cise, instead of medicine; adhere to our religious opinions; love and hate only on just grounds; let the pleasures of life pass by us without a murmur; and wait with confidence for an eternal hereafter. M. Furetiere,

Beware what earth calls happiness; beware

All joys, but joys than never can expire.
Who builds on less than an immortal base,
Fond as he seems, condemns his joys to death.
There's nothing here, but what as nothing weighs.

YOUNG.

We are too apt to judge of happiness by appearances; we suppose it to be where it only rarely exists. Mirth is a very equivocal sign of it. A merry fellow is often an unhappy mortal, who, by laughing, endeavours to conceal and to forget his misery. All is not gold that glitters. Nulla fronte fides. Those gentlemen who appear so good-humoured abroad, are often morose and peevish at home; their domestics feel the want of that good-nature, which they lavish upon their companions. True content is never extremely gay or noisy: its possessor, ever careful of so pleasing a sensation, will not suffer it to evaporate, but enjoys it with deliberate taste and reflection. The man who is really happy speaks little, and seldom laughs; he, as it were, contracts the circle of felicity around his heart. Solitude and silence are friends to true pleasure; tender emotions and tears are the companions of enjoyment. Rousseau.

Absurd presumption! Thou who never knew'st
A serious thought! shalt thou dream of joy?
No man e'er found a happy life by chance,

Or yawned it into being with a wish,

Or with the snout of grovelling appetite

E'er smelt it out, and grubb'd it from the dirt.

An art it is, and must be learnt, and learnt

With unremitting effort, or be lost,

And leave us blockheads in our bliss.

YOUNG.

There is no such thing as real, unmingled felicity here below. Happiness is all a vain pursuit, quite, from the cradle to the grave. It is altogether an imaginary acquisition, which no man ever did, or ever will possess, so long as he is a sojourner amid sublunary scenes.

We sow hopes and wishes, and what do we reap? Disappoint ments and inquietude-a miserable harvest! And yet we repeat our useless labour; and thus perpetuate our vexation and sorrow. He is the most prudent man, who takes the world as he finds it: who relishes its comforts, reconciles its crosses, and expects happiness only in superior regions. Dr.Cotton.

The happiness of this life consists not in the repose of a mind satisfied; for there is no such thing as the finis ultima, or the summum bonum. A man can no more live, whose desires are at an end, than he whose senses and imagination are at a stand.

Happiness, object of that waking dream

Which we call life, mistaking

Ideal shade,

Notional good, by fancy only made,

And by tradition nurs'd; fallacious fire,

Hobbes.

Whose dancing beams mislead our fond desire,

Cause of our care, and error of our mind.

PRIOR.

We pursue the happiness of the world, just as little children chase a bird. When we think we are come very near it, and have it almost in our reach, it flies farther from us than it was at first, Tillotson.

Why cannot I give you my experience? Why cannot I make you sensible of the melancholy that devours the great, and of the difficalty they have to dispose of their time? Do not you see that I die of lowness of spirits, though possessed of a more splendid fortune than ever I had hoped to obtain; I have been young and handsome; I have tasted pleasures; I have been universally beloved: in a more advanced age, I have passed some years in the participation of intellectual pleasures: I am now arrived at the summit of fortune; and I assure you, that every condition leaves a horrid void in the soul, Maintenon's Letters.

All men would live happily, if they could; it is all our wish and design; but we know not what constitutes a happy life; we continue, however, in a blind and eager pursuit of it, and by mistaking Our way, the faster we hurry on, the farther we go wrong. It is to

Q

be considered, therefore, in the first place, what it is we desire; and in the next, by what means it may be most speedily obtained. If we set out right at first, we shall find every day how much we improve, and get nearer the point which nature impels us to; but, if we idly wander about, following the noise and clamour of the dissonant crowd, though we labour with the utmost assiduity, our life will be soon consumed in error and uncertainty; for which reason, it concerns us nearly, not only to examine what road we are to take, but also to follow the directions of some skilful guide, who has explored every footstep of the path; for this journey is not like most others, where the high-way brings us soonest to our journey's end; and where we meet with inhabitants to apply to, that can set us right; but in this the beaten path is the most deceitful: let us not, therefore, follow like sheep, where one going wrong shall lead a whole flock astray. For it is one of the great evils of mankind, that we are all apt to form ourselves according to the vulgar choice, and live rather according to example than reason. The number of the multitude, rather willing to take every thing upon trust, than exercise their judgment, carries it against truth and justice; for the question of a happy life is not to be decided by vote; and the plurality of voices amongst the common people is generally an argument of the wrong. Let us, therefore, consider what will give us possession of eternal felicity, not what is most customary, and approved of by the vulgar; when I mention the vulgar, I mean the ermined robe as well as the ploughman's frock, for I distinguish not the colour of the vest, nor judge the men by appearance, but by a more certain standard, the mind, which alone is the true index of the man. Seneca's Morals.

