sneer.

There are very few circumstances in which it can be considered as entitled to toleration; and generally speaking, it will be found the prelude to angry contention, and to every feeling which the Christian and the philanthropist should seek to discourage; it paves the way for lengthened disputes, terminating commonly in accusation, angry feeling, and the loss of christian love.

Humour is a low species of vulgar wit, which is only just noticed because it is too glaringly offensive and disagreeable to require detail, or to enforce the necessity for its opposition. In all these instances, it will be seen that the tendency of ridicule is to make an enemy of the individual laughed at, because he is rendered uncomfortable by signalising his weak side; and to minister to the pride and vanity of the individual, by ostentatiously claiming exemption from these defects, and invidiously placing our strength in pointed contrast with their feebleness; and thus shewing our want of benevolent feeling, the absence of which, though it may be sometimes only a negative state, will certainly produce a principle of hostility, on the part of those who are ridiculed. In the exercise of this moquerie, however, it is seldom that the mental manifestations will be found in a state of negation; there is commonly, not only the want of benevolence, but the existence of selfishness, and the decided absence of charity; and if so, the corresponding passions will only be more surely developed.

For the full effect of ridicule, it is not necessary

that the intended impression should be clothed in words; it may be expressed indeed by marked silence, by manner only, by the form of the countenance, by a simple inflection of the tones of the voice, sometimes by an unmeaning epithet which acquires point from the mode of its application; and it may be produced by feigning absurd consequences, which by no means naturally belong to the premises; or by the employment of doubtful phraseology, which will admit a disparaging explanation. The wound is only more effectually given by the hand of the midnight assassin, who strikes unseen, and deliberately attacks his victim in the most vital part, when unsuspicious of danger, and incapable of repelling the attack. Thus then, the operation of this mental state can scarcely ever be beneficial; for the good man compassionates the errors, grieves over the follies, and weeps and trembles at the vices of others; the bad alone, the weak and the wicked can laugh at that which is evil, and which occasions misery in some form or other; the tear of pity and the sigh of repentance, are an acceptable offering to a compassionate Saviour; but the raised lip of ridicule, and the selfish agitation of the bosom which is involved in the comparative disesteem of others, are not emotions which we would wish to cherish while repeating the daily petition to be preserved from temptation, or when employing the comprehensive confession of our church, or when drawing towards the close of our earthly existence, we begin to realize the cer

tainty of future judgment, where every atom of conduct towards our fellow man, will be estimated as if actually done to Christ himself. It is at this serious hour of reflection on the past, that we shall feel how unworthy of a powerful mind has been devotedness to this vice; it is then we shall perceive the fearful inroads it has made upon the dignity of virtuous action, and upon the respect to which it alone can entitle us; it is then we shall fully know its fatal agency in annihilating the sacred and commanding influence of morality upon the life, in leading us to forget the great law of christian ethics, and of doing to others as we would they should do unto us; it is then alone we shall fully and fearfully own its desecrating operation upon the deepest and most serious recesses of the heart, and perceive how extensively it has stifled the voice of religion, blunted the feelings of charity, obscured the perception of right, destroyed the sympathy of affection, and blighted the fruits of the christian temper. It must be confessed, however, that ridicule does often result from mere ignorance and carelessness: the individuals who thus offend, laugh at and deride circumstances, and feelings, and doctrines, which they cannot comprehend; a failing which perhaps may be palliated by its folly; and yet it is a poor excuse to alledge, that the empty and the senseless may laugh at their own deficiency.

There is yet one form of ridicule, which has been purposely reserved for detached notice in this place, viz. irony. This, in common with

every manifestation of the principle from it which it arises, is a dangerous weapon, especially when used in common conversation. It is then next to impossible to divest it of odious personality, and therefore an ironical tendency should always be discouraged in the young. When it can be employed without personal allusion, upon serious subjects, and with a decidedly good intention, it may perhaps sometimes make an impression upon a mind which has resisted argument, and has been deaf to reasoning, and has remained proof against every common appeal; there may be cases in which its striking and sententious dicta may find access to the heart, and effect a lodgment there from which it will not be readily detached, and which may arrest the attention, and be the first link in the chain of conviction. Thus perhaps the folly of idolatry was never more conspicuously shewn in words than in the language of Elijah, to the prophets of Baal, when they called on his name, but there was no voice nor a n that answered, cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is on a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked;" (1 Kings xviii. 27.) or in the memorable expostulation of the evangelical prophet— "He planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it. Then shall it be for a man to burn, for he will take thereof and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yea, he maketh a god and worshippeth it, he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto. He burneth

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part thereof in the fire; with part thereof he eateth flesh; he roasteth roast and is satisfied; yea, he warmeth himself and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire. And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image; he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me, for thou art my god." Isaiah xliv. 14—17.

SECTION IX. On Intemperance.

INTEMPERANCE consists in the enjoyment of some one or more of the good things of this present life in an inordinate degree; a degree which engrosses the thoughts and attention, or disorders the functions of the body; a degree which constitutes immediate pleasure the great object of existence, and before which reason and religion too generally shrink away, their voice stifled, their dictates unheeded and unheard. It is of great importance therefore, very early in childhood, to instil the principle, and educate the habit, that we eat and drink to live. Not perhaps that the infantile excesses are of themselves very important, but if they lead to the indulgence of eating or drinking for the sake of the gratification they afford, not for the satisfaction of hunger primarily, a principle of evil has been implanted in the youthful bosom, which will by and by, be exhibited in the most disgraceful forms of intemperance, should