prostrated himself on the ground, and recommended his life to the Lord of Nature. He rose with confidence and tranquility, and pressed on with resolution. The beasts of the desert were in motion, and on every hand were heard the mingled howls of rage and fear, and ravage and expiration. All the horrors of darkness and solitude surrounded him: the winds roared in the woods; and the torrents tumbled from the hills.

Thus forlorn and distressed, he wandered through the wild, without knowing whither he was going, or whether he was cvery moment drawing nearer to safety, or to destruction. At length, not fear, but labour, began to overcome him; his breath grew short, and his knees trembled; and he was on the point of lying down in resignation to his fate, when he beheld, through the brambles, the glimmer of a taper. He advanced towards the light; and finding that it proceeded from the cottage of a hermit, he called humbly at the door, and obtained admission. The old man set before him such provisions as he had collected for himself, on which Obidah fed with eagerness and gratitude. . When the repast was over, "Tell me," said the hermit, " by what chance thou hast been brought hither? I have been now twenty years an inhabitant of the wilderness, in which I never saw a man before."

Obidah then related the occurrences of his journey, without any concealment or palliation.

"Son," said the hermit, "let the errors and follies, the dangers and escape of this day, sink deep into thy heart. Remember, my son, that human life is the journey of a day. We rise in the morning of youth, full of vigour and full of expectation; we set forward with spirit and hope, with gaiety and with dili gence, and travel op awhile in the direct road of piety towards the mansions of rest. In a short time, we remit our fervour, and endeavour to find some mitigation of our duty, and some more easy means of obtaining the same end. We then relax our vigour, and resolve no longer to be terrified with crimes at a distance; but rely upon our own constancy, and venture to approach what we resolve never to touch. We thus enter the bowers of ease, and repose in the shades of security. Here the heart softens and vigilance subsides; we are then willing to inquire whether another advance cannot be made, and whether We may not, at least, turn our eyes upon the gardens of pleasure. We approach them with scruple and hesitation; we enter them, but enter timorous and trembling; and always hope to pass through them without losing the road of virtue, which for a while, we keep in our sight, and to which we purpose to return.

But temptation succeeds temptation, and one compliance pre pares us for another; we in time lose the happiness of innocence, and solace our disquiet with sensual gratifications. By degrees, we let fall the remembrance of our original intention, and quit the only adequate object of rational desire. We entangle ourselves in business, immerge ourselves in luxury, and rove through the labyrinths of inconstancy; till the darkness of old age begins to invade us, and disease and anxiety obstruct our way. We then look back upon our lives with horror, with sorrow, with repentance: and wish, but too often vainly wish, that we had not forsaken the ways of virtue. Happy are they, my son, who shall learn from thy example, not to despair; but shall remember, that, though the day is past, and their strength is wasted, there yet remains one effort to be made: that refor mation is never hopeless, nor sincere endeavours ever unassisted; that the wanderer may at length return after all his errors; and that he who implores strength and courage from above, shall find danger and difficulty give way before him. Go now, my son, to thy repose: commit thyself to the care of Omnipotence; and when the morning calls again to toil, begin anew thy journey and thy life."

DR. JOHNSON.

CHAPTER III.

DIDACTIC PIECES.

SECTION I.

THE IMPORTANCE OF A GOOD EDUCATION.

CONSIDER a human soul, without education, like mar

Ible in the quarry, which shows nout of its inherent beat

ties, untill the skill of the polisher fetches out the colours, makes the surface shine, and discovers every ornamental cloud, spot, and vein, that runs through the body of it. Education, after the same manner, when it works upon a noble mind, draws out to view every latent virtue and perfection, which, without such helps, are never able to make their appearance.

reader will give me leave to change the allusion so soon m, I shall make use of the same instance to illustrate e of education, which Aristotle has brought to explain rine of substantial forms, when he tells us that a statue in a block of marble; and that the art of the statuary ars away the superfluous matter, and removes the rubThe figure is in the stone, and the sculptor only finds it. culpture is to a block of marble, education is to a hu

d.

