upon the good communicated, affection for the donor, and joy at the reception. Thus it has goodness for its object, and the most pleasing, perhaps unexpected, exertions of goodness for its immediate

cause.

Thankfulness refers to verbal expressions of gratitude. Grove.

Pleasure.

However different and variable the ideas of pleasure may be among nations and individuals, it still remains a fact, that a certain number of persons in all civilized states, whether distinguished by birth, or rank, or fortune, or talents, as they have nearly the same education, so they form nearly the same ideas of pleasure. But to possess it, a man must give his chief application to the state of his mind; and, notwithstanding all his efforts, it is of uncertain duration. Pleasure is the sunshine of life; we enjoy it frequently at great intervals; and it is therefore necessary to know how to use it. All the productions of art perish; the largest fortunes are dissipated; rank, honour, and dignity pass away, like a fleeting shadow; the memory is impaired; all the faculties of the soul are extinguished; the body sinks under the infirmities of old age; and scarcely has one reached the boundaries of happiness marked out by his imagination, when he must give place to another, and renounce all bis pleasures, all his hopes, all his illusions, the fugitive images of which had given happiness to the mind.

Pleasure, we all agree, is man's chief good,
Our only contest what deserves the name.

Give pleasure's name to nought, but what has pass'd
Th' authentic seal of Scripture, and defies
The tooth of Time; when past, a pleasure still;
Dearer on trial, lovelier for its age,

And doubly to be prized, as it promotes

Our future, while it forms our present joy.

Some joys the future overcast; and some
Throw all their beams that way, and gild the tomb.
Consult thy whole existence, and be safe.

That oracle will put all doubt to flight.

Be good: and let Heaven answer for the rest.

YOUNG.

The pleasures of the world, which we are all so prone to dote upon, and the powers of fallen reason, which some are so apt to idolize, are not only vain, but treacherous; not only a painted flame, like these sparkling animals; but much like those unctuous exhalations, which arise from the marshy ground, and often dance before the eyes of the benighted wayfaring man. Kindled into a sort of fire, they personate a guide, and seem to offer their service; but, blazing with delusive light, mislead their follower into hidden pits, headlong precipices, and unfathomable gulfs-where, far from his beloved friends, far from all hopes of succour, the unhappy wanderer is swallowed up and lost.

Hervey.

Shew, smiling fair one, shew the flowery road
That winds its mazy way to thy abode.
Shall I thy footsteps in yon palace trace,
Where dwell Britannia's sons' illustrious race?
Or art thou doom'd to some more humble lot,
The welcome inmate of a lonely cot,
Sequester'd in some covert, wild and rude,
Reclining in the arms of solitude?

Or, in a bark, skim'st thou the boisterous deep,
Rock'd by rough ocean's winds and waves to sleep?
Say, art thou found on Greenland's icy shore?
Or where the miners dig for golden ore?

North, south, east, west, the happy clime, oh name,
That boasts thy presence, and that owns thy fame!
Though ever so remote thy temple be,

No place so distant, but I'd follow thee.

The search is vain; for Pleasure's no where found,
But in her native place, Elysian ground.

When our own native land we hate,
Too cool, too windy, or too wet;
Change the thick climate, and repair
To France or Italy for air:

In vain we change, in vain we fly;
Go, Silvia, mount the whirling sky,

MISS STOCKDALE.

Or ride upon the feather'd wind,
In vain; if this diseased mind
Clings fast, and still sits close behind;
Faithful disease, that never fails

Attendance at her lady's side.

Would you see their picture drawn to the very life, and the success of their schemes.calculated with the utmost exactness? Cast your eye upon that fine representation exhibited by the prophet:"It shall be even as when a hungry man dreameth, and behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, behold, he drinketh; and behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite." (Isa. xxix. 8.) Such is the race, and such the prize, of all those candidates for pleasure, who run wide of the mark of the high-calling of God, in Christ Jesus. They live in vanity, and die in woe. Hervey.

Pleasures abroad the sport of nature yields;
Her living fountains and her smiling fields:
And then, at home, what pleasure 'tis to see
A little, cleanly, cheerful family!
Which, if a chaste wife crown, no less in her,
Than fortune, I the golden mean prefer.
Too noble nor too wise she should not be ;
No, nor too rich, too fair, too fond of me.
Thus let my life slide silently away,
With sleep all night, and quiet all the day.

