Where virtue takes her stand; but if too far, He launches forth beyond discretion's mark, Sudden the tempest scowls, the surges roar, Blot his fair day, and plunge him in the deep; Oh, sad-but sure mischance!

Those men who destroy a healthful constitution of body, by intemperance and irregular life, do as manifestly kill themselves, as those who hang, poison, or drown themselves.

Cast an eye into the gay world, what see we for the most part, but a set of querulous, emaciated, fluttering, fantastical beings, worn out in the keen pursuit of pleasure; creatures that know, own, condemn, deplore, yet still pursue their own infelicity! The decayed monuments of error! The then remains of what is called delight.

Virtue is no enemy to pleasure, but its most certain friend: Her proper office is, to regulate our desires, that we may enjoy every pleasure with moderation, and lose them without discontent.

It is not what we possess that makes us happy, but what we enjoy. If y you live according to nature, you will seldom be poor; if according to opinion, never rich.

Temperance, by fortifying the mind and body, leads to happiness. Intemperance, by enervating them, ends generally in misery. The virtue of prosperity is temperance;

the virtue of adversity, fortitude; which in morals is the most heroic virtue.

KNOWLEDGE.

KNOWLEDGE IS A TREASURE, OF WHICH STU

KNOWLED

DY IS THE KEY.

NOWLEDGE is one of the means of pleasure, as is confessed by the natural desire which every mind feels of increasing its ideas. Ignorance is mere privation, by which nothing can be produced; it is a vanity in which the soul sits motionless and torpid for want of attraction; and, without knowing why, we always rejoice when we learn, and grieve when we forget. I am therefore inclined to conclude, that if nothing counteracts the natural consequence of learning, we grow more happy as our minds take a wider range.

Knowledge will soon become folly, when good sense ceases to be its guardian. The true knowledge of God, and yourself, are true testimonies of your being in the high road to salvation; that breeds in you a filial love, this a filial fear; the ignorance of yourself is the beginning of all sin; and the ignorance of God, is the perfection of all evil.

KNOWLEDGE OF ONE'S SELF.

LET men learn to be affectionate to their friends, faithful to their allies, respectful to their superiors, and just even to their enemies; let them be taught to fear death and torments less than the reproach of their own conscience. Did we but know ourselves, how humble it would make us; and happy it would be for us that we did; for, want of knowledge of ourselves is the cause of pride; and pride was the first cause of our separation from God; and ignorance of ourselves is the cause of keeping us from coming to him; for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Did we know ourselves, we would not be proud. For what is man? a weak aħd sickly body; a pitiful and helpless creature, exposed to all the injuries of time and fortune; a mass of clay and corruption, prone to evil, and of so perverse and depraved a judgment, as to prize earth above heaven, temporal pleasures before endless felicities. It is not very difficult for men to know themselves, if they took but proper pains to inquire into themselves; but they are more solicitous to be thought what they should be, than really careful to be what they ought to be.

MAN!

KNOW THYSELF, ALL WISDOM CEN
TRES HERE.

IF knowledge without religion was truly valuable, nothing would be more so than the devil.

Knowledge that is of use, is the greatest and noblest acquisition that man can gain. But to run on in their disputations, whether privation be a principle; whether any thing can be made of nothing; whether there be an empty space in the compass of nature; or, whether the world shall have an end; and such like, is without end, and to no end.

Of all parts of wisdom, practice is the best. Socrates was esteemed the wisest man of his time; because he turned his acquired knowledge into morality, and aimed at goodness more than greatness.

The most resplendant ornament of man is judgment: here is the perfection of his innate reason; here is the utmost power of reason joined with knowledge..

A man of sense does not apply himself so much to the most learned writings, in order to acquire knowledge, as to the most rational, to fortify his reason.

There is no necessity of being led through the several fields of knowledge. It will be sufficient to gather some of the fairest fruit from them all, and to lay up a store of good sense, sound reason, and solid virtue.

We rarely meet with persons that have a true judgment, which in many, renders literature a very tiresome knowledge. judges are as rare as good authors.

Good

We read of a philosopher, who declared of himself, that the first year he entered upon the study of philosophy, he knew all things; the second year something, but the third year nothing. The more he studied, the more he declined in the opinion of his own knowledge, and saw more the shortness of his understanding.

Difficult and abstruse speculations raise a noise and a dust, but when we examine what comes of them, little account they turn to, but heat, clamor, and contradiction.

Knowledge will not be acquired without pains and application. It is troublesome and deep digging for pure waters; but when once you come to the spring, they rise up and meet you.

What is knowledge good for, which does not direct and govern our lives?

Useful knowledge can have no enemies, except the ignorant. It cherishes youth, delights the aged; is an ornament in prosperity, and yields comfort in adversity.

Happy, thrice happy, he whose conscious heart,

Inquires his purpose, and discerns his part;