of nature, and doubtlefs difpleafing to the Author of it. Unless we might commune with the hearts of others, as well as with our own, we could not partake of the benefits and pleafures of fociety, and without the converfe and communications of fociety we could be neither wife nor happy. Nor does the divine Being require from us an unreafonable facrifice of the innocent amufements of life; the mind as well as the body must be relaxed, for too intense an application of the one, as well as too great la bour and toil impofed on the other, will in feeble, inftead of invigorating them. Intervals of refreshment ftrengthen and improve both, and render them fitter for those offices they were intended to perform. But the danger lies chiefly on the other fide: we are all of us ready enough to comply with the follies, to partake of the diverfions, and to join in the gaieties of others; but not always do we find it fo easy to separate ourfelves from them, and return to our chamber to commune with our own hearts. The followers of fafhion, and the votaries of vice, by a perpetual diffipation of thought, by a conftant round of vanity, make themfelves unfit to move in any other circle; that communion with their own hearts which the royal philofopher recommends, would only prefent them with a horrid and frightful picture of themselves, which they would gladly avoid. They might perhaps be willing to become what they ought to be, but cannot bear first to see what they are. They are deeply in debt to themselves, and, (as is generally the cafe where much is owing) are afraid to look into the account; and to avoid the uneafinefs of their creditors folicitations, fhun their prefence, increase the debt, and plunge themfelves ftill deeper into ruin. The virtues and vices of a nation are perhaps as changeable as the habits and cuftoms of it ours, we all know, are as variable as our climate charity is at present the fashionable virtue, and idlenefs the prevailing vice; and a more fatal one, it may be, we could not have fallen into, because it has the fpecious appearance of innocence to fupport it. Diverfions, it is faid, are not inconfiftent with religion, nor amufements forbidden by Christianity; idleness is neither avarice, envy, ambition nor cruelty; but does it follow from thence that it is not wrong? If God have a rival in his love, what will it import whether it be an insatiable love of money, or a foolish contempt of it? If he is to be deferted, will it excufe the bafe deferter, that he leaves his Creator not for honours, wealth or power, but for an idle amufement, and an inconfiderable trifle? When men throw away the talent, is it more innocent than if they hid it in a napkin? and will not the great Steward, with equal juftice and equal indignation, require it at their hands? To prevent, therefore, the fatal effects of that epidemical diftemper which has of late fo fpread itself through all ranks and degrees of people, people, I know no better remedy than that prefcribed in the text, to feparate ourselves a little from the world, to remove from the fcene of vice and folly, and retire in search of true wifdom, the parent of joy and happinefs. When we are in a croud, the variety dazzles our fight, and the quick fucceffion of ideas bewilders the understanding; a certain distance is neceffary to give every thing its proper fymmetry and proportion: it is only, therefore, when the foul has leifure to reflect, that it can collect its fcattered knowledge, and form fit conclufions. The fame habitual acquired courage that animates the foldier in the heat of battle, to rush on danger and death without thought or apprehenfion, fupports alfo the profligate and licentious man in the purfuit of his pleafures fociety quells his fears, flatters his hopes, and encourages his defigns.-That which he would blufh at, would be ashamed or afraid to act alone, a fellow-criminal fhall reconcile him to; for guilt as well as forrow feems lightened by participation; and to err with thousands, we unhappily find, is much eafier than to ftem the torrent of vice and folly, and be fingularly right. To remove therefore for a while from the bufy fcene, to ftand afide, to commune with our own hearts, to inquire of them what we have been about; to call to mind what important duties have been performed, or omitted by us; to form good refolutions, and plan cautious measures for the future, is a practice highly neceffary for us, if we are indeed defirous to do well, Moft Most of the follies, and moft of the misfortunes of life, arife from that pride and prefumption which would perfuade men that they are fuperior to them. We fhould have much more virtue amongst us, if we were not fo confident in that little which we poffefs; thofe who ftand do not take fufficient heed left they fall. By this retreat from the vanities and impertinencies of the world, we gain a right knowledge of ourselves: an acquaintance indeed we have but too little defire to cultivate! a knowledge we take too little care to improve! yet an acquaintance of all others the moft important to us, a knowledge of all others the moft beneficial. Nothing perhaps will more ftrongly recommend to us the retirement and felf-examination recommended in the text, than a reflection on the honour and efteem in which it has been held by the best and greatest of men of all ages and nations. All the fons of wifdom and fcience, the ornaments and glory of human nature, the law-giver, the moralift, the preacher, and the poet; all thofe whofe labours have inftructed and improved mankind, were not the idle votaries of pleasure, the flaves of luxury or ambition, who spent their hours in populous affemblies, amidft corruption, folly and extravagance; but fober thinking rational beings, who confidered that they were not born for themselves alone, but for their friends, their country, and their kind; who feparated themfelves to intermeddle with wifdom, who retired to their chambers to commune with their own own hearts, to ftudy the works of their Creator, and glorify him; and absented themselves from the world, only to be of the greater use and fervice to it. In the works of artifts, the chief fprings which actuate the machine are often fo concealed, that the vulgar eye cannot difcover whence its movements arife: the fun too, though hidden by intervening clouds, ftill difpenfes his light to enliven, and his heat to invigorate all things; and though not seen, his power is felt, and his influence acknow. ledged. The mind of man is ever bufy and unsatis fied: it must have food to nourish, and employment to exercise it, be that food ever fo unwholesome, that employment ever so trif ling and ridiculous. When the gay and diffolute retire from noife and buftle, which from laffitude and fatiety they are sometimes forced to do, they feel a horrid vacuity, they feel that there is something wanting within; having no refourses there how heavy, how intolerable hangs the weight of time upon their hands! Yet, whilft there is fo large a scope for the human mind, fo many wonders of God ftill unexplored, so many arts and sciences ftill capable of improvement; is it not strange to hear men fay their hours hang heavy upon them? What is this, in effect, but to complain of thirst with rivers before them, and ftarve amidst abundance? How many wretches are there in the world, whofe minds are fo deftitute of knowledge, fo barren and uncultivited, as to render them moft truly and em phatically |