assailed by loathsome disease; and yet death almost seeming to be too tardy in putting a period to their sufferings. And if this be a just view of the ultimate consequences of a habit of intemperance, how important is it, that the vice should be checked in earliest infancy; aye, more, that it should not be encouraged in the nursery, by goading the appetite, and stimulating the stomach, and loading it to repletion; how allimportant, that the principles and the habit of temperance should be daily and hourly watched and developed.

The great art of living, consists in abstemiousness, since by this means, the sense of taste will be preserved in a natural and susceptible state; it will always be in a certain relation with the wants of hunger, and the desire of appetite; the stomach will require no stimulants to coax it into good digestion; it will be found the willing servant of the animal economy, though the rebellious slave of vitiated inclination; the tone of the general system will be maintained, and it will be apt for all the corporeal functions of its situation in life; and the individual will possess a clear head, and a light heart, capable of intellectual pursuits with energy, and freed from the vapours of ennui, and the dark clouds of melancholy the temper will not be soured by the irritation of an oppressed stomach; and fits of the spleen, and all the fancies of hypochondriasis will be known only as matters of curiosity, or rather of superstition, like the genii, and the

fairies, and the spirits, and the bogles, with which our ancestors of romantic memory have peopled every glen, and mountain pass, and have amused the strong, and affrighted the feeble with tales of their good or bad offices. Let it be recollected, that happiness does not consist in complete satisfaction, but that on the contrary, it is destroyed by it.

Moderate enjoyment adds to comfort; but the extinction of desire results from excess, which also palls the sense of pleasure; so true it is, that a natural curse attaches itself to luxurious indulgence. Again, the attempt at complete satisfaction is not only inseparably connected with satiety, but occasions an irritable state of the senses, in consequence of which their impressions are perverted; that which was intended as an instrument of enjoyment becomes the source of misery; and dissatisfaction, and disgust, are in close alliance with the entire extinction of want.

But this is not all; not only are the functions of the body disturbed, by rendering it wholly subservient to the inclinations of depraved appetite; not only is its comfort subverted, its means of enjoyment opposed, and its taste rendered morbid; not only are appetite, hunger, and good digestion unknown, and supplanted by the miserable feelings of the pampered slave of sense; not only are the physical strength, and heaith, and vigour impaired, and the intellectual manifestations stunted in their growth, or blighted in their maturity; not only is the man subjected to

disease, and vain and unreal fears; not only is his stomach converted into a great culinary laboratory, and his mind into that of the irritable menial who presides over its preparations and disguises; but his heart is rendered impassive, and inaccessible; he is alive only to selfish emotion; the accents of woe break upon his ear without sympathy; the tear of sorrow, the language of compassion, fail to awaken his sensibilities; the business of charity is not his business; his all important engagements are the arduous pursuits of gastric satisfaction; and though every individual around him may perish, he is deaf to the solicitations of benevolence, if its boon may be obtained only by a sacrifice of the stimulation of his palate, and by a loss of the enjoyment attached to the gradual exhaustion of his stomach, the feebleness of his intellect, the decay of his senses, appetites, and passions, the subservience of his will to animal desire, the premature decrepitude of his mind, and the monstrous perversion of the qualities of his heart!

The grand object of good education then, will be the limitation of the animal desires, and the creation of few wants; the indulgence of moderate wishes, and the temperate gratification of appetite. This object is to be accomplished by simplicity of diet, by taking care that it should be sparing in quantity; by producing thankfulness for whatever may be provided, by teaching children to take all that is set before them, without curious inquiry into its properties; by avoid

ing the creation of artificial wants and desires; by the cultivation of moderate wishes; and by teaching them to provide for the necessities of others, out of some little privations of their own: so shall they pass through life usefully and happily; so shall they live while they live, and eat and drink, not because to-morrow may put an end to the capacity of eating and drinking, but because to-morrow will call them to give an account of all that they have said, or done, or thought; and may all find mercy in that day!

SECTION X. On Honour, or the love of Reputation.

THE love of distinction, the desire of being handed down to posterity with honour, the wish to be lifted out of the little narrow sphere we now occupy, and to be placed in relation with the universe to exist in every quarter of the globe, to be spoken of, and to be had in reputation by distant ages and nations, by those who know us not, except from the attributes of our character; to transmit a name to unknown people, and scarcely descried futurity, not only unsullied by the taint of vice, but honourable for the exertion of virtue, distinguished for talent, living in the pleased recollection of others, and being remembered with regret, and yet with delight, and

held up as an example for the imitation of the young and the unstable; such are some of the privileges man desires and seeks after; such are the palm promised to the productions of genius, and the consistency of virtue.

This principle may be useful as a stimulus to activity; but is insufficient and injurious, should it ever become a motive to action. We may desire the approbation of the good, and we may earnestly pursue that path of duty which will ensure it; but if we constitute this the basis of our conduct, and place it in the room of a simple desire to do the will of God, then we substitute an inferior, an unworthy, an antichristian motive, for the principle of faith, and of obedience which arises from it; for our trust and confidence are in men; it is to them we desire to be pleasing; it is their praise we seek, and their approbation we pursue; we rest satisfied with that which is only valuable in proportion as it is consistent with religion, and coincident with the approbation of the Most High! It is this alone which can give value to the praise of man; for if it be at variance with the truths of religion, and if it do not directly lead to God, it is the offspring of Satan, and is intended to deceive us, to tempt our hearts aside from the pursuit of heaven, and to fill them with the profitless advantages of the kingdoms of this world, and "the glory of them."

Man wishes to appear great, and pursues with ardour that renown, which results from the un