Motives to the practice of gentleness. 1. To promote the virtue of gentleness, we ought to view our character with an impartial eye; and to learn from our own failings, to give that indulgence, which in our turn we claim. It is pride which fills the world with so much harshness and severity.d. In the fullness of selfestimation, we forget what we are. We claim attentions to which we are not entitled. We are rigorous to offences, as if we had never offended; unfeeling to distress, as if we knew not what it was to suffer. From those airy regions of prides and folly, let us descend to our proper level. 2. Let us survey the natural equality on which providence has placed man with man, and reflect on the infirmities common to all. If the reflection on natural equality and mutual offences, be insufficient to prompt humanity, let us at least remember what we are in the sight of our Creator. Have we none of that forbearance to give one another, which we all so earnestly intreat from heaven? Can we look for clemency or gentleness from our Judge, when we are so backward to show it to our brethren? 3. Let us also accustom ourselves, to reflect on the smal. moment of those things, which are the usual incentives to violence and contention. In the ruffled and angry hour, we view every appearance through a false medium. The most inconsiderable point of interest, or honour, swells into a momentous object; and the slightest attack seems to threaten immediate ruin. 4. But after passion or pride has subsided, we look around in vain for the mighty mischiefs we dreaded. The fabrick, which our disturbed imagination had reared, totally disappears. But though the cause of contention has dwindled away, its consequences remain. We have alienated' a friend; we have embittered an enemy; we have sown the seeds of future suspicion, malevolence, or disgust. 5. Let us suspend our violence for a moment, when causes of discord occur. Let us anticipatem that period of coolness, which, of itself, will soon arrive. Let us reflect how little we have any prospect of gaining by fierce contention; but how much of the true happiness of life we are certain of throwing away. Easily, and from the smallest chink, the bitter waters of strife are let forth; but their course cannot be foreseen; and he seldom fails of suffering most from their poisonous effect, who first allowed them to flow. BLAIR, SECTION V. a Sus-pic-ious, sus-pish'-ûs, inclin-f Ap-pre-hen-sion, ap-pré-hen shun, conception, seizure. o As-per-i-ty, as-per-é-tè, rough-g Treach-er-y, trêtsh'-ur-è, per ed to suspect.. ness, harshness. fidy, breach of faith. c In-cur, In-kůr', to become liableh Ir-ri-tate, ir-re-tate, to provoke to. exasperate. d Jeal-ous-y, jêl-lås-è, suspicion in i El-i-gi-ble, êl-é-je-bl, preferable, love. fit to be chosen. e Spy, spl, one who watches others. k Cav-ern, kav'-ůrn, a cave, den, hole. A suspicious temper the source of misery to its possessor. 1. As a suspicious spirit is the source of many crimes and calamities in the world, so it is the spring of certain misery to the person who indulges it. His friends will be few; and small will be his comfort in those whom he possesses. Believing others to be his enemies, he will of course make them such. Let his caution be ever so great, the asperityd of his thoughts will often break out in his behaviour; and in return, for suspecting and hating, he will incur suspicion and hatred. 2. Besides the external evils which he draws upon him self, arising from alienated friendship, broken confidence and open enmity, the suspicious temper itself is one of the worst evils which any man can suffer. If "in all fear there is torment," how miserable must be his state who, by living in perpetual jealousy, d lives in perpetual dread? 3. Looking upon himself to be surrounded with spies, enemies, and designing men, he is a stranger to reliance and trust. He knows not to whom to open himself. He dresses his countenance in forced smiles, while his heart throbs within from apprehensions of secret treachery.s Hence fretfulness and ill-humour, disgust at the world, and all the painful sensations of an irritated and embittered mind., 4. So numerous and great are the evils arising from a uspicious disposition, that, of the two extremes, it is more eligible to expose ourselves to occasional disadvantage from thinking too well of others, than to suffer continual misery by thinking always ill of them. It is better to be sometimes imposed upon, than never to trust. Safety is purchased at too dear a rate, when, in order to secure it, we are obliged to be always clad in armour, and to live in perpetual hostility with our fellows. 5. This is, for the sake of living to deprive ourselves of the comfort of life. The man of candour enjoys his situa tion, whatever it is, with cheerfulness and peace. Pru dence directs his intercourse with the world; but no black suspicions haunt his hours of rest. Accustomed to view the characters of his neighbours in the most favourable light, he is like one who dwells amidst those beautiful scenes of nature on which the eye rests with pleasure. 6. Whereas the suspicious man having his imagination filled with all the shocking forms of human falsehood, deceit, and treachery, resembles the traveller in the wilderness, who discerns no objects around him but such as are either dreary or terrible; caverns that open, serpents that hiss, and beasts of prey that howl. SECTION VI. not to be approached. BLAIR. a Re-source, re-sorse', resort, ex-d In-ac-ces-si-ble, in-ak-ses-se-bl, pedient. b De-lu-sive, dè-lù'-siv, apt to de-e Ref-uge, ref-füdje, shelter, pro ceive. tection. c Gen-er-ous, jên'-ur-ûs, noble, mu-f Re-tain, re-tane', to keep in mind, nificent. not to dismiss. Comforts of Religion. 