The Juvenile Mentor, Or, Select Readings

5. Every person must influence the happiness of others, by his disponi rion, either to hurt or benefit them. Proper resentment for injustice at #empted, or actually committed, is the only motive that can justify our dis. turbing the happiness of our neighbour.

6. A sacred regard for the happiness of others, so as not to disturb it, even when no law protects them, constitutes the character of a just man.

7. After himself, a man's family are naturally the objects of his warmegi affection. Children have our highest sympathy. Our tenderness for them is more active than our reverence and gratitude for our parents. The weakness of children interests the affections of the most brutal; while the infirmities of old age arc objects of contempt to all but the good.

8. Next to the relations of parents and children, are those of brothers and sisters, and so on through all the relations of consanguinity. Their habitual intercourse produces habitual sympathy, called affection. The good and virtuous regard these ties, and the dissipated and profligate des. pise them.

9. Next to our relatives come those who are recommended by their per sonal qualities. This is founded upon approbation of an individual's conduct, confirmed by long acquaintance, and is called by the venerable and sacred name of friendship.

10. Benefactors, who have rendered us a kindness, have a natural claim upon our gratitude. Those also who are distinguished by their extraordinary situations excite our attention. As the greatly fortunate, and the greatly unfortunate ; the rich and the powerful, and the poor and wretched. The peace and order of society depend on our respect for the former ; the relief of human misery, on our compassion for the latter.

11. The state, or sovereignty, in which we are born and educated, is next recommended to our affection. Not only we ourselves, but all the objects of our love, our children, our parents, our relatives, our friends, our benefactors, are all comprehended in it. Every good citizen loves his country, respects its laws, and wishes to promote, by every means in his power, the welfare of the whole society, in which he lives.

12. A good man loves all mankind, because they all are under the special care of that great, benevolent, and all wise Being, who created, maintains, and directs all things, at all times, for the general good.

13. A fatherless world is the most melancholy of all reflections. The highest splendour cannot enlighten the gloom, which such an idea spreads over the imagination. Nor can the most afflicting adversity disturb the joy of the good man, under the conviction that this world has a wise and benevolent Father for its Protector and Guide.

14. From this view of a Providence, mạn discovers himself to be a moral agent, bound to take care of his own happiness, that of his family, his friends, and his country; making his own interest his motive, and God's will his rule of conduct. This rule is known from God's declarations in the scriptures, or by his works, denominated the law of nature.

15. The method of coming at the will of God, concerning any action, by the light of nature, is to inquire into the tendency of the action to promote or diminish the general happiness. It is evident, that God, when he made man, willed and wished his happiness. Every child at its sport, even the most trivial occurrence, demonstrates the finger of God:

16. Therefore, he who best promotes his own happiness, that of his family, his friends, his country, and of mankind, acts most consistently with the will of God, and thus performs, in the most perfect manner, his moral obligations

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