mercy, accuse him to his face, of every error which falls within their cognizance; but, should they see a virtue, there they drop the character; and for fear of creating vanity, (considerate creatures!) pass over the discovery in silence. Such troublers of mankind. ought to be hunted out of society, as a brood of porcupines, who have a quill for every object, and who are never so happy as when they find that it draws blood.

9.

Be courteous of gesture, and affable to all men, with diversity of reverence, according to the dignity of the person. There is nothing that winneth so much, with so little cost.He who endeavours to please, must appear pleased: and he who would not provoke rudeness, must not practice it.

Remark.

As the obeisance of ceremony gradually decreases by the approximation of degrees in rank, what is taken from homage may be

compensated for by suavity, the graceful po liteness of the soul; and when love, that sweet leveller, equalises man with man in the bonds of friendship, each look, from either party, is honour, each smile, distinction.To persons in subordinate stations, condescension must bow, and not stoop: the dignity of human nature resents the pride that affects humility, and the hypocrisy that would impose on its understanding. There is nothing so clear-sighted and sensible, as a noble mind in a low estate.

ous.

REVELLING.

GIVE yourself to be merry, but not boisterLet your mirth be ever void of scurrility and biting words, which many deem wit; for a wound, given by a word, is often harder to be cured than that which is given by the sword, Use moderate diet; so that after

your meat you may find your intellects fresher, and not duller; and your body more lively, and not more heavy. Seldom indulge in wine; and yet sometimes do, (but always temperately,) lest, being forced to drink on some sudden occasion, you should become inflamed: all that comes of more than this, is bad.

Remark.

Drunkenness is one of the most degrading, and, at the same time, is the most mischievous, of the sensual vices. In point of deformity, it is on a par with gluttony, which seeks enjoyment in gorging a vile appetite, and doing its utmost to extinguish that ethereal part, which alone gives man pre-eminence over brutes.

Drunkenness can have no positive pleasure; at best, its feelings are all dormant; if active, they must produce pain. How can any one of the senses find gratification, when the eyesight is rendered indistinct, the hearing confused, the very motion feeble and undetermin

ed, and every power of man paralised and lost. in weakness and stupidity? The bliss of the drunkard is a visible picture of the expectation of the dying atheist, who hopes no more than to lie down in the grave with the "beasts that perish." It is not requisite to describe the actual pains of the poor besotted wretch, when his swoln carcase awakes to sensibility. When the cup of any sensual pleasure is drained to the bottom, there is always poison in the dregs. Anacreon himself declares, that “the flowers swim at the top of the bowl!"

MEN are loving creatures, when injuries put them not from their natural course.

2.

Nature gives not to us her degenerate children, any more general precept than,-That

one help the other; that one feel a true come passion of the other's needs or mishaps.

Remark.

The selfish and sordid pursuits of most modern young people, tend to alienate their minds, not only from general compassion, but from imparting any happiness to the domestic circle. That tender pity, which regarded our suffering fellow-creatures as brethren, and that more particular fraternal love, which delightfully bound families together, have gone out of fashion, with many other of our best affections. A fondness for such low gratifications as the tavern, the stable, the kennel, and profligate society, smothers those finer feelings of the heart, which derive their pleasures from the enjoyment of cultivated minds and tender confidence. Young men, now-a-days, seem ashamed of nothing so much as of a character for sensibility. I do not mean that morbid irritability of nerve, which trembles like a leaf, at every sigh that agitates the air: a youth ought to hold such weakness in as much dis

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