1. THERE are many who have passed the age of youth and beauty; who have resigned the pleasures of that smiling season; who begin to decline into the vale of years, impaired in their health, depressed in their fortunes, stript of their friends, their children, and perhaps still more tender connexions. What resource can this world afford them? It presents a dark and dreary waste, through which there does not issue a single ray of comfort. 2. Every delusive prospect of ambition is now at an end; long experience of mankind, an experience very different from what the open and generous soul of youth had fondly dreamt of has rendered the heart almost inaccessibled to new friendships. The principal sources of activity are taken away, when they for whom we labour are cut off from us; they who animated, and who sweetened all the toils of life. 3. Where then can the soul find refuge, but in the bosom of Religion? There she is admitted to those prospects of Providence and futurity, which alone can warm and fill the heart. I speak here of such as retain the feelings of humanity; whom misfortunes have softened, and pervaps rendered more delicately sensible; not of such as posess that stupid insensibility, which some are pleased to ignify with the name of philosophy. 4. It might therefore be expected, that those philosophers who think they stand in no need themselves of the assistance of religion to support their virtue, and who never feel the want of its consolations, would yet have the humanity to consider the very different situation of the rest of mankind; and not endeavour to deprive them of what hab it, at least, if they will not allow it to be nature, has made necessary to their morals, and to their happiness. 5. 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 resentment; and tearing from them their only remaining comfort. The attempt to ridicule religion may be agreeable to some, by relieving them from restraint upon their pleasures; and may render others very miserable, by making them doubt hose truths, in which they were most deeply interested; put it can convey real good and happiness to no one individual. SECTION VII. GREGORY. a Dis-cern, diz-zêrn', to see, distin-f Ex-plode, eks-plode, to decry guish. b Hu-mil-i-ty, hú-mil-é-tè, modes-g Con-fu-ta-tion, kon-fu-ta-shūn, drive out with noise. ty, lowliness. fully. act of confuting. e Grace-ful-ly, gråse'-fül-lé, beauti-h Am-ber, am'-bur, a yellow trans parent substance. d Re-serve, ré-zerv', to keep ini Mass, mas, a body, the service o store. e Pro-fic-ien-cy, pro-fish-en-se, ad vancement in learning, profit. the Roman church. Diffidence of our abilities, a mark of wisdom. 1. Ir is a sure indication of good sense, to be diffident of it. We then, and not till then, are growing wise, when we begin to discerna how weak and unwise we are. An absolute perfection of understanding, is impossible: he makes the nearest approaches to it, who has the sense to discern, and the humanity to acknowledge, its imperfections. 2. Modesty always sits gracefully upon youth; it covers a multitude of faults, and doubles the lustre of every virtue which it seems to hide: the perfections of men being like those flowers which appear more beautiful, when their leaves are a little contracted and folded up, than when they are full blown, and display themselves, without any reserve,d to the view. 3. We are some of us very fond of knowledge, and apt N t ام to value ourselves upon any proficiency in the sciences: one science, however, there is, worth more than all the rest, and that is, the science of living well; which shall remain, when "tongues shall cease," and "knowledge shall vanish away." 4. 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 shall come, when they shall be exploded, and would have been forgotten, if they had not been preserved in those excellent books, which contain a confutations of them; like insects preserved for ages in amber, which otherwise would soon have returned to the common mass of things. 5. But a firm belief of Christianity, and a practice suitable to it, will support and invigorate the mind to the last; and most of all, at last, at that important hour, which must decide our hopes and apprehensions: and the wisdom, which, like our Saviour, cometh from above, will, through his merits, bring us thither. All our other studies and pursuits, nowever different, ought to be subservient to, and centre m, this grand point, the pursuit of eternal happiness, by veing good in ourselves, and useful to the world. SEED. SECTION VIII. a Com-mit, kom-mit', to intrust, I Pro-fu-sion, pro-fů/-zhūn, extravimprison, perpetrate. agance. b De-pos-it-a-ry, dé-poz-it-a-rè, m Cov-e-tous, kův-ve-tůs, avari one who has a thing in trust, a place where a thing is deposited. n c Space, spåse, room, quantity of time. d En-croach, en-krotsh', to make in- f Sur-ren-der, sur-rên'-dur, to de- o p g Cha-os, ka-os, the state of matter before the creation, irregulars mixture. q cious, eager. Prod-i-gal, prôd'-de-gal, wasteful, a spendthrift. Re-gret, ré-gret', bitter reflection, Con-fu-sion, kon-fu-zhûn, aston- r An-guish, ang'-gwish, excessive pain. Man-i-fold, man'-ne-fold, of different kinds. h Ap-pre-ci-a-tion, âp-pré-she-à-t Re-deem, ré-dèèm', to ransom, to shůn, estimation, the act of setting a value upon any thing. Squan-der, skwon-dur, to lavish, waste. k In-con-sid-er-ate, in-kon-sid-erate, thoughtless. pardon. Pro-long, pro-long', to lengthen |