Religion.

Thou, thou art all? nor find I in the whole
Creation aught, but God and my own 'foul.

Thy force alone, religion, death disarms,
Breaks all his darts, and every viper charms.
Soften'd by thee, the grifly form appears
No more the horrid object of our fears.
We, undifmay'd, this awful power obey,
That guides us thro' the fafe tho' gloomy way
Which leads to life, and to the bleft abode,

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Where ravish'd minds enjoy, what here they own'd, a God.
We grant, a train of mifchiefs oft proceeds
From fuperftitious rites and penal creeds;
But view religion in her native charms,
Difperfing bleffings with indulgent arms,
From her fair eyes what heav'nly rays are spread!
What blooming joys fmile round her blifsful head!
Offspring divine! by thee we blefs the cause,
Who form'd the world, and rules it by his laws;
His independent being we adore,

Extol his goodnefs, and revere his pow'r.
Our wond'ring eyes his high perfections view,
The lofty contemplation we purfue,

'Till, ravifh'd, we the great idea find,
Shining in bright impreflions on our mind.
Infpir'd by thee, guest of celeftial race,
With generous love we human kind embrace;
We provocations, unprovok'd, receive,
Patient of wrong, and eafy to forgive;
Protect the orphan, plead the widow's cause,
Nor deviate from the line unerring justice draws:
Thy luftre, bleft effulgence! can difpel
The clouds of error, and the glooms of hell;
Can to the foul impart ethereal light,
Give life divine, and intellectual fight:
Before our ravish'd eyes thy beams difplay
The op'ning fcenes of blifs, and endless day;
By which incited, we with ardor rife,
Scorn this inferior ball, and claim the fkies.
Tyrants to thee a change of nature owe,
Difmifs their tortures, and indulgent grow.
Ambitious conquerors, in their mad career,
Check'd by thy voice, lay down the fword and fpear.

The boldest champions of impiety,

Scornful of heav'n, fubdu'd or won by thee,
Before thy hallowed altars bend their knee.
Loofe wits, made wife, a public good become,
The fons of pride an humble mein affume,
The profligate in morals grow fevere,

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Defrauders juft, and fycophants fincere.-Blackmore.

RESOLUTION.

WHEN defperate ills demand a fpeedy cure, distrust is cowardice, and prudence folly.-Johnson.

MARSHAL TURENNE, among the acknowledgments which he used to pay in converfation to the memory of those by whom he had been inftructed in the art of war, mentioned one, with honor, who taught him not to fpend his time in regretting any mistake which he had made, but to fet himself immediately, and vigorously, to repair it. Patience and fubmiffion fhould be carefully diftinguished from cowardice and indolence; we are not to repine, but we may lawfully ftruggle; for the calamities of life, like the neceflities of nature, are calls to labour, and exercifes of diligence.-Rambler.

TO have attempted much is always laudable, even when the enterprize is above the frength that undertakes it. To reft below his own aim, is incident to every one whofe fancy is active, and whofe views are comprehenfive; nor is any man fatisfied with himfelf, because he has done much, but because he can conceive little.--Jabafon.

NOTHING will ever be attempted if all poffible objections must be first overcome.--Idem.

RICHES.

CAN gold calm paffion, or make reason shine?
Can we dig peace, or wifdom from the mine?
Wifdom to gold prefer; for 'tis much less
To make our fortune, than our happiness;
That happiness which great ones often fee,
With rage and wonder, in a low degree,
Themfelves unbleft: the poor are only poor;
But what are they who droop amid their store!
Nothing is meaner than a wretch of flate
The happy only are the truly great.
Peafants enjoy like appetites with kings,
And thofe beft fatisfied with cheapeft things.

;

Riches.

Could both our Indies buy but one new sense,
Our envy would be due to large expence;

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Since not, thofe pomps, which to the great belong, Are but poor arts to mark them from the throng.-Young. THE more experience we have of the world, the more that experience fhould fhow us, how little is in the power of riches; for what, indeed, truly defirable, can they bestow upon us? Can they give beauty to the deformed, ftrength to the weak, or health to the infirm? Surely if they could, we should not fee fo many ill-favoured faces haunting the affemblies of the great, nor would fuch numbers of feeble wretches languish in their coaches and palaces! Can they prolong their own poffeffion, or lengthen his days who enjoys them? So far otherwife, that the floth, the luxury, the care which attend them, fhorten the lives of millions, and bring them with pain and mifery to an untimely grave. Where, then, is their value, if they can neither embellish, nor ftrengthen our forms, fweeten, or prolong our lives? Again, can they adorn the mind more than the body? Do they not rather fwell the heart with vanity, puff up the cheeks with pride, fhut our ears to every call of virtue, and our bowels to every motive of compaffion.-Fielding.

WHOEVER fhall look heedfully upon those who are eminent for their riches, will not think their condition fuch, as that he should hazard his quiet, and much lefs his virtue, to obtain it; for all that great wealth generally gives above a moderate fortune, is more room for the freaks of caprice, and more privilege for ignorance and vice; a quicker fucceflion of flatteries; and a larger circle of voluptuoufnefs-Rambler.

IT is obferved of gold, by an old epigrammatift," that to have it, is to be in fear, and to want it, to be in forrow."-Idem.

EVERY man is rich or poor, according to the proportion between his defires and enjoyments. Any enlargement of riches is therefore equally deftructive to happiness with the diminution of poffeffion: and he that teaches another to long for what he fhall never obtain, is no lefs an enemy to his quiet, than if he had robbed him of a part of his patrimony -Idem.

OF riches, as of every thing elfe, the hope is more than the enjoyment. Whilft we confider them as the means to be used at fome future time, for the attain nent of felicity, we prefs on our purfuit ardently and vigorously, and that ardor fecures us from wearinefs of ourfelves; but no fooner do we fit down to enjoy our acquifitions, than we find them infufficient to fill up the vacuities of life.-Idler.

WHOSOEVER rifes above those who once pleafed themfelves with equality, will have many malevolent gazers at his eminence. To gain fooner than others that which all pursue with the fame ardour, and to which all imagine themselves entitled, will for ever be a crime. When thofe who ftarted with us in the race of life, leave us fo far behind, that we have little hope to overtake them, we revenge our difappointment by remarks on the arts of fupplantation by which they gained the advantage, or on the folly and arrogance with which they poffefs it; of them whofe rife we could not hinder, we folace ourselves by prognofticating the fall. Riches, therefore, perhaps do not fo often produce crimes as incite accufers.-Idem.

RAILLERY.

THE raillery which is, confiftent with good breeding, is a gentle animadverfion on fome foible, which, while it raises the laugh in the reft of the company, doth not put the perfon rallied out of countenance, or expofe him to fhame or contempt. On the contrary, the jeft fhould be fo delicate, that the object of it fhould be capable of joining in the mirth it occafions.Fielding

REPUTATION.

THE pureft treafure mortal times afford,
Is fpotlefs reputation: That away,
Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay.
A jewel in a ten-times barr'd up cheft,
Is a bold fpirit in a loyal breaft.-Shakespeare.

RESIGNATION.

BID her remember that the ways of heav'n,
Tho' dark are juft: that oft fome guardian pow'
Attends, unfeen, to fave the innocent!
But if high heav'n decrees our fall,- bid her
Firmly to wait the froke; prepar'd alike
To live or die.--Brown.

WHEN any accident threatens us, we are not to defpair; nor, when it overtakes us, to grieve. We muft fubmit in all things to the will of providence, and not fet our affections fo much on any thing here, as not to be able to quit it withous reluctance.-Fielding.

Recruiting-Rotation of Office.-Ruflic Felicity. 211

The man who fees another ridiculed before him, though he may, for the prefent, concur in the general laugh, yet, in a cool hour, will confider the fame trick might be played against himself, but when there is no fenfe of this danger, the natural pride of human nature rifes against him, who, by general cenfures, lays claim to general fuperiority--Rambler.

RECRUITING,

THE vanity of the poor men is to be worked upon at the cheapest rate poffible. Things we are accuftomed to, we do not mind; or effe, what mortal, that never had feen a foldier, could look, without laughing, upon a man accoutred with fo much paltry gaudinefs and affe&ted finery?. The courfeit manufacture that can be made of wool, dyed of a brick-duit color, goes down with him, because it is an imitation of fcarlet or crimson cloth; and to make him thick himself as like his officer as it is poffible, with little or no cott, instead of filver or gold lace, his hat-is trimmed with white or yellow worfled, which in others would deferve bedlam; yet thefe fine allurements, and the noife made upon a calf kin, have drawn in and been the destruction of more men in reality, than all the killing eyes and bewitching voices of women ever flew in jeft. To day the wine herd puts on his red coat, and believes every body in earnest that calls him gentleman; and two days after ferjeant Kite gives him a fwinging rap with his cane, for holding his mutket an inch higher than he should do

When a man

reflects on all this, and the ufage they generally receive-their pay-and the care that is taken of them when they are not wanted, muft he not wonder how wretches can be fo filly, as to be proud of being called gentlemen foldiers? Yet if they were not fo called, no art, difcipline, or money, would be capable of making them fo brave as thousands of them are.-Spirit of Defpotifm.

ROTATION of OFFICE.

A LONG continuance, in the firft executive departments of power, or truft, is dangerous to liberty; a rotation, therefore, in thofe departments, is one of the beft fecurities of permanent freedom.-Conflitution of Maryland.

RUSTIC FELICITY,

MANY are the filent pleafures of the honeft peafant, who rifes cheerfully to his labour :--look into his dwelling, where the foons of every happiacfs chiefly lies he has the fame