The philosopher, the saint, or the hero, the wise, , or the great man, very often lies hid or concealed in an, which a proper education might have disinterred, e brought to light. I am therefore much delighted with the accounts of savage nations; and with contemplating irtues which are wild and uncultivated: to see courage itself in fierceness, resolution in obstinacy, wisdom in , patience in sullenness and despair.

s passions operate variously, and appear in different f actions, according as they are more or less rectified ayed by reason. When one hears of negroes, who, e death of their masters, or upon changing their service, emselves upon the next tree, as it sometimes happens in erican plantations, who can forbear admiring their fidelugh it expresses itself in so dreadful a manner! What ot that savage greatness of soul, which appears in these retches on many occasions, be raised too, were it rightly ed? And what colour of excuse can there be, for the ot with which we treat this part of our species; that we not put them upon the common foot of humanity; that we only set an insignificant fine upon the man who murders nay, that we should, as much as in us lies, cut them off e prospects of happiness in another world, as well as in and deny them that which we look upon as the proper of attaining it ? therefore an unspeakable blessing, to be born in those f the world where wisdom and knowledge flourish it must be confessed, there are even in these parts, poor uninstructed persons, who are but little above the ants of those nations of which I have been here speakthose who have had the advantages of a more liberal on, rise above one another by several different degrees fection. For, to return to our statue of the block ble, we see it sometimes only begun to be chipped, mes rough hewn, and but just sketched into a human - sometimes we see the man anneaving distineily in ali

his limbs and features; sometimes we find the figure wrought up to great elegancy: but seldom meet with any to which the band of a Phidias or a Praxitiles could not give several nice touches and finishings.

SECTION II.

ON GRATITUDE.

ADDISON.

THERE is not a more pleasing exercise of the mind, tha gratitude. It is accompanied with so great inward satisfaction, that the duty is sufficiently rewarded by the performance. It is not, like the practice of many other virtues, difficult and painful, but attended with so much pleasure, that were there no positive command which enjoined it, nor any recompence laid up for it hereafter, a generous mind would indulge in it, for the natural gratification which it affords.

If gratitude is due from man to man, how much more from man to his maker? The Supreme Being does not only confer upon us those bounties which proceed more immediately from his hand, but even those benefits which are conveyed to us by others. Every blessing we enjoy, by what means soever it may be derived upon us, is the gift of HIM who is the great Author of good, and the Father of mercies.

If gratitude, when exerted towards one another, naturally preduces a very pleasing sensation in the mind of a grateful man, it exalts the soul into rapture, when it is employed on this great object of gratitude; on this benificent Being, who has given us every thing we already possess, and from whom we expect every thing we yet hope for.

SECTION IN.

ON FORGIVENESS.

ADDISON.

THE most plain and natural sentiments of equity concur with divine authority, to enforce the duty of forgiveness. Let him who has never in his life done wrong, be allowed the privilege af remaining inexhorable. But let such as are conscious of frailties and crimes, consider forgiveness as a debt which they owe to others. Common failings are the strongest lesson of mutual forbearance. Were this virtue unknown among men, order and comfort, peace and repose, would be strangers to human life. Injuries retaliated according to the exhorbitant measure which passion prescribes, would excite resentment in retura. The injured person would become the injurer; and thus wrongs,

=ns, and fresh injuries, would circulate in endless suc il the world was rendered a field of blood. Of all the which invade the human breast, revenge is the most When allowed to reign with full dominion, it is more icient to poison the few pleasures which remain to man esent state. How much soever a person may suffer stice, he is always in hazard of suffering more from the ion of revenge. The violence of an enemy cannot inat is equal to the torment he creates to himself by means erce and desperate passions which he allows to rage in

evil spirits who inhabit the regions of misery, are repas delighting in revenge and cruelty. But all that is good in the universe, is on the side of clemency and The Almighty Ruler of the world, though for ages ofby the unrighteousness, and insulted by the impiety of "long-suffering and slow to anger." His Son, when he d in our nature, exhibited, both in his life and his death, illustrious example of forgiveness which the world ever If we look into the history of mankind, we shall find that, age, they who have been respected as worthy, or ads great, have been distinguished for this virtue. Rewells in little minds. A noble and magnanimous spirit is superior to it. This spirit suffers not from the injuries hose severe shocks which others feel. Collected within stands unmoved by their impotent assaults; and with genty, rather than with anger, looks down on their unworthy It has been truly said, that the greatest man on earth ooner commit an injury, than a good man can make himter by forgiving it.

SECTION TV.

MOTIVES TO THE PRACTICE OF GENTLENESS.

BLAIR.

romote the virtue of gentleness, we ought to view our er with an impartial eye; and to learn from our own to give that indulgence, which in our turn we claim. It which fills the world with so much harshness and severithe fullness of self-estimation, we forget what we are. Im attentions to which we are not entitled. We are rigooffences, as if we had never offended; unfeeling to disif we knew not what it was to suffer. From those airy of pride and folly, let us descend to our proper level.