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The heart of a worthy man is ever on his lips; he will be pained when he cannot speak all that is in it.

An impartial spirit will admire goodness or greatness wherever he meets it, and whether it makes for or against him.

THE GOOD WOMAN. A good woman is one of the greatest glories of the creation.

How do the duties of a good wife, a good mother, and a worthy matron, well performed, dignify a woman!

A good woman reflects honor on all those who had any hand in her education, and on the company she has kept.

A woman of virtue and of good understanding, skilled in, and delighting to perform the duties of domestic life, needs not fortune to recommend her to the choice of the greatest and richest man, who wishes his own happiness.

YOUTH. It is a great virtue in good-natured youth to be able to say NO.

Those who respect age deserve to live to be old, and to be respected themselves.

Young people set out with false notions of happiness; with gay, fairy-land imaginations.

It is a most improving exercise, as well with regard to style as to morals, to accustom ourselves early to write down every thing of moment that befalls us.

There is a docile season, a learning-time in youth, which, suffered to elapse, and no foundation laid, seldom returns.

Young folks are sometimes very cunning in finding out contrivances to cheat themselves.

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THOMAS SHERLOCK, 1678-1761.

THIS learned prelate of the Church of England was born in London, 1678. He was educated at Catherine Hall, Cambridge, of which he became master, and in 1714 was vice-chancellor of the University. In the controversies which arose at that period respecting the proofs of the divine origin of Christianity, Sherlock distinguished himself, particularly in his "Use and Intent of Prophecy," and his "Trial of the Witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus." In 1728 he was made Bishop of Bangor, in 1734 was translated to Salisbury, and in 1748 to London. In 1755 and 1756 he revised and corrected a large body of his sermons, which were published in four volumes. He died in 1761, at the advanced age of eighty-three.

Sherlock's sermons are among the best specimens of English pulpit elo quence extant. His style, though possessing but little ornament, is clear and vigorous, and a few passages may be selected from his writings, such as the comparison between Christ and Mahomet, that are truly sublime,

DIFFERENT ENDS OF RELIGION AND INFIDELITY.

Should the punishments of another life be what we have but too much reason to fear they will be, what words can then express the folly of sin? Short are our days in this world, and soon they shall expire: and should religion at last prove a mere deceit, we know the worst of it; it is an error for which we cannot suffer after death: nor will the infidels there have the pleasure to reproach us with our mistake; they and we, in equal rest, shall sleep the sleep of death. But should our hopes, and their fears, prove true; should they be so unhappy as not to die for ever-which misera ble hope is the only comfort that infidelity affords-what pains and torments must they then undergo? Could I represent to you the different states of good and bad men: could I give you the pros. pect which the blessed martyr Stephen had, and show you the blessed Jesus at the right hand of God surrounded with angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect; could I open your ears to hear the never-ceasing hymns of praise which the blessed above sing to him that was, and is, and is to come; to the Lamb that was slain, but liveth for ever; could I lead you through the unbounded regions of eternal day, and show you the mutual and ever-blooming joys of saints who are at rest from their labor, and live for ever in the presence of God; or, could I change the scene, and unbar the iron gates of hell, and carry you, through solid darkness, to the fire that never goes out, and to the worm that never dies; could I show you the apostate angels fast bound in eternal chains, or the souls of wicked men overwhelmed with torment and despair; could I open your ears to hear the deep itself groan with the continual cries of misery-cries which can never reach the throne of mercy, but return in sad echoes, and add even to the very horrors of hell; could I thus set before you the different ends of religion and infidelity, you would want no other proof to convince you that nothing can recompense the hazard men run of being for ever miserable through unbelief. But, though nei ther the tongues of men nor of angels can express the joys of heaven, or describe the pains of hell; yet, if there be any truth in religion, these things are certain and near at hand.

THE INFORMATION THE GOSPEL GIVES, MOST DESIRABLE.

The Christian revelation has such pretences, at least, as may make it worthy of a particular consideration. It pretends to come from heaven; to have been delivered by the Son of God; to have been confirmed by undeniable miracles and prophecies; to have been ratified by the blood of Christ and his apostles, who died in asserting its truth: it can show, likewise, an innumerable com

pany of martyrs and confessors; its doctrines are pure and holy, its precepts just and righteous; its worship is a reasonable service, refined from the errors of idolatry and superstition, and spiritual, like the God who is the object of it: it offers the aid and the assistance of heaven to the weakness of nature, which makes the religion of the Gospel to be as practicable as it is reasonable: it promises infinite rewards to obedience, and threatens eternal punishment to obstinate offenders, which makes it of the utmost consequence to us soberly to consider it, since every one who rejects it stakes his own soul against the truth of it. Look into the Gospel; there you will find every reasonable hope of nature, nay, every reasonable suspicion of nature cleared up and confirmed, every difficulty answered and removed. Do the present circumstances of the world lead you to suspect that God could never be the author of such corrupt and wretched creatures as men now are? Your suspicions are just and well founded. "God made man upright;" but through the temptation of the devil, sin entered, and death and destruction followed after.

Do you suspect, from the success of virtue and vice in this world, that the providence of God does not interpose to protect the righteous from violence, or to punish the wicked? The suspicion is not without ground. God leaves his best servants here to be tried oftentimes with affliction and sorrow, and permits the wicked to flourish and abound. The call of the Gospel is not to honor and riches here, but to take up our cross and follow Christ.

Do you judge from comparing the present state of the world with the natural notion you have of God, and of his justice and goodness, that there must needs be another state in which justice shall take place? You reason right, and the Gospel confirms the judgment. God has appointed a day to judge the world in righteousness: then those who mourn shall rejoice, those who weep shall laugh, and the persecuted and afflicted servants of God shall be heirs of his kingdom.

