temptations. Better to go thus halt and mame into heaven, than with all the limbs and faculties entire into hell.

When I wish you to guard against the enticements of bad women, I do not mean women in general; nor that you should abandon the company of all the sex without distinction, to live a life of celibacy. Man's happiness here, were it not for the sweet society of angelic woman, would be but formal and dull.

Woman, man's chiefest good, by heaven design'd
To glad the heart, and humanize the mind;
To sooth each angry care, abate the strife,

And lull the passions as we walk through life.

Adam, the first of men, preferred banishment, exile, and all their attendant miseries, in the company of his consort, Eve, to Paradise and all its enjoyments without her.

The bitter sweat in drops shed from his manly brow
When first he brake the flow'ry earth, to gain them bread:
And 'neath the burning sun he toil'd till ev'ning tide:
Nor Eden's plains e'er sought to view,nor cooling shade
of Paradise, where wont to rove 'mong flow'rets green;
Or 'neath the silv'ry surface of the glassy lake,
(A form as fair as man e'er bore in Greecian marble,)
At noon day's heat when all was still as summer night
Would plunge his parched limbs, refreshment sweet he
choose.

Thus suffer'd he; without repining at his loss.

I have now given you an outline of those snares that prey upon the unwary and unguarded youth in their outset in life, and hope you will benefit thereby.

The next things I shall offer to your consideration are, the choice of companions and amusements, on which depend great part of your happiness. Never go to a gaming-table nor alehouse to seek a companion or friend. Those that frequent gaming-houses mind me much on flocks of ravens, they only meet to pick the carcase of some unfortunate victim that has fallen a prey to their devouring talons. In an alehouse, though you see a company of bacchanalian topers friendly set, who, in the midst of their jollity, when their hearts are warmed with wine; their heads light with strong drink; their boon compan

ions throwing the sparkling glass around their heads with loud applause, and flashes of ill-timed wit; falling from their chairs in the midst of their covenant-making. Still, all these are but for the moment; to-morrow brings a racking conscience, an aching head, hollow eyes, and often an empty purse. These

are a few of Bacchus's attendants, which never fail sooner or latter, to plunge her most favourite voteries in an abyss of woe. Seek ye then the company of the wise and prudent. for Solomon says, He that walketh with the wise shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. One of the late lords Mayor of London, mentions a young man that he knew, who was taken from school to sit in the House of Commons, and who had little or no knowledge from books, and as little from the experience of age; yet, by associating himself with the wise, soon became the best speaker, and the wonder of the house. You would do well to be wary in the choice of a companion; for, if it be a bad one, although innocent yourself, by being found in the company of the guilty, you may share the fate of the poor stork who was found among the cranes. Therefore, never make a companion of a sabbath-breaker, a liar, a swearer, a drunkard, a gambler, a thief, nor in short, any that makes a mock at sín, or scoffs at religion; such as an athiest or deist. For he who denies his God, or his Saviour, is not fit to be trusted. He is worse than an infidel. The sin of ingratitude. I count no better than the sin against the Holy Chost.-The one is ascribing to the power of the devil what is done by the power of the Holy Spirit.-The other is denying the existence of a God and of a Saviour altogether. Many theists, I am sorry to say, in their works do the same. He who can read the sorrowful life and sufferings,-the privations and miseries,-the bloody sweats and dying agonies of a crucified Redeemer, without his heart burning within him for love and gratitude, is surely not a proper companion for you. He who can deny a Saviour who has willingly become the object of divine wrath,-suffered these things shed his precious blood on mount Calvary-given his life a ransom-his body a sacrifice,-and still intercedes for him, cannot expect a place in those mansions which he has gone to prepare for those that love him. select such as you think are walking in the way that leadeth unto life eternal, that you may enjoy their company when time

Endeavour then to

shall be no more. Ingo, an ancient king of the Draves, who making a stately feast, appointed his nobles, at that time Pagans, to sit in the ball below, and commanded certain poor Christians to be brought up into his presence-chamber, to sit with him at his table, to eat and drink of his kingly cheer, at which many wondering, he said, he accounted Christians, though never so poor, a greater ornament to his table, and more worthy of his company, than the greatest peers unconverted to the Christian faith; for when these might be thrust down to hell, those might be his consorts and fellow princes in heaven.

Regarding your amusements, let them be harmless, and free from those evils which corrupt the morals of youth. Hunting is an amusement much practised among the fashionable beaux of this country; but, although I approve of the exercise got upon horseback, with the free and uncontaminated air of the country, to brace and strengthen weak nerves; sill, these benefits may be derived without the wanton cruelty which attends hunting.

