ward objects that occupy and diftract us, lofe fight of ourselves; we fhould not, like the generality of mankind, exist and live more without than within We fhould rather cherish and fharpen felfconsciousness by reflection. We fhould frequently fay to ourselves: How great and extenfive the ufe and application I can make of my little and mean faculties, weak and impotent as I may be in other respects! What powers, what fpecial privileges, do I poffefs, as a man, as a reasonable, free, and moral agent, as a citizen, as a member of a polifhed, enlightened fociety, as a chriftian, as an heir of immortality and of everlafting life! How far does all this raife me above the whole inanimate and animal creation How far even above a confiderable part of my brethren on earth, who are less fortunate than myfelf! And of what enterprifes and affairs, of what great matters, of what continually progreflive evolving and perfecting am I capable! To what lengths may I not proceed in the knowledge of truth, in the controul of myself and of outward objects, in the moft arduous and mafculine virtues ! And fhall I know and feel this, without inward fatisfaction, without cheerful gratitude to God, my creator and father! And fhall I not daily rejoice in it, fince all this effentially appertains to me, fince I have and am and remain all this, at one time as well as at another, whatever complection my outward ftate and circumftances may wear and affume! Another How Another fource of our happiness is the manifold actual ufe of our capacities and abilities, and the pleasure that is connected with the legitimate, ufeful application of them, and particularly with an induftrious, bufy life. What alterations and effects, within and without us, may we not all, each in his station and in his place, with our intellectual and corporeal faculties, daily produce! many matters ufeful to ourselves and to our brethren, commence, continue, complete! When paffes a day, in which we cannot conceive, contrive, do, promote, perform much real good! And if we did it with more consciousness and confideration; if we felt and reflected more that we are the favoured, the eminently endowed creatures, that can think and contrive and do and perform all this; if we more frequently thence drew conclufions of the excellency of our nature, of our previous difpofitions, of our capacities and powers, of the grandeur of our destination, and more refigned ourfelves to the transporting prefages, the beautiful profpects of futurity, which this gives and opens to our view: how very much would the fum of our agreeable ideas and fenfations be augmented! How much happiness fhould we already enjoy in the proper ufe, in the right application of our capacities and faculties, without regard to the refult! How feldom fhould we then complain of exertion, toil and labour! How much pleasure fhould we find even in this exertion, this toil and labour! How cafily fhould 8 fhould we pacify ourselves on every fruitless or ap. parently fruitless pursuit or attempt, by the reflec tion: I have however thought and acted as an intelligent, reasonable being! I have however had a confcious fenfe of my pre-eminence over the inferior claffes of creatures and my affinity with intelligences of a fuperior order; I have maintained the poft affigned me by my maker; exercifed the faculties he gave me, and ftrengthened them by exercife; laboured at my improvement, and forwarded myself more or less towards my completion! And may not the enlightened, the reflecting, the well-difpofed man, daily fay this, and daily find fatisfaction in the fentiment! Let him be otherwife bufied as he will, employing his faculties to what purpose he will, whether he perform much, or little, or nothing with them: yet he has ufed them agreeably to the ends for which they were given, conformably to the will of God; and if he do it with intelligence and confideration, then he has not employed them in vain, he has thereby furthered his perfection, and this is the ftraiteft, the fureft way to happiness. A third fource, in confluence with the last mentioned, is reflection; the reflection on whatever we feel and conceive and do, on whatever we fee and hear and learn, on all that furrounds us and happens to us. The more we reflect on all things; the more light is fhed on all; the more do chimerical and imaginary difficulties vanish from before our our eyes; the brighter and plainer is our path of life; the more connection and order and wife defign do we discover in what otherwife would perplex and difturb us. This reflection, when we are once converfant with it, and have tafted its sweetness, is a perennial fount of happiness, in the profoundest filence as well as in the midft of noise and tumult, in the most perfect feclufion as in the most numerous company, in the darkest night as in the splendour of the meridian fun. It is the fource of delight, which leaft of all depends on external objects, on events and turns of fortune; is most of all in our own power; is continually neareft at hand; is moft feldom and never entirely dried up; to the ufe whereof we leaft of all are in want of extraneous help, and the enjoyment whereof most of all makes us apprehend our dignity, raises us highest above vifible and tranfitory things, and brings us nearest to fuperior beings, even to the deity himself. From this fource have all the wife and good of every age and every nation, drawn that repofe and contentment, that confolation and joy, by which they diftinguished themselves above other men, by which they were enabled to difpenfe with and to lofe fo many things, without uneafinefs and without regret, to bear and to fuffer fo many things with calmnefs and ferenity of mind, to do and to perform fo many things with complacency and delight; and, in every ftation, in all the viciffitudes of outward fortune, to be pleafed and and happy. Oh draw from this fource, all ye who live amongst polished and enlightened perfons, and have fo many means and incentives to reflection. Cultivate your understandings, cultivate all your mental faculties with diligence and care; give a new edge to your attention and your obfervation, be on your guard against heedleffnefs and levity; view, remark, enjoy, do all things as thinking, rational creatures; purfue every ray of light that darts upon you, every track of truth that prefents itself to you: fo will you never experience the oppreffive burden of languor and difguft, fo deftructive to happiness; fo will you understand how to be continually employed, and how to be always agreeably employed; and, inftead of leading a dream-like life, your life will be truly joyous in the clear confcioufnefs of what you conceive and do. The pleasure of virtue and of beneficence is a fourth fource of human happiness, which ftands open to us all, and whence we may daily draw. And how pure, how abundant is this fource! What day paffes by without affording us an oppor tunity of confirming ourselves in fome good difpofition; of combating and controuling fome bad propenfity, of ftifling fome irregular inclination, fome corrupt paflion in its very rife; of gaining fome victory over ourselves and the world; of exercifing ourselves in fome manly virtue, in the fulfilment of fome arduous or painful duty; of bring |