society, although they have been fince too often facrilegioufly alienated from this their worthieft deftination; how they were actually employed to enlighten an ignorant and civilize a favage race, to enforce and elevate devotion, to infpire and strengthen a reverence for the laws, an affection for the community, a prin ciple of obedience to parents and govern; ors,afenfe of whatever is, decent, excellent, or heroic, and an emulation of virtuous fame; how they performed: all this by celebrating the praises of the Divinity, by rehearfing the achievements of divine, and illuftrious men, and by representing in animated pictures, whatever is praife-worthy in fentiments and actions, with all that is happy and glorious in their effects; and how, on the other hand, they helped to reftrain the wildness, and reduce the wanderings, of the paffions, by difplaying in the most moving examples the violent convulfions, the horrible outrages, the unnatural guilt,

the complicated and countless miferies, which thofe have produced among the different ranks, and through the fucceffive generations, of mankind.

When I obferved my pupil beginning to enter into thefe views, and to form of course a more exalted idea of those writings which he had heretofore regarded only in the light of entertainment; I proceeded to make him acquainted with fome of the most valuable works of the Hiftorical kind, fuch as contain a spirited and fuccinct account of those periods, which have been famous for the moft remarkable perfonages and events. Thefe not only engaged his attention, and gratified his thirft of novelty, but tended to confirm in fome degree the reflections I had made from the Poets; at the fame time that they served to inftruct him in the condition of human life, by letting him fee from indubitable facts, that though pięty and irreligion, temperance

and luxury, integrity and villainy, Virtue and Vice in general, are frequently followed, in the prefent ftate, with the confequences which thefe writers award to them, according to the laws of poetic justice, they are yet far from being uniformly fo; and that, how much foever a worthy character is conftantly preferable to the reverse on all other accounts, it is ftill true that in this world the best men have often the moft afflicted lot, and the worft the most triumphant. A difcovery which feemed to fill him with aftonishment and horrour, to remove a part of that delufive glare with which the continual fight of opulence and greatness, joined to the prospect of future wealth and diftinction, had dazzled him, and consequently to lower his lofty hopes of hap→ pinefs from things external.

Of this occafion I laid hold to fet forth the fuperiority, and neceffity, of thofe internal goods, which are independ

ent on the caprices of men, and the cafualties of life; and which are many times enjoyed moft, when other poffeffions are at the lowest ebb. An enlightened understanding, a correct imagination, and moderate paffions; intentions univerfally upright, pursued with vigour, with temper, and perfeverance; a spirit erect and firm, unawed by power, unfeduced by pleasure, and unfubdued by pain, yet tractable and mild, awake to the finer feelings of humanity, and open to conviction; with loyalty and attachment to a man's prince and country, warmth and fidelity to his friends, a generous pity and forgiveness of his enemies; and, to crown all the reft, an unreferved devotednefs to GOD; thefe, I told him, thefe were the only fatisfying and abiding acquifitions, which rendered a person contented and eftimable in every ftate, even in the depth of difgrace and poverty; as, on the contrary, no poffible affluence or titles could refcue, from contempt and

borAt prefent I did little more, indeed, than hint at such fubjects, and others connected with them; as, the advantages for attaining this exalted ftation which are derived from Divine Philofophy, more efpecially that of JESUS, and particularly thofe fuperior aids and elevating pro pects, which that fovereign Mafter holds out to his difciples. Of thefe points it seemed proper to delay a larger explanation till afterwards, when my pupil's capacity fhould be more proportioned to them, and the effervefcence of juvenile fancy should give place to the coolness of maturer judgment.

But that the whole might leave, in the mean time, fome fenfible impreffion, I here affumed a countenance more serious than ufual, took him by the hand, and addreffing him with a voice and air both