himself: he that places his temporal consequence on his merit, and not on his situation, fixes it on a ground which all the world cannot remove. Prudence is this man's steward; Independence, his herald; and Beneficence, led by Justice, his almoner.

EVIL.

1.

CONTINUANCE of evil, doth of itself in

crease evil.

Remark.

The animal economy is worn, by too severe a tension to support itself under repeated attacks of misfortune; and therefore, persons of weakened nerves often appear to be more affected with the continuance of a calamity, than by the violence of its first shock.

2.

There is nothing evil but what is within us; the rest is either natural or accidental.

Remark.

Our griefs, as well as our joys, owe their strongest colours to our imaginations. There is nothing so grievous to be borne, that pondering upon will not make heavier; and there is no pleasure so vivid, that the animation of fancy cannot enliven.

PAIN.

Ir is the nature of pain, (the present being intolerable,) to desire change, and put to adventure the ensuing.

Remark.

For the suffering of pain is like the endurance of other evils; the spirits are often exhausted, while the heart is firm but tortured nature requires some relief; and change of measures, by dissipating irritability, gives a momentary respite to pangs, which, by tearing the frame, deprive its finer parts of their resisting power.

ADVERSITY AND GRIEF.

1.

O, WRETCHED mankind! In whom wit, which should be the governor of his welfare, becomes the traitor to his blessedness! Beasts, like children to nature, inherit her blessings quietly: we, like bastards, are laid abroad even

as foundlings, to be trained up by grief and

sorrow.

Remark.

And that such scholars are best taught, we have only to turn our eyes on the lives of Alfred the Great, Gustavus Vasa, Demetrius of Muscovy, and many others, to be convinced. that there is no mode of instruction to equal the discipline of adversity.

2.

The violence of sorrow is not at the first to be striven withal; being like a mighty beast, sooner tamed with following than overthrown by withstanding. Would you comfort the afflicted, give way unto him for the first days of his woe; never troubling him with either asking questions, or finding fault with his melancholy; but rather fitting to his dolour, dolorous discourses of your own and other folk's misfortunes: which speeches, though they have not a lively entrance to his senses shut up in sorrow, yet, like one half-asleep,

he will take hold of much of the matters spoken unto him; so, as a man may say, ere sorrow is aware, you make his thoughts bear away something else besides griefs.

Remark.

Mr. Cowper, the author of the Task, (a poet who seems to have inherited the harp of David,) has beautifully versified this sentiment in a sweet little poem, called the Rose.

3.

Adverse fortunes are to prove whether the goodly tree of virtue lives in all soils.

4.

Can human chances be counted an overthrow to him who stands upon virtue?

5.

As in a picture, which receives greater life by the darkness of shadows, than by glittering colours, so the shape of loveliness is perceived more perfect in woe than in joyfulness.