It has been said, that when Jove created the passions, he assigned every one of them its destined abode. Modesty was forgot, and when she was introduced to him, he knew not where to place her; she was therefore ordered to consort with all the rest; ever since that time she is inseparable from them; she is the friend of Truth, and betrays the lie that dare attack it; she is in strict and intimate unity with Love, she always attends, and frequently discovers and proclaims it; Love, in a word, loses its charms, whenever it appears without her. There is not a more glorious ornament for either sex, than modesty.

The first of all virtues is innocence, the next is modesty. If we banish modesty out of the world, she carries away with her half the virtues that are in it.

Modesty makes large amends for the pain it gives the persons who labor under it; by the prejudice it affords every worthy person

in its favor.

As real modesty is the beauty of the mind, so an affectation of it, as much disgraces a perfect mind, as art and an affected dress do a perfect face.

MUSIC.

IF we consider music merely as an enterfainment, doubtless the author of all good

designed the pleasing harmony and melody of sounds (among other purposes) to heighten the innocent pleasures of human life, and to alleviate and dispel its cares. When

we are oppressed with sorrow and grief, it can enliven and exhilarate our drooping spirits. When we are elated, and, as it were, intoxicated with excessive joy, (for joy may be excessive, and even dangerous) it can moderate the violence of the passions, bring us down from the giddy height, and reduce us to a state of tranquillity. If inflamed with anger, or boiling with rage, it can soften us into pity, or melt us into compassion. In a word, hatred, malice, envy, and all the hideous group of infernal passions, which are at once the torment and disgrace of humanity, flee before this powerful charmer, who, not content with this conquest, goes on, if we listen to her inchanting strains, refining our passions, and cherishing those virtuous impu!ses, and that gentleness of manners in the soul, which every one feels, who has not stified them by sensuality, baseness, or villany; of these latter, Shakespeare, that sagacious piercer into human nature, writes thus:

That man that has not music in himself,
Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet
sounds,

Is fit for treason, villanies and spoils.
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,

And his affections dark as Erebus,
Let no such man be trusted.

Music is one of the seven sciences, and is justly admired by all people of a fine taste, and who love the liberal arts. A man who has no taste for music, is destitute of a feeling, which we are informed will be of high estimation in another system. The want of taste for music, is a sign of a barbarous disposition, and those who are not affected with its charms, are, in character, somewhat below the beasts of the field. A taste for this art does not imply that a person is an actual performer upon an instrument, or that he is a a good singer; both judgment and taste for music, may be where the power of the organs that are necessary for executing it are wanting. A person may have a bad voice, and yet be delighted with a good song, and be a good judge of singing; he may be pleased with a tune upon the violin or harpsichord, and yet not be able to perform upon either. Such as do not love music, are persons that few choose to keep company with.

The charms of sweet music no pencil can paint.

They calm the rude savage, enliven the saint; Make brighter our pleasures, more joyous our joy,

With raptures we feel, yet those raptures ne'er cloy.

HUMAN NATURE.

NOTWITHSTANDING the degenera

cy and meanness that has crept into human nature, there is a thousand actions in which it breaks through its original corruption, and shows what it once was, and what it will be hereafter. We may consider the soul of man as the ruin of a glorious pile of building; where, amidst the heaps of rubbish, you meet with noble fragments of sculpture, broken pillars and obelisks, and a magnificence in confusion. Virtue and wisdom are continually employed in clearing the ruins, removing these disorderly heaps, recovering the noble piles that lie buried under them, and adjusting them as well as possible, according to their ancient symmetry and beauty. A happy education, conversation with the finest spirits, looking abroad into the works of nature, and observations upon mankind, are the greatest assistances to this necessary and glorious work. But even among those who have never had the happiness of any of these advantages, there are sometimes such exertions of the greatness that is natural to the mind of man, as show capacities and abilities that need only those accidental helps to fetch them out, and show them in a proper light. A plebian soul is still the ruin of this glorious

edifice, though encumbered with all its rubbish.

Discourses of religion and morality, and reflections upon human nature are the best means we can make use of to improve our minds, and gain a true knowledge of ourselves; and consequently to recover our souls out of the vice, ignorance, and prejudice which naturally cleave to them.

There is nothing which favors and falls in with the natural greatness and dignity of human nature, so much as religion; which does not only promise the entire refinement of the mind, but the glorifying of the body, and the immortality of both.

It is with the mind as with the will and appetites; for, as after we have tried a thousand pleasures, and turned from one enjoyment to another, we find no rest to our desires, till we at last fix them upon the sovereign good; so in pursuit of knowledge we meet with no toler able satisfaction to our minds, till after we are weary with tracing other methods, we turn them upon the one supreme and unerring truth. And were there no other use of human learning, there is this in it, that by its many defects, it brings us to a sense of our weakness, and makes us readily, and with greater willingness, submit to revelation.

It is according to nature to be merciful, for no man that has not divested himself of humanity can be hard hearted to others, without feeling a pain in himself.