That love of life increased with years When pains grow sharp and sickness rages, 2. This great affection to believe, Which all confess, but few perceive, If old assertions can't prevail, Be pleased to hear a modern tale. 3. When sports went round, and all were gay On neighbor Dobson's wedding-day, Death called aside the jocund groom With him into another room; And looking grave, "You must," says he, 66 4. "With you! and quit my Susan's side! 66 5. Yet, calling up a serious look His hour-glass trembled while he spoke,- Of cruelty upon my name, To give you time for preparation, Three several warnings you shall have, In hopes you'll have no more to say, Well pleased, the world will leave." 6. What next the hero of our tale befell, How long he lived, how wisely,—and how well It pleased him, in his prosperous course, To smoke his pipe, and pat his horse,— The willing muse shall tell : He chaffered then, he bought, he sold, But, while he viewed his wealth increase,- Brought on his eightieth year. 7. And now, one night, in musing mood, As all alone he sate, The unwelcome messenger of fate Once more before him stood. Half killed with anger and surprise, "Tis six-and-thirty years at least, 8. "So much the worse!" the clown rejoined: "To spare the aged would be kind : Besides, you promised me three warnings, Which I have looked for nights and mornings." "I know," cries Death, "that, at the best, I seldom am a welcome guest; But don't be captious, friend, at least: And sure, to see one's loves and friends, 66 "This is a shocking story, faith; Yet there's some comfort, still," says Death: I warrant hear all the news." you 10. "There's none," cries he;" and if there were, You've had your three sufficient warnings: LESSON CVII. The Dervis and the Two Merchants.-LACON. 1. THE ignorant have often given credit to the wise, for powers that are permitted to none, merely because the wise have made a proper use of those powers that are permitted to all. 2. The little Arabian tale of the dervis, shall be the comment of this proposition. A dervis was journeying alone in the desert, when two merchants suddenly met him; "You have lost a camel," said he to the merchants; "indeed we have," they replied: 3. "Was he not blind in his right eye, and lame in his left leg?" said the dervis; "he was," replied the merchants; "had he not lost a front tooth?" said the dervis, "he had," rejoined the merchants; "and was he not loaded with honey on one side and wheat on the other?"-" most certainly he was," they replied, "and as you have seen him so lately, and marked him so particularly, you can, in all probability, conduct us unto him.' 4. "My friends," said the dervis, "I have never seen your camel, nor ever heard of him but from you." "A pretty story, truly," said the merchants, "but where are the jewels which formed a part of his cargo?" "I have neither seen your camel, nor your jewels," repeated the dervis. 5. On this, they seized his person, and forthwith hurried him before the cadi,* where, on the strictest search, nothing could be found upon him, nor could any evidence whatever be adduced to convict him, either of falsehood or theft. 6. They were then about to proceed against him as a sorcerer, when the dervis, with great calmness, thus addressed the court: "I have been much amused with your surprise, and own that there has been some ground for your suspicions; I have lived long, and alone; I can find ample scope for observation, even in a desert. 7. "I knew that I had crossed the track of a camel that had strayed from its owner, because I saw no mark of any human footstep on the same route; I knew that the animal was blind of one eye, because it had cropped the herbage only on one side of its path and I perceived that it was lame in one leg, from the faint impression that particular foot had produced on the sand; I concluded, that the animal had lost one tooth, because wherever it had grazed, a small tuft of herbage was left uninjured, in the centre of its bite. 8. "As to that which formed the burden of the beast, the busy ants informed me that it was corn on the one side, and the clustering flies, that it was honey on the other." LESSON CVIII. On the Present and Future State.-ADDISON. 1. A LEWD young fellow seeing an aged hermit go by him barefoot, "Father," says he, " you are in a very miserable condition, if there is not another world." "True, son," said the hermit; "but what is thy condition if there is ?”—Man is a creature designed for two different states of being, or rather for two different lives. His first life is short and transient; his second permanent and lasting. 2. The question we are all concerned in, is this—In which of these two lives is it our chief interest to make ourselves happy? Or, in other words—Whether we should endeavour to secure to ourselves the pleasures and gratifications of a life which is uncertain and precarious, and at its utmost length, of a very inconsiderable duration; or to secure to ourselves the pleasures of a A Turkish magistrate. life which is fixed and settled, and will never end? Every man, upon the first hearing of this question, knows very well which side of it he ought to close with. 3. But however right we are in theory, it is plain that in practice we adhere to the wrong side of the question. We make provision for this life as though it were never to have an end; and for the other life as though it were never to have a beginning. 4. Should a spirit of superior rank, who is a stranger to human nature, accidentally alight upon this earth, and take a survey of its inhabitants-What would his notions of us be? Would he not think that we are a species of beings made for quite different ends and purposes than what we really are? Must he not imagine that we were placed in this world to get riches and honors? Would he not think that it was our duty to toil after wealth, and station, and title? 5. Nay, would he not believe we were forbidden poverty, by threats of eternal punishment, and enjoined to pursue our pleasures, under pain of damnation? He would certainly imagine that we were influenced by a scheme of duties quite opposite to those which are indeed prescribed to us. 6. And, truly, according to such an imagination, he must conclude that we are a species of the most obedient creatures in the universe; that we are constant to our duty; and that we keep a steady eye on the end for which we were sent hither. 7. But how great would be his astonishment, when he learnt that we were beings not designed to exist in this world above three score and ten years: and that the greatest part of this busy species fall short even of that age! How would he be lost in horror and admiration, when he should know that this set of creatures, who lay out all their endeavors for this life, which scarce deserves the name of existence, when, I say, he should know that this set of creatures are to exist to all eternity in another life, for which they make no preparations? 8. Nothing can be a greater disgrace to reason, than that men who are persuaded of these two different states of being, should be perpetually employed in providing for a life of three score and ten years, and neglecting to make provision for that, which, after many myriads of years, will be still new and still beginning; especially when we consider, that our endeavors for making ourselves great, or rich, or honorable, or whatever else we place our happiness in, may, after all, prove unsuccessful; whereas, if we constantly and sincerely endeavor to make ourselves happy in |