and which you may profecute through the whole of life, without laying any foundation for felf-reproach when you fhall have finished your courfe. Having laid this folid foundation of a wife and happy life, exert that manly and independent spirit which will raife you fu perior to the tyrannical influence of fafhion and example, and give a dignified confiftency to your character. Since your Creator hath given you reafon and confcience to direct you, and made you ca pable of rifing to perfection in intellectual and moral excellence, difdain to fubmit your judgment and actions to the controul of men who have neither wifdom nor fteadinefs fufficient to regulate their own conduct. Through fear of lofing the friendship, incurring the cenfures, or falling under the ridicule, of fuch men, refign not the folid, and lafting fatisfactions of a felf-approving mind, and all the honours and rewards which Virtue her votaries.

bestows upon

Obferve and

follow the advice of the wife fon of Sirach-"Be not afhamed when it concerneth thy foul; for there is a shame which bringeth fin, and there is a fhame which is glory and grace: accept no man's perfon against thy foul; and let not the reverence of any man cause thee to fall."

Lastly, as the most effectual fecurity against the undue fear of men, fear God. By frequently contemplating the Supreme Deity as he is difplayed in his works and in his difpenfations, impress upon your minds a lively fenfe of his univerfal prefence and fovereign dominion. Daily recollect your continual and neceffary dependence upon him; and reflect, that his favour is to be defired, and his displeasure to be dreaded, above every thing else. What can the most excellent or powerful of your fellow-creatures do to fecure, inèreafe, and perpetuate your happiness, in comparison with what you have already received,

received, and are encouraged hereafter to expect, from your Almighty Benefactor?>

Where is the man whofe judgment of characters can deferve to be brought into the most distant competition with that of the Great Being who fearches the heart, and whofe judgment is always according to truth? Or what confequences are to be apprehended from the reproaches or cenfures of men which can deserve the flightest attention, when compared with the effects of his displeasure, who has the existence and the happiness of every creature entirely in his hands? When, therefore, you apprehend yourselves in danger of fuffering perfecution, reproach, or ridicule, for your steady adherence to truth and virtue, and feel yourself in fome danger of yielding to the impulfe of that "fear of man which bringeth a fnare," fortify your mind with the confiderations which religion suggests, and say with the apostle Paul-" It is a small thing to be judged of man's judgment: he that judg

eth me is the Lord.

Hear, and obey the command of our bleffed Saviour:

"I fay unto you, my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do: but I will forewarn you whom you fhall fear: fear him who, after he hath killed, hath power to caft into hell; yea, I say unto you, fear him."

Decorum

THE term bonefty, which in modern acceptation expreffes only one branch of equity, was used by former writers in our own country, and among the Ro mans, from whom the word is borrowed, in a much more extenfive fenfe, as de noting all thofe moral qualities which are in themfelves becoming, and are peeuculiarly adapted to procure refpect and efteem. In this fenfe the term is always ufed

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