Combat? extirpate? difcipline? involved? bear': fatigue. appetites? Luffice? knowledge, and early acquire the habit of afting july. 12. I muft combat my evil thoughts before they gain the mastery; I muft extirpate my evil habits before they have taken deep root; I muft endeavour to fecure the love and efteem of my fellow citizens, by arational, modeft, attentive, regular conduct, that I may be able to depend in future on their protection and fupport. 13. Youth is the time for difcipline and preparation; in this feafon I fhould acquaint myfelt with, and properly value, and exercife my faculties and powers, if I would one day employ them with facility and fuccefs: I fhould acquire the information and the talents for which I fhall have occafion in future life, and without which I fhall ftumble at every step, and find myfelf involved in a thousand perplexing difficulties. 14. I must accuftom myfelf to felf denials; to bear contradiction and oppofition; to endure fatigue, trouble, and affliction; to fubdue my paffions; to conquer my fenfual appetites; if L would not one day fink under the weight of every duty and every trial. 15. How important then is the prefent feafon of lile! Mere wishes, flothful and feeble ef forts, will not fuffice to fulfil its duties and defign. It is only by perfevering endeavours,by a conftant application, and by an unfhaken firmness, that I can attain the end which I purpose. But need I be difcouraged & alarmperfevering. ed at the neceffity of diligence,application and refiftance; Will not the wages be proportioned to the labor, and the triumph to the com-bat? poftpone ? 16. Shall I poftpone to an uncertain here-after that which I can and ought to do at prefent? Is not the time I lose really loft for ever? Has not every future period of my ex iftence iftance its particular employment? Will it he Existence. the time for fowing when the feafon of gather ing fhall come, or for inftruction when I fhallbe called to make ufe of my konwledge? 17. What it is incumbent on me to do at incumbent ? this feason, and which I neglect becaule of its difficulties, will become every year and every day more difficult. Notwithstanding the health lofe. and ftrength I enjoy in the fpring of life, may I not lofe my powers, and die in the flower of my days? 18. And what doom may I expect in the fu- watch. ture ftate, if I have foolishly wafted the prime of life in the flavery of irregular paffions and the corruptions of vice? Let me watch con- reduced? tinually over myself, over all the fecret motions of my heart; let me not suffer myself to be fednded by the vain promises of vice, by the charms of an apparent liberty, or a treach-> erous joy. 19. Wisdom raises her voice to tell me that treacherous? the intoxication of fente endures but for an in- intoxication? ftant; that the enchanted cup of luxury fhall not be always fweet to my tafte; that the pleafure I find in drinking it fhail foon vanifh, ast a fleeting dream from which we are fearfully awakened; that the liberty with which I am furce? flattered by vice is nothing but the vileft slavery, and that its joys are all poisoned at their fource. 20. Whereas, no innocent pleafure which I forego?" forego,from a principle of virtue, fhall be loft to me; fooner or later it fhall be returned to. me with interest. A train of pure and lafting joys fhall recompenfe me, in manhood and old age, for the deftructive or vain gratifications which I have prudently renounced. recempenfe renounced.? 21. And even when prevented, by an early death, from gathering, in this world, the fruits prodigious? of a well regulated youth, fhall I not reap a prodigious advantage if I am prepared to en ter Delicious? ter a more perfect abode, and fufficiently qualified for the fublime employment and delicious pleasures which await the virtuous in a future exiftence? 22. Yes, O my Gob, it is only by keeping thy commandments-by making wildom and deftination? virtue, reafon and religion his faithful guides, that a young man can preferve his innocence, look with calmnefs on the beginning of his courfe, and advance nearer and nearer to his journey. Araight obftacles. afpire? Supreme? fupreme deftination. O may thele faithful: guides always accompany me in the journey of life!' 23. Oh Almighty and moft merciful God, do thou thyfelf conduct me, by thy spirit,in the ftraight road. Preferve me, by thy grace, from the wanderings of youth, and the tyranny of paffions. Let thy wife and good Provi dence remove far from my path the obftacles and temptations which may occafion' my fall.. 24. Aft my endeavors to become wife, and virtuous, and holy; and accompany themwith thy bleffing. Piace mein circumstances favourable to my improvement. Give me faithful friends and guides, and enable me to follow them in the paths of goodnefs.. 25. Thou delighteft, O Gon, to grant the defires which flow from a fincere heart, and to fecond the efforts of thofe who feriously af pire after greater perfection.-Supported and. guided by thee, I cannot fail of attaining in this world the defign of my existence, and of arriving in the other at my fupreme end. The 1. The Tiger. “T the peacock is the most beautiful among HE ancients had a faying, That as. Quadrupeds? birds, jo is the Tiger among quadrupeds. Infact, no quadruped can be more beautiful than leopard. our of the ground which they diverfify, at diverfify? once ftrike the beholder. 2. To this beauty of colouring is added an extremely elegant form, much larger indeed than that of the leopard, but more flender, mischievous. more delicate, and befpeaking the most extreme fwiftnefs and agility. Unhappily,however, this animal's difpolition is as mifchievous as its agility? form is admirable, as if providence was willing to fhow the small va ue of beauty, by beftowing it on the most noxious of quadrupeds. noxious? 3. The chief and most obfervable diftinction in the tiger, and in which it differs from all others of the mottled kind,is in the fhape ofits colours, which run in ftreaks or brands in the mottled? fame direction as his ribs, from the back down to the belly. The leopard, the panther, and the ounce, are all partly covered like this animal; but with this difference, that their colours belly. are broken in fpots all over the body; whereas, in the tiger, they ftretch lengthwife, and there is fcarce a round fpot to be found on his skin. 4. Befides this, there are other obfervable diftinctions: the tiger is much larger, and often found bigger even than the lion himfelf: tiger. it is much flenderer alfo in proportion to its fize: its legs fhorter, and its neck and body longer. In fhort, of all other animals, it moft Conceive. mest resembles the cat in fhape: and, if we conceive the latter magnified to a very great degree, we fhall have a tolerable idea of the former. magnified? carnivorous? clemency ¿ fierce. fatiated? carnage. afpect? defolates? domeftic? ferocity? 5. In claffing carnivorous animals, we may place the lion foremost ; and immediately after him follows the tiger, which feems to partake of all the noxious qualities of the lion without fharing any of his good ones. To pride, courage, and ftrength, the lion joins greatnefs, clemency, and generofity; but the tiger is fierce without provocation, and cruel without neceffity. 6. Though fatiated with carnage, he perpetually thirfts for blood. His reftlefs fury has no intervals, except when he is obliged to lie in ambush for prey at the fides of lakes or rivers, to which other animals refort for drink. He feizes and tears in pieces a fresh animal with equal rage as he exerted in devouring the firft. He defolates every country that he inhabits, and dreads neither the afpect nor the arms of man. 7. He facrifices whole flocks of domestic predominant? animals, and all the wild beafts that come within the reach of his terrible claws. He attacks the young of the elephant and rhinoceros, and fometimes even ventures to brave the lion. His predominant inftinct is a perpetual rage, a blind and undiftinguishing ferocity, which often impel him to devour his own young, and to tear their mother in pieces when he attempts to defend them. intoxicated? draughts. exhaufied? appenfed? 8. He delights in blood, and gluts himself with it till he is intoxicated. He tears the body for no other purpose than to plunge his head into it, and to drink large draughts of blood, the fources of which are generally exhaufted before his thirft is appeafed. The tiger is perhaps the only animal whofe ferocity is unconquerable. Neither violence, re Atraint, |