Have you sometimes misgivings of mind? Are you tempted to mistrust this judgment when you see the difficulties which surround it on every side; some which affect the soul in its separate state, some which affect the body in its state of corruption and dissolution? Look to the Gospel: there these difficulties are accounted for; and you need no longer puzzle yourself with dark questions concerning the state, condition, and nature of separate spirits, or concerning the body, however to appearance lost or destroyed; for the body and soul shall once more meet to part no more, but to be happy for ever. In this case the learned cannot

doubt, and the ignorant may be sure that 'tis the man, the very man himself, who shall rise again; for a union of the same sou and body is as certainly the restoration of the man, as the divid

ing them was the destruction. Would you know who it is that gives this assurance? It is one who is able to make good his word: one who loved you so well as to die for you; yet one too great to be held a prisoner in the grave. No; He rose with triumph and glory, the first-born from the dead, and will, in like manner, call from the dust of the earth all those who put their trust and confidence in Him.

CHRIST AND MOHAMMED CONTRASTED.

Go to your Natural Religion : lay before her Mohammed and his disciples arrayed in armor and in blood, riding in triumph over the spoils of thousands and tens of thousands who fell by his vic torious sword: show her the cities which he set in flames, the countries which he ravaged and destroyed, and the miserable distress of all the inhabitants of the earth. When she has viewed him in this scene, carry her into his retirements: show her the prophet's chamber, his concubines and wives; let her see his adultery, and hear him allege revelation and his divine commis sion to justify his lust and his oppression. When she is tired of this prospect, then show her the blessed Jesus, humble and meek, doing good to all the sons of men, patiently instructing both the ignorant and the perverse: let her see him in his most retired privacies: let her follow him to the mount, and hear his devotions and supplications to God: carry her to his table to view his poor fare, and hear his heavenly discourse: let her see him injured, but not provoked: let her attend him to the tribunal, and consider the patience with which he endured the scoffs and reproaches of his enemies: lead her to the cross, and let her view him in the agony of death, and hear his last prayer for his persecutors: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" When Natural Religion has viewed both, ask, Which is the prophet of God? But her answer we have already had, when she saw part of this scene through the eyes of the centurion who attended at the cross by him she said, Truly, this was the Son of God."

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LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU. 1690-1762.

Tuis lady, the daughter of Evelyn, Earl of Kingston, was born at her father's seat at Thoresby, in Nottinghamshire, about the year 1690. Display ing great attractions of person as well as sprightliness of mind from her earli est years, she was the pride of her father, who took every pains with ner education, and had her instructed by the same masters as her brother in the Greek, Latin, and French languages. In 1712 she was married to Edward Wortley Montagu, Esq., and soon after this, resided principally in London,

where her wit, and learning, and beauty, acquired her a brilliant reputation Her husband had long been on intimate terms with Addison, Pope, and other eminent literary men of the day, and in that society she moved with the same lustre as in the circles of rank and fashion. In 1716, her husband was appointed ambassador to the Porte, and she accompanied him to Constantinople. During her residence here she addressed to her sister, to Mr. Pope, and other friends, the celebrated Letters upon which her fame principally rests. In 1718, her husband being recalled from his embassy, she returned to England, and, by the advice of Pope, settled at Twickenham. The warm friendship between these geniuses did not, however, very long continue; a coolness and finally an open quarrel ensued. The cause of it is involved in considerable mystery, but it is probable that the vanity and irritability of the poet were quite as much to blame as the levity and heartlessness of the lady.

Lady Mary's visit to Turkey, besides producing the Letters, is famous for having been followed by the introduction into England, through her means, of the practice of the innoculation for the small-pox. Observing this practice among the villages in Turkey, and seeing its good effects, she applied it to her own son, then about three years old, and by great exertions established the practice of innoculation in England. She resided in England for twenty years after her return from Constantinople, during which time she published a considerable quantity of verse, for it hardly deserves the name of poetry. It is enough to say of it, that, from its indelicate character, it has been excluded from the modern editions of her works. For reasons, the nature of which is not well known, she left England in 1739 without her husband, and resided most of the time, for twenty-two years, in Italy. She was prevailed upon, by the solicitations of her daughter, to return to England in 1761; but she did not survive her return to her native country a year, dying of a cancer in the breast, August 21, 1762.

Lady Montagu owes her reputation chiefly to her Letters from Constantinople. The picture of Eastern life and manners given in them, is in general as correct as it is clear, lively, and striking; and they abound not only in wit and humor, but in a depth and sagacity of remark conveyed in a style at once flowing and forcible, such as has rarely proceeded from a female pen. But these literary qualities are more than counterbalanced by the want of that delicacy, that refinement of feeling, and those pure moral sentiments, without which the female character is any thing but an object of admiration. desire to convey scandal, or to paint graphically, leads her into offensive de tails, which the more decorous taste of the present age can hardly tolerate, She described what she saw and heard without being scrupulous; and her strong masculine understanding, and carelessness as to refinement in habits or expressions, render her sometimes apparently unamiable as well as unfeel. ing." Still her letters are models of epistolary style, and from them, as such, we present a few extracts that are unexceptionable.

To MR. POPE.

*

EASTERN MANNERS AND LANGUAGE.

"Her

ADRIANOPLE, April 1, O. S., 1717

I no longer look upon Theocritus as a romantic write. he has only given a plain image of the way of life amongst the peasants of his country, who, before oppression had reduced them to want, were, I suppose, all employed as the better sort of them

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