inhabitants flying with their helpless babes in all directions, miserable fugitives on their native soil! In another part you witness opulent cities taken by storm; the streets, where no sounds were heard but those of peaceful industry, filled on a sudden with slaughter and blood, resounding with the cries of the pursuing and the pursued; the palaces of nobles demolished, the houses of the rich pillaged, and every age, sex, and rank, mingled in promiscuous massacre and ruin? LESSON LII. Nature and Poetry favorable to virtue.-Humility recommended in judging of the ways of Providence.—BEATTIE. O NATURE, how in every charm supreme! To sing thy glories with devotion due! And held high converse with the godlike few, Then hail, ye mighty masters of the lay, Nature's true sons, the friends of man and truth! Amused my childhood, and informed my youth. Inspire my dreams, and my wild wanderings guide: There harmony, and peace, and innocence abide. Ah me! neglected on the lonesome plain, Much he the tale admired, but more the tuneful art. Or Various and strange was the long-winded tale; And ply in caves th' unutterable trade,* 'Midst fiends and spectres, quench the moon in blood, Yell in the midnight storm, or ride th' infuriate flood. But when to horror his amazement rose, A gentler strain the beldam would rehearse, The orphan-babes, and guardian uncle fierce. Behold, with berries smeared, with brambles torn,t Folded in one another's arms they lie; Nor friend, nor stranger, hears their dying cry: "For from the town the man returns no more." But thou, who Heaven's just vengeance dar'st defy, This deed, with fruitless tears, shalt soon deplore, When Death lays waste thy house, and flames consume thy store. A stifled smile of stern, vindictive joy Brightened one moment Edwin's starting tear: * Allusion to Shakspeare. Macbeth.-How now, ye secret, black, and midnight hags, Witches.-A deed without a name. MACBETH. [ACT IV. Scene 1. See the fine old ballad, called The Children in the Wood. Nor be thy generous indignation checked ; Nor checked the tender tear to Misery given; But dreadful is their doom whom doubt has driven Like yonder blasted boughs by lightning riven, Or shall frail man heaven's high decree gainsay, Wide through unnumbered worlds and ages without end! Through the dark medium of life's feverish dream; O then renounce that impious self-esteem, LESSON LIII. Consideration of the excuses that are offered to palliate a neglect of religion.-BUCKMINSTER. FIRST, it is often said, that time is wanted for the duties of religion. The calls of business, the press of occupation, the cares of life, will not suffer me, says one, to give that time to the duties of piety, which otherwise I would gladly bestow. Say you this without a blush? You have no time, then, for the especial service of that great Being, whose goodness alone has drawn out to its present length your cobweb thread of life; whose care alone has continued you * Pron. bad. in possession of that unseen property, which you call your time. You have no time, then, to devote to that great Being, on whose existence the existence of the universe depends; a Being so great, that if his attention could for an instant be diverted, you fall never again to rise; if his promise should fail, your hopes, your expectations vanish into air; if his power should be weakened, man, angel, nature perishes. But, let me ask by what right do you involve yourself in this multiplicity of cares? Why do you weave around you this web of occupation, and then complain, that you cannot break it? Will you say, that your time is your own, and that you have a right to employ it in the manner you please? Believe me, it is not your own. It belongs to God, to religion, to mankind. You possess not an hour, to which one of these puts not in a preferable claim; and are such claimants to be dismissed without allotting to them a moment? your occu But for what else can you find no lēisure? Do you find none for amusement? Or is amusement itself pation? Perhaps pleasure is the pressing business of your life; perhaps pleasure stands waiting to catch your precious moments as they pass. Do you find none for the pursuit of curious and secular knowledge? If you find none, then, for religion, it is perhaps because you wish to find none; it would be, you think, a tasteless occupation, an insipid entertainment. But this excuse is founded on a most erroneous conception of the nature of religion. It is supposed to be something, which interrupts business, which wastes time, and interferes with all the pleasant and profitable pursuits of life. It is supposed to be something which must be practised apart from every thing else, a distinct profession, a peculiar occupation. The means of religion, meditation, reading, and prayer, will, and ought, indeed, to occupy distinct portions of our time. But religion itself demands not distinct hours. Religion will attend you not as a troublesome, but as a pleasant and useful companion in every proper place, and every temperate occupation of life. It will follow you to the warehouse or to the office; it will retreat with you to the country, it will dwell with you in town; it will cross the seas, or travel over mountains, or remain with you at home. Without your consent, it will not desert you in prosperity, or forget you in adversity. It will grow up with you in youth, and grow old with you in age; it will attend you with peculiar pleasure to the hovels of the poor, or the chamber of the sick; it will retire with you to your closet, and watch by your bed, or walk with you in gladsome union to the house of God; it will follow you beyond the confines of the world, and dwell with you in heaven for ever, as its native residence. Again, it is said, am I not as good as others? Why is an attention to religion, an unpopular piety, a rigid virtue required of me, which cannot be found in the circle of my acquaintance, or in the world at large? Why am I urged to set up as a reformer, or expose myself to the scorn of mankind? But the majority of men are poor; does this however check the ardor of your pursuit of wealth; or do you avoid a new acquisition, because you fear it will expose you to the envy of your inferiors? The majority of mankind are ignorant; but is ignorance therefore honorable, or is learning contemptible or invidious? We have now supposed, that piety and unsullied virtue would sometimes be attended with scorn. But even this is an unwarranted supposition. Piety is venerated by the impious. Unyielding virtue is admired by the corrupt; disinterested goodness by the selfish; temperance, chăstity, humanity, by the intemperate, unchaste, and ambitious. Consider, too, to what extravagance this excuse would lead. It places you loosely floating on the inconstant tide of popular manners. If this rises, you indeed are raised; if it falls, you descend, however imperceptibly, on its surface. It is an excuse, which might be offered with equal propriety by the corrupt inhabitants of Sodom, as by you. LESSON LIV. Subject continued. It is said, religion is dull, unsocial, uncharitable, enthusiastic, a damper of human joy, a morose intruder upon human pleasure. If this were true, nothing could be more incongruous than the parable, which represents it as an entertainment. But if this be the character of religion, it is surely the very reverse of what we should suppose it to be, and the reverse indeed of what it ought to be. Perhaps, in your distorted vision, you have mistaken sobriety |