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for the whole year, where I saw with a great deal of
pleasure Archbishop Tillotson, Bishop Saunderson,
Dr. Barrow, Dr. Calamy, with several living authors
who have published discourses of practical divinity,
I no sooner saw this venerable man in the pulpit,
but I very much approved of my friend's insisting
upon the qualifications of a good aspect and a clear
voice; for I was so charmed with the gracefulness
of his figure and delivery, as well as with the dis-
courses he pronounced, that I think I never passed
any time more to my satisfaction. A sermon re-
peated after this manner, is like the composition of
a poet in the mouth of a graceful actor.

I could heartily wish that more of our country clergy would follow this example; and instead of wasting their spirits in laborious compositions of their own, would endeavour after a handsome elocution, and all those other talents that are proper to enforce what has been penned by great masters. This would not only be more easy to themselves, but more edifying to the people.-L.

No. 107.] TUESDAY, JULY 3, 1711.
Æsopo ingentem statuam posuere Attici,
Servumque collocarunt æterna in basi,
Patere honoris scirent ut cunctis viam.

PHDR. Epilog. 1. 2.
sop, and placed
to show, that the

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excels in his management, which is the manner of There is another circumstance in which my friend rewarding his servants. He has ever been of opinion, that giving his cast clothes to be worn by valets has a very ill effect upon little minds, and creates a silly sense of equality between the parties, in persons affected only with outward things. I have heard him often pleasant on this occasion, and describe a young gentleman abusing his man in that coat, which a month or two before was the most pleasing distinction he was conscious of in himself. He would turn his discourse still more pleasantly upon the bounties of he knew a fine woman, who distributed rewards and the ladies in this kind; and I have heard him say punishments in giving becoming or unbecoming dresses to her maids.

of good-will, in bestowing only trifles on his servBut my good friend is above these little instances ants: a good servant to him is sure of having it in his choice very soon of being no servant at all. As I before observed, he is so good a husband, and knows so thoroughly that the skill of the purse is the cardinal virtue of this life; I say he knows so well that frugality is the support of generosity, that he can often spare a large fine when a tenement falls, and give that settlement to a good servant who has a mind to go into the world, or make a stranger pay maintenance, if he stays in his service. the fine to that servant for his more comfortable

ancestors.

serve the visitants from several parts to welcome his
arrival into the country: and all the difference that
It was to me extremely pleasant to ob-
I could take notice of between the late servants who
was, that these latter were looked upon as finer gen-
came to see him, and those who stayed in the family
tlemen and better courtiers.

livelihood, I look upon as only what is due to a good
This manumission and placing them in a way o.
servant; which encouragement will make his suc-
cessor be as diligent, as humble, and as ready as he
was.
ness of those minds which can be pleased, and be
barren of bounty to those who please them.
There is something wonderful in the narrow-

