her company. The Moors put about the ship, took the disconsolate husband on board, and, struck with so extraordinary an instance of conjugal constancy, related, on their arrival at Tunis, the whole affair to the governor, whose mind, ferocious as it was upon other occasions, was so affected by the feelings of these faithful lovers, that he not only gave them their liberty, but granted them a pension sufficient to maintain them in decent independence for the remainder of their lives.

After instances like these, no further evidence can be required to prove the transcendent felicity which a proper choice is capable of conferring on the marriage state. I shall, therefore, conclude these observations on the cure of Love Melancholy, by sincerely wishing, that on next Valentine's day a universal banns might be publicly proclaimed; that every unmarried man and maiden might at once shake hands at the altar of connubial love; and that God, of his infinite goodness and mercy, might grant all worthy bachelors and virtuous spinsters faithful wives and loving husbands; the host of Hymen singing

THE EPITHALAMIUM.

May every couple experience unceasing felicity, and increasing joy; their choice be fortunate, and their union happy: may they excel in gifts of body and of mind; be equal in years, in, temper, in loveliness, and love: may the bride be as fair as Helen, and as chaste as Lucretia ;

and the bridegroom as fond as Charinus, and more constant than the dove. May the Muses sing and the Graces dance, not only on their wedding-day, but throughout their lives. May the links of their affection so knit their hearts with the unslipping knot of love, that no uneasiness or anger may ever befal them; and every rising sun hail the happy pair in the language of Theocritus:

Good morrow, master Bridegroom, mistress Bride;
Many fair lovely bairns to you betide :
Let Venus your fond mutual love insure,
And Saturn give you riches to endure :
Long may you sleep in one another's arms,
Inspiring sweet desire, and free from harms.

CHAPTER VII.

OF RELIGIOUS MELANCHOLY.

THE beauty, splendour, and divine majesty of the Almighty, are so infinitely great and conspicuous, shine with such admirable but unspeakable lustre throughout his works, and fill the finite mind of man with such awful reverence of his goodness and his power, that all rational beings, whose minds are untainted, and whose hearts are pure, crowd around his throne with pious gratitude and humble adoration. This ardent love of God, which is the unavoidable result of reason and reflection, is the origin of Religion; and when properly exercised, with sincerity of devotion, and in holiness of life, leads its votaries, amidst all the cares and vexa

tions of a fascinating world, through the paths of Virtue, to the highest bowers of terrestrial bliss.

But Man, proud man,

Dress'd in a little brief authority,

Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd,
His glassy essence,

instead of following the dictates of sound and unpolluted reason, mistaking his true road to happiness, and suffering himself, like the centaur of Plato, to be hurried away headlong by a torrent of wild desires and corrupt affections,

Like an angry ape,

Plays such fantastic tricks before high heav'n
As make the angels weep:

until, falling into the vices of Atheism, or the errors of Idolatry and Superstition, and their attendant mischiefs, he sinks, by degrees, under the increasing weight of a perturbed mind, and guilty conscience, into all the horrors of melancholy and despair.

Perpetual anguish fills his impious breast,

Not stopp'd by business, nor compos'd by rest :
No music cheers him, and no feasts can please;
He sits like discontented Damocles,

When by the sportive tyrant wisely shown
The dangerous pleasures of a flatter'd throne.
Sleep quits his eyes: or, when with cares oppress'd,
His wearied mind sinks tir'd into rest,

Dire dreams invade his injur'd God appears,

:

Arm'd with fork'd thunder, and awakes those fears
Which shake his soul, and as they boldly press,
Bring out his crimes, and force him to confess
The worm of conscience frets his recreant blood :
In every fit he feels the hand of God

And heav'n-born flame; but drown'd in deep despair,
He dares not offer one repenting prayer,

Nor vow one victim to preserve his breath;
For how can Hope with desperate guilt agree,
Or Peace reside with dark impiety?

more

An Atheist, indeed, must ultimately feel the keenest miseries; for while, like the reprobate Barnadine, he "apprehends death no dreadfully than as a drunken sleep; equally careless, reckless, and fearless of what is past, present, and to come; insensible of mortality, yet despairingly mortal:" he squares his life to the narrow limits of his mind, and exhibits in his conduct a corresponding course of selfish profligacy and daring vice; and vice and profligacy are always miserable. There are, indeed, those who openly deny the existence of their Creator, and profess a high sense of virtue, a veneration for social duty, and a disapprobation of the selfish passions, while they proclaim, in the refinement of false Philosophy, that the order of the universe is owing to Nature and Chance but as Minutius and Seneca well observe, these curious reasoners do not understand the import of their own expressions; for as nature is nothing more than the ordinary means by which the Almighty displays his power, and chance the mere effect of his unrevealed will, they admit, by attributing his works to these sources, the very existence of that power which they affect so anxiously to deny. There may be some eloquence, but there is certainly no Truth in the writings of such men, who, blinded

by their love of learning, and their fondness for new opinions, exhibit, like Bellerophon, their own condemnation, while they vainly imagine they are conveying intelligence and new light to mankind.

They think that Chance rules all, that Nature steers The moving seasons, and turns round the years : They run from shrine to shrine, and boldly swear, But keep no faith, because they know no fear. Others doubtingly profess religion; and because a vast variety of strange and fantastic doctrines have prevailed in the world, they infer that every religion is equally false; but this is reasoning from the abuse of a thing against the use of it. Others cavil against the Scripture itself, because they cannot reconcile to their contracted notions, the ordinary dispensations of Providence in the distribution of good and evil : while others maintain that God is alligatus causis secundis, so tied to second causes, to that inexorable Necessity, that he can alter nothing he has once decreed. But these sceptics, while they affect only to doubt, in fact, deny the existence of God.

So shuts the moping bird of night
Her feeble eyes against the light,
That glads the cheerful day;
And when prevailing darkness reigns,
Through groves obscure, and dreary plains,
She wings her dubious way.

Others admit the existence of a Deity, a future state of rewards and punishments, and profess the doctrines of Christianity, but are so attached

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