should as nearly as possible be approximated to his perfection.'

The higher the rank in society in which the individual is born, and the more extensive the sphere of usefulness for which he is destined, of the greater importance is his education to the community, and to the promotion of the well-being of his fellow-creatures. The education of those persons who are likely to fill the higher departments of executive authority, in every nation, demands the most serious and assiduous attention. The progress of knowledge is advancing. Intellect is diffusing around the benignity of its beams. Man is progressively becoming a more rational, a more intelligent, and a more enlightened being: he is approximating by degrees to the perfection of his nature: he perceives the intimate connexion of cause and effect in the moral as Iwell as in the natural world. The children of poverty imbibe mental light by the diffusion of the rays of truth. Liberty extends her wings, shakes the chains of despotism, and imparts her blessings to distant regions. Ignorance must be diminished proportionably to the diffusion of the beams of Christianity. Therefore the necessity of superior mental culture in the higher walks of life becomes more indispensable.

Equality never can subsist amongst men; but real superiority consists more in personal qualities, than in hereditary possessions-in the virtues and superior endowments of the mind, than in the fortuitous advantages of wealth, rank, or exalted station.

More public scandal vice attends,

As he is great and noble who offends.

JUVENAL.

CONVERSATION V.

Observations on National Well-Being.

As the desire of well-being, said Charles,

is inherent in the human breast, the means by which it may be enjoyed and permanently attained, is an enquiry important to happiness, and highly interesting to every intelligent mind.

The well-being of a nation, said William, externally considered, consists in its freedom from the national evils of war, invasions, encroachments of foreign powers on its natural or acquired rights and privileges, the exportation of its manufactures and superfluous agricultural produce, in free and extended commerce, and all other advantages connected with the general interest of the community. Its internal well-being consists in the domestic peace and

tranquility which results from the wise and equitous administration of just and impartial laws, founded upon the basis of moral obligation, and combined with the good of posterity.

National virtue, said Sir Edward, is a more necessary constituent to national prosperity than extensive population, wealth, power, extent of territory, internal resources, or external dominion. Virtue is no less essential to the happiness, duration, and well-being of states and communities, than to that of families or individuals. Attention to temperance, propriety, and economy, is equally important to both, and productive of similar advantages in their effects, either as applicable to individuals or to nations.

Epicurus observes, said George, that a steady course of virtue produces the greatest quantity of happiness of which nature is capable. Without a prudent care of the body, and a steady government of the mind, to guard the one from disease and the other from the clouds of prejudice, happiness is unattainable. By temperance we enjoy pleasure, without suffering any consequent

inconvenience.

Sobriety enables us to content ourselves with simple and frugal fare. Gentle-. ness, as opposed to an irrascible temper, greatly contributes to the tranquility and happiness of life, by preserving the mind from perturbation, and arming it against the assaults of calumny and malice. Fortitude enables us to bear those pains which prudence cannot shun, and banishes fear from the mind. And the practice of justice is absolutely necessary to the existence of society, and consequently to the happiness of every individual.'

Every modification of virtue, said Sir Edward, is as essential to national happiness as to private and individual good. A deviation from the laws of morality is alike injurious to both, and productive of evil in its effects proportionably to the extent of the departure from the constituent principles of moral virtue.

Amongst those external evils, said Mrs. Osbourne, which are inimical to the well-being of a nation, war is unquestionably the greatest. That cruel scourge of mankind and desolator of the human species, in every age how many sufferings has it occasioned! The evils of war