The happy man was born in the city of Regeneration, in the parish of Repentance unto life; he was educated at the school of Obedience, and now lives in the plain of Perseverance; he works at the trade of Diligence, notwithstanding he has a large estate in the county of Christian Contentment, and many times does jobs of Self-denial; he wears the garment of Humility, and has a better suit to put on when he goes to court, called the robe of Christ's Righteousness: he often walks in the valley of Self-abasement, and

climbs the mountains of Spiritual-mindedness; he breakfasts on
Prayer, and sups every evening on the same; he has meat to eat
which the world knoweth not of, and his drink is the sincere milk
of the Word. Thus happy he lives, and happy he dies; happy is
he who has the Gospel, submission in his will, due order in his affec-
tions, sound peace in his conscience, sanctifying grace in his soul,
real divinity in his breast, true humility in his heart, the Re-
deemer's yoke on his neck, a vain world under his feet, a crown of
glory over his head. Happy is the life and glorious is the death of
such a one.
If then, reader, you would be the happy man, pray
fervently, believe firmly, wait patiently, work abundantly, live holily,
die daily, watch your heart, guide your senses, redeem your time,
and long for glory.

He is the happy man, whose life e'en now
Shows somewhat of that happier life to come;
Who, doom'd to an obscure, but tranquil state,
Is pleas'd with it; and, were he free to choose,

Would make his fate his choice. Whom peace, the fruit
Of virtue, and whom virtue, fruit of faith,
Prepare for happiness, bespeak him one
Content, indeed, to sojourn, while he must,
Below the skies, but having there his home.
The world o'erlooks him in her busy search
Of objects more illustrious in her view!
And, occupied as earnestly as she,

Though more sublimely, he o'erlooks the world.

She scorns his pleasures, for she knows them not:
He seeks not her's, for he has prov'd them vain.
So glide my life away.

SLEEP.

YOUNG.

Perhaps this is a digression from the line of investigation; yet, as the wisdom of the great Supreme is wonderfully displayed in this particular, I have thought proper to introduce it in this place.

Though some of the preceding particulars may not, strictly speaking, be called passions, yet as we know them by name, and also know, from experience, that they exist within, we have allotted them a place under this head.

It was in the original design, that man should supply the necessary waste of flesh and blood by food; it was also an original edict, that man should labour to obtain that food: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, until thou return unto the ground.” But for the engine to be kept in play for some sixty, eighty, or bundred years, without intermission, though possible to the Engineer, might yet have been painful to the engine itself. To obviate this difficulty, behold his wisdom in drawing over us the dark curtain of night; during which He has ordained animal nature to make a pause. The over-strained muscles, tendons, and nerves, shall now become like a bow unstrung; the turbulent and over-heated passions shall cool; anger, wrath, and revenge, shall soften down; and, when we awake from our night's repose, we frequently find that Reason has again resumed her sway.

Man's rich restorative, his balmy bath,

That supples, lubricates, and keeps in play,
The various movements of this nice machine.
Sleep winds us up for the succeeding dawn;
Fresh we spin on, till sickness clogs our wheels,

Or death quite breaks the spring, and motion ends.
When will it end with me ?

"Man goeth forth to his work and to his labour, until the evening." But then his strength fails; his spirits flag; and he stands in need, not only of some respite from toil, but of some kindly and sovereign refreshments. What an admirable provision for this purpose is sleep! Sleep introduces a most welcome vacation, both for the soul and the body. The exercises of the brain, and the labours of the hand, are at once discontinued; so that the weary limbs repair their exhausted vigour, while the pensive thoughts drop their load of sorrows, and the busy ones rest from the fatigues of application. Most reviving co dial! equally beneficial to our animal and intellectual powers. It supplies the fleshly machine, and keeps all its nice movements in a proper posture for easy plays it animates the thinking faculties with fresh alacrity, and rekindles their ardour for the studies of the dawn. Without these enlivening recruits, how soon would the most robust constitution be wasted