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the scope and limits of these compared with his state, or with that field in which they are exercised. If this being passes through different states, or fields of aetion, and we find a succession of powers adapted to the different periods of his progress, we conclude, that he was destined for those successive states, and reckon his nature progressive. If, beside the immediate set of powers, which fit him for action in his present state, we observe another set, which appears superfluous if he was to be confined to it, and which point to another or higher one, we naturally conclude, that he is not designed to remain in his present state, but to advance to that for which those supernumerary powers are adapted. Thus A s we argue, that the insect, which has wings forming or formed, and all the apparatus proper for flight, is not destined always to creep on the ground, or to continue in the torpid state of adhering to a wall, but is designed in it's season to take it's flight in air. Without this farther destination, the admirable mechanism of wings and the other apparatus would be useless and absurd. The same kind of reasoning may be applied to man, while he lives only a sort of vegetative life in the womb. He is furnished even there with a beautiful apparatus of organs, eyes, ears, and other delicate senses, which receive nourishment indeed, but are in a manner folded up, and have no proper exercise or use in their present confinement. Let us suppose some intelligent spectator, who had never any connexion with man, or the least acquaintance with human affairs, to see this odd phenomenon, a creature formed after such a manner, and placed in a situation apparently unsuitable to such various machinery; must he not be strangely puzzled about the use of his complicated structure, and reckon snch a profusion of art and admirable workmanship lost on the subject; or reason by way of anticipation, that a creature, endued with such various, yet unexerted capacities, was destined for a more enlarged sphere of ac

tion, in which those latent capacities shall have full play? The vast variety and yet beautiful symmetry and propor tions of the several parts and organs with which the creature is endued, and their apt cohesion with, and dependence on, the curious receptacle of their life and nourishment, would forbid his concluding the whole to be the birth of chance, or the bungling effort of an unskilful artist; at least would make him demur awhile at so harsh a sentence. But if, while he is in this state of uncertainty, we suppose him to see the babe, after a few successful struggles, throwing off his fetters, breaking loose from his little dark prison, and emerging into open day, then unfolding his recluse and dormant powers, breathing in air, gazing at light, admitting colours, sounds, and all the fair variety of nature; immediately his doubts clear up, the propriety and excellency of the workmanship draw upon him with full lustre, and the whole mystery of the first period is unravelled by the opening of this new scene. Though in this second period the creature lives chiefly a kind of animal life, i. c. of sense and appetite, yet, by various trials and observations, he gains experience; and, by the gradual evolution of the powers of imagination, he ripens apace for a higher life, for exercising the arts of design and imitation, and of those in which strength or dexterity is more requisite than acuteness or reach in judgment. In the succeeding rational or intellectual period, his understanding, which formerly crept in a lower, mounts into a higher sphere, canvasses the natures, judges of the relations of things, forms schemes, deduces consequences from what is past, and from present, as well as past, collects future events. By this succession of states, and of correspondent culture, he grows up at length into a moral, a social, and a political creature. This is the last period, at which we perceive him to arrive in this his mortal career. Each period is introductory to the next succeeding one;

each life is a field of exercise and improvement for the next higher one; the life of the fœtus for that of the infant, the life of the infant for that of the child, and all the lower for the highest and best.-But is this the last period of Nature's progression? Is this the utmost extent of her plot, where she winds up the drama, and dismisses the actor into eter. nal oblivion ? Or does he appear to be invested with supernumerary powers, which have not full exercise and scope, even in the last scene, and reach not that maturity or perfection, of which they are capable; and therefore point to some higher scene, where he is to sustain another and more important character than he has yet sustained ? If any such there are, may we not conclude, by analogy, or in the same way of anticipation as before, that he is destined for that after-part, and is to be produced upon a more august and solemn stage, where his sublimer powers shall have proportioned action, and his nature attain it's completion? FORDYCE.

VIEW OF THE DIFFERENT

STAGES OF LIFE.

HE who, in his youth, improves his intellectual powers in the search of truth and useful knowledge, and refines and strengthens his moral and active powers by the love of virtue, for the service of his friends, his country, and mankind; who is animated by true glory, exalted by sacred friendship for social, and softened by virtuous love for domestic life; who lays his heart open to every other mild and generous affection; and who to all these adds a sober, masculine piety, equally remote from superstition and enthusiasm: that man enjoys the most agreeable youth, and lays in the richest fund for the honourable action and happy enjoyment of the succeeding periods of life.

He, who, in manhood, keeps the defensive and private

passions under the wisest restraint; who forms the most select and virtuous friendships; who seeeks after fame, wealth, and power, in the road of truth and virtue, and, if he cannot find them in that road, generously despises them; who, in his private character and connexions, gives fullest scope to the tender and manly passions, and in his public character and connexions serves his country and mankind in the most upright and disinterested manner; who, in fine, enjoys the goods of life with the greatest moderation, bears it's ills with the greatest fortitude, and in those various circumstances of duty and trial maintains and expresses an habitual and supreme reverence and love of God: that man is the worthiest character in this stage of life; passes through it with the highest satisfaction and dignity, aud paves the way to the most easy and honourable old age.

Finally, he who, in the decline of life, preserves himself most exempt from the chagrins incident to that period; cherishes the most equal and kind affections; uses his experience, wisdom, and authority in the most fatherly and venerable manner; acts under a sense of the inspection, and with a view to the approbation of his Maker; is daily aspiring after immortality, and ripening apace for it; and, having sustained his part with integrity and consistency to the last, quits the stage with a modest and graceful triumph this is the best, this is the happiest old man.

Therefore that whole life of youth, manhood, and old age, which is spent after this manner, is the best and the happiest life. FORDYCE.

ON MARRIAGE.

THE aphorism, so often repeated, that "there is no medium in marriage, but that it is a state of exquisite

happiness or exquisite misery;" is a maxim equally false and pernicious: for marriage is only one modification of human life, and human life is not commonly in itself a state of exquisite extremes; but is, for the most part, that mixed and moderate state, so naturally dreaded by those who set out with fancying this world a state of rapture, and so naturally expected by those who know it to be a state of probation and discipline. Marriage, therefore, is\ only one condition, and often the best condition, of that imperfect state of being, which, though seldom very exquisite, is often very tolerable; and which may, yield much comfort to those, who do not look for constant transport. But, unfortunately, those who find themselves disappointed of the unceasing raptures they had anticipated in marriage, disdaining to sit down with so poor a provision as comfort, and scorning the acceptance of that moderate lot, which Providence commonly bestows with a view to check despondency and to repress presumption, give themselves up to the other alternative; and, by abandoning their hearts to discontent, make to themselves that misery, with which their fervid imaginations had filled the opposite scale.

The truth is, these young ladies are very apt to pick up their opinions, less from the divines than the poets; and the poets, though it must be confessed they are some of the best embellishers of life, are not quite the safest conductors through it. In travelling through a wilderness, though we avail ourselves of the harmony of singing-birds to render the grove delightful, yet we never think of following them as guides, to conduct us through it's labyrinths.

MRS. HANNAH MORE.

FLAVIA AND MIRANDA.

FLAVIA and Miranda are two maiden sisters, that have each of them two hundred pounds a year.

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