contempt,6 the follies and extravagancies of young fellows of his own age, and considered their noctar na¡7 revels8 and excursions as so many sad series of misery. 3. He continued in this opinion till he was turned the age of forty; at which period, losing his wife. and finding his circumstances easy9 He joined in the company of those we call free and easy. 4. New company, by degrees, made him imbibet new sentiments, and what he had formerly considered as miserics, began insensibly to assume2 the name of pleasure, and his former happiness was soon construeds to be misery. 5. He began to reflect on the dull path he had trodden all the prime of his life, and therefore determined to atone4 for it in the evening of his days, by entering on such scenes as ware disgraceful even to the youthful partners of his follies.. 6. Suffice it to say, that, after having exchanged prudence5 for pleasure, he soon fell a martyr6 to his vices. 7. It is a melancholy but a just observation, that the man who turns vicious in the evening of his life, is generally worse than the youthful libertine, and his conversation of- 7 Libertine, a ten more lewd8 and obscene. 8. Hence we may conclude with Ovid, that no man can be truly said to be blest, till death has put a seal his virtuous9 actions, and dered him incapable of committing bad ones. on ren 9. The distribution of happiness and misery is, perhaps, more on a level than we are in general apt to imagine. If the laboring man toils all the day, and hardly earns his bread by the sweat of his brow, yet every meal is to him a Sumptuous2 feast, and he sleeps as soundly between coarse blankets, as on a bed of down; nor does any part of his life betrays a scene of that state of misery such as it would be considered by the courtier.4 10. If the courtier basks in the sunshine of fortune, if be be loaded with honors, riches, and titles, keeps a brilliant equipage,5 and has numerous dependants at his commands the world in general will consider him as placed in a state of happiness; but if we contemplate6 him ai leisure, see the anxieties of his mind to be still more great and powful, which interrupt his broken slambers and see how insipid to him are all the luxuries of his table his a dissolute liv er. 3 Lewd, a wicked, lustful. 9 Virtuous, a merally good, chaste, effica cious. † Distribution, tributing. s the act of dis 2 Sumptuous, a costly, spleng 3 Betray, to 5 Equipage, a riages, attendance. horses and car 6 Contemplate, to meditate, to study perpetual succession? of false pleasure, and the mean adoration8 he is compelled to pay to the idol of power; we shall hardly allow him the idea of happiness, but justly consider him as more miserable9 than the laboring peasant. 11. The mind is undoubtedly the seat of happiness and misery,t and it is within our power to determine which shall hold the empire2 there. To maintain an uniform conduct, through all the varying stations of life-to content ourselves with what comes within our reach, without pining after what we cannot obtain3 or envying others what they possess, to maintain4 a clear unsul lied conscience-and to allow for the infirmities of others; from a retrospect5 of our own, are perhaps some of the best rules we can lay down, in order to banish6 misery from this mortal frame, and to acquire such a degree of happiness, as may enable us to perform our terrestrial journey with some degree of satisfaction to ourselves and others. C 7 Succession, a 9 Miserable, a unhappy, wretched, stingy, +Misery, s. wretchedness, calamity, covetousness. 2 Empire... in perial pow. com er, supreme dominion mand over any thing. SObtain, v. to gain, procure, prevail. 4 Maintain v. to keep,defend. 5Retrospect, & a looking on things past. Banish, v to drive away, to condemn to leave his own country. 7 Terrestrial, a not celestial, terrene, earthly. An appeal to parents. 1 Though the depravity, luxury,2 and corruption3 of the times, form just subjects of complaint for the grave, the thoughtful, and the aged, yet I cannot help believing that many of these complainants are themselves lending a helping hand to render the rising generations as effeminate4 and corrupt as the pres ent. cess in eating, wickedness. ish. 2. I am now appealing to parents on the education of their children, which appears to me a subject that ought to attract the serious attention of those who wish longevity,55 peace and happiness to their children, and prosperity, repose and reformation6 of manners to the rising generation. 3. The first seasoning sticks long est by the vessel. Thus those who are permitted from their earliest periods to do wrong, will hardly ever be persuaded, when they arrive at maturity,7 to do right. It is a maxim8 with some people, a maxim surely founded only on pride that their children shall not be checked in their early years, but indulged in whatever their little Longevity, 8 length of life. 6 Reformation, s changing in morals and re ligion. ripeness, com7 Maturity, pletion. 8 Maxim 8 leading truth general prinet ple hearts shall pantt after: and for this reason, because they will grow wiser as they grow older. 4. But since the love of ease, finery and pleasure9 is natural to almost every youthful, mind, how careful ought each parent to be to check those juvenile‡ sallies, which if encouraged, will in time be productive2 of the very evils they complain of in the present generation. 5. It is not only in childhood, but also in their progress3 through schools and during their apprenticeship, that these indulgences are continued; and an excuse is always ready, that their children must not be more hardly treated than others. 6. Hence it follows that you of ten meet the apprentice4 of eighteen strutting through the streets in his boots on an errand of business; or screening himself from the view of heaven under the shade of a large silken umbrella! It would be worse than sacrileges in their opinions, to appear abroad with an apront before them, or in their working dress. 7. Their evenings are too often spent abroad at chair-clubs, in alehouses, at the theatres5 or in some gardens. To know the world, as they call it, is more their study |