Fear and Trembling. Judge yourfelf, and then you will not be judged of the Lord. But if you neglect to do this, then think what a fhocking Thing it must be to give an Account before the greatest Being in the World, of a Life, that you perhaps cannot reflect on feriously in private, and by yourself, without Shame and Confufion. Look up to that Being whom you have offended, with all the Humility of a contrite Spirit, and look upon this World as (what it may foon perhaps in Reality be) Nothing to you. Soon, very foon (oh, may it not prove too foon for you! I mean before a thorough Repentance) may that Being, whom none can fee, and live, fit in Judgment, on your Soul: And then you must either be, what

I fincerely wish, eternally happy; or, what I tremble to think of, eternally miserable. If the latter, which God forbid! fhould be your Case: How dreadful muft it be to lift up thofe Eyes, which you had wilfully fhut before, juft as you are finking, irrecoverably finking, in endless Mifery? Behold, now is the accepted Time, now is the Day of Salvation! On your present Behaviour, on this great Crifis, your ALL depends! God, who will not despise a troubled and a contrite Heart, will have Compaffion on you, provided you have first Compaffion on yourself. But if you do not return to him with a whole Heart; nothing is more fit, than that they, who are incorrigibly Bad, should be irretrievably Wretch

ed.

I fay no more. May God grant that you may know the Things belonging to your Peace, before they be for ever hid from your Eyes!

Thus I have wrote, what I am fure is a very affectionate, and what I wish may prove a very affecting Letter. It is not material to

inform

you,

from what Hand this Epiftle comes: It is enough to affure you, that it proceeds from an Heart fincerely your's,

May 9.

E. E.

An

An ESSAY on refined and

friendly Converfation.

Written in the Twenty-Second Year of the AUTHOR's Age.

I

T has been obferved that some, who have been justly esteemed Writers of the firft Rank in the Learned World, have not been favoured with a very happy Turn for Converfation; and that others, on the contrary, could never make their Appearance to Advantage in Print, who were yet looked upon as the very Life and Genius of every private Company they came into.

Thus Mr. ANTHONY WOOD informs us, "That, whenever Sir WILLIAM KILLIGREW took Pen in

<< Hand,

Hand, he did not come up to the never-failing Smartness, which he "fhewed in Converfation; whereas "Mr. CowLEY was the Reverse "of this Character, as Sir JOHN "DENHAM gives us to understand "in the following Lines:

"Had CowLEY ne'er fpoke, KILLIGREW ne'er writ;

« Combin'd in one they'd fhew'd a matchless Wit."

This may be accounted for after the following Manner: Some Men are of an airy, volatile Temper; the Edge of their Wit is very fine, but foon turn'd: They have Brifkness and Vivacity of Spirit enough for a fharp, furprizing Repartee, or any other extempore Sally of Fancy; but they have not that Strength and Stea