The English Reader.

PART I.

PIECES IN PROSE.

CHAPTER I.

SELECT SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS.

SECTION I.

DILIGENCE, induftry, and proper improvement of

time, are material duties of the young.

The acquifition of knowledge is one of the most honourable occupations of youth.

Whatever useful or engaging endowments we poffefs, virtue is requinte, in order to their fhining with proper lustre. Virtuous youth gradually brings forward accomplished and flourishing manhood.

Sincerity and truth form the bafis of every virtue.

Disappointments and diftrefs are often bleffings in disguise. Change and alteration form the very effence of the world. True happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noife.

NOTE.

In the first chapter, the compiler has exhibited sentences in a great variety of construction, and in all the diversity of punctuation. If well practised upon, he presumes they will fully prepare the young reader for the various pauses, inflections, and modulations of voice, which the succeeding pieces require. The Author's "English Exercises," under the head of Punctuation, will afford the learner additional scope for improving himself in reading sentences and paragraphs variously constructed.

In order to acquire a capacity for happiness, it must be our firft ftudy to rectify inward diforders.

Whatever purifies, fortifies alfo the heart.

From our eagerness to grafp, we ftrangle and deftroy pleasure.

A temperate spirit, and moderate expectations, are excellent fafeguards of the mind, in this uncertain and changing ftate.

There is nothing, except fimplicity of intention, and purity of principle, that can ftand the teft of near reproach and strict examination.

The value of any poffeffion is to be chiefly eftimated, by the relief which it can bring us in the time of our greatest need.

No person who has once yielded up the government of his mind, and given loofe rein to his defires and paffions, can tell how far thefe may carry him.

Tranquillity of mind is always most likely to be attained, when the bufinefs of the world is tempered with thoughtful and ferious retreat.

He who would act like a wife man, and build his house on the rock, and not on the fand, fhould contemplate human life, not only in the funfhine, but in the fhade.

Let usefulness and beneficence, not oftentation and vanity, direct the train of your pursuits.

To maintain a steady and unbroken mind,. amidst all the fhocks of the world, marks a great and noble spirit.

Patience, by preferving compofure within, refifts the impreffion which trouble makes from without.

Compaffionate affections, even when they draw tears from our eyes for human mifery, convey fatisfaction to the heart. They who have nothing to give, can often afford relief to others, by imparting what they feel.

Our ignorance of what is to come, and of what is really good or evil, fhould correct anxiety about worldly fuccefs. The veil which covers from our fight the events of fucceeding years, is a veil woven by the hand of mercy.

The beft preparation for all the uncertainties of futurity, confifts in a well ordered mind, a good conscience, and a cheerful fubmiffion to the will of heaven.

SECTION II.

THE chief misfortunes that befall us in life, can be traced to fome vices or follies which we have committed.

Were we to furvey the chambers of fickness and distress, we should often find them peopled with the victims of intemperance and fenfuality, and with the children of vicious indolence and floth.

To be wife in our own eyes, to be wife in the opinion of the world, and to be wife in the fight of our Creator, are three things fo very different, as rarely to coincide.

Man, in his highest earthly glory, is but a reed floating on the stream of time, and forced to follow every new direction of the current..

The corrupted temper, and the guilty paffions of the bad, fruftrate the effect of every advantage which the world confers on them.

The external misfortunes of life, difappointments, poverty, and fickness, are light in comparison of those inward diftreffes of mind, occafioned by folly, by paffion, and by guilt.

No ftation is fo high, no power fo great, no character fo unblemished, as to exempt men from the attacks of rafhnefs, malice or envy.

Moral and religious inftruction derives its efficacy, not fo much from what men are taught to know, as from what they are brought to feel.

He who pretends to great fenfibility towards men, and yet has no feeling for the high objects of religion, no heart to admire and adore the great Father of the universe, has reafon to diftruft the truth and delicacy of his fenfibility.

