the ear, but to profit the heart. Truth is, I conceive, most resplendent when most simplified; and to attempt to garnish it with the appendages of metaphysical erudition, in order to enforce and beautify it, is like painting a diamond with a view to make it more brilliant. Sophistry, not

truth, needs these appendages.

I conceive it to be the duty of an author, who writes for the good, not for the praise of man, to make his readers reflect, not laugh; to study utility more than elegance; brevity more than redundance; to forego prolixity and exhibit variety. A well-poised sentiment, a simplified argument, supported by reason and common sense, an instantaneous exhibition of a common fact, will have a better tendency to convince the understanding, inform the mind, and reform the heart, than volumes of elegant, refined but futile composition. A literary work possessed of energy, vivacity and utility can only be useful to a certain description of persons.

Is it not virtually committing intellectual massacre, when parents not only neglect to impress on the juvenile minds of their progeny the mild precepts of our holy religion, but suffer them to Tun through the slippery paths of youth with unrestrained passions. Thus, the injudicious farmer suffers his colt to remain in the woodlands (instead of raising and nurturing it under his immediate inspection) till it has gained its native strength, with accumulated fierceness. The owner, being pressed by his wants, now pursues, endeavoring to recover his horse, but in vain. The horse is rendered useless to him, and dangerous to the public through his neglect. Thus, thousands of children are not only useless to their parents, but bring their grey hairs with sorrow

to the grave, through their wildness and disobedience. And they not only endanger the peace of others by their blind impetuosity, but hurry themselves headlong into excesses which terminate in their ruin.

The child of a savage, and that of a sage, are the same by nature. By letting them both remain uncultivated, they will be equally wild, though it may be their quickness of cultivation may not be the same on their intellectual improvement. There is, therefore, no part of parental duty more important than bridling the passions of children at an early age; and that parent, whether rich or poor, noble or ignoble, who succeeds in breaking his child's temper, while in a state of minority, has purchased the most invaluable blessing for him. and has gained the highest attainment peculiar to our rational nature.

Wherever we turn our eyes, we see objects to demonstrate this speculative reasoning. In one direction, we see the virtuous happy man who is master of his passions, sit calm in tumults, and amidst contending parties and busy multitudes; while, in the opposite direction, we discover the vicious wretched man mastered by his passions, led from one extreme to another, blasting the enjoyments of his neighbors, strewing the path of life with thorns, and rendering the sacred recesses of domestic tranquillity a vale of tears.

Let us for a moment cast our eyes on the theatre of war, and ask our hearts the cause of all such havoc, slaughter, discord, devastation, and anarchy, which we behold.-While individuals, families, arm for war, and, on the most trifling occasions, rush against each other with the fury of roaring lions, and with the impetuosity of maniacs, malevolent and furious to spill each oth

er's blood, the answer is ready, the reason is obvious, to wit, PASSION! unrestrained, unhallowed passion. And it is not the present age only that has been famous, or rather infamous, for the depredations of sanguinary warfare. but also former generations have tinged the verdant green with crimson red; have cast libations of human blood into the briny deep; have raised whole hecatombs of human bodies, as trophies in honor of the goddess of victory. And when we descend from national to individual suicide, we behold, with an equal degree of horror, the tragical catastrophes resulting from domestic and individual discord: here we see revenge, envy, covetousness, jealousy, rage, with unbridled license: here, the outlawed villain sends the glittering dirk through the guiltless body of the inoffensive traveller; robs him of his money, while his blood is yet warm on the reeking blade. There the legal villain, on account of some trifling misunderstanding, calls his brother into the field, and sends the leaden ball through his body with impunity, while he screens himself from all imputation under the august canopy of public patronage or popular custom; but we must forbear delineating even the outlines of the dreadful picture.

However, we will attempt a little farther to show* the dissimilarity between the man that is a slave to his passions, and him that has conquered them. By painting the latter character more plainly, we may recognize the infinite ad

*The most effectual method to demonstrate the deformity of vice, and beauty of virtue, is, by contrasting them, and by particularizing the dissimilarity in faFor of virtue.

vantages of a virtuous life. The consolatory effect of virtue on the human mind, will not admit of a shadow of doubt, much less of dispute. A thousand volumes would not contain even a specimen of the happiness which those persons enjoy who are the possessors of social virtue. There is one sensation of celestial origin which he inherits, if he is in affluent circumstances; and that is, the opportunity given him to spread benefactions, and consequent comforts amongst his indigent fellow-men; and thus to increase his own, by establishing their comforts. He rejoices in the good which they enjoy, and they in the good which he bestows; but the approving voice of his conscience, with the exhilarating smiles of Heaven which he anticipates, exceeds description. Those heavenly sensations may be felt, but they never can be expressed. What are the pleasures of the voluptuous, of the epicure, or of the vota→ ries of fashion, when compared to his? They are beastly indulgence, and sensual gratification. It is like comparing a drop of water to the ocean, a grain of sand to this terraqueous ball, a candle to the sun, or hell to heaven,

All nature smiles upon him, and he upon the face of nature. The most superficial view of the bounties and beauties of this expansive creation, dilates his heart, enraptures all his intellectual faculties. He calls upon the universe. and the universe calls upon him, to praise the Divine Be nefactor, the Parent of Good. He sees

In native white and red, |

The rose and lily stand,

And free from pride their beauties spread,
To show his skilful hand.

The lark mounts to the sky,
With unambitious song,

And bears her Maker's praise on high,

Upon her artless tongue.'

When he sees autumn approaching majestically grand, loaded with bounties, to reward the farmer's toil, he lifts an affectionate thought, an humble acknowledgment, in pure praises to the Eternal Benefactor from whom all blessings flow. His enjoyments are refined; they penetrate the heart; they ennoble the mind, they produce the most lively gratitude. And nothing contributes, In so high a degree, to enliven prosperity, as gratitude; and nothing is more pleasing to the Deity himself, than a thankful heart; which is the chief return he requires for his accumulated benedictions. For,

God is paid when man receives;
To enjoy is to obey."

While the wicked man can, or rather will, only trace the source of his prosperity and riches to supernumerary success and local advantages; the good man sees them all coming from the hand of that God, who hath conducted, protected, and preserved him from his cradle, and through each intervening period of his life. While the wicked only enjoy prosperity the short period of the present state; the righteous reap more solid peace from the anticipation of future glory, and felicity in a world of spirits than from all their earthly possessions. One only participates the pleasure peculiar to midnight robbers, who, in their revellings are haunted with the fear of detection, and consequent punishment: the other enjoys pure sentimental delight, ineffable comfort, without