feed in their ftead: for what fee we there, but what awakens in us our gratitude to Heaven? A garden to the virtuous is a paradife ftill extant; a paradife unloft. What a rich prefent from Heaven of fweet incenfe to man was wafted in that breeze! What a delightful entertainment of fight glows on yonder bed, as if in kindly showers the watery bow had fhed all its moft celeftial colours on it! Here are no objects that fire the paffions; none that do not inftru&t the understanding, and better the heart, while they delight the fenfe; but not the fenfe of thefe men. To them the tulip has no colours, the rofe no fcent: their palate for pleafure is fo deadened, and burnt out by the violent ftroke of higher taftes, as leaves no fenfibility to the fofter impreffions of thefe; much lefs for the relifh of thofe philofophic, or moral fentiments, which the verdant walk, clear ftream, embowering fhade, pendent fruit, or rifing flower; thofe fpeechlefs, not powerlefs, orators, ever praising their great author, infpire. Religion is the natural growth of the works of God; and infidelity, of the inventions of men.

I am not against enjoyments. Without a relish of the good things of life, we cannot be thankful. Enjoy, but enjoy reasonably and thankfully to the Great Donor: that will fecure us from excess.

To

To enjoy is our wifdom, and our duty: it is the great leffon of human life, but a leffon which few have learned; and none less than these, who proclaim themfelves mafters of it.

It is this intellectual cloud, which hangs like a fog, over every gay refort of cur modern votaries. of pleasure, tho' invifible to common eyes, which flings us not only into mistakes, but contradictions. How fick are we of yesterday? yet how fond of to-morrow, though devoted to the fame cheat as the past? We cannot believe that fatigue is fatigue, let it's caufe be what it will. Too much recreation tires as foon as too much bufinefs. The man of bufinefs has, at leaft, his feventh day's reft.— Our fever for folly never intermits: our week has no Sabbath in it.

To fpeak the truth, we tread this eternal round of vanities lefs for the pleafure it brings, than for the pain it fufpends. It is a refuge, not a prize. Like criminals, we fly to it from our much injured, unforgiving foes, from ourselves, which chide and fting us when alone: when together, we fupport each others fpirits; which is like failors clinging to each other, when the veffel is finking. We fly from curfelves, becaufe we first fly from our Maker.

HONEST

A

HONEST POVERTY,

A CHINESE STORY.

MAN in the diftrict of Sinkien, in China,

had a long while fuffered the hardship of pinching poverty, and found himself at length reduced to a very trifle of money, without knowing where to find fubfiftence after it was gone, fo that he and his wife, in despair, bought a little rice and arfenick, determining to mix them together, and put an end to their mifery: the rice was almost baked, and the arfenick was mixed therewith, when, on a sudden, an infpector of the Canton entered their houfe, who had come a great way, and was very hungry, and being in hafte to go elsewhere, fpeedily demanded a little rice. As they told him there was none, he looked into the oven, and faw that it was almoft ready, upon which he made bitter complaints that they fhould tell him a falfehood for the fake of fuch a trifle; when the master of the houfe; moving gently his hand, I was not willing, faid he to him, to give you any of this rice, and then, falling into tears, added the reason. At thefe words the overfeer took the difh, threw the rice out of it, and buried it, then comforted the poor people; follow me, faid he to the hufband, I can give you fifty pounds of grain; this will ferve you for fome days, and perhaps in that time you

may get a fupply for the future. The poor man followed the infpector; and thanking him for his charity, brought the grain home in a fack. At his return he opened the fack, and found, befides grain, fifty ounces of fine filver; he was greatly aftonifhed at it, and when recovered from his furprize, It is doubtlefs, faid he to himself, the Emperor's filver that this man has collected according to his commiffion, and has forgot that he left it in the fack; if he fhould be a debtor for this fum to the Emperor, it would be a troublefome bufinefs for him; he has had compaffion upon me, and I am determined not to injure him; upon which, he returned fpecdily to the infpector, to restore him the filver: "As for me," faid the inspector, "I have had no commiffion to gather money for the Emperor, nor did I put the money in the fack, for where fhould I have it, being fo poor as I am? It must needs be a particular favour of Heaven." It was to no purpofe for the infpector that he faid the filver did not belong to him, for the other having found it in the fack with the grain, would not keep it in fhort the conclufion was, that they divided it between them, which proved a feasonable affistance to them both.

A TURKISH

A TURKISH ANECDOTE.

HE favourite of a Sultan threw a ftone at a

THE

poor Dervife, who had requeffed an alms. The infulted Santon dared not to complain, but carefully fearched for and preferved the pebble, promifing himself he fhould find an opportunity, fooner or later, to throw it, in his turn, at this imperious and pitilefs wretch. Some time after, he was told, the favourite was difgraced, and, by order of the Sultan, led through the ftreets on a camel, exposed to the infults of the populace. On hearing this, the dervise ran to fetch his pebble; but, after a moment's reflection, caft it into a well.

I now perceive,' faid he, that we ought never to feek revenge when our enemy is powerful, for then it is imprudent; nor when he is involved in calamity, for then it is mean and cruel.'

FINIS