his mind. Love thy friend and be faithful unto him: but if thou bewrayeft his fecrets, follow no more after him: for as a man hath destroyed his enemy, so hast thou loft the love of thy friend. As one that letteth a bird go out of his hand, so hast thou let thy friend go, and thou fhalt not get him again. Follow after him no more for he is too far off; he is as a roe escaped out of the fnare. As for a wound it may be bound up; and after rèviling, there might be reconcilement; but he that bewrayeth fecrets, is without hope."

In another part the fame writer has pointed out the fruits of friendship in a juft eulogy on it. "A faithful friend (fays,he) is a strong defence, and he that hath found fuch a one has found a treasure. Nothing countervails a faithful friend, and his excellency is invaluable. A faithful friend is the medicine of life, and they that fear the Lord fhall find him. Whofo feareth the Lord, fhall direct his friendship aright, for as he is, fo fhall his friend be alfo."

Among all the works of different authors on this fubject, can there be any paffage felected that excels or even equals that fine faying of this ancient writer?" A faithful friend is the medicine of life." Here we see the friend pourtrayed in a juft and pleafing

pleafing light; and how can the advantages of friendship be more ftrongly expreffed than in reprefenting it to be the efficacious balm for healing the cares, pains and forrows that attends us in this world. The good man is affured that he fhall in due time meet with this bleffing; and that ineftimable virtue which gained it, when he quits this ftage of life, fhall render him worthy of a place in the abodes of the bleft; where his hopes fhall no more be cut off by difappointment; where the wicked ceafe from troubling, and where the weary are at reft.

The different Offices of Reafon

AND

SELF-LOVE.

WO Principles in human nature reign;

Two

Self-love, to urge, and Reason, to restrain;

Nor this a good, nor that a bad we call,
Each works its end, to move or govern all:
And to their proper operation ftill,
Afcribe all Good, to their improper Ill.
Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the foul;
Reafon's comparing balance rules the whole..

1

Man,

Man, but for that, no action could attend,
And, but for this, were active to no end:
Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar spot,
To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot:
Or meteor-like, flame lawless thro' the void,
Destroying others, by himself destroy'd.
Most strength the moving principle requires;
Active its task, it prompts, impels, infpires.
Sedate and quiet the comparing lies,
Form'd but to check, delib'rate, and advise.
Self-love, ftill ftronger, as its objects nigh;
Reason's at diftance, and in profpect lie:
That fees immediate good by present sense;
Reason, the future and the confequence.
Thicker than arguments, temptations throng,
At beft more watchful this, but that more ftrong.
The Action of the ftronger to fufpend

Reason still use, to Reason ftill attend.
Attention, habit and experience gains;

Each ftrengthens Reason, and Self-love reftrains.
Let fubtle school-men teach these friends to fight,
More ftudious to divide than to unite;

And Grace and Virtue, Sense and Reason split,
With all the rafh dexterity of wit.

Wits, just like Fools, at war about a name,
Have full as oft no meaning, or the fame.
Self-love and Reason to one end afpire,
Pain their averfion, Pleasure their defire;

But

But greedy That, its object would devour,
This tafte the honey, and not wound the flow'r
Pleasure or wrong or rightly understood,
Our greatest evil, or our greatest good.

DECEIT.

HAT darkness of character, where we can fee

THA

no heart, those foldings of art through which no native affection is allowed to penetrate, present an object unamiable in every season of life, but particularly odious in youth. If at an age when the heart is warm, when the emotions are ftrong,. and when nature is expected to fhew itself free and open, we can already smile and deceive, what is to be expected when we shall be longer hackneyed in the ways of men, when interest shall have completed the obduracy of our hearts, and experience fhall have improved us in all the arts of guile? Diffimulation in youth, is the forerunner of perfidy in old age: its first appearance is the fatal omen of growing depravity, and future fhame. It degrades parts and learning, obfcures the luftre of every accomplishment, and finks us into contempt with God and man. The path of falfhood is a perplexing maze. After the firft departure from fincerity, it is not in our power to ftop; one

artifice

artifice unavoidably leads on to another; till, as the intricacy of the labyrinth encreases, we are left entangled in our own fnare. Deceit discovers a little mind, which stops at temporary expedients, without rifing to comprehenfive views of conduct. It betrays a daftardly fpirit: it is the refourfe of one who wants courage to avow his defigns, or to reft upon himself. To fet out in the world with no other principle than a crafty attention to intereft, betokens one who is deftined for creeping through the inferior walks of life. He may be fortunate, he cannot be happy: the eye of a good man will weep at his error; he cannot tafte the fweets of confidential friendship, and his evening of life will be embittered by univerfal contempt.

ΥΟUΤΗ.

"OUTH is of long duration; and in maturer

age, when the enchantments of fancy fhall cease, and phantoms of delight dance no more about us, we fhall have no comforts but the esteem of wife men, and the means of doing good. Let us therefore ftop, while to ftop is in our power. Let us live as men, who are fome time to be old, and to whom it will be the most dreadful of all evils, to count their former luxuriance of health, only by the maladies which riot has produced. P

That