and stupid as to let those innumerable figns and arguments that fhew it pass unobferved. If we look upon the frame of the animals themselves, what a number of admirable contrivances in each of them do appear for the fuftenance, for the fafety, for the pleasure, for the propagation, for grace and ornament, for all imaginable convenience fuitable to the kind and ftation of each! If we look about them, what variety and abundance of convenient provifions offer themselves, even to a careless view, answerable to all their needs, and all their defires; wholefome and pleafant food to maintain their lives; yea, even to gratify all their fenfes, fit fhelter from offence, and fafe refuge from danger!All these things; provided in fufficient plenty, and commodiously disposed for such a vaft number of creatures, not the least, most weak, or contempti ble creature, but we may fee fome care has been taken for its nourifhment and comfort.-What wonderful inftin&ts are they endued with for procuring and distinguifhing their food, for guarding themselves and their young from danger! But for man especially a moft liberal provifion has been made to fupply all his needs, to please all his appetites, to exercise with profit and fatisfaction all his faculties, to content (I might fay) his utmost curiofity. Nique enim Neceffitatibus tantummodo nostris provifum eft, ufque in Delicius amatur, fays Seneca:

I i

Seneca: all things about him minifter (or may do fo, if he will use the natural powers and inftruments given him,) to his preservation, ease, and delight. The bowels of the earth yield him treafures of metals and minerals, quarries of ftone and coals, ferviceable to him for various ufes. The vileft and commoneft ftones he treads upon are not unprofitable. What variety of delicate fruits, herbs, and grains, does the furface of the earth afford to nourish our bodies, and chear our fpirits; to please our tastes, and remedy our dif cafes! How many fragrant flowers, most beautiful and pleafing in colour and fhape, for the comfort of our smell, and delight of our eyes! Neither can our ears complain, fince every wood has a choir of natural muficians to entertain them with their sprightly melody. Every wood, did I fay? Yes, the woods alfo, adorned with ftately trees, yield pleasant spectacles to our fight, fhelter from the fun, fuel for our fires, materials for our buildings, (our houses and shipping) and other needful utenfils.

Even the barren mountains fend us down fresh ftreams of water, fo neceffary for the fupport of our lives, fo profitable for the fructification of our grounds, fo commodious for conveyance and maintaining of intercourse among us. The wide feas

themselves

themselves are serviceable to us many ways: they are commodious for our traffic and commerce; they supply the bottles of Heaven with water to refresh the earth; they are inexhauftible cifterns, from whence our fprings and rivers are derived; they yield ftores of good fish, and other conveni ences of life. The very rude and diforderly winds do us no little fervice in brushing and cleanfing the air for our health, in driving forward our fhips, in fcattering and fpreading about the clouds, thofe clouds which drop fatness on our grounds.-As for our fubjects, the animals, it is not poffible to reckon the manifold utilities we receive from them: how many ways they fupply our needs with pleasant food and convenient cloathing; how they ease our labour, and how they promote even our sport and recreation.

Are we not then not only very ftupid, but very ungrateful, if we do not difcern abundance of wisdom and goodness in the contrivance and ordering of all these things, fo as thus to confpire for our good? Is it not reasonable that we fhould devoutly cry out with the Pfalmift, O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wifdom haft thou made them all the earth is full of thy riches; fo is the wide and great fea: the eyes of all wait upon thee, and thou giveft them their meat in due feafon.

THE

THE SISTERS,

A N

ANECDOTE.

HE father of Elmira and Urgania (fuch I fhall call the two young ladies) was in a very extenfive way of trade; but launching out in an enterprize rather hazardous, ruined at once the hopes of aggrandizing his family, and reduced him to a ftate of bankruptcy. The fhock was too great; reafon, unaffifted by religion, was too weak to top the current: he funk beneath the ftorm, bequeathed his helpless orphans to the care of his fifter, of amiable principles, and a decent independency.

Elmira, the eldest, was about eighteen, poffeffed of no perfonal accomplishments, but of the most engaging difpofition, and enlarged understanding. The plainnels of her perfon eradicated thofe feeds of vanity that are too often apt to spring up even in infant minds, where beauty is inherent. Her aunt had given her a useful education, and fhe ftrove to improve it by reading edifying books, and attending to the inftructions of those whom age and experience had made wifer, Nor could all the compliments that were paid to her fifter's

beauty

beauty give rise to the smallest emotions of envy: no, fhe faw her fifter's beauty with pleasure, and ftrove to make her ftill more amiable by the precepts of humility and virtue.

Though endowed with a large fhare of wit, yet fhe governed it in fuch a manner, that while it gained her the admiration of the oppofite fex, it gave no offence to her own.

Beauty ftrikes the vulgar eye at first fight, but the more amiable qualities of the heart are not to be difcerned but by a nice and curious obferver.Such was Elmira, by the unthinking many, confi dered as a plain girl, not worth taking notice of; but by the confidering few, as an excellent companion, and every way qualified to fhine with eclat in the marriage state. Of the latter opinion was Mr. B, a young man poffeffed of fentiments in perfect unifon with her own. He had known Elmira from her infancy, and had long beheld her with regard, but fcornful to make proposals of marriage, 'till his fituation in life would enable him to maintain her in a manner fuitable to her worth. In a fhort time every thing turned out to his wishes: he declared his fentiments for the amiable girl, which met with the univerfal approbation of both parties, and he had the happiness to find that intereft had no fhare in the confent of

Elm ira,