The Athemans erected a large statue to him, though a slave, on a lasting pedestal: way to honour lies open indifferently to all. A man of honour and generosity considers it THE reception, manner of attendance, undisturbed that of another, though it were of the best person would be miserable to himself to have no will but freedom and quiet, which I meet with here in the breathing, and, for that reason, goes on as fast as he country, has confirmed me in the opinion I always is able to put his servants into independent livelihad, that the general corruption of manners in serv-hoods. The greatest part of Sir Roger's estate is ants is owing to the conduct of masters. pect of every one in the family carries so much satisThe as-tenanted by persons who have served himself or his faction, that it appears he knows the happy lot which has befallen him in being a member of it. There is one particular which I have seldom seen but at Sir Roger's; it is usual in all other places, that servants fly from the parts of the house through which their master is passing; on the contrary, here they industriously place themselves in his way; and it is on both sides, as it were, understood as a visit, when the servants appear without calling. This proceeds from the humane and equal temper of the man of the house, who also perfectly well knows how to enjoy a great estate with such economy as ever to be much beforehand. This makes his own mind untroubled, and consequently unapt to vent peevish expressions, or give passionate or inconsistent orders that great persons in all ages have had of the merit One might, on this occasion, recount the sense to those about him. Thus respect and love go to- of their dependants, and the heroic services which gether; and a certain cheerfulness in performance men have done their masters in the extremity o. of their duty is the particular distinction of the lower their fortunes, and shown to their undone patrons part of this family. When a servant is called be- that fortune was all the difference between them; fore his master, he does not come with an expecta- but as I design this my speculation only as a gentle tion to hear himself rated for some trivial fault, admonition to thankless masters, I shall not go out threatened to be stripped, or used with any other of the occurrences of common life, but assert it as a unbecoming language, which mean masters often general observation, that I never saw, but in Sir give to worthy servants; but it is often to know, Roger's family and one or two more, good servants what road he took that he came so readily back ac-treated as they ought to be. Sir Roger's kindness cording to order: whether he passed by such a extends to their children's children; and this very ground; if the old man who rents it is in good health; morning he sent his coachman's grandson to prenor whether he gave Sir Roger's love to him, or tice. the like. shall conclude this paper with an account o. will deserve my future observation. a picture in his gallery, where there are many w which

A man who preserves a respect founded on his benevolence to his dependants, lives rather like a prince than a master in his family: his orders are received as favours rather than duties; and the distinction of approaching him is part of the reward for executing what is commanded by him.

I saw the portraiture of two ye ng men standing in At the very upper end of this handsome structure a river, the one naked, the other in a livery. The person supported seemed half dead, but still so much alive as to show in his face exquisite joy and love

towards the other. I thought the fainting figure re- of friends that live perhaps in the opposite sides of sembled my friend Sir Roger; and looking at the the country. Will is a particular favourite of all butler who stood by me, for an account of it, he in- the young heirs, whom he frequently obliges with a formed me that the person in the livery was a serv-net that he has weaved, or a setting-dog that he has ant of Sir Roger's, who stood on the shore while made himself. He now and then presents a pair of his master was swimming, and observing him taken garters of his own knitting to their mothers and siswith some sudden illness and sink under water, ters; and raises a great deal of mirth among them, jumped in and saved him. He told me Sir Roger by inquiring as often as he meets them "how they took off the dress he was in as soon as he came wear !" These gentleman-like manufactures and home, and by a great bounty at that time, followed obliging little humours, make Will the darling of by his favour ever since, had made him master of the country. that pretty seat which we saw at a distance as we came to this house. I remembered, indeed, Sir Roger said, there lived a very worthy gentleman, to whom he was highly obliged, without mentioning any thing farther. Upon my looking a little dissatisfied at some part of the picture, my attendant informed me that it was against Sir Roger's will, and at the earnest request of the gentleman himself, that he was drawn in the habit in which he had saved his R.

master.

No. 108.1 WEDNESDAY, JULY 4, 1711. Gratis anhelans, multa agendo nihil agens.-PHEDR. Fab. v. 2. Out of breath to no purpose, and very busy about nothing.

As I was yesterday morning walking with Sir Roger before his house, a country fellow brought him a huge fish, which, he told him, Mr. William Wimble* had caught that very morning; and that he presented it with his service to him, and intended to come and dine with him. At the same time he delivered a letter, which my friend read to me as soon as the messenger left him.

"SIK ROGER,

"I desire you to accept of a jack, which is the best I have caught this season. I intend to come and stay with you a week, and see how the perch bite in the Black river. I observed with some concern, the last time I saw you upon the bowling-green, that your whip wanted a lash to it; I will bring half a dozen with me that I twisted last week, which I hope will serve you all the time you are in the country. I have not been out of the saddle for six days last past, having been at Eton with Sir John's eldest son. He takes to his learning hugely.

"I am, Sir, your humble servant,

"WILL WIMBLE."