Amadeus, duke of Savoy,when asked by certain embassadors that came to his court, What hounds he had, for they desired to see them? He shewed them the next day, a pack af poor people feeding at his table, and said, These are the hounds wherewith I hunt after heaven. Macedonius the hermit retiring into the wilderness, that he might with more freedom enjoy God, and have his conversation in heaven. Upon a time there came a young gallant into the wilderness to hunt wild beasts, and seeing the hermit rode up to him, asking him, Why he came into that solitary place? He desired he might have leave to ask him the same question, Why he came thither? I came hither to hunt, saith the gentlemen; and so do I, saith the hermit, I hunt after my God. And Lady Jane Gray, when asked by Mr. Roger Ascham, how she could lose such pastime, her father with the dutchess being a hunting in the park, smilingly answered, "All sport in the park is but a shadow of that pleasure I find in this book, having a good book in her hand.

Never, then, my dear son, be at a loss for an amusement, nor a companion, while a good book can be had. For I may say of books what the nobleman said to Plato some days after he had dined with him, that his dinner was not only pleasant while it lasted,but had left with him such an agreeable sensation

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that he would never forget it.-It being seasoned with the conversation of the Philosopher.

Books are often of inestimable value: they are silent monitors, and faithful friends that, though dead, yet speaketh. Cesar seems to have been of this opinion; for, when swimming thro' the waters to escape his enemies, he carried his books in his hand above the waters, but lost his royal robes.

Tis books a lasting pleasure can supply,

Charm while we live, and teach us how to die.

For, in the volumes of the mighty dead,

We feast on joys to vulgar minds unknown.

As some profession or business, must engross the after part of your life, (for I do not mean you to be the finished coxcomb as I see so.ne,) I shall endeavour to give you a few orthodox advices on this head, and particularly, to point out to you, the most dangerous characters you should guard against. If you are in business, you will be subject to many impositions from pretended friends, as well as from open enemies, but watch over them with Argus's eyes; consider that the world is full of fraud and deceit, and few are to be trusted. Men, in general, are mercenary and selfish. Take, then, the advice which Christ gave to his apostles when he commissioned them to preach the everlasting gospel, Math. x. 16, Behoid, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. Count then every man an honest man, but deal with him as if he were a rogue. These will often prevent the harpies from injuring you, and put at defiance the deep laid schemes of the cunning traitors. Still, although these advices are given you in a general sense, and cannot fail of being useful to you if rightly attended to: Yet there are three classes of people more dangerous than any I have yet mentioned, as their evils are of greater magnitude, and you are more liable to them. Their insinuations are like the syren's song, and the serpent's charmer, they amuse but to deceive, and their deception is to destruction and death here, and hell hereafter. These three characters,-a Petty-fogging Lawyer,-a Quack Doctor, and a Heterodox Preacher, I shall endeavour to unmask, so as you may see them, not through a glass darkly, but face to face. The veil of hypocrisy is thin,

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and may be easily seen through, or drawn aside by a very casual observer.

The first, a Petty-fogging Lawyer; if you listen to him, he will endeavour to get you ensnared, but make you believe your cause is good, while he is leading you step by step into destruction, in the mazy labyrinth of law; will drain you of your all. your last shilling not excepted; at last make your property the prey of the ravening wolves of his party, who will, under pretence of law, strip you as bare as the crow in the fable, then leave you unprotected to fight your own cause, to stand the fury of the storm, and all its raging elements. A petty-fogging lawyer is one of the most despicable and detestable wretches that I know. He frequents all public places, has his hand in every person's affairs, fills his own pockets from the ruins of many poor widow and fatherless child. The arbitrary manner in which he conducts himself; his ignorant pride and mean insignificance, when parading the streets with monky freaks, are too contemptible for your notice. They are generally creatures of the most abject conduct, meanly born and bred, the sons of some poor mechanic, or petty farmer; but, in the course of a few years, it is no uncommon thing for some of these pettyfoggers to become farmers, shipowners, &c. &c. &c. at the expence of many an unfortunate debtor and creditor! It is a rare thing to find one of them who can write a letter of common sense, even upon the most trifling subject, without consulting their Gamalials in the south, for whom they cater, and are commonly called the jackall-lawyers: yet their pretensions are such, that no mere man can excel them in wisdom, &c. Not quite a century ago, in a small seaport town on the east coast of Scotland, I knew one of these pettyfoggers, who thought his vernacular tongue was too vulgar for him: so, to give him more the air of a fashionable gentleman of quality, (although the creature had come to the place in a state of beggary,) and that he might be the bon ton of the beaux esprits, and that he might observe a coup d'œil in his love amours; and be able to say in his public capacity, gibier de potence; he paid fifty pounds, (they no doubt came light to him,) to a strolling player who taught French the time I was there. Ignorant and, silly people employ them, owing to the great pretensions they make, but few have ever great cause to boast of their winning. When