SLANDER.

SLANDER is a propensity of mind to think ill of all men, and afterwards to utter such sentiments in scandalous expressions.

Slanderers are a species of creatures, so great a scandal to human nature, as scarcely to deserve the name of men. They are in general, a composition of the most detestable vices, pride, envy, hatred, lying, uncharitableness, &c. and yet it is a lamentable truth, that these wretches swarm in every town, and lurk in every village; and actuated by these base principles, are ever busy in attacking the characters of mankind; none are too great or too good to escape the level of their envenomed darts. If in high life they find the greatest worth, or a man in a middling station sober, honest, industrious, and aspiring, it is odds that his merit alone immediately excites them to exercise their malignant tongue, and their souls rest not, till their bags of poison are quite exhausted. However shocking to the well cultivated mind this assertion may appear, the truth is too flagrant, and of too easy investigation to admit of the least doubt. What account such unhappy creatures will be able to render hereafter, for so great an abuse of their time and talents, so unpardonable an injury to their neighbor, and so black a violation of the command of the gospel, "love one another," it is not difficult to guess, nor agree, able to think on,

SABBATH.

THIS day the Deity to man has giv ́n,

By just decrees to plume his soul for heav'ri,
And publicly to join in grateful praise,
For all the blessings of their other days;
This small return he surely may expect,
And will as surely punish its neglect.
On this, his day, necessity alone,
For absence from the temple can atone.

Upon the Lord's day we must abstain from all servile and laborious works, except such as are matters of necessity, of common life, or of great charity. The Lord's day being the remembrance of a great blessing, must be a day of joy, festivity, spiritual rojoicing, and thanksgiving therefore let your devotions spend themselves in singing, or in reading psalms, in recounting the great works of God, in remembering his mercies, in worshipping his excellencies, in celebrating his attributes, &c. &c.

:

SENSIBILITY.

SENSIBILITY of mind, and fineness of feelings, are always the attendants of true genius. These, which by themselves constitute a good heart, when joined to a good head,

naturally give a greater tendency to virtue. than vice for they are naturally charmed' with beauty, and disgusted with every kind of deformity. Virtue, therefore, which is amiable in the eyes of our enemies, must have additional charms for those whose susceptibility of beauty is more delicate and refined; and vice, which is naturally loathsome, must appear uncommonly odious to those who are uncommonly shocked at real turpitude.

It is a melancholy consideration, that man as he advances in life, degenerates in his nature, and gradually loses those tender feelings which constitute one of his highest excellencies.

The tear of sensibility, said Juvenal, is the most honorable characteristic of humanity.

Whatever real pain may sometimes be occasioned by sensibility, is in general counterbalanced by agreeable sensations, which are not the less sincere and soothing, because they do not excite the joy of thoughtless merriment. The anguish of the sympathising heart is keen, but no less exalted are its gratifications. Notwithstanding all that has been said on the happiness of a phlegmatic disposition, every one who has formed a true estimate of things, will deprecate it as a curse that degrades his nature. It is the native happiness of the dullest of quadrupeds, doomed to the vilest drudgery.

Men destitute of delicacy, and that solid

R.

Good name in man or woman is the imme diate jewel of their soul.

Who steals my purse, steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;

'Twas mine, 'tis his, and may be slave to thousands :

But he that filches from me my good name, Robs me of that which not enriches him, But makes me poor indeed.

Spencer in his Fairy Queen, book 4. cant. 8. after representing Slander as an old woman, sitting on the ground, in a little cottage, goes

on,

With filthy rags about her scattered wide,
Gnawing her nails for fellness and for ire,
And ther'out sucking venom to her parts entire.
A foul and loathly creature to the sight,
And in conditions to be loath'd no less :
For she was stuft with rancor and despite
Up to the throat; that oft with bitterness
It forth would break, and gush in great excess,
Pouring out streams of poison, and of gall,
"Gainst all that truth or virtue do profess;
Whom she with leasings lewdly did miscal,
And wickedly backbite: Her name men Slan-
der call.

Her nature is, all goodness to abuse,

And causeless crimes continually to frame : With which she guiltless persons may accuse, And steal away the crown of their good name.

Calumny is a filthy and pernicious infection of the tongue, for it is generally aimed by the most wicked and abandoned part of mankind, against the most worthy and most deserving of esteem, and wounds them unexpectedly. And to whom is it pleasing? To the most vile and perfidious, the talkative. But what is its source? From what origin does it proceed? From falshood for its father, and envy for its mother, and from curiosity for its nurse.

Nor is calumny itself without an offspring; for it not only begets strife, and contention, hatred and malice, bloodshed and murder; but nourishes other destructive evils. And now let us inquire, what is the antidote to this disease? Innocence and patience. Innocence enables us to bear it, and patience blunts its edge. When you hear any one ill spoken of in your company, which happens but too of ten, mingle not the poison of your malignant reflections, nor bid higher than the rest in the auction of slander, much less be the messenger of such abuses to the person concerned.

Those who are given most to railing,
We find have oft the greatest failing.

Ten thousand are the vehicles in which the deadly poison of slander is prepared and communicated to the world-and by some artful hands, it is done by so subtle and nice an infusion, that it is not to be tasted or discovered