Sir Roger was proceeding in the character of him, when he saw him make up to us with two or three hazle twigs in his hand that he had cut in Sir Roger's woods, as he came through them in his way to the house. I was very much pleased to observe on one side the hearty and sincere welcome with which Sir Roger received him, and on the other, the secret joy which his guest discovered at the sight of the good old knight. After the first salutes were over, Will desired Sir Roger to lend him one of his servants to carry a set of shuttle-cocks he had with him in a little box, to a lady that lived about a mile off, to whom it seems he had promised such a present for above this half-year. Sir Roger's back was no sooner turned, but honest Will began to tell me of a large cock pheasant that he had sprung in one of the neighbouring woods, with two or three other adventures of the same nature. Odd and uncommon characters are the game that I look for and most delight in; for which reason I was as much pleased with the novelty of the person that talked to me, as he could be for his life with the springing of a pheasant, and therefore listened to him with more than ordinary attention.

In the midst of his discourse the bell rang to dinner, where the gentleman I have been speaking of had the pleasure of seeing the huge jack he had caught served up for the first dish in a most sumptuous manner. Upon our sitting down to it he gave us a long account how he had hooked it, played with it, foiled it, and at length drew it out upon the bank-with several other particulars that lasted all A dish of wild fowl that came afthe first course. terward furnished conversation for the rest of the dinner, which concluded with a late invention of Will's for improving the quail-pipe.

Upon withdrawing into my room after dinner, I was secretly touched with compassion towards the honest gentleman that had dined with us; and could This extraordinary letter, and message that accompanied it, made me very curious to know the not but consider with a great deal of concern, how so good a heart and such busy hands were wholly character and quality of the gentleman who sent them; which I found to be as follow:-Will Wimble employed in trifles; that so much humanity should is younger brother to a baronet, and descended of be so little beneficial to others, and so much industhe ancient family of the Wimbles. He is now be. try so little advantageous to himself. The same temtween forty and fifty; but being bred to no busi-per of mind and application to affairs, might have bass and born to no estate, he generally lives with recommended him to the public esteem, and have his elder brother as superintendent of his game. He raised his fortune in another station of life. What bunts a pack of dogs better than any man in the good to his country or himself might not a trader or country, and is very famous for finding out a hare. a merchant have done with such useful though ordiHe is extremely well-versed in all the little handi-nary qualifications! Will Wimble's is the case of many a younger brocrafts of an idle man. He makes a May-fly to a ther of a great family, who had rather see their chil miracle: and furnishes the whole country with angle-dren starve like gentlemen, than thrive in a trade rods. As he is a good-natured officious fellow, and very much esteemed upon account of his family, he or profession that is beneath their quality. This is a welcome guest at every house, and keeps up a good correspondence among all the gentlemen about him. He carries a tulip root in his pocket from one to another, or exchanges a puppy between a couple A. Yorkshire gentleman, whose name was Mr. Thomas

Morecraft

humour fills several parts of Europe with pride and beggary. It is the happiness of a trading nation of any liberal art or profession, may be placed in like ours, that the younger sons, though incapable such a way of life, as may perhaps enable them to vie with the best of their family. Accordingly we find several citizens that were launched into the

world with narrow fortunes, rising by an honest industry to greater estates than those of their elder brothers. It is not improbable but Will was formerly tried at divinity, law, or physic; and that, finding his genius did not lie that way, his parents gave him up at length to his own inventions. But certainly, however improper he might have been for studies of a higher nature, he was perfectly well turned for the occupations of trade and commerce. As think this is a point which cannot be too much inculcated, I shall desire my reader to compare what I have here written with what I have said in my twenty-first speculation.-L.

No. 109.] THURSDAY, JULY 5, 1711.

man at court; you see where his viol hangs by bis basket-hilt sword. The action at the Tilt-yard, you may be sure, won the fair lady, who was a maid of honour and the greatest beauty of her time; here she stands, the next picture. You see, Sir, my great great great grandmother has on the new-fashioned petticoat, except that the modern is gathered at the waist; my grandmother appears as if she stood in a large drum, whereas the ladies now walk as if they were in a go-cart. For all this lady was bred at court, she became an excellent country-wife; she brought ten children, and when I show you the library, you shall see in her own hand (allowing for the difference of the language) the best receipt now in England both for a hasty-pudding and a white-pot.

