of his grated door, and saw his body half wasted away with long expectation and confinement; and felt what kind of sickness of the heart it was which arises from hope deferred. Upon looking nearer, I saw him pale and feverish: in twelve years the western breeze had not fanned his blood; he had seen no sun, no moon in all that time; nor had the voice of a friend breathed through his lattice.

"He was sitting upon the ground on a little straw, in the farthest corner of his dungeon, which was alternately his chair and bed: a little calendar of small sticks were laid at the head, notched all over with the dismal days and nights he had passed there; he had one of these little sticks in his hand, and with a rusty nail he was etching another day of misery to add to the heap. As I darkened the little light he had, he lifted up a hopeless eye towards the door-then cast it down-shook his head, and went on with his work of affliction. I heard his chains upon his legs as he turned his body to lay his little stick upon the bundle-he gave a deep sigh-I saw the iron enter into his soul-I burst into tears, and withdrew, deeply impressed with the propriety of petitioning the Father of mercies to have compassion on all prisoners and captives." But the unfeeling heart of Protervus was incapable of commiseration, and the unhappy Ærumnosus languished away in his fetters till death released him.

His

Protervus looked upon himself as a man of consequence, and would assume overbearing and lofty airs, because he had more money than his neighbours. He was better dressed, and better fed than many of his fellow creatures, and he loved to aggrandize himself in his own esteem, in his language, and in his behaviour, on that account. vanity, his haughtiness, and insolence were insufferable. He would treat his servants as if they were dogs he forgot that a poor man was made of the same clay, and descended from the same common parent with himself. His servants hated him, and seldom continued long under his roof. When he stood in need of any assistance from them he could brook no delay; he would make no allowances for the various accidents which always attend human life, and may stop the speed of the most diligent and active servant. He would be perpetually railing at them, or backbiting them; and on the slightest failure in their duty he would storm and rage like a chained lion.

Protervus was captious, and ready to take exception and offence without just ground; nor would he give up a prejudice once entertained, upon the best reasons offered, or the most condescending steps taken to satisfy him. He was so far from being won by kindness, that it only made him more insolent; every concession emboldened his impetuosity. There was, in fact, no peace to be had with him, but by ceasing to have any thing

to do with him. He would treat those with whom he had dealings, with insolence and rudeness, with injurious and reflecting words. His language was indecent, provoking, and often outrageous; he was froward, and sowed strife.

He was unmercifully rigorous with those who were so unhappy as to stand indebted to him for sums of money which they were not immediately able to pay. He took a malicious pleasure in causing such to rot in the jail, as he used to express himself, though he would sometimes pray at church that God would forgive his debts as he forgave his debtors; and he now and then heard the lesson read in which it is solemnly declared, that he shall have judgment without mercy who hath shewed no mercy.-Deditor, one of his poor tenants, was by the loss of his cow and the blighting of his corn, rendered absolutely incapable of paying his annual rent in due time: the sum was but three pounds two shillings and six-pence.* Protervus went out one morning, and found this poor sufferer in the fields; he seized him by the throat as if he would have strangled him, and severely demanded immediate payment; saying, "Pay me that thou owest." Deditor fell down at his feet, and besought him; saying, "Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all; only grant me a little forbearance, and I will discharge the whole sum; but at present, through the loss I have sustained, I am

* An hundred pence. See Matt. xviii. 28, &c.

unable to do it." But Protervus had no tenderness towards him; he was deaf to his entreaties, he would not hear his cries; but went and cast him into prison until he should pay the debt.

Here this innocent but unhappy man was secluded from the common comforts of human life, oppressed with the corrosion of just but unavailing resentment, the heaviest of sorrow, the corruption of confined air, the want of usual exercise, and sometimes of food, the contagion of diseases, from which there was no retreat, with all the other complicated horrors of a prison; while his wife and children, deprived of the support of his industry, and the consolation of his company, languished in wretchedness and misery, because of the fury of the oppressor.

Protervus seemed to delight in vexing his fellowcreatures; he took a kind of malicious pleasure in giving them pain and torment. He was regardless of his neighbour's welfare, and lived only to himself. If he had but wealth and ease, it was no matter of concern with him what calamities should befal the rest of mankind. He was rough, quarrelsome, ill-natured, sullen and greedy of revenge. Death at length, that king of terrors, rid the world of this enemy of society. A raging fever seized his frame; and in a few days he breathed out his indignant soul, in distraction, horror and despair!

CHAP. VII.

THE CHARACTER OF EUGENIUS.

As soon as Eugenius had a house and a family, he erected an altar in it; there the word of God was read, and prayers were constantly offered. These were not omitted on account of any guest whom Providence might conduct within those happy walls for Eugenius esteemed it a part of due respect to those who were brought under his roof, to take it for granted they would look upon it as a very bad compliment, to imagine they would have been obliged by neglecting the duties of religion on their account.

:

His character was uniformly regular and amiable; but he particularly excelled in that self-government which this essay is designed to promote. His meekness of temper was not a mere natural disposition: it was a christian grace; a fruit of the Spirit. It arose from religious principles; a regard to God's authority as enjoining it, and a sense of the evil and sinfulness of the contrary. He knew that to bear a hostile and revengeful disposition towards our neighbour, is highly offensive to God: