Unshorten'd by progression infinite,

Beginning still where computation ends!
"Tis the description of a deity.

'Tis the description of the meanest slave.

The melancholy and the sullen are apt to place a great part of their religion in dejected or ill-humoured looks; putting on an unsociable face, and declaiming against the innocent entertainments of life, with as much sharpness as they could bestow upon the greatest crimes. No other thing is the better for being sour, and it would be hard that religion should be so, which is the best of things.

It is worth your pains to make religion your choice, and not to make use of it only as a refuge.

Pray'r is devotion fit for mightiest minds,

The warring world's agreeing sacrifice.

Goodness is the best quality of the mind; the character and copy of the Deity. It admits of no excess but errour. The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall, the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall, but in charity there is no excess; neither angel nor man can come into danger by it.

The joys of parents are secret; so are their griefs and fears; they cannot utter the one, and will not utter the other. Men think according to their inclinations, speak according to their received opinions, but generally act according to habit.

Some people think their wits must be asleep when they are not darting out their stings, but there is a great difference between salt and bitter. He, who makes others afraid of his wit, had need be afraid of their memory,

To defer our charities till death, is to be liberal not of our own, but of the property of others.

In studies, let a man have set hours for those subjects

which are contrary to his natural inclination, but for those agreeable to it, he need appoint no fixed times; because his thoughts will spontaneously fly to them, as other studies and business give leave.

That is the best part of beauty, which a picture cannot express; or even the life itself at first sight.

Tender and delicate persons are in danger of being often angry, as being ruffled by so many things, which are scarce felt by more robust natures.

To keep anger from being mischievous, three things require most particular caution. First, to avoid severe words, especially such as are cutting and apposite; next, to reveal no secrets; thirdly, however passion may rise do nothing that is irrevocable.

The virtue of prosperity is temperance; of adversity, fortitude.

Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity of the New.

Studies and reading serve for delight, for ornament, and for use. To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament is affectation; and to judge wholly by their rules is pedantic. Letters perfect nature, and are perfected by experience; for letters do not sufficiently teach their own use; but this is a wisdom beyond and above them, gained by observation, operating upon native sagacity and good sense.

Virtue is the health of the soul, and cleanliness is the virtue of the body.

A virtuous man fights against temptations, and is victorious. A virtuous woman comes not within their reach :

she must not only be innocent but ignorant of ill. Other things are soiled by the touch of a finger, but a breath will dim the pure crystal.

In part she is to blame, who has been tried;
He comes too near, who comes to be denied.

Mark how it snows! how fast the valley fills,

And the sweet groves the hoary garment wear ; Yet the warm sunbeams, bounding from the hills, Shall melt the veil away, and the young green appear. But when old age has on your temper shed

Her silver frost, there's no returning sun;

Swift flies our summer, swift our autumn's fled,
When youth, and love, and spring, and golden joys

are gone.

Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate,
All but the page prescrib'd, their present state.

Know then this truth, enough for man to know;
Virtue alone is happiness below.

Forgiveness to the injur'd does belong;

For they ne'er pardon who have done the wrong.
The bloom of op'ning flow'rs, unsullied youth!
Softness and sweetest innocence she wears;
And looks like nature in the world's first spring.

O woman, lovely woman! Nature form'd you,
To temper men; they had been brutes without

you.

Cheerfulness and Innocence are twin sisters.

There is a world where no storms intrude, a haven of safety against the tempests of life. A little world of joy and love, of innocence and tranquillity. Suspicions are not there, nor Jealousies, nor Falsehood with her double tongue, nor the venom of Slander. Peace embraceth it with outspread wings. Plenty broodeth there. When a man entereth it, he forgetteth his sorrows, and cares, and disappointments; he openeth his heart to confidence, and to pleasures not mingled with remorse. This world is the well ordered home of a virtuous and amiable

woman.

What hero like the man who stands himself;
Who dares to meet his naked heart alone;
Who hears, intrepid, the full charge it brings,
Resolv'd to silence future murmurs there?

To morrow I will live, the fool does say;
To day itself's too late; the wise liv'd yesterday.
I am, the great Jehovah cries,
Throughout the ocean, earth and skies,

And, smitten to the heart,

All nature, without voice or sound,
Replies, O Lord, thou art!

We are all cooperating to one great work, some with knowledge and understanding, others ignorantly and undesignedly. One contributes to this one way; and another, another way. Nay, even the querulous and the murmurers, who attempt to oppose the course of nature, and to obstruct what happens, contribute also to this purpose, for the world must needs have within it such persons also. Think, then, in what class you would choose to rank yourself. The presiding mind will certainly make a right use of you one way or other, and will enlist you among his labourers and fellow workers.

Whatever is beautiful or honourable is so from itself, and it's excellence rests in itself. It's being praised is no part of it's excellence.

No man can hinder you from living according to the plan of your nature, and nothing can befal you contrary to the plan of the universe.

Observe that all things exist in consequence of changes. The things now existing are a sort of seed to those, which shall arise out of them.

Does any one despise me, let him see to it: I shall endeavour not to be found acting or speaking any thing worthy of contempt. Does any one hate me, let him see

to it: I shall be kind and gentle towards all, and even ready to show to this man his mistakes; not to upbraid him, or to make a display of my patience, but from a genuine goodness.

Never value that as advantageous, which may force you to break your faith, to violate your modesty or sense of honour, to hate any one, to dissemble, or to desire any of those things, which need walls or curtains to conceal them. All nature is but art, unknown to thee;

All chance, direction, which though canst not see ¿
All discord, harmony, not understood;

All partial evil, universal good.

Like leaves on trees the race of man is found, Now green in youth, now with'ring on the ground; Another race the following spring supplies,

They fall successive, and successive rise :

So generations in their course decay;

So flourish these, when those have past away.

Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense,
Lie in three words, Health, Peace, and Competence.
But Health consists with Temperance alone,
And Peace, O Virtue! Peace is all thy own.

Content is competence; nay more, 'tis wealth.

Labour is the offspring of Want, and the mother of Health and Contentment.

And is there a last day? and must there come
A sure, a fix'd, inexorable doom?

Ambition, swell; and, thy proud sails to show,
Take all the winds that Vanity can blow:
Wealth, on a golden mountain blazing stand,
And hold an India forth in either hand:
Spread all thy purple clusters, tempting Vine,
And thou, more dreaded foe, bright Beauty, shine: