or a book. No, the advice to him is, obferve what paffes, and what good or hurt accompanies or follows it.

Remark what it is that pleases you only for a few moments, and then either brings immediate uneafinefs, or lays a foundation for fome future.

You find several things of fervice to you, obferve which is of moft, which has no fort of inconvenience attending it, or very little in comparifon of its advantage; and, if there are none of them without fome inconveniences, which has the fewest-which does you good in a higher degree, or for a longer term.

You are continually with thofe of the fame nature with yourself; take notice what is ferviceable or prejudicial to them; you may learn from their experience what your own teaches you not. Every day will farnith fome or other occurrence that may be a profitable leffon to you, make it fuch; overlook nothing that affects your wellbeing; attend chiefly to what concerns it. Go over frequently in your thoughts the obfervations you have made on what will more or lefs benefit you; let them be fo deeply imprinted upon your mind, make them fo familiar to yourfelf, that the offer of a lefs good may never surprise and betray you into the neglect, and, by that means, the lofs of a greater.

You are at all times at liberty to confider your own nature, be acquainted with it, fee what you can do for yourself, what share of your happiness has no dependance on the things without you; what bleflings may be fecured to you by your own difpofitions.

You neceffarily fhun evil: don't mistake it; be sure of what is fo; be apprised of the degrees of it; be throughly inftructed in thefe, that a defire to escape what you could eatly bear, may never occafion you a ditress which you would pronounce infupportable. Endeavour to inform yourfelf what evil you cannot too induftrioufly avoid what you should readily submit to—what you may change into good.

He, to whofe fituation terms like thefe would be unsuitable, must have reason to feek, as well as a livelihood. Our natural understanding fits all of us for a tafk like this; nor can it be inconfiftent with any the hardest labour to which our fupport will oblige us.

The whole of this fo fevere a leflon is this brief one; Do your best for yourself; be as happy as the right ufe of the abilities God has given you can make you.

3. As for the unconcernedness of fo great a part of our fpecies at their ignorance and errors the entire fatisfaction they express under them: with regard to this, let it be confidered, that we are no more to judge of good from the practice of numbers, than of truth from their opinions.

They throughly enjoy themfelves, you fay, with their little knowledge, and many mistakes.

And are any of us in our younger years better pleased than when we are fuffered to fport away our time-to pass it without the least controul and inftruction? But because we are thus pleased, are we rightly fo? Could worfe befal us, than to be permitted to continue thus agreeably unreftrained and uninstructed?

The man in a lethargy defires you would let him dofe on: he apprehends no danger, when you fee the greatest: you grieve and vex him, when you attempt to cure him.

Does any one who has more sense than the bulk of his fellow-creatures, with for their dulnefs, that he might share their di verfions-wifh for their thoughtlefinefs, that he might join in their mirth?

Could the neglect of our rational faculties be accompanied, throughout our continuance in being, with the fatisfaction at prefent expreffed by fo many under it, this indeed might be fomething in its favour; but this is by no means the cafe. He who gave us these faculties, and the ability to improve them, must intend that we should improve them: by fruftrating his inten-. tion, we incur his difpleafure; if we incur it, we may justly expect, fooner or later, to feel the effects thereof.

Nor is it to be thought that the neglect of our reafon is, from the good we hereby forego, its own fufficient punishment, and therefore not likely to expofe us to any other. We cannot rightly think thus, becaufe of the extensive mifchief occafioned by this neglect. It is very far from terminating in ourselves, from making us the only fufferers. Were it fo confined, fome pretence there might be for confidering our mere crime as our ample punishment. But fuch it cannot appear, when it does infinite hurt to others to our neighbourhood-to our friends-to our family-to the whole community of which we are members.

What is enough for myfelf, what I can do without, fhould be the leaft of my concern. My duty is to reflect what I can do for others; how I may make myself of greateft ufe. We ftand all largely indebted

to

to our fellow-creatures; and, owing them fo much, if we neglect to qualify ourselves for ferving them, we greatly injure them. But as this is not the place for pursuing thefe reflections, I will now only remark, of what deplorable confequence it is to our children (whofe title to our endeavours for their benefit, all acknowledge) that the culture of our minds is fo little our care that we flight the rational improvements, with a capacity for which our Creator has fo graciously favoured us.

Unapprehenfive of the mifchief our offfpring muft neceffarily receive from our floth, our intemperance, and other criminal gratifications, we impair their frame before it is yet compleated; we entail on them mifery, before we give them life.

Their reafon feems to be watched in its appearance, only that it may be applied to for its speedier corruption. Every thing they are at first taught to value, is what they cannot enough defpife; and all the pains that fhould be taken to keep their minds from vain fears, are employed to introduce them.

The chief of what our memory receives in our childhood, is what our maturer age moft wishes to forget.

While we are ignorant how hurtful it is to be governed by our paffions, our wife directors permit them to govern us, and thereby give them a ftrength which we afterwards fruitlessly lament and oppofe. To fave our tears, we are to have our will; and, for a few moments of prefent quiet, be condemned to years of diftrefs. Imaginary evils we are bid to regard as the principal real ones; and what we should moft avoid, we are, by examples of greatest weight with us, encouraged to practise.