"If you please to fall back a little, because it is Abnormis sapiens—— -HOR. 2 Sat. ii. 3. necessary to look at the three next pictures at one Of plain good sense, untutor'd in the schools view; these are three sisters. She on the right hand I was this morning walking in the gallery, when who is so very beautiful, died a maid; the next to Sir Roger entered at the end opposite to me, and her, still handsomer, had the same fate, against her advancing towards me, said he was glad to meet will; this homely thing in the middle had both their me among his relations the De Coverleys, and hoped portions added to her own, and was stolen by a neighI liked the conversation of so much good company, bouring gentleman, a man of stratagem and resolu who were as silent as myself. I knew he alluded to tion; for he poisoned three mastiffs to come at her, the pictures, and as he is a gentleman who does not and knocked down two deer-stealers in carrying her a little value himself upon his ancient descent, I off. Misfortunes happen in all families. The theft expected he would give me some account of them. of this romp, and so much money, was no great matWe were now arrived at the upper end of the gallery, ter to our estate. But the next heir that possessed when the knight faced towards one of the pictures, it was this soft gentleman whom you see there. Oband, as we stood before it, he entered into the mat- serve the small buttons, the little boots, the laces, ter after his blunt way of saying things as they oc- the slashes about his clothes, and above all the poscur to his imagination, without regular introduction, ture he is drawn in (which to be sure was his own or care to preserve the appearance of chain of thought. choosing): you see he sits with one hand on a desk, "It is," said he, "worth while to consider the writing, and looking as it were another way, like force of dress; and how the persons of one age dif- an easy writer, or a sonnetteer. He was one of fer from those of another, merely by that only. One those that had too much wit to know how to live in may observe also, that the general fashion of one age the world; he was a man of no justice, but great has been followed by one particular set of people in good manners; he ruined every body that had any another, and by them preserved from one genera-thing to do with him, but never said a rude thing in tion to another. Thus the vast jetting coat and small bonnet, which was the habit in Henry the Seventh's time, is kept on in the yeomen of the guard; not without a good and politic view, because they look a foot taller, and a foot and a half broader-besides that the cap leaves the face expanded, and consequently more terrible and fitter to stand at the entrance of palaces.

his life; the most indolent person in the world, he would sign a deed that passed away half his estate with his gloves on, but would not put on his hat be fore a lady if it were to save his country. He is said to be the first that made love by squeezing the hand. He left the estate with ten thousand pounds debt upon it; but, however, by all hands I have been informed, that he was every way the finest gentleman in the world. That debt lay heavy on on our house for one generation, but it was retrieved by a gift from that honest man you see there, a citizen of our name, but nothing at all akin to us. I know Sir Andrew Freeport has said behind my back, that this man was descended from one of the ten children of the maid of honour I showed you above: but it was never made out. We winked at the thing indeed, because money was wanting at that time."

Here I saw my friend a little embarrassed, and turned my face to the next portraiture.

"This predecessor of ours, you see, is dressed after this manner, and his cheeks would be no larger than mine were he in a hat as I am. He was the last man that won a prize in the Tilt yard (which is now a common street before Whitehall). You see the broken lance that lies there by his right foot. He shivered that lance of his adversary all to pieces; and bearing himself, look you, Sir, in this manner, at the same time he came within the target of the gentleman who rode against him, and taking him with incredible force before him on the pummel of his saddle, he in that manner rid the tournament over, Sir Roger went on with his account of the gallery with an air that shewed he did it rather to perform in the following manner : "This man (pointing to the rules of the lists, than to expose his enemy: how him I looked at) I take to be the honour of our ever, it appeared he knew how to make use of a vic-house, Sir Humphry de Coverley; he was in his tory, and with a gentle trot he marched up to a gal-dealings as punctual as a tradesman, and as genelery where their mistress sat (for they were rivals), and let him down with laudable courtesy and pardonable insolence. I do not know but it might be exactly where the coffee-house is now.

