drefses his countenance in forced fmiles, while his heart throbs within from apprehenfions of fecret treachery. Hence fretfulnefs and ill-humour, difguft at the world, and all the painful fenfations of an irritated and embittered mind.

So numerous and great are the evils arifing from a fufpicious difpofition, that, of the two extremes, it is more eligible to expofe ourselves to occafional disadvantage from thinking too well of others, than to fuffer continual mifery by thinking always ill of them. It is better to be fometimes impofed upon, than never to truft. Safety is purchased at too dear a rate, when, in order to fecure it, we are obliged to be always clad in armour, and to live in perpetual hoftility with our fellows. This is, for the fake of living, to deprive ourfelves of the comfort of life. The man of candour enjoys his fituation, whatever it is, with cheerfulness and peace. Prudence directs his intercourfe with the world; but no black fufpicions haunt his hours of reft. Accustomed to view the characters of his neighbours in the most favourable light, he is like one who dwells amidft those beautiful fcenes of nature, on which the eye refts with pleafure. Whereas the fufpicious man, having his imagination filled with all the fhocking forms of human falfehood, deceit, and treachery, refembles the traveller in the wildernefs, who difcerns no objects around him but such as are either dreary or terrible; caverns that open, ferpents that hifs, and beafts of prey that howl.

SECTION VI.

Comforts of Religion.

THERE are many who have passed the age of youth

and beauty; who have refigned the pleasures of that fmiling feafon; who begin to decline into the vale of years, impaired in their health, deprefsed in their fortunes, ftript of their friends, their children, and perhaps ftill more tender connexions. What resource can this world afford them? It presents a dark and dreary wafte, through which there does not issue a fingle ray of comfort. Every delufive profpect of ambition is now at an end; long experience of mankind, an experience very different from what the open and generous foul of youth had fondly dreamt of, has ren dered the heart almost inaccessible to new friendships. The principal fources of activity are taken away, when thofe for whom we labour are cut off from us; thofe who animated, and thofe who fweetened all the toils. of life. Where then can the foul find refuge, but in the bofom of Religion? There he is admitted to those profpects of Providence and futurity, which alone can warm and fill the heart. I fpeak here of such as retain the feelings of humanity; whom misfortunes have softened, and perhaps rendered more delicately fenfible: not of fuch as pofsefs that ftupid infenfibility, which fome are pleased to dignify with the name of Philosophy.

It might therefore be expected, that thofe philofophers, who think they ftand in no need themselves of the afsiftance of religion to fupport their virtue, and who never feel the want of its confolations, would yet

have the humanity to confider the very different fituation of the rest of mankind; and not endeavour to deprive them of what habit, at leaft, if they will not allow it to be nature, has made necefsary to their morals, and to their happinefs. It might be expected, that humanity would prevent them from breaking into the last retreat of the unfortunate, who can no longer be objects of their envy or refentment; and tearing from them their only remaining comfort. The attempt to ridicule religion may be agreeable to fome, by relieving them from reftraint upon their pleasures; and may render others very miferable, by making them doubt thofe truths, in which they were most deeply interested; but it can convey real good and happiness to no one individual.

GREGORY.

SECTION VII.

Diffulence of our Abilities, a Mark of Wisdom.

Ir is a fure indication of good fenfe, to be diffident of it. We then, and not till then, are growing wife, when we begin to difcern how weak and unwife we are. An abfolute perfection of understanding, is impoffible: he makes the nearest approaches to it, who has the fenfe to difcern, and the humility to acknowledge, its imperfections. Modefty always fits gracefully upon youth; it covers a multitude of faults, and doubles the lufire of every virtue which it feems to hide: the perfections of men being like thofe flowers which appear more beautiful, when their leaves are a little contracted and folded up, than when they are

full blown, and difplay themfelves, without any referve, to the view.

We are fome of us very fond of knowledge, and apt to value ourselves upon any proficiency in the fciences: one science, however, there is, worth more than all the reft, and that is, the fcience of living well; which fhall remain, when "tongues fhall ceafe," and, "knowledge fhall vanish away." As to new notions, and new doctrines, of which this age is very fruitful, the time will come, when we shall have no pleasure in them: nay, the time thall come, when they fhall be exploded, and would have been forgotten, if they had not been preferved in thofe excellent books, which contain a confutation of them; like infects preferved for ages in amber, which otherwife would foon have returned to the common mafs of things. But a firm belief of Christianity, and a practice fuitable to it, will fupport and invigorate the mind to the laft; and moft of all, at laft, at that important hour, which muft decide our hopes and apprehenfions: and the wifdom, which, like our Saviour, cometh from above, will, through his merits, bring us thither. All our other ftudies and purfuits, however different, ought to be fubfervient to, and centre in, this grand point, the purfuit of eternal happiness, by being good in ourfelves, and ufeful to the world.

SEED.

SECTION VIII.

On the Importance of Order in the Diftribution of our Time.

TIME we ought to confider as a facred truft committed to us by God; of which we are now the de

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