How much indeed both the bodies and minds of children fuffer from the ill-informed understanding of their parents, is fcarcely to be conceived-what advantages they lofe by it-what mifery they feel: and therefore, as they are the immediate objects of our care-as nature has made them fuch, and all the prejudice they receive from any failure of ours, from any neglect on our part in qualifying ourselves to affift them in the way we ought to do it, is really an injury done them by us; we cannot think, that if we won't endeavour to have just notions of things, we are fufficiently punished by being without them we can with no probability, fuppofe, that, if we are content to be lofers ourselves, it will be fatisfaction enough for any diftrefs

that ou careleffness or fupineness brings on others, even on them whose welfare we ought most to confult.

Of what advantage it is to both fexes that the parent, under whofe guidance they are in their tender years, fhould not have confined her thoughts to the recommendations of apparel, furniture, equipage-to the amusements in fashion-to the forms of good breeding-to the low topics of female converfation; we have the mott remarkable instances in the family of Emilia. She has for many years been the wife of one, whofe rank is the least part of his merit: made by him the mother of a nu merous offspring, and having from his important and uninterrupted avocations, their education left entirely to her, 'till they were qualified for a more extenfive inftruction; it was her study how the might be of the greateft ufe to them: they were ever under her eye: her attention to forming their manners could be diverted by none of the pleasures, by none of the engagements that claim so many of the hours of a woman of quality. She did not awe, but reafon her children into their duty; they fhewed themselves to practise it not from constraint, but conviction. When they were abfent from her-when they were in company, where they might have been as free as they pleafed, I have, with aftonishment, obferved them as much influenced by what their wife mother had advised, as they could have been by any thing she would have faid had the been then prefent. In her converfation with them he was per petually inculcating ufeful truths; the talked them into more knowledge, by the time that they were fix or seven years old, than is ufually attained at, perhaps, twice that age.

Let me indulge my imagination, and, by its aid, gave a lample of her inftructions; firft, to one of the females of her family, and then, to one of the males. Leonora, her eldest daughter, has, among her many accomplishments, great kill in painting. When her mother and the flood viewing the pictures, that crouded each fide of the room in which they were, Emilia defired to hear what the pupil of fo eminent a mafter had to obferve on the works before them. Leonora began; praised the bold and animated manner in this piece, the fofinefs and delicacy of that. Nothing could be more graceful than the attitude of this figure; the expreffion in that was fo

happy,

your education-your capacity-your ftation, deferves the fame cenfure that the pencil meets with, when it errs in exprefLion.

Skill in the diftribution of light and fhade, or the clair-obfcure, as, I think, the term of art is, I fhould apprehend refembled by prudence; which teaches us to fhew ourfelves in the most advantageous point of view-brings forward and brightens our good qualities, but throws back and obfcures our defects-fuffers nothing to diftinguifh itself that will be to our diparagement, nor shades any thing that will credit us.

By ordonnance is meant, I apprehend, the manner of placing the feveral objects in a piece, or the difpofition of them with refpect to the whole compofure. And what can be fitter for us, than to confider where we are, and to appear accordingly? The civilities that are lefs decently fhewn in the church, it would be a great indecorum to neglect in the drawing-room. The freedom that will gain you the hearts of your inferiors, fhall, if used towards thofe of a higher rank, make you be thought the worst-bred woman in the world. Let the feafon for it be difregarded, your chearfulness fhall be offenfive, your gravity feem ridiculous-your wit bring your fenfe into queftion, and your very friendlieft interpofition be thought not fo much a proof of your affection as of your impertinence. 'Tis the right placing of things that thews our difcretion that keeps us clear of ditticulties--that raifes our credit-that principally contributes to give any of our defigns fuccefs.

To beauty in colouring correfponds, perhaps, good nature improved by good breeding. And, certainly, as the canvafs could furnish no defign fo well fancied, no draught fo correct, but what would yet fail to pleafe, and would even difguft you, were the colours of it ill-united-not fattained by each other-void of their due harmony; fo both fenfe and virtue go but a little way in our recommendation, if they appear not to their proper advantage in an ealinefs of behaviour-in foft and gentle manners, and with all the graces of affability, courtefy and complaisance. I fee, by your fming, you are fatisfied you cannot be accused of being a bad colourilt. Believe me, you have then gained a very material point; and the more concerns you have in the world, the more proofs you will find of its importance. I'll drop this fubject when

I have faid to you, That if to make a good picture is fuch a complicated task, requires fo much attention, fuch extensive obfervation-if an error in any of the principal parts of painting fo offends, takes off fo greatly from the merit of the pieceif he, who is truly an artist, overlooks nothing that would be at all a blemish to his performance, and would call each trivial indecorum a fault: think, child, what care about the original ought to equal this for the portrait of what infinitely greater confequence it must be, to have every thing right within ourselves, than to give a juit appearance to the things without us; and how much less pardonably any violation of decorum would be charged on your life, than on your pencil.

