we are no lefs fo, in the laft place, for those which find admittance into our hearts from fupine negligence, from total relaxation of attention, from allowing our imagination to rove with entire licence, "like the eyes "of the fool, towards the ends of the earth." Our minds are, in this cafe, thrown open to folly and vanity. They are prostituted to every evil thing which pleases to take pofsefsion. The confequences muft all be charged to our account; and in vain we plead excufe from human infirmity. Hence it appears, that the great object at which we are to aim in governing our thoughts, is, to take the moft effectual measures for preventing the introduction of fuch as are finful, and for haftening their expulfion, if they shall have introduced themselves without confent of the will.

But when we descend into our breasts, and examine how far we have ftudied to keep this object in view, who can tell, "how oft he hath offended?" In no article of religion or morals are men more culpably remifs, than in the unrestrained indulgence they give to fancy; and that too, for the most part, without remorfe. Since the time that Reafon began to exert her powers, Thought, during our waking hours, has been active in every breaft, without a moment's fufpenfion or paufe. The current of ideas has been always flowing. The wheels of the spiritual engine have circulated with perpetual motion. Let me afk, what has been the fruit of this incefsant activity with the greater part of mankind? Of the innumerable hours that have been employed in thought, how few are marked with any permanent or useful effect? How many have either passed away in idle dreams; or have been abandoned to anxious difcontented mufings, to unfecial and ma

lignant passions, or to irregular and criminal defires? Had I power to lay open that storehouse of iniquity which the hearts of too many conceal; could I draw out and read to them a lift of all the imaginations they have devifed, and all the pafsions they have indulged in secret; what a picture of men fhould I prefent to themselves! What crimes would they appear to have perpetrated in fecrecy, which to their most intimate companions they durft not reveal!

Even when men imagine their thoughts to be innocently employed, they too commonly fuffer them to run out into extravagant imaginations, and chimerical plans of what they would wish to attain, or choose to be, if they could frame the course of things according to their defire. Though fuch employments of fancy come under the fame description with those which are plainly criminal, yet wholly unblamable they seldom

are.

Befides the wafte of time which they occafion, and the mifapplication which they indicate of thofe intellectual powers that were given to us for much nobler purposes, fuch romantic speculations lead us always into the neighbourhood of forbidden regions. They place us on dangerous ground. They are for the moft part connected with some one bad passion; and they always nourish a giddy and frivolous turn of thought. They unfit the mind for applying with vigour to rational purfuits, or for acquiefcing in fober plans of conduct. From that ideal world in which it allows itself to dwell, it returns, to the commerce of men, unbent and relaxed, fickly and tainted, averfe from discharging the duties, and fometimes difqualified even for relishing the pleafures, of ordinary life.

SECTION VI.

On the Evils which flow from unreftrained Pafsions.

WHEN man revolted from his Maker, his pafsions rebelled against himfelf; and, from being originally the minifters of reafon, have become the tyrants of the foul. Hence, in treating of this fubject, two things may be assumed as principles: first, that through the prefent weakness of the underflanding, our pafsions are often directed towards improper objects; and next, that even when their direction is juft, and their objects are innocent, they perpetually tend to run into excefs; they always hurry us towards their gratification, with a blind and dangerous impetuofity. On these two points then turns the whole government of our pafsions: first, to afcertain the proper objects of their purfuit; and next, to reftrain them in that purfuit, when they would carry us beyond the bounds of reafon. If there be any pafsion which intrudes itself unfeasonably into our mind, which darkens and troubles our judgment, or habitually difcompofes our temper; which unfits us for properly discharging the duties, or disqualifies us for cheerfully enjoying the comforts of life, we may certainly conclude it to have gained a dangerous afcendant. The great object which we ought to propofe to ourfelves, is, to acquire a firm and stedfaft mind, which the infatuation of paffion fhall not feduce, nor its violence thake; which, refting on fixed principles, fhall, in the midft of contending emotions, remain free, and mafter of itfelf;

able to liften calmly to the voice of confcience, and prepared to obey its dictates without hesitation.

To obtain, if pofsible, fuch command of pafsion, is one of the highest attainments of the rational nature. Arguments to fhow its importance crowd upon us from every quarter. If there be any fertile fource of mifchief to human life, it is, beyond doubt, the mifrule of pafsion. It is this which poifons the enjoyment of individuals, overturns the order of fociety, and firews the path of life with fo many miferies, as to render it indeed the vale of tears. All thofe great fcenes of public calamity, which we behold with aftonishment and horror, have originated from the fource of violent pafsions. These have overspread the earth with blood-' fhed. Thefe have pointed the afsafsin's dagger, and filled the poifoned bowl. Thefe, in every age, have furnished too copious materials for the orator's pathetic declamation, and for the poet's tragical fong.

When from public life we defcend to private conduct, though pafsion operates not there in fuch a wide and deftructive sphere, we shall find its influence to be no lefs baneful. I need not mention the black and fierce pafsions, fuch as envy, jealousy, and revenge, whofe effects are obviously noxious, and whofe agitations are immediate mifery. But take any of the licentious and fenfual kind. Suppofe it to have unlimited scope; trace it throughout its courfe; and we shall find that gradually, as it rifes, it taints the foundness, and troubles the peace of his mind over whom it reigns; that, in its progress, it engages him in pursuits which are marked either with danger or with fhame; that, in the end, it waftes his fortune, deftroys his health, or debafes his character; and aggravates all the miferies

in which it has involved him, with the concluding pangs of bitter remorse. Through all the stages of this fatal course, how many have heretofore run? What multitudes do we daily behold pursuing it, with blind and headlong steps?

BLAIR.

SECTION VII.

On the proper State of our Temper, with respect to one another.

Ir is evident, in the general, that if we confult either public welfare or private happinefs, Chriftian charity ought to regulate our difpofition in mutual intercourse. But as this great principle admits of feveral diverfified appearances, let us confider fome of the chief forms under which it ought to show itself in the ufual tenour of life.

What, firft, prefents itself to be recommended, is a peaceable temper; a difpofition averfe to give offence, and defirous of cultivating harmony, and amicable intercourfe in fociety. This fuppofes yielding and condefcending manners, unwillingness to contend with others about trifles, and, in contests that are unavoidable, proper moderation of spirit. Such a temper is the first principle of felf-enjoyment. It is the bafis of all order and happiness among mankind. The pofitive and contentious, the rude and quarrelfome, are the bane.of fociety. They feem deftined to blast the small fhare of comfort which nature has here allotted to man. But they cannot difturb the peace of others, more than they break their own. The hurricane rages first in their own bofom, before it is let forth upon the