"You are to know this my ancestor was not only of a military genius, but fit also for the arts of peace, for he played on the bass-viol as well as any gentle

The Tilt-yard coffee-house, still in being.

rous as a gentleman. He would have thought himself as much undone by breaking his word, as if it were to be followed by bankruptcy. He served his country as knight of the shire to his dying day. He found it no easy matter to maintain an integrity in his words and actions, even in things that regarded the offices which were incumbent upon him, in the care of his own affairs and relations of life, and therefore dreaded (though he had great talents) to

go into employments of state, where he must be exposed to the snares of ambition. Innocence of life, and great ability, were the distinguishing parts of his character; the latter, he had often observed, had led to the destruction of the former, and he used frequently to lament that great and good had not the same signification. He was an excellent husbandman, but had resolved not to exceed such a degree of wealth; all above it he bestowed in secret bounties many years after the sum he aimed at for his own use was attained. Yet he did not slacken his industry, but to a decent old age spent the life and fortune which were superfluous to himself, in the service of his friends and neighbours."

Here we were called to dinner, and Sir Roger ended the discourse of this gentleman, by telling me, as we followed the servant, that this his ancestor was a brave man, and narrowly escaped being killed in the civil wars; " for," said he," he was sent out of the field with a private message, the day before the battle of Worcester." The whim of narrowly escaping by having been within a day of danger, with other matters above-mentioned, mixed with good sense, left me at a loss whether I was more delighted with my friend's wisdom or simplicity.

R.

No. 110.] FRIDAY, JULY 6, 1711.
Horror ubique animos, simul ipsa silentia terrent.
VIRG En. ii. 755.

time to time are heard from the tops of them, looks exceedingly solemn and venerable. These objects naturally raise seriousness and attention; and when night heightens the awfulness of the place, and pours out her supernumerary horrors upon every thing in it, I do not at all wonder that weak minds fill it with spectres and apparitions.

Mr. Locke, in his chapter of the Association of Ideas, has very curious remarks to shew how, by the prejudice of education, one idea often introduces into the mind a whole set that bear no resemblance to one another in the nature of things. Among several instances of this kind, he produces the following: "The ideas of goblins and sprites have really no more to do with darkness than light: yet let but a foolish maid inculcate these often on the mind of a child, and raise them there together, possibly he shall never be able to separate them again so long as he lives; but darkness shall ever after bring with it those frightful ideas, and they shall be so joined, that he can no more bear the one than the other."

As I was walking in this solitude, where the dusk of the evening conspired with so many other occasions of terror, I observed a cow grazing not far from me, which an imagination that was apt to startle might easily have construed into a black horse without a head: and I dare say the poor footman lost his wits upon some such trivial occasion.

My friend Sir Roger has often told me with a great deal of mirth that, at his first coming to his All things are full of horror and affright, estate, he found three parts of his house altogether And dreadful ev'n the silence of the night.-DRYDEN. useless; that the best room in it had the reputation Ar a little distance from Sir Roger's house, among of being haunted, and by that means was locked the ruins of an old abbey, there is a long walk of up; that noises had been heard in his long gallery, aged elms; which are shot up so very high, that so that he could not get a servant to enter it after when one passes under them, "the rooks and crows eight o'clock at night; that the door of one of his that rest upon the tops of them seem to be cawing chambers was nailed up, because there went a story in another region. I am very much delighted with in the family that a butler had formerly hanged himthis sort of noise, which I consider as a kind of na- self in it; and that his mother, who lived to a great tural prayer to that Being who supplies the wants age, had shut up half the rooms in the house, in of his own creation, and who, in the beautiful lan- which either her husband, a son, or a daughter, had guage of the psalms, feedeth the young ravens that died. The knight seeing his habitation reduced to call upon him. I like this retirement the better, so small a compass, and himself in a manner shut because of an ill report it lies under of being haunted; out of his own house, upon the death of his mother for which reason (as I have been told in the family) ordered all the apartments to be flung open, and no living creature ever walks in it besides the chap-exorcised by his chaplain, who lay in every room lain. My good friend the butler desired me with a very grave face not to venture myself in it after sun-set, for that one of the footmen had been almost frightened out of his wits by a spirit that appeared to him in the shape of a black horse without a head; to which he added, that about a month ago one of the maids, coming home late that way with a pail of milk upon her head, heard such a rustling among the bushes that she let it fall.

