of the soul. By occasional hints and incidents, it brings former useful notions into remembrance; it unfolds and displays the hidden treasures of knowledge, with which reading, observation, and study, had before furnished the mind. By mutual discourse the soul is awakened, and allured to bring forth its hoards of knowledge, and it learns how to render that knowledge most useful to man. In free and friendly conversation, our intellectual powers are more animated, and our spirits act with a superior vigour in the pursuit of unknown truths.

'A wise man is ever ready to acknowledge that he owes the better half of that title to good conversation.'

No. 299.] RULES FOR CONVERSATION. [FRIDAY.

THAT Conversation may answer the ends for which is was designed, the parties who are to join in it, must come together with a determined resolution to please and be pleased. As the end of conversation is either to amuse or instruct the company, or to receive benefit from it, you should not be eager to interrupt others, or uneasy at being yourself interrupted. Give every one leave to speak in his turn, and hear with patience, and answer with precision. Inattention is ill manners; it shews contempt, and contempt is never forgotten. Trouble not the company with your own private concerns. Your's are as little to them, as their's are to you. Contrive, but with dexterity and propriety, that each person shall have an op

portunity of discoursing on the subject with which he is best acquainted; thus he will be pleased, and you will be informed. When the conversation is flowing in a serious and useful channel, never disturb it by an ill-timed jest.

In reflections on absent people, say nothing that you would not say if they were present. "I resolve," says Bishop Beveridge, "never to speak of a man's virtues before his face, nor of his faults behind his back:" this is a golden rule, the observation of which, would at one stroke banish flattery and defamation from the earth.

No. 300]

GOD'S OMNISCIENCE. [SATURDAY. OMNISCIENCE is that perfection of God's understanding, or that infinite power of the divine mind, whereby he perceives and considers all things as they are in their own nature, properties, agreements, or differences, with all the circumstances relating or belonging to their existence. The knowledge of God is deep and intimate; our knowledge is superficial and shallow the knowledge of God is infallible; ours is doubtful. The knowledge of God is clear and distinct; ours is confused and dark. The knowledge of God is universal, extending to all objects in all worlds; ours is contracted, and reaching only to a few things. The eyes of the Lord are in every place. Every man's judgment cometh from the Lord.

No. 301.] ON THE PRESENCE OF GOD. [SUNDAY.

In all companies and in all places remember the presence of God. God is every where present by his power. He is with us in our daily actions to preserve us, in our recreations to restrain us, in our public actions to applaud or approve us, in our private actions to observe us, in our sleep to guard us, in our watchings to refresh us. Every thing we see represents to us the presence, the excellency, and the power of God: and if we walk with God in all his ways, as he walks with us in all ours, we shall find perpetual reasons to enable us to keep that sacred rule of his, " Rejoice in the Lord always!"

No. 302.]

THE FRIEND.

[MONDAY,

He is a friend, who scorns the little sphere
Of narrow self, and finds a joy sincere,
To see another blest; whose gen'rous heart
To all around would happiness impart,
If happiness were his; whose bosom glows
With warmth the frozen stoic never knows.
If griefs oppress, or threat'ning woes impend,
Dear solace then, to find a real friend!
He is a real friend, whose passions know
The anguish of communicated woe;

Who feels the deep distress when sorrow mourns,
And from his inmost heart the sigh returns.

The kindred sigh conveys a strange relief!
How soothing is society in grief!

Less are the woes, and lighter are the cares
Which gentle sympathizing Friendship shares.

No. 303.]

[TUESDAY.

SYMPATHY AND BENEVOLENCE.

SYMPATHY and benevolence constitute those finer feelings of the soul, which at once support and adorn human nature. What is it that guards our helpless infancy, and instructs our childhood, but sympathy? What is it that performs all the kind offices of friendship in riper years, but sympathy? What is it that consoles us in our last moments, and defends our character when dead, but sympathy? A person without sympathy, and living only for himself, is the basest and most odious of characters. Can one behold such a character sickening at another's good, and not be filled with indignation? Devoted, as the world too much is to self-love, and estranged as it too much is from benevolence, no character of this kind ever passed through life with respect, or sunk into the grave with pity.

No. 304.]

CALUMNY.

[WEDNESDAY.

O REPUTATION! dearer far than life,

Thou precious balsam, lovely, sweet of smell,

Whose cordial drops once split by some rash hands,
Not all thy owner's care, nor the repenting toil
Of the rude spoiler, ever can collect

To its first purity and native sweetness.

"See that you speak not evil one of another," is an apostolic admonition, and what a christian character ought peculiarly to adhere to. A very easy and unexpensive method of being serviceable to others is, by vindicating the characters of those that have been unjustly defamed and traduced. If the injured persons are strangers to us, it is generous and noble to stand up in their defence. If they are our friends, we are bound by the most sacred ties to repel the insults offered to their good name.

No. 305.]

CALUMNY (continued). [THURSDAY.

If they are set in authority over us, it is our duty to rescue them from the obloquy which we know they do not merit. In all these respects we have an ample field for our benevolence to work in. He can hardly do a greater kindness to individuals, or a more substantial service to the public, than by discouraging and repressing to the utmost every groundless slander, every funmerited reproach, let who will be the object, whether in the highest employments or the most private stations of life.