When, upon rational and fober inquiry, we have established our principles, let us not fuffer them to be fhaken by the fcoffs of the licentious, or the cavils of the fkeptical.

When we obferve any tendency to treat religion or morals with difrefpect and levity, let us hold it to be a fure indication of a perverted understanding, or a depraved heart.

Every degree of guilt incurred by yielding to temptation, tends to debafe the mind, and to weaken the generous and benevolent principles of human nature.

Luxury, pride, and vanity, have frequently as much influence in corrupting the fentiments of the great, as ignorance,

bigotry, and prejudice, have in misleading the opinions of the multitude.

Mixed as the prefent ftate is, reafon and religion pronounce, that generally, if not always, there is more happinefs than mifery, more pleasure than pain, in the condition of man.

Society, when formed, requires diftinctions of property, diverfity of conditions, fubordination of ranks, and a multiplicity of occupations, in order to advance the general good,

That the temper, the fentiments, the morality, and, in general, the whole conduct and character of men, are influenced by the example and difpofition of the perfons with whom they affociate, is a reflection which has long fince paffed into a proverb, and been ranked among the standing maxims of human wisdom, in all ages of the world.

SECTION III.

THE defire of improvement difcovers a liberal mind; and is connected with many accomplishments, and many virtues. Innocence confers eafe and freedom on the mind; and leaves it open to every pleafing fenfation.

Moderate and fimple pleafures relith high with the temperate in the midst of his studied refinements, the voluptuary languifhes.

Gentlenefs corrects whatever is offenfive in our manners; and, by a conftant train of huniane attentions, studies to alleviate the burden of common mifery.

That gentleness which is the characteristic of a good man, has, like every other virtue, its feat in the heart: and, let me add, nothing except what flows from the heart, can render even external manners truly pleafing.

Virtue, to become either vigorous or ufeful, must be habitually active not breaking forth occafionally with a tranfient luftre, like the blaze of the comet; but regular in its returns, like the light of day not like the aromatic gale, which fometimes feafts the fenfe; but like the ordinary breeze, which purifies the air, and renders it healthful.

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The happiness of every man depends more upon the state of his own mind, than upon any one external circumstance; nay, more than upon all external things put together.

In no ftation, in no period, let us think ourselves fecure from the dangers which fpring from our paffions. Every age, and every ftation they befet; from youth to gray hairs, and from the peafant to the prince.

Riches and pleasures are the chief temptations to criminal deeds. Yet thofe riches, when obtained, may very poffibly overwhelm us with unforefeen miferies. Those pleasures may cut short our health and life.

He who is accustomed to turn afide from the world, and commune with hirafelf in retirement, will, fometimes at let, hear the truths which the multitude do not tell him. A more found instructor will lift his voice, and awaken within the heart thofe latent fuggeftions, which the world had overpowered and fuppreffed.

Amusement often becomes the business, inftead of the relaxation, of young perfons: it is then highly pernicious.

He that waits for an opportunity to do much at once, may breathe out his life in idle wishes; and regret, in the last hour, his useless intentions and barren zeal.

The fpirit of true religion breathes mildnefs and affability. It gives a native, unaffected eafe to the behaviour. It is focial, kind, and cheerful: far removed from that gloomy and illiberal superstition, which clouds the brow, fharpens the temper, dejects the fpirit, and teaches men to fit themfelves for another world, by neglecting the concerns of this.

Reveal none of the fecrets of thy friend. Be faithful to his interefts. Forfake him not in danger. Abhor the thought of acquiring any advantage by his prejudice.

Man, always profperous, would be giddy and infolent; always afflicted, would be fullen or defpondent. Hopes and fears, joy and forrow, are, therefore, fo blended in his life, as both to give room for worldly purfuits, and to recall, from me to time, the admonitions of confcience.

SECTION IV.

TIME once past never returns: the moment which is loft, is loft for ever.

There is nothing on earth fo ftable, as to affure us of undisturbed reft; nor fo powerful, as to afford us constant protection.

The house of feing too often becomes an avenue to the