hoards, exploring every corner, laughing at his miserly precautions, throwing aside his rags with contempt, and finally order-. ing, as the most disgusting of all intruders, his spare and care-worn body to be concealed in the earth as speedily as possible; although he can scarcely forbear the remark (which Nero made on his mother) that he never before thought him so handsome as he appears now dead.

Notwithstanding what I have said, I do not mean to infer that avarice is always carried to such extremes, though the first steps in error once overcome, the propensity daily strengthens, and contracting and hardening the heart, no one can say where the evil will stop ;-guard, therefore, against the advances of this passion, and endeavour to pursue the prudent midway between avarice and profusion.

To

To continue the subject.-The unprincipled heir seizes all, he assumes his sables as a robe of triumph, and marks his duty to his predecessor (or rather his own pride) by a sumptuous funeral; at which even the very horses sweat under the weight of velvet and plumes, as they drag the poor wretched body, which living shuddered in the keenest weather for need of proper cloathing.

Careful to secure him, as he was heretofore to secure his darling gold, his heir causes him to he soldered in lead, and entombed in ponderous marble; on the outside of which he employs the sculptor to carve some symbolic virtue, or rather perhaps, engages some hireling to compose a pompous epitaph, and a list of great qualifications, to engrave over the dust of a wretched sinner who possessed not a single virtue.

2

"

The

The ceremony over, behold the rich heir, unacquainted with the real worth of what he possesses, rushing into every dissipation and folly. Such immense sums. as he possesses he thinks can never be expended; he purchases land, he builds magnificent houses, lays out extensive gardens, prides himself on the number and elegance of his carriages-his horses are the finest in the kingdom, he keeps a sumptuous table, and outstrips all his competitors in luxury and extravagance. The delicacies of his own country, and the forced rarities of the hot-house fade upon his palate, and the most expensive sauces and foreign wines are necessary to quicken his vitiated appetite. Dissipation and luxury at length ruin his health, his race horses lose the enormous sums he lavishes upon their success, he gambles deeply, his ready money in time becomes expended, his estate is mortgaged, but his profusion, to the extent

of

of his power, still continues; till, at length, bankrupt in fame, health, and fortune, he is forced to relinquish those vanities in which all his enjoyments were centred, and shudder in poverty and want almost equal to the voluntary wretchedness of his predecessor, of whose riches he has made so unworthy a úse. His death is equally miserable; no one has reason to mourn his fall, for he was a friend to none, and sought only his own gratification-and as he lived unhonoured, so he dies unlamented.-Those who should have inherited his wealth, detest his memory, and execrating his extravagance, barely allow the poorest means of concealing his late pampered body, which decays without even a single stone, or grassy hillock to mark where it lies.

ON

ON INDUSTRY AND PRUDENCE,

The bread gained by industry is the sweetest because it is eaten with satisfaction.".

MEN have heretofore been

said to possess the art of making gold, and with justice; not however by any pretended secret in chemistry, but simply by the fruits of industry cultured by prudence.

An active and prudent man finds proper employment for every hour in the day, and has no leisure for vicious pursuits.

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