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giving to the Author of every good and per fect gift, blesses his babes, and retires to rest. During his absence from home, in the prose cution of his labour, his wife teaches the children to read, and to write, and attends to all the domestic economy necessary to render the poor man's home the habitation of comfort.

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In this manner pass the six days in the week which are devoted to bodily toil: on the sabbath, our peasant ushers in the morning with calling all his family to prayers; they regularly attend their church twice in the day, and, after a walk into the fields, close the evening with reading a portion of the scriptures, and with prayer. I am so desirous of interesting my readers in the welfare of this excellent family, that I shall endeavour to impress their virtue more forcibly on the mind, by borrowing the following admirable lines from the inimitable Bard, to whose assistance I have so often had recourse in these volumes.

"The priest-like father reads the sacred page, "How Abra'm was the friend of God on high,

How Moses bade eternal warfare wage "With Amalek's ungracious progeny. "Or how the Royal bard did groaning lie "Beneath the stroke of heaven's avenging ire; "Or Job's pathetic plaint, and wailing cry, "Or rapt' Isaiah's wild, seraphic fire,

"And other holy Seers, that tuned the sacred lyre.

"Perhaps, the Christian volume is the theme, "How guiltless blood for guilty man was shed "How he, who bore in heaven the second name, "Had not on earth whereon to lay his head; "How his first followers and servants sped, "The precepts sage they sent to many a land; "How he who 'lone in Patmos banished, "Saw in the sun a mighty Angel stand, "And heard great Bab'lon's doom pronounc'd by heaven's command.

"Then kneeling down to heaven's Eternal King, "The saint, the husband, and the father prays; "Hope springs exulting on triumphant wing, "That thus they all shall meet in future days; "Forever bask in uncreated rays,

"No more to sigh or shed the bitter tear, "Together hymning their Creator's praise, "In such society yet still more dear,

"While circling time rolls round in an eternal sphere.

"Compar'd with this how poor Religion's pride, "In all the pomp of method and of art, "When men display to congregations wide "Devotion's every grace except the heart. "The Pow'r incensed the pageant will desert, "The pompous strain, the sacerdotal stole, But, haply, in the cottage far apart, "Well-pleased may hear the language of the soul,

And in his book of life the inmates poor enroll.

"Now homeward all take off their several way, "The youngling cottagers retire to rest; "The parent pair their secret homage pay,

"And proffer up to heaven the warm request; "That He who stills the raven's clamorous nest, "And decks the lily fair in flowery pride, "Would, in the way his wisdom sees the best,

"For them and for their little ones provide, "But chiefly in their hearts with grace divine preside.

From scenes, like this, Britannia's grandeur springs,

"That makes her loved at home, revered abroad, Princes and Lords are but the breath of Kings,

"An honest man's the noblest work of God. "And, certes, in fair virtue's heavenly road, "The cottage leaves the palace far behind; "What is a Lordling's pomp? a cumb'rous load, "Disgusting oft the wretch of human kind, "Studied in arts of hell, in wickedness refined.

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Britannia, my dear, my native soil,

"For whom my warmest wish to heaven is sent,

"Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil

"Be blest with health, and peace, and sweet

content;

"And, oh may heaven their simple lives prevent "From luxury's contagion weak, and vile; Then howe'er crowns and coronets be rent,

"A virtuous populace may rise the while, "And stand a wall of fire around their much-lov'd Isle."

ESSAY CXIX.

NARRATIVE CONTINUED.

NOTHING reconciles a man so much to human nature as the contemplation of benevolent and virtuous characters. The welldirected mind always feels a pang when it is compelled to observe those, who live only to augment the mass of folly and of vice, which pollute the world with deformity; and it is only a strong sense of the duty, which we owe to society, that can induce such a mind

to pourtray vile and iniquitous human beings. It is only because we are well aware of the vast influence, which the opinion of his fellow-creatures has over almost every one, that breathes, and that scarcely any one, however far removed from virtue, is insensible to the lash of ridicule, and the sting of satire, that prevails upon us to suspend knaves and fools upon the gibbet of infamy and contempt.

Perhaps, the most hardened and audacious villain would be deterred from committing a crime to-night, if he was certain of being held up to public scorn and detestation for it to-morrow. Indeed, so general is the influence of the opinion of others upon almost every man, that it may be considered as nearly an universal stimulus to action. Who would build a palace, or labour to amass money, or deck himself in embroidery, if there were none to look on and admire the laced waistcoat, envy the treasure, and gaze upon the palace? The philosopher observes and takes advantage of the power, which opinion exercises over the minds of almost all men, whether good or bad; and confirms and

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