MUCH moral and useful instruction may be obtained from a fair and candid consideration of the disagreeable circumstances, occupations, and engagements into which we voluntarily throw ourselves, not content with the evil of the day which is sufficient, but seeking opportunies, as it were, to make our situations more irksome, and all things worse than they really are. And this consideration may be pursued to still greater advantage, by contrasting the disagreeable things of life with the agreeable things within our reach, and which are by far more numerous and valuable than we have perhaps ever imagined; and many of them so secure in their nature from the miseries of regret, ruin, or remorse, that it is astonishing they are not more frequently chosen by man, who is, by nature, an epicure, and that they are not distinguished by the name of pleasures. Perhaps these valuable items escape our observation in the catalogue of the incidents of life, because we chuse to purchase its most expensive and ornamental furniture, however useless or brittle; though perhaps by the time the lot arrives home, the house is shut up, and its owner to be seen no more. P I shall, however, avoid treating this subject gravely; it is by no means an unpleasant one, and if better understood by man, he would wonder how it had happened that he had missed so many opportunities of happiness, rejected so many means of tasting true satisfaction, and abandoned so often the substantial for the empty and transitory delight of the placentia sensus; perversely chusing the sweets which contain a poison in preference to the sweets which are both delightful and salubrious. Perhaps the first in rank, and the most agreeable thing to the nature of man, is love. I mean that love which is the mother of charity, good-nature, and complacency for our fellow-creatures; which instructs us to pity, to help, and to relieve, which can abate by its mild interferences the sternness of justice, which can retard the impetus of misfortune, or defeat the malignant power of an enemy in favour of any suffering fellow creature it may meet with. How excellent a quality then is love, to soften and solace the rigours of a life bending to the yoke of moral and physical evil; and why is not its principles distributed by the precepts of education from school to school through the universe, as the true rudiment of happiness. I shall next speak of that love which is the inclination of the two sexes for each other, both in compliment to the ladies, and because it ranks as the third law of nature, and possesses in its chaste character the richest store of extatic delights presented to man. Listen to the language of the lover. "When my dear Sacharissa consented to the appointment of the eyening, to meet her beneath the row of elms, I impatiently watched the dial which promised to produce a moment of so much delight. I anticipated all the luxuries of a chaste and delicate interview. At length the time of meeting arrived, a thrill of exquisite pleasure ran through my veins; it was at the approach of my Sacharissa, my breast became agitated with the tumults of love. She gave me her hand, and love and joy fluttered their wings about my heart. In walking, the tender Sacharissa inclined her bosom to me, and as she leant on my arm seemed to imagine me her protector; her beautiful and expressive eyes frequently met mine, their soft fluid sparkling with the liveliness of love and pleasure. When we were seated, her hand was within mine, and the dialogue was friendship, pity, and sometimes love. When Sacharissa spoke of the deceit and falsehood of the world, the generous blush that covered her face pictured a soul of constancy and truth. 46 -Her pure and eloquent blood Spoke in her cheek, and so divinely wrought, "That one might almost say her body thought." It may naturally be supposed that marriage should follow, and so it does naturally enough; and notwithstanding what cross old bachelors may say on the subject, matrimony contains a larger portion of happiness for man than any other state, provided the affinities of mind and fortune are attended to in the choice of the object. Methinks, before I end the chapter of love, it may be proper to say something of the enamoured swain, who is a prey to the inquietudes of an unrequited passion. Such an one I observe, by the light of the moon, at this moment walking to and fro by the side of a river, ruminating on the divine object of his misery. Would to heaven that some press-gang were at hand to bear him away from such useless solicitude; nothing but main force can extricate him from the tyranny of the gentle Saphorina, and nothing less than the boatswain's pipe rouse him from the soft lethargies of despair, in which he is constantly entranced. It was humorously said by a physician, who happened to notice a young man in love eat very heartily of some rump steaks, that the distemper was turned; perhaps a good rump may be a specific, and it is certainly an inoculation that many hungry lovers would gladly consent to try. Charity is another charm and delight of human life which has capabilities of spreading abroad peace and good will; it embraces the universe with its endearments, and receives to its bosom the erring heart which seeks forgiveness, and which needs support; above the meanness of making distinctions, it furnishes the table of hospitality to all, and excludes not any from its abundant feast. It warms, delights, and invigorates the drooping heart, chilled by disappointment, and, hand in hand with hope, travels the world to cheer and bless mankind. Cheerfulness is another blessing to man. Cheerfulness is ever the companion of a good heart; for a bad man is never thoroughly at rest, and though he may attempt gaiety, the smile he wears is only an exterior which the world has taught him, and which, after all, but ill conceals a mind distracted. In short, a good heart is the ground work of all the enjoyments and entertainments of the mind; safe within its little independent territory, desired by humility and prescribed by reason, without internal commotion, it cares little for the foreign wars of envy, malice, and the world. Numerous indeed are the domestic comforts and incidental pleasures of life which are built on the ground work of love, charity, good nature, complacency and cheerfulness of mind. I am just in the humour to enumerate some of them as very agreeable. A pleasant walk in summer with an intelligent and Fively female; a tete-a-tete by a comfortable fire side with the same subject; the endearments of children; the conversation of a man of merit; a visit to the poor, or sick; to snatch from cruel persecution the hunted animal, be it a dog or a cat; to repress undue influence; to oppose the cruelty of power; to assert the cause of the injured, are things that afford the best entertainment to a rational mind. Then let man look round, and let me ask him if there are no agreeable things in life? Does not hope still attend him as a morning star? Does not nature open her bounteous stores to bless him? Let him observe the rising of the glorious sun, and view the pure azure of the firmament; listen to the lark, ascending the acclivity of the hill to meet the healthful breeze, and then return to his domestic comforts, and say if he is unhappy. Hast thou no wife, no sister, no children, no neighbours to |