present paucity of attainment, and need of growth and advancement to maturity; and it will implore the aid of the Spirit of grace, through whose presence and assistance it can alone stand, much less advance in the way of truth, which leadeth unto life.

Modesty is to be distinguished from reserve, or retirement of character: it does not indeed court observation, or make an ostentatious display of its feelings; but it does not shrink from difficulty; it is not appalled by trial; it is not ashamed of bearing its firm testimony in favour of truth; it disclaims the passive inertness of him who liveth for himself; it does not hesitate on the verge of duty, and withdraw from its performance; it does not draw around it the shades of inaction, or blink its duties, as a rational being in society, and as a Christian; as a citizen of the world, and as a denizen of that brighter, better world, to which it is modestly hoping, striving not as uncertainly, contending not as one that beateth the air, but keeping under the body, and bringing it into subjection," that it may so run as to obtain not a corruptible, but an incorruptible

crown.

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Thus while reserve diminishes the attraction, and retirement the usefulness of a character; true modesty invests it with influence; it gives weight to actions, and credit to words; it creates a prejudice favourable to the individual possessor, from the general observation of mankind, that the

unpretending, diffident, but simple and principled character, is more to be relied upon, than the boastful, empty, and careless arrogant professor, who fails in the hour of greatest need; and perhaps also from the excitement of the imagination, occasioned by the character being viewed through a veil, which prevents its several points from standing out to naked observation, and therefore gives room for investing it with a greater degree of power and influence than it really deserves.

But again, the possession of this virtue preserves the individual from the blast of envy, which superciliously overlooks the modest as too lowly and insignificant for its envenomed shaft; and by allaying the selfishness of temper, and controuling the pride of intellect, and teaching the weight of attention due to the views and opinions of contemporaries, and inculcating a distrust of our own judgment, and a high estimation of that of others; and teaching us not to make a display of our feelings, which cannot possibly be generally interesting; and instructing us to be kind towards all men, and lenient to their prejudices; and shewing us the value of the quiet self-possession of principle, it renders our intercourse with society, far more useful and agreeable.

And finally, modesty exerts no trifling power, in strengthening our good resolutions, and in restraining at the same time our evil inclinations; adding to the growth of virtue, and repressing the dominion of vice, extending the agency of good

principle, and diminishing the power of temptation; ensuring the conformity of the good man to his great pattern and exemplar, and placing a barrier to the downward road of the wicked.

SECTION III. On Idleness.

THE man of business sighs for leisure; for that intermission of action, which is the fondly anticipated termination of fatigue; the daily labourer, exhausted under the fervid ray of a meridian sun, watches with anxiety its western journey, and hails with delight its lengthened ray as announcing the cessation of his toil; and on the last day of the week, looks forward with solid pleasure to his sabbath of rest; the man who has lived much in the world, and has grown tired of its pleasures, and has been disgusted with its selfishness, who is wearied with the incessant demands upon his attention and exertion, who has been worn by the injustice and ingratitude of mankind, disappointed by the hypocrisy of friends, and worried by the thousand occasions, on which his interests and feelings have been sacrificed for any trifling whim, or caprice, or inadequate motive, by those to whom it was entrusted, earnestly longs to be enabled to exchange the present contentions and irritation of his mind, for that retreat from the world, in which all its duplicity and falsehood, all its low intrigues and petty in

unpretending, diffident, but simple and principled character, is more to be relied upon, than the boastful, empty, and careless arrogant professor, who fails in the hour of greatest need; and perhaps also from the excitement of the imagination, occasioned by the character being viewed through a veil, which prevents its several points from standing out to naked observation, and therefore gives room for investing it with a greater degree power and influence than it really deserves.

of

But again, the possession of this virtue preserves the individual from the blast of envy, which superciliously overlooks the modest as too lowly and insignificant for its envenomed shaft; and by allaying the selfishness of temper, and controuling the pride of intellect, and teaching the weight of attention due to the views and opinions of contemporaries, and inculcating a distrust of our own judgment, and a high estimation of that of others; and teaching us not to make a display of our feelings, which cannot possibly be generally interesting; and instructing us to be kind towards all men, and lenient to their prejudices; and shewing us the value of the quiet self-possession of principle, it renders our intercourse with society, far more useful and agreeable.

And finally, modesty exerts no trifling power, in strengthening our good resolutions, and in restraining at the same time our evil inclinations; adding to the growth of virtue, and repressing the dominion of vice, extending the agency of good

principle, and diminishing the power of temptation; ensuring the conformity of the good man to his great pattern and exemplar, and placing a barrier to the downward road of the wicked.

SECTION III. On Idleness.

THE man of business sighs for leisure; for that intermission of action, which is the fondly anticipated termination of fatigue; the daily labourer, exhausted under the fervid ray of a meridian sun, watches with anxiety its western journey, and hails with delight its lengthened ray as announcing the cessation of his toil; and on the last day of the week, looks forward with solid pleasure to his sabbath of rest; the man who has lived much in the world, and has grown tired of its pleasures, and has been disgusted with its selfishness, who is wearied with the incessant demands upon his attention and exertion, who has been worn by the injustice and ingratitude of mankind, disappointed by the hypocrisy of friends, and worried by the thousand occasions, on which his interests and feelings have been sacrificed for any trifling whim, or caprice, or inadequate motive, by those to whom it was entrusted, earnestly longs to be enabled to exchange the present contentions and irritation of his mind, for that retreat from the world, in which all its duplicity and falsehood, all its low intrigues and petty in