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touch. We thus enter the bowers of ease, and repose in the shades of security.

16. "Here the heart softens, and vigilancer 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 pur

pose to return. But temptation succeeds temptation, and one compliance prepares us for another; we in time lose the happiness of innocence, and solace our disquiet with sensual gratification.

17. "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.

18. "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 efforts to be made that reformation 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 1.

In-he-rent, In-hé'-rênt, existing în Al-lu-sion, ål-lu'-zhân, a reference to c Stat-ue, stát -tshu, an image Su-per-flu-ous, su-pêr'-flù-ås, exubej rant, over-abundant

e Sculp-tor, skålp'-tår, a carver in wood

or stone

f Ple-be-ian, plè’-bè-yân, vulgar, common, mean person

g Fi-del-i-ty, fè-del-è tè, faithful ad herence

1.

I

i

h In-sig-nif-i-cant, in-sig-nif-fè-kint,
unimportant, unmeaning
De-ny, de-n', to refuse, disown
Un-spea-ka-ble, în-spé'-kâ-bl, not to
be expressed

k

m

Flour-ish, flor'-rish, to prosper, boast, Phid-i-as, fid-e-as, a celebrated statuary of Athens

Prax-it-e-les, pråks-it'-d-lèz, a fa mous sculptor of Magua Graecia

The importance of a good Education.

CONSIDER a human soul, without education, like marble in a quarry which shows none of its inherenta beauties, until 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.

2. If my reader will give me leave to change the allusion so soon upon him, I shall make use of the same instance to illustrate the force of education, which Aristotle has brought to explain his doctrine of substantial forms, when he tells us that a statues lies hid in a block of marble; and that the art of the statuary only clears away the superfluous matter, and removes the rubbish. The figure is in the stone, and the sculptor only finds it.

3. What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul. The philosopher, the saint, or the hero, the wise, the good, or the great man, very often lies hid and concealed in a plebeian, which a proper education might have disinterred, and have brought to light. I am therefore much delighted with reading the accounts of gavage nations; and with contemplating those virtues

which are wild and uncultivated to see courage exerting itself in fierceness, resolution in obstinacy, wisdom in cunning, patience in sullenness and despair."

:

4. Men's passions operate variously, and appear in different kinds of actions, according as they are more or less rectified and swayed by reason. When one hears of negroes, who, upon the death of their masters, or upon changing their service, hang themselves upon the next tree, as it sometimes happens in our American plantations, who can forbear admiring their fidelity, though it expresses itself in so dreadful a manner?

5. What might not that savage greatness of soul, which appears in those poor wretches on many occasions, be raised to, were it rightly cultivated? And what colour of excuse can there be, for the contempt with which we treat this part of our species; that we should not put them upon the common footing of humanity; that we should only set an insignificant fine upon the man who murders them; nay, that we should, as much as in us ies, cut them off from the prospects of happiness in another world, as well as in this; and deny them that which we look upon as the proper means for attaining it?

6. It is therefore an unspeakable blessing, to be born in those parts of the world where wisdom and knowledge flourish; though, it must be confessed, there are, even in these parts, several poor uninstructed persons, who are but little above the inhabitants of those nations, of which I have been here speaking; as those, who have had the advantages of a more liberal education, rise above one another by several different degrees of perfection.

7. For, to return to our statue in the block of marble, we see it sometimes only begun to be chipped, sometimes rough hewn, and but just sketched into a human figure; sometimes we see the man appearing distinctly in all his limbs and features; sometimes, we find the figure wrought up to great elegancy; but seldom meet with any to which the hand of a Phidiast or a Praxiteles could not give se veral nice touches and finishings.

ADDISON.

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a. Dif-fi-cult,dif'-fè-kålt, hard to please, e En-joy, ên-joè', to feel with pleasure troublesome

b Pos-i-tive, poz'-zé-tiv, real, direct
e En-join, ên-join', to direct, to order
d Ben-e-fit, ben'-e-fit, a kindness, ad
vantage, to help

f Sen-sa-tion, sen-sà'-shin, perception by the senses

Ex-alt, egz-ålt', to elevate, to extol Rap-ture, rap'-tshåre, ecstacy, transport

Hence fretfulness and ill-humour, disgust at the world, and all the painful sensations of an irritated and embit tered mind.

