ment of our own. Ir mankind had been perpetuated without their milder companions, a strong and iron race would have inhabited the earth. There is something in the active spirits and powers of the manly portion of our common species which loves difficulties, enterprise, exertion, dangers, and personal display. These qualities and propensities would too often animate self-love and selfishness into continual strife, civil discord, and battle, if no softer and kinder companions were about such beings, to occupy some portion of their thoughts and attentions, to create and cherish milder and sweeter feelings, and to provide for them the more soothing happiness of a quiet home and a domestic life. Tenderness, sympathy, good humour, smiles, gentleness, benignity, and affection, can diffuse pleasures more grateful than those of irritation and contest, and awaken the sensibilities that most favour intellectual and moral cultivation.-ceive or cannot comprehend shall SHARON TURNER. LET us at all times cherish in our minds an unrelaxing certainty, that we shall always find the Almighty perfect in his justice to us all, and in every thing, and individually to each of us, as soon as we obtain sufficient knowledge of his operations with respect to us. Let us wait with patience until what we do not per be satisfactorily elucidated to us. We expect this equity and considerWe cannot new model society, nor ation in our intercourse with each new mould or purify the public other. Let us also so conduct ourheart, but we can begin the ame-selves, in all our thoughts and feellioration by a firm and wise govern- ings with reference to Him, what Which Nature's self would rue.-THOMSON. THERE is no study, perhaps, more delightful than that of tracing the all-wise disposition of the Creator in the reciprocal uses to which all created things were designed. It is impossible to contemplate this subject without being struck with the infinite wisdom of Almighty God. We find things so connected together that they are all subservient to the same end, and all contribute to assist in the preservation of the several species. The death and destruction, therefore, of one thing, is made useful in the restitution of another, and this is one of the most interesting facts in the economy of Nature. Everything is so perfectly contrived, so wonderfully propagated, and so providentially supported, that we are not only lost in wonder when we reflect upon them, but are obliged to confess that, after all the researches and observations which have been made, an ample field still remains for fresh remarks, and interesting discoveries in the works of Nature: Almighty Being, Cause and support of all things, can I view These objects of my wonder; can I feel them. In every plant, in every insect, we may observe some beauty, or some curious properties which are not to be found in other bodies. On comparing them we shall be convinced that they were not created by chance, but were contrived for some useful purpose. II. IT is impossible to view the cheerfulness and happiness of animals and birds without pleasure; the latter, especially, appear to enjoy themselves during the fine weather, in spring and summer, with a degree of hilarity which might be almost envied. It is astonishing how much man might do to lessen the misery of those creatures, which are either given to him for food or use, or for adding to his pleasure, if he were so disposed. Instead of which, he often exercises a degree of wanton tyranny and cruelty over them, which cannot be too much deprecated, and for which no doubt he will be one day held accountable. Animals are so capable of showing gratitude and affection to those who have been kind to them, that I never see them subjected to ill-treatment, without feeling the utmost abhorrence of those who are inflicting it. I know many persons who, like myself, take a pleasure in seeing all the animals about them appear happy and contented. Cows will show their pleasure at seeing those who have been kind to them, by moving their ears gently, and putting out their wet noses. My old horse rests his head on the These fine sensations, and not think of thee? gate with great complacency, when It would afford me a satisfaction ceive an apple or a piece of bread. he sees me coming, expecting to rewhich I cannot describe, could II should even be sorry to see my think that these reflections, feebly poultry and pigs get out of my way as they are expressed, would lead with any symptoms of fear. any one to acknowledge the power and goodness of the Creator, as seen in the works of his creation, and to improve his mind by the study of III. LITTLE facts and circumstances, in the economy of Almighty God, have irresistible charms for me, and serve, like others more prominent, to show the perfect and beautiful manner, in and for which everything has been created. In contemplating them, what a delightful lesson may we not learn! We may find in them the strongest testimonies of the truth of revelation, and the superintendence of an all-wise and benevolent Creator. It has been well said, that in the book of Nature is written in the plainest characters the existence of a God, which revelation takes for granted; of a God, how full of contrivance! how fertile in expedients! how benevolent in his ends! At work everywhere,-everywhere, too, with equal diligence; leaving nothing incomplete; finishing "the hinge in the wing of an insect" as perfectly as if it were all he had to do; unconfounded by the multiplicity of objects, undistracted by their dispersion, unwearied by their incessant demands on him, fresh as on that day when the morning stars first sung together, and all nature shouted for joy. JESSE's Gleanings. SELECTIONS FROM DR. JOHNSON. THE day and the night succeed each other, the rotation of seasons diversify the year, the sun rises, attains the meridian, declines and sets, and the moon every night changes its form. If the wheel of life which rolls thus silently along were to pass on through undistinguishable uniformity, we should never mark its approaches to the end of its course; if one hour were like another, if the passage of the sun did not show that the day is wasting, if the change of seasons did not impress upon us the flight of the year, if the parts of time were not variously coloured, we should never discern their departure or succession, but should live thoughtless of the past and careless of the future, without will and perhaps without power to compute the periods of life, or to compare the time which is already lost with that which may probably remain. But the course of time is so visibly marked, that it is even observed by nations who have raised their minds very little above animal instinct; there are human beings, whose language does not supply them with words, by which they can number five; but we know of none who have not names for day and night, for summer and winter: yet these admonitions of nature, however forcible, however importunate, are too often vain; and many who mark with accuracy the lapse of time, appear to have little sensibility of the decline of life. Every man has something to do, which he procrastinates; every man has faults to conquer, which he delays to combat: from this inattention, so general and so mischievous, let it be every man's study to exempt himself. Let him who desires to see others happy, make haste to give while the gift can be enjoyed; and let him who seeks his own happiness, reflect that while he forms his purpose the day rolls on, and the night comes when no man can work. II. THOSE who, in the confidence of superior capacities or attainments, should be reminded that nothing neglect the common maxims of life, will supply the want of prudence; but that negligence and irregularity, long-continued, will make knowledge useless, wit ridiculous, and genius contemptible. III A VERY small part of the disorders of the world proceed from ignorance of the laws, by which life ought to be regulated; nor do many, even of those whose hands are polluted with the foulest crimes, deny the reason ableness of virtue, or attempt to justify their own actions. Men are not blindly betrayed into corruption, but abandon themselves to their passions with their eyes open; and lose the direction of truth, because they do not attend to her voice, not because they do not understand it. IV. ICOLMKILL.-We were now treading that illustrious island, which was once the luminary of the Caledonian regions, whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge and the blessings of religion. To abstract the mind from all local emotion would be impossible, if it were endeavoured, and would be foolish, if it were possible. existence? Whatever superiority may distinguish us, whatever plenty may surround us, we know that they can be possessed but a short time, and that the manner in which we employ them must determine our eternal state; what need can there be of any other argument for the use of them, agreeable to the command of Him that bestowed them? VI. IT is imagined by many, that when- VII. Whatever withdraws us from the V. To a man who considers for what purpose he was created, and why he was placed in his present state, how short a time at most is allotted to his earthly duration, and how much of that time may be cut off; how can anything give real satisfaction, that terminates in this life? How can he imagine that any acquisition can deserve his labour, which has not a tendency to the perfection of his mind? Or how can any enjoyment engage his desires, but that of a pure conscience, and reasonable expectations of a more happy and permanent IDLE and indecent applications of sentences taken from the Scriptures, is a mode of merriment which a good man dreads for its profaneness, and a witty man disdains for its VIII. He PIETY is the only proper and ade- IX. How gloomy would be the mansions of the dead to him, who did not know that he should never die; that what now acts shall continue it agency, and what now thinks shall think on for ever! X. WALLER'S opinion concerning the duty of a poet was, "That he should blot from his works any line that did not contain some motive to virtue." XI. WHEN Dr. Johnson had been detained in the Isle of Sky by the state of the weather, he was suddenly roused, at being told that the wind was fair, and the vessel in which he was to embark, ready to sail. He immediately, with composure and solemnity, repeated the observation of Epictetus, that," As man has the voyage of death before him, whatever may be his employment, he should be ready at the master's call; and an old man should never be far from the shore, lest he should not be able to get himself ready." "IT is the heaviest stone," says the amiable Sir Thomas Browne, "that melancholy can throw at a man, to tell him he is at the end of his nature; or that there is no further state to come, unto which this seems progressioned, or otherwise made in vain." The Christain faith leaves no room for this miserable anticipation. "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed: the dead shall rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed." Such is the comfortable declaration of eternal truth. WHETHER I am praised or blamed, says a Chinese sage, I make it of use to my advancement in virtue. Those who commend me, I conceive to point out the way I ought to go; those who blame me, as telling me the dangers I have run. I AM beholden to calumny that she hath so endeavoured and taken pains to belie me; it shall make me set a | surer guard upon myself, and keep a better watch upon my actions.-BEN JONSON. NONE are so fond of secrets as those who do not mean to keep them; such persons covet secrets, as a spendthrift covets money, for the purpose of circulation.-C. A PROFLIGATE 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 be?" "LET me tell you," says Izaak Walton to his scholar, "I have a rich neighbour that is always so busy, that he has no leisure to laugh; the whole business of his life is to get money, and more money, that he may still get more and more money; he is still drudging on, and says that Solomon says the diligent hand maketh rich;' and it is true indeed, but he considers not that 'tis not in the power of riches to make a man happy. It is wisely said, by a man of great observation, that there be as many miseries beyond riches as on this side of them;' and yet God deliver us from pinching poverty, and grant that, having a competency, we may be content and thankful. Let us) not repine, or so much as think the gifts of God unequally dealt, if we see another abound with riches, when, as God knows, the cares that are the keys that keep those riches, hang often so heavily at the rich man's girdle, that they clog him with weary days and restless nights, when others sleep quietly. Let us, therefore, be thankful for health and competence, and, above all, for a quiet conscience." THE truest courage is always mixed with circumspection; this being the |