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Or (stronger still to speak it) with thine own,
From thy bright home, from that high firmament,
Where thou from all eternity hast dwelt,
Beyond archangel's unassisted ken,

From far above what mortal's highest call,
From elevation's pinnacle, look down
On a poor breathing particle in dust,
Or lower-an immortal in his crimes,
His crimes forgive!

Nor let me close these eyes, which never more
May see the sun, unpitied and unblest!

And when (the shelter of thy wing implor'd)
My senses sooth'd, shall sink in soft

repose,

O sink this truth still deeper in my soul!

Man's sickly soul, though turn'd and toss'd for ever From side to side! can rest on none but theeHere full in trust, hereafter in full joy.

No. 330.]

THE PROGRESS OF YOUTH.

[MONDAY.

THE youth has not yet discovered how many evils are continually hovering about us, and, when he is set free from the shackles of discipline, looks abroad into the world with rapture; he sees an Elysian region open before him, so variegated with beauty, and so stored with pleasure, that his care is rather to accumulate good than to shun evil; he stands distracted by different forms of delight, and has no other doubt than which path to follow

of those which all lead equally to the bowers of happiness.

He who has seen only the superficies of life, believes every thing to be what it appears, and rarely suspects that external splendour conceals any latent sorrow or vexation. He never imagines that there may be greatness without safety, affluence without content, jollity without friendship, and solitude without peace. He fancies himself permitted to cull the blessings of every condition, and to leave its inconveniences to the idle and to

the ignorant. He is inclined to believe no man miserable but by his own fault, and seldom looks with much pity upon failings or miscarriages because he thinks them willingly admitted, or negligently incurred.

No. 331.]

[TUESDAY.

THE PROGRESS OF YOUTH (coniinued).

It is impossible without pity and contempt to hear a youth of generous sentiments and warm imagination, declaring in the moment of openness and confidence his designs and expectations, be-cause long life is possible he considers it as certain, and therefore promises himself all the changes of happiness, and provides gratification for every desire. He is for a time to give himself wholly to frolick and diversion, to range the world in search

of pleasure, to delight every eye, and to gain every heart, and to be celebrated equally for his pleasing levities and solid attainments, his deep reflections and sporting repartees.

With hopes like these he sallies jocund into life; to little purpose is he told that the condition of humanity admits no pure and unmingled happiness, that the exuberant gaiety of youth ends in poverty or disease, and that uncommon qualifications, contrarieties or excellence, produce envy equally with applause.

No. 332.]

[WEDNESDAY.

THE PROGRESS OF YOUTH (concluded).

AMONG other pleasing errors of young minds is the opinion of their own importance. He that has not yet remarked how little attention his contemporaries can share from their own affairs, conceives all eyes turned upon himself, and imagines every one that approaches him to be an enemy or a follower, an admirer or a spy. He therefore considers his fame as involved in the event of every action. Many of the virtues and vices of youth proceed from this quick sense of reputation. This it is that gives firmness and constancy, fidelity and disinterestedness, and it is this that kin

dles resentment for slight injuries, and dictates all the principles of sanguinary honour.

But as time brings him forward in the world, he soon discovers that he only shares fame or reproach with innumerable partners, and that he is left unmarked in the obscurity of the crowd.

No. 333.]

AGE.

[THURSDAY.

PIETY is the only proper and adequate relief of decaying man. He that grows old without religious hope, as he declines into imbecility, and feels pains and sorrows incessantly crowding upon him, falls into a gulph of bottomless misery, in which every reflection must plunge him deeper, and where he finds only new gradations of anguish, and precipices of horror.

He that would pass the latter part of his life with honour and decency, must, when he is young, consider that he shall one day be old, and remember, when he is old, that he has once been young.

An old age unsupported with matter for discourse and meditation, is much to be dreaded. No state can be more destitute than of him, who, when the delights of sense forsake him, has no pleasures of the mind.

S

No. 334.]

THE WORLD.

[FRIDAY. THE world is generally willing to support those who solicit favour, against those who command reverence. He is easily praised whom no man can envy. Of all things that terminate in human life, the world is the proper judge. To despise its sentence, if it were possible, is not just; and if it were just, is not possible. To know the world, is necessary, since we were born for the help of one another; and to know it early, is convenient, if it be only that we may learn early to despise it.

No. 335.]

A VOID EXTREMES.

[SATURDAY.

THERE is nothing in human conduct we ought more carefully to avoid than running into extremes. All the moral virtues lie between two extremes. The virtue of temperance lies between gluttony and abstinence; the virtue of courage between rashness and cowardice; the virtue of liberality, between prodigality and parsimony; and so of the rest. True virtue consists in moderation, in the restraining of our passions, and keeping us from running into excess; the middle course is that which we ought always to choose, as that which is the most likely to lead us to virtue and happiness. And as it is much easier to fall into extremes, than to keep the medium; those therefore, who wish to obtain health and happiness must shun every kind of excess, or

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