The most finished representation only pleafes by its correfpondence to what it reprefents, as nature well imitated; and if juftnefs in mere reprefentation and imitation can have the charms you find in it, you may eafily conceive the ftill greater delight that must arife from beholding the beauties of nature itself; fuch, particularly, as the pencil cannot imitate the beauties of rational nature, those which the poffeffor gives herself-which are of ten thousand times the moment of any in her outward fymmetry-which, how highly foever they may adorn her, profit her full more; and are not only to her own advantage, but to that of the age in which the lives, and poffibly, of remoteft generations.

My concern to fee you this fair unblemifhed original makes me strangely unmindful on what topic I am got. There, furely, can be no proof wanting, how much a wife and good woman excels any portrait, or any woman, who has but the merit of a portrait, a fine appearance.

In this way Emilia takes each opportunity to form the manners of her daughter-to give her throughout just and reafonable fentiments, and difpote her to the exact difcharge of her duty in every relation.

Leonora, thus educated, has the fools and the follies of the age in their due contempt-judges wifely-acts prudently-is ever ufefully or innocently employed-can pafs her evenings very chearfully without a card in her hand-can be perfectly in humour when the is at home, and all her acquaintance at the affembly; and feems likely to borrow no credit from her family, which the will not fully repay.

We will difmifs the daughter, and reprefent Emilia parting with her fon in

terms

terms like these. I am now to take my leave of you, for one campaign at leaft. It is the first you ever ferved; let me advife, and do you act, as if it would be your laft: the dangers, to which you will be expofed, give both of us reafon to fear it: if it pleafe God that it fhould be fo, may you not be found unprepared, nor I unrefigned! This I am the less likely to be, when you have had my best counfel, and I your promife to reflect upon it. He bowing, and affuring her, that whatever the should be pleafed to fay to him, it would be carefully remembered; he proceeded—I could never conceive, what induced the foldier to think that he might take greater liberties than the rest of mankind. He is, 'tis true, occasionally fubjected to greater hardships, and he runs greater hazards; but by a lewd and vicious life, he makes thefe hardflips abundantly more grievous than they otherwife would be-he difqualifies himself to bear them. What would you think of his wits, who, because he is to be much in the cold, fits, as often as he can, clofe to the fire? An habitual fobriety and regularity of manners is, certainly, the best prefervative of that vigorous conftitution, which makes it leaft uneafy to endure fatigue and cold, hunger and thirst.

The dangers to which the foldier is expofed, are fo far from excufing his licentioufnefs, when he has no enemy near him, that they ought to be confidered as the frongest motive to conform himself, at all times, to the rules of reafon and religion. A practice agreeable to them is the best fupport of his fpirits, and the fureft provifion for his fafety-It will effectually remove his fears, and can alone encourage his hopes nothing but it can give him any comfortable expectation, if what threatens him should befal him. He who is fo much in danger, ought to be properly armed against it, and this he can never be by reflecting on the women he has corrupted -on his hours of intemperance, or on any other of his extravagancies. You won't, perhaps, allow that he wants the armour I would provide him, because he never knows the apprehenfions that require it. But I am confidering what his apprehenfions ought to be, not what they are. The nature of things will not be altered, by our opinion about them.

It is granted, that a foldier's life is, freqantly, in the utmost hazard; and the question is not, how a thoughtlefs, ftupid, abfurd creature fhould behave in fuch a

fituation; but, what fhould be done in it by a man of prudence and fenfe? I fay, he will attend to the value of what he hazards

to the confequence of its lofs; and, if found of very great, he will fo act, that the lofs thereof may be, if poffible, fome or other way made up to him, or accompanied with the feweft inconveniences. Infenfibility of danger is the merit of a bulldog. True courage fees danger, but defpifes it only from rational motivesfrom the confiderations of duty. There can be no virtue in expofing life, where there is no notion of its value; you are a brave man, when you fully understand its worth, and yet in a good caufe difregard death.

If, thus to be ready to die is commendable, wholly from the caufe that makes us fo, which is, unquestionably, the cafe; I don't see how such an indifference to life, when honour calls you to risk it, can confift with paffing it, at any feafon, immorally and diffolutely.

Here is a gallant officer who will rather be killed than quit his poft-than be wanting in the defence of his country! Is not this a fine refolution in one who, by his exceffes, makes himself every day less able to serve his country; or who fets an example, which, if followed, would do his country as much mischief as it could have to fear from its moft determined enemy?

The inconfiderate and thoughtless may laugh at vice-may give foft terms to very bad actions, or fpeak of them, as if they were rather matter of jeft than abhorrence: but whoever will reflect whence all the mifery of mankind arifes-what the fource is of all the evils we lament; he cannot but own, that if any thing ought to make us ferious if we ought to deteft any thing, it fhould be that, from which fuch terrible effects are derived.

For the very fame reafon that we prefer health to ficknefs-eafe to pain, we must prefer virtue to vice. Moral evil feems to me to have a neceffary connection with natural. According to my notion of things, there is no crime but what creates pain, or has a tendency to create it to others or ourfelves: every criminal is fuch, by doing fomething that is directly, or in its confequences, hurtful to himself, or to a fellow