PATIENCE.

WITHOUT mounting by degrees, a man cannot attain to high things; and the breaking of the ladder still casteth a man back, and maketh the thing wearisome, which was easy.

Remark.

But, in being patient, a man must not be supine: he should not stand when he ought to move his progress forward must be persevering; and at length he will see the steep hills of his long journey, far behind him.

CONTENT.

1.

HAPPY are the people who want little, because they desire not much.

Remark.

As truth is but one, she must speak the same language wherever she resides; neither time nor situation can alter her decrees: what was truth before the flood, is truth now; and what she utters by the lips of a peasant, will be echoed, by absolute necessity, in the lectures of the sage. That happiness (which is he emanation of content,) springs in the mind, has been a maxim with all reflecting men. And what Sir Philip Sidney says upon the subject, is nearly repeated by the pious and amiable Louis XVI. "To be happy is to make our own fortune; and that fortune consists in good dispositions, good principles, and good actions." As happiness depends upon the

gratification of our desires, to make their attainment probable, it is necessary that they should be reasonable; and to make their enjoyment lasting, that they should be virtuous: The happiness of Titus arose from the indulgence of a beneficent temper; Epaminondas reaped pleasure from the love of his country; a passion for fame was the source of Cæsar's felicity; and the satisfaction of grovelling appetites gave delight to Vitellius.

2.

He travels safe and not unpleasantly, who is guarded by poverty and guided by love.

Remark.

Poverty, though a spoiler, cannot dismantle a brave man of his courage: that armour is his repellant through all sieges. And as Cupid put on the helmet of Mars in sport, so Valour, "when need is," seriously extends a shield over shuddering and defenceless Love. But poverty, without the guidance of courage, gives no other ground of security, than an ex

emption from all those comforts which tempt men to covetousness and invasion: and though love must be a pleasant companion to one who has no other good in life, yet, methinks, the little god cannot long like the lodgings where hard fare, sordidness, and base timidity, are the inmates of his bed.

3.

The highest point outward things can bring unto, is the contentment of the mind; with which, no estate can be poor; without which, all estates will be miserable.

4.

Who frowns at other's feasts, had better bide away.

5.

Ajoyful mind receives every thing to a joyful consideration: a careful mind makes each thing taste like the bitter juice of care.

Remark.

A humour that lays great weight on small matters, and makes much trouble out of little, is the very alchymist of misery, who, by a

mischievous subtlety, transmutes gold into base metal; and transforms the fairest paradise into a barren wilderness. A cheerful temper spreads like the dawn, and all vapours disperse before it. Even the tear dries on the cheek, and the sigh sinks away half-breathed, when the eye of benignity beams upon the unhappy. Sweetness softens the obduracy of melancholy; and cheerfulness charms it into an innocent forgetfulness of care.

6.

Blame not the heavens! As their course never alters, so is there nothing done by the unreachable Ruler of them, but hath an everlasting reason for it.

Remark.

Let man study the providence of God, not only in the Holy Scriptures, (which are the expositors of the mystery of human life,) but in the history of the world at large, and if he bring an unprejudiced and learning mind to the search, he will see sufficient proofs of that