THE

ENGLISH READER.

PART I.

PIECES IN PROSE

CHAPTER I

SELECT SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS.

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SECTION I.

ILIGENCE, induftry, and proper improvement of time, are material duties of the young.

The acquifition of knowledge is one of the most honourable occupations of youth.

Whatever useful or engaging endowments we poffefs, virtue is a neceffary requifite, in order to their fhining with proper luftre.

NOTE.

In the first Chapter, the Compiler has exhibited fentences in a great variety of construction, and in all the diverfity of Punctuation. If well practifed upon, he prefumes they will fully prepare the Young reader for the various paufes, inflections, and modulations of voice, which the fucceeding pieces require. The Author's "English Exercifes," under the head of Punctuation, will afford the learner additional scope for improving himself in reading fentences and Daragraphs variously conftructed.

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Virtuous youth gradually brings forward accomplished and flourishing manhood.

Sincerity and truth form the bafis of every virtue.

Truth and error, virtue and vice, are things of immutable nature.

Change and alteration form the very effence of the world. True happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noise.

In order to acquire a capacity for happiness, it must be our first study to rectify inward diforders.

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Whatever purifies, fortifies alfo the heart. 1 From our eagerness to grafp, we strangle and deftroy pleasure.

A temperate spirit, and moderate expectations, are the beft fafeguard of the mind, in this uncertain and changing ftate.

There is nothing, except fimplicity of intention, and purity of principle, that can ftand the teft of near approach and ftrict examination.

The value of any poffeffion is to be chiefly estimated, by the relief which it can bring us in the time of our greatest need.

No perfon who has once yielded up the government of his mind, and given loofe rein to his de. fires and paffions, can tell how far thefe may carry himar

Tranquillity of mind is always moft likely to be attained, when the bufinefs of the world is tempered with thoughtful and ferious retreat.

He who would act like a wife man, and build his houfe on the rock, and not on the fand, should contemplate human life, not only in the funshine, but in the fhade.

Let ufefulness and beneficence, not oftentation and vanity, direct the train of your pursuits. To maintain a steady and unbroken mind, amidft all the fhocks of the world, marks a great and noble fpirit.

Patience, by preferving compofure within, refifts the impreffion which trouble makes from without.

Compaffionate affections, even when they draw tears from our eyes for human mifery, convey fatisfaction to the heart.

They who have nothing to give, can often afford relief to others, by imparting what they feel.

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Our ignorance of what is to come, and of what is really good or evil, should correct anxiety about worldly fuccefs.

The veil which covers from our fight the events of fucceeding years, is a veil woven by the hand of mercy.'

The beft preparation for all the uncertainties of futurity, confifts in a well-ordered mind, a good confcience, and a cheerful fubmiffion to the will of Heaven. X%

The chief misfortunes that befal us in life, can be traced to fome vices or follies which we have committed. A KA

Were we to furvey the chambers of fickness and diftrefs, we should often find them peopled with the victims of intemperance and fenfuality, and with the children of vicious indolence and floth.

To be wife in our own eyes, to be wife in the

opinion of the world, and to be wife in the fight of our Creator, are three things fo. very different, as rarely to coincidem hoping

Man, in his highest earthly glory, is but a reed floating on the ftream of time, and forced to follow new direction of the current.

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The corrupted temper, and the guilty paffions. of the bad, fruftrate the effect of every advantage which the world confers on them.

The external misfortunes of life, difappointments, poverty, and ficknefs, are nothing in com parison of thofe inward diftreffes of mind, occafioned by folly, by paffion, and by guilt.

No ftation is fo. high, no power fo great, no character fo unblemished, as to exempt men from being attacked by rafhnefs, malice, or envy..

Moral and religious inftruction derives its effica cy, not fo much from what men are taught to know, as from what they are brought to feel.

He who pretends to great fenfibility towards. men, and yet has no feeling for the high objects of religion, no heart to admire and adore the great Father of the univerfe, has reafon to diftruft the truth and delicacy of his fenfibility.

When, upon rational and sober inquiry, we have established our principles, let us not fuffer them to be fhaken by the fcoffs of the licentious, or the cavils of the feeptical.

When we obferve any tendency to treat religion or morals with difrespect and levity, let us hold it to be a fure indication of a perverted understanding, or a depraved heart.

Every degree of guilt incurred by yielding to temptation, tends to debafe the mind, and to

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weaken the generous and benevolent principles of human nature.

Luxury, pride, and vanity, have frequently as much influence in corrupting the sentiments of the great, as ignorance, bigotry, and prejudice, have in misleading the opinions of the multitude.

⚫ Mixed as the present state is, reafon and religion pronounce, that generally, if not always, there is more happiness than mifery, more pleasure than pain, in the condition of man.

Society, when formed, requires diftinctions of property, diverfity of conditions, fubordination of ranks, and a multiplicity of occupations, in order to advance the general good.

That the temper, the fentiments, the morality, and, in general, the whole conduct and character of men, are influenced by the example and difpofition of the perfons with whom they affociate, is a reflection which has long fince paffed into a proverb, and been ranked among the ftanding maxims of human wisdom, in all ages of the world.

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SECTION III.

THE defire of improvement difcovers a liberal mind, and is connected with many accomplishments, and many virtues.

Innocence confers eafe and freedom on the mind; and leaves it open to every pleafing fenfation.

Moderate and fimple pleasures relifh high with