I was taking a walk in this place last week between the hours of nine and ten, and could not but fancy it one of the most proper scenes in the world for a ghost to appear in. The ruins of the abbey are scattered up and down on every side, and half covered with ivy and elder bushes, the harbours of several solitary birds which seldom make their appearance till the dusk of the evening. The place was formerly a churchyard, and has still several marks in it of graves and burying-places. There is such an echo among the old ruins and vaults that, if you stamp but a little louder than ordinary, you hear the sound repeated. At the same time the walk of elms, with the croaking of the ravens which from

¿• Psal. cxlvii. 9.

one after another, and by that means dissipated the fears which had so long reigned in the family.

I should not thus have been particular upon these ridiculous horrors, did I not find them so very much prevail in all parts of the country. At the same time I think a person who is thus terrified with the imagination of ghosts and spectres much more reasonable than one who, contrary to the reports of all historians, sacred and profane, ancient and modern, and to the traditions of all nations, thinks the appearance of spirits fabulous and groundless. Could not I give myself up to this general testimony of mankind, I should to the relations of particular persons who are now living, and whom I cannot distrust in other matters of fact. I might here add, that not only the historians, to whom we may join the poets, but likewise the philosophers of antiquity, have favoured this opinion. Lucretius himself, though by the course of his philosophy he was obliged to maintain that the soul did not exist separate from the body, makes no doubt of the reality of apparitions, and that men have often appeared after their death. This I think very remarkable: he was so pressed with the matter of fact, which he could not have the confidence to deny, that he was forced to

account for it by one of the most absurd unphilosophical notions that was ever started. He tells us, that the surfaces of all bodies are perpetually flying off from their respective bodies, one after another; and that these surfaces, or thin cases that included each other whilst they were joined in the body, like the coats of an onion, are sometimes seen entire when they are separated from it; by which means we often behold the shapes and shadows of persons who are either dead or absent.*

virtue, and that uneasiness which follows in it upon the commission of vice

Thirdly, from the nature of the Supreme Being, whose justice, goodness, wisdom, and veracity, are all concerned in this great point.