4. So numerous and great are the evils arising from a suspicious disposition, that, of the two extremes, it is more eligible to expose ourselves to occasional disadvan tage from thinking too well of others, than to suffer continual misery by thinking always ill of them. It is better to be sometimes imposed upon, than never to trust. Safety is purchased at too dear a rate, when, in order to secure it, we are obliged to be always clad in armour, and to live in perpetual hostility with our fellows.

5. This is, for the sake of living, to deprive ourselves of the comfort of life. The man of candour enjoys his situation, whatever it is, with cheerfulness and peace. Prudence directs his intercourse with the world; but no black suspicions haunt his hours of rest. Accustomed to view the characters of his neighbours in the most favourable light, he is like one who dwells amidst those beautiful scenes of nature on which the eye rests with pleasure.

6. Whereas the suspicious man having his imagination filled with all the shocking forms of human falsehood, deceit, and treachery, resembles the traveller in the wilderness, who discerns no objects around him but such as are either dreary or terrible; caverns; that open, serpents that hiss, and beasts of prey that howl.

SECTION VI.

a Re-source, re-sorse', resort, expedient to be approached
b De-lu-sive, de-lu-alv, apt to deceivee
c Gen-er-ous, jên'-ar-us, noble, munifi- tion

cent

d In-acces-si-ble, In-åk-ses'-sè-bl, not]

f

BLAIR.

Refuge, ref-füdje, shelter, protec

Re-tain, re-tare', to keep in mind,

not to dismiss

Comfort of Religion.

1. THERE are many who have passed the age of youth and beauty; who having resigned the pleasures of that smiling season; who begin to decline into the vale of years, impaired in their health, depressed in their fortunes, stript of their friends, their children, and perhaps still more tender connexions. What resources can this world afford them? It presents a dark and dreary waste, through which there does not issue a single ray of comfort.

2. Every delusive prospect of ambition is now at an end; long experience of mankind, an experience very different from what the open and generous soul of youth had fondly dreampt of, has rendered the heart almost inaccessible to new friendships. The principal sources of activity are taken away, when they for whom we labour are cut off from us; they who animated, and whe weetened all the toils of life.

3. Where can the soul find refuge, but in the bosom of Religion? There she is admitted to those prospects of Providence and feturity, which alone can warm and fill the heart. I speak here of such as retain the feel ings of humanity: whom misfortunes have softened, and perhaps rendered more delicately sensible; not of such as possess that stupid in onsibility, which some are pleased to dignity with the name of philosophy.

4. It right therefore be expected, that those philosophers who think they stand in no need themselves of the assistance of religion to support the virtue, and who never feel the want of is consolations, would yet have the humanity to consider the very different situation of the rest of mankind; and not endeavour to deprive them of what habit at least, if they will not allow it to be nature, has made necessary to their morals, and to their happi

ness.

5. It might be expected, that humanity would prevent them from breaking into the last retreat of the unfortu nate, who can no longer be objects of their envy or reBentment; and tearing from them their only remaining comfort. The attempt to ridicule religion may be agreeable to some, by relieving them from restraint upon their pleasures; and may render others very miserable, by making them doubt those truths, in which they were most deeply interested; but it can convey real good and happiness to no one individual.

SECTION VII.

GREGORY.

Dis-cern, diz-zêrn', to see, distinguish ƒ Ex-plode, eks-plode", to decry, drive Hu-mil-i-ty, hu-mil'-e-tè, modesty, out with noise

lowliness

e Grace-ful-ly, gråse'-fil-lè, nóautifully

d Re-serve, rè'-zerv', to keep in store Pro-ficien-cy, pro-fish-an-se, advancement in learning, profit

g Con-fu-ta-tion, kôn-fb-tå ́-shôn, act of confuting

A Am-ber, m'-bår, a yellow transpa-
rent substance

Mass, más, a body, the service of the
Roman church

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