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plain that Providence has been unkind; has strewed his path with thorns, and embittered every thing to him. Is there no pleasure to be found in conversation; in reading, in exercise; in viewing the works of nature and art; in friendship; in gaining information, in imparting it; in sympathy, in charity; in the moderate use of the blessings of Providence; in the use of our faculties; in the variety of scene; in rest after labour; in society; in vocal and instrumental harmony; in performing kind offices to our fellow-creatures; in study; in business; in the family; in meeting absent relatives; in daily preservation of our senses, our mercies, our lives? Now in all these, as well as in many others not mentioned, is there no enjoyment? Certainly there is. Man is not necessitated therefore to seek illicit pleasures pleasures which fascinate the senses, excite cupidity, waste time, violate decency, destroy property, injure health, lead to poverty, and often to ruin, These are the pleasures which we would proscribe, however patronized, however general, however defended. All are delusory and vain. It is no matter by what name they are called;

how dexterously concealed; how public and splendid they appear; nor what approbation they receive from the multitude-one broad sentence appears written on them all: "to be carnally minded is death."* Listen, reader, then, to that voice which says, "that the friendship of the world is enmity with God; whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world, is the enemy of God. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."

* Romans viii. 6.

† 1 John ii. 15, 16, 17.

2 Cor. vi. 17, 18.

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AND what is power? Is it that which can secure our lives, or even render them less subject to care? Are those who move in the most elevated circles, and to whom the world look up with a kind of awe, the most happy among mankind? do not the bitter streams of human adversity find their way into the palace, as well as into the cottage? Nay, while the peasant, from the very nature of his situation, has but little comparatively to disturb his mind, the prince is involved in multitudinous cares, which his dignity can neither remove nor his power prevent. Besides too, how exposed are even the greatest to innumerable vicissitudes, by which authority may be lost, or power and influence reduced? But surely, say some, it must be a great thing to wear a crown, to sway a sceptre, to have multitudes at command, and to do what we please! Yes, and so it must, if happiness consisted in royalty. But kings are mortals like ourselves; they are composed of the same, material, they breathe the same air, they inhabit the

same disordered world, they possess the same nature, and feel the same wants as others. The royal blood that flows in their veins does not exempt them from the ills of life, and the woes attendant on fallen humanity; nor have they any exclusive grant from the Sovereign of the world to uninterrupted felicity. On the contrary, their crown is often a crown of thorns instead of glo- ry; their garments have been rolled in blood; and their path beset with difficulties unknown to others. Indeed, what is more affecting than the history of human greatness! The annals of regal authority present us with some frightful pictures of human nature. What dreadful battles have been fought, what ravages have been committed, what blood has been shed, to obtain a crown! Over what fields of the slain, what heaps of dying mortals, have some stept to the throne! And when there, how has it tottered under them; and the storms of national adversity rendered all precarious and insecure. "Their greatness makes them too the fairer marks for envy to shoot at, and inflames many to use all their art and power to undermine them, that they may raise their own réputation and

preferment upon their ruins.

are apt to be afraid of all,

Kings therefore

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casions to hate even those whom they have cho sen to guard them. And, in this respect, as, Seneca says, "kings are in a worse condition than servants; for these fear one, but they all."* David was a good king, as well as great; but how accumulated were his troubles; how numerous his enemies; and how many of these would he have escaped, had he remained the humble shepherd! How many of the kings of Israel were slain by their own subjects! Julius Cæsar, who was the emperor of the Roman monarchy, was murdered in the senate house by those who had formerly been his friends. The excellent character of the Emperor Justinian did not prevent his own subjects from murdering him. The Emperor Henry IV. it is said, was deposed from his crown, in his old age, and reduced to such poverty, as to beg a poor prebend in the church of Asia. Bajazet, the proud Emperor of the Turks, confessed to Tamerlane the Tartar, that, if he had taken him,

* Mrs. Head.

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