-Yet not the more

Cease I to wander, where the muses haunt, Clear springs or shady groves, or sunny hill, Smit with the love of sacred song, but chief Thee Sion, and the flow'ry banks beneath, That wash thy hallow'd feet, and warbling

slow

Nightly I visit.

King Alphonso was wont to say, that dead counsellors, meaning his books, were to him far better than living; for they, without flattery or fear, presented to him truth.

There is no end of books, many libraries are furnished for sight and ostentation, rather than use; the very indexes not to be read over in an age and in this multitude, how great a part of them are either dangerous, or not worth reading! A few books well chosen, and well made use of, will be more profitable than a great confused Alexandrian library.

Such books as teach sapience and prudence, and serve to eradicate errors and vices, are the most profitable writings in the world, and ought to be valued and studied more than all others whatsoever.

In vain do we look for true and lasting satisfaction in any other books than the holy scriptures, wherein are contained all that is necessary to the happiness of this life, and the life hereafter.

Some will read over, or rather over-read a book, with a view only to find fault, like a venampus spider, extracting a poisonous quality, where the industrious bee sips out a sweet and profitable juice.

A great many people are too fond of books, -as they are of furniture, to dress and set off their rooms, more than to adorn and enrich their minds.

Next to the study of the holy scriptures, it may not be amiss to recommend the reading of a little poetry, properly chosen. The faculty in which women most excel, (says the admirable-the judicious Mrs. Chapone) is that of imagination-and when properly cultivated, it becomes the source of all that is charming in society. Nothing you can read will so much contribute to the improvement of this faculty, as poetry, which if applied to its true ends, adds a thousand charms to those sentiments of religion, virtue, generosity and delicate tenderness, by which the human soul is exalted and refined.

Natural philosophy, the study of nature, moral philosophy, &c. are strongly recommended, in an elegant, refined, and sublime style, by the amiable lady above-mentioned: As also the reading of Spectators, Guardians, Ramblers and Adventurers, as particularly useful to young people, &c. Nor would I by any means, (she adds) exclude that kind of reading which young people are naturally most fond

C

And turn'd it by degrees to the soul's essence, Till all be made immortal.

The chaste mind, like a polished plane, may admit foul thoughts, without receiving their tincture.

Chastity is a purity of thought, word and action.

CHEERFULNESS.

I LOOK on cheerfulness as on the health of virtue.

Fair as the dawn of light! auspicious guest; Source of all comforts to the human breast! Depriv'd of thee, in sad despair we moan, And tedious roll the heavy moments on.

Cheerfulness, even to gaiety, is consistent with every species of virtue and practice of religion. I think it inconsistent only with impiety or vice. The ways of heaven are pleasantness. We adore, we praise, we thank the Almighty, in hymns, in songs, in anthemsand those set to music too. Let "O! be joyful," be the Christian's psalm--and leave the sad Indian to incant the devil with tears and screeches. It is this true sense of religion that has rendered my whole life so cheerful

as it has ever so remarkably been,-to the great offence of your religionists. Though why, prithee, should priests be always so grave? Is it so sad a thing to be a parson.

Be ye as one of these, saith the Lord,that is, as merry as little children. The Lord loveth a cheerful giver-and why not a cheerful taker also? Plato and Seneca

and surely they were wise enough to have been consecrated-thought that a sense of cheerfulness and joy should ever be encouraged in children, from their infancy-not only on account of their healths, but as productive of true virtue.

COMPASSION.

IT is certainly, methinks, a sort of enlargement of our very selves, when we enter into the ideas, sensations, and concerns of our brethren; by this force of their make, men are insensibly hurried into each other; and by a secret charm we lament the unfortunate, and rejoice with the glad, for it surely is not possible for the human heart to be averse to any thing that is humane; but by the very mien and gesture of the joyful and distressed, we rise and fall into their condition; and since joy is communicative, 'tis reasonable that grief should be contagious, both which

are felt and seen at a look, for one man's eyes are spectacles to another to read his heart. Those useful and honest instruments do not only discover objects to us, but make ourselves also transparent; for they, in spite of dissimulation, when the heart is full, will brighten into gladness, or gush into tears; from the foundation in nature is kindled that nobie spark of celestial fire, we call charity or compassion, which opens our bosoms, and extends our arms to embrace all mankind, and by this it is that the amorous man is not more suddenly melted with beauty, than the compassionate man with misery..

Ah! little think the gay licentious proud, Whom pleasure, power, and affluence surround;

They, who their thoughtless hours in giddy mirth,

And wanton, often cruel, riot waste;

Ah! little think they while they dance along,
How many feel this very moment, death,
And all the sad variety of pain.——
How many sink in the devouring flood,
Or more devouring flame.-How many bleed,
By shameful variance betwixt man and man--
How many pinè in want, and dungeon glooms;
Shut from the common air, and common use
Of their own limbs-How many drink the

cup

Of baleful grief, or eat the bitter bread