But among these and other excellent arguments for the immortality of the soul, there is one drawn from the perpetual progress of the soul to its perfection, without a possibility of ever arriving at it; I which is a hint that I do not remember to have seen I shall dismiss this paper with a story out of Jo-opened and improved by others who have written on sephus, † not so much for the sake of the story itself this subject, though it seems to me to carry a great as for the moral reflections with which the author weight with it. How can it enter into the thoughts concludes it, and which I shall here set down in his of man, that the soul, which is capable of such imown words:" Glaphyra, the daughter of King mense perfections, and of receiving new improveArchelaus, after the death of her two first husbands ments to all eternity, shall fall away into nothing (being married to a third, who was brother to her almost as soon as it is created? Are such abilities first husband, and so passionately in love with her, made for no purpose? A brute arrives at the point that he turned off his former wife to make room for of perfection that he can never pass: in a few years this marriage,) had a very odd kind of a dream. he has all the endowments he is capable of; and, She fancied that she saw her first husband coming were he to live ten thousand more, would be the towards her, and that she embraced him with great same thing he is at present. Were a human soul tenderness; when in the midst of the pleasure which thus at a stand in her accomplishments; were her she expressed at the sight of him, he reproached faculties to be full blown, and incapable of farther her after the following manner: Glaphyra,' says enlargements, I could imagine it might fall away inhe, thou hast made good the old saying, that women sensibly, and drop at once into a state of annihilaare not to be trusted. Was not I the husband of tion. But can we believe a thinking being, that is thy virginity? Have not I children by thee? How in a perpetual progress of improvements, and travelcouldst thou forget our loves so far as to enter into ling on from perfection to perfection, after having a second marriage, and after that into a third, nay, just looked abroad into the works of its Creator, and to take for thy husband a man who has so shame- made a few discoveries of his infinite goodness, lessly crept into the bed of his brother? However, wisdom, and power, must perish at her first setting for the sake of our passed loves, I shall free thee out, and in the beginning of her inquiries? from thy present reproach, and make the mine for ever.' Glaphyra told this dream to several women of her acquaintance, and died soon after." I thought this story might not be impertinent in this place, wherein I speak of those things. Besides that the example deserves to be taken notice of, as it contains a most certain proof of the immortality of the soul, and of Divine Providence. If any man thinks these facts incredible, let him enjoy his own opinion to himself, but let him not endeavour to disturb the belief of others, who by instances of this nature are excited to the study of virtue.-L.

No. 111.

SATURDAY, JULY 7, 1711.
Inter silvas academi quærere verum.

HOR. 2 Ep. ii. 45.

A man, considered in his present state, seems only sent into the world to propagate his kind. He provides himself with a successor, and immediately quits his post to make room for him.

-Hæres

CREECH.

Hæredem alterius, velut unda supervenit undam. HOR. 2 Ep. i. 175. -Heir crowds heir, as in a rolling flood Wave urges wave. He does not seem born to enjoy life, but to deliver it down to others. This is not surprising to consider in animals, which are formed for our use, and can finish their business in a short life. The silkworm, after having spun her task, lays her eggs and dies. But a man can never have taken in his full measure of knowledge, has not time to subdue his passions, establish his soul in virtue, and come up to the perfection of his nature, before he is hurried off the THE Course of my last speculation led me insens- stage. Would an infinitely wise Being make such ibly into a subject upon which I always meditate glorious creatures for so mean a purpose? Can he with great delight; I mean the immortality of the delight in the production of such abortive intellisoul. I was yesterday walking alone in one of my gences, such short-lived reasonable beings? Would friend's woods, and lost myself in it very agreeably, he give us talents that are not to be exerted? capaas I was running over in my mind the several argu-cities that are never to be gratified? How can we ments that established this great point, which is the basis of morality, and the source of all the pleasing hopes and secret joys that can arise in the heart of a reasonable creature. I considered those several proofs, drawn:

To search for truth in academic groves.

find that wisdom, which shines through all his works in the formation of man, without looking on this world as only a nursery for the next, and believing that the several generations of rational creatures, which rise up and disappear in such quick succes. First, from the nature of the soul itself, and par- sions, are only to receive their first rudiments of exticularly its immateriality, which, though not abso-istence here, and afterward to be transplanted into lutely necessary to the eternity of its duration, has, a more friendly climate, where they may spread and I think, been evinced to almost a demonstration. flourish to all eternity! Secondly, from its passions and sentiments, as particularly from its love of existence, its horror of annihilation, and its hopes of immortality, with that secret satisfaction which it finds in the practice of

Lucret. iv. 34, &c.

↑ Antiquit. Jud. lib. xvii. cap. 15. sect. 4, 5.

There is not, in my opinion, a more pleasing and triumphant consideration in religion than this of the perpetual progress which the soul makes towards the perfection of its nature, without ever arriving at a period in it. To look upon the soul as going on from strength to strength, to consider that she is to

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