Patron of pleasure! Doter on delight!
I am thy rival; Pleasure I profess :
'Tis balm to life, and gratitude to Heaven.
How cold our thanks for bounties unenjoy'd!
The love of pleasure is man's eldest-born-
Born in his cradle, living to his tomb.
Wisdom her younger sister, though more grave,
Was meant to minister, and not to mar,
Imperial Pleasure, queen of human hearts.
Pleasure's the purpose of this serious page;
Pleasure is but Religion's gayer name:

I wrong her still-I rate her worth too low;
Pleasure the flower, Religion is the root.
Canst thou plead Pleasure's cause as well as I?
Know'st thou her nature, purpose, parentage?
Not to turn human brutal; but to build
Divine on human, Pleasure came from heaven,
It serves ourselves, our species, and our God;
And to serve more, is past the sphere of man.
"Glide then, for ever, Pleasure's sacred stream!
Through Eden as Euphrates ran, it runs,
And fosters ev'ry growth of happy life.
Drink deep; the deeper, then, the more divine;
Angels are angels from indulgence there;
'Tis unrepenting pleasure makes their bliss."

Happy the man, of mortals happiest he,
Whose quiet mind from vain desires is free;
Whom neither hopes deceive, nor fears torment,
But lives at peace, within himself content.
In thought or act accountable to none

But to himself, and to his God alone.

Contentment.

"Not that I speak in respect of want; for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."

Paul.

O sweetness of content! seraphic joy!
Which nothing wants, and nothing can destroy.

YOUNG,

LANSDOWNE. Contentment is a disposition of mind in which our desires are confined to what we enjoy, without murmuring at our lot, or wishing ardently for more. It stands in opposition to envy: (James iii, 16.) to avarice: (Heb. xiii, 5.) to pride and ambition: (Prov. xiii. 10.) to anxiety of mind: (Matt. vi. 25. 34.) to murmurings and repinings: (1 Cor. x. 10.) Contentment does not imply unconcern about our welfare, or that we should not have a sense of any thing uneasy or distressing; nor does it give any countenance to idleness, or prevent diligent endeavours to improve our circumstances. It implies, however, that our desires of worldly good be moderate; that we do not

P

indulge in unnecessary care, or use unlawful efforts to better our-
selves; but that we acquiesce with and make the best of our con-
dition, whatever it be. Contentment arises not from a man's out-
ward circumstances, but from his inward disposition; and is the
genuine offspring of humility, attended with a fixed and habitual
sense of God's particular providence, the recollection of past mer-
cies, and a just estimate of the true nature of all earthly things.
Motives to contentment arise from the consideration of the rectitude
of the divine government: (Psa, xcvii. 1,2.) the benignity of the
divine providence: (Psa. cxlv.) the greatness of the divine pro-
mise: (2 Pet. i. 4.) our own unworthiness: (Gen. xxxii. 10.) the
punishments we deserve: (Lam. iii. 39, 40.) the reward which con-
tentment itself brings with it: (1 Tim. vi. 6.) the speedy termina-
tion of all our troubles here, and a prospect of eternal felicity in a
future state.
Buck's Theo. Dict.

Happy the man with little blest,
Of what his father left possess'd;
No base desires corrupt his head,
No fears disturb him in his bed.
For me a little cell I choose,
Fit for my mind, fit for my muse,

Which soft content does best adorn,
Shunning the knaves and fools I scorn.

OTWAY.

He is not the poor man that hath but little, but he that would have more; nor is he the rich man that hath much, but be that is content with what he hath. If you pray for your daily bread, be not such hypocrites as by the bent of your desires to cross your prayers. Baxter.

Is not every one, by nature, discontent with his present lot in the world, or with some one thing or other in it? This also was Adam's case. (Gen. iii. 5, 6.) Some one thing is always missing; so that man is a creature given to changes. And if any doubt of this, let them look over all their enjoyments, and, after a review of them, listen to their own hearts, and they will hear a secret murmuring for want of something, though, perhaps, if they considered the