"He that allows himself to be 'envious at the wicked, when he sees the prosperity of the foolish,' suffers himself to be dazzled by the surfaces of things. In contemplating their condition, who roll in illacquired riches, he does not properly estimate the bargain they have made. Their gains project to his view; their loss retires from his eye. He beholds their purchase; it is a sparkling purchase; but he sees not the price they have paid. He observes the house, the grounds, the equipage, the troops of friends; but he cannot penetrate into the breast; he cannot perceive what passes on the pillow."

GENEROSITY.

"What we call generosity, we are apt to consider as a quality, in morals, similar to what we mean by grace, in language, or in arts; an excellence beyond the strict requisition of rules; a striking, but an unnecessary ornament; by which the piece is improved, but without which it would have had no fault. This is not the view of virtue to which reflection leads. Properly speaking, the absence of any of those beneficences, which we are capable of performing, is not merely the absence of so many beauties and graces in the character, but is to be considered as so much breach of duty; so much fracture in the frame of the character; so much deformity in the figure of the mind; so much blot and stain upon the purity of honour. The want of such acts as these, in the life of man, is not to be compared to the want of that exquisite finishing, which a piece of art receives from the last touches of the master's hand, by which it is made more perfect, but without which it would discover no defect; but is to be considered as positive, and pointed blemish. In the eye of strict and sober reason, what we call exalted goodness, eminent generosity, is but the perfection of

decency, and the summit of decorum."

MAKE THE MOST OF A SHORT LIFE.

"Let us eat, and drink,' says the libertine, for to-morrow we die.' I urge the same consideration in favour of a virtuous life. Let us make the most of our little life, by leading it as it ought to be led. Let us press down into so small a measure as much happiness as it can contain, by compressing into it as much goodness as it will hold. Let us give to the joys, that have so short a time to flow, as brisk and sprightly a current as we can, by cultivating that virtue, which constitutes the vigour of nature, and the vivacity of life."

VICE THE OFFSPRING OF IGNORANCE.

"What can more powerfully spur the pride of man to the practice of virtue, than the consideration of the origin of vice? It is the offspring of parents of which it has reason to be ashamed. It is of base extraction. Ignorance and error are the authors of its being. There are things, of which even they are ashamed, who are said to 'glory in their shame.' They who plume themselves upon their vice, blush to be convicted, or to be accused, of that, of which their vice is a proof, and from which it proceeds. Immoral characters may be accompanied with knowledge upon some subjects, upon several subjects; but it springs from the want of it upon one, and that one the most important of all. It may be joined with philosophical, with political, with literary information; but it springs from ignorance of the science of happiness, from ignorance of the secret of content. It may be connected with a relish for polite letters, and for elegant arts; but it proceeds from the want of taste for truer and far finer entertainments

than music, or painting, or eloquence, can supply. It may be attended by that knowledge of the manners of men, which pilots the passenger through the world clear of its deceit; that penetration into human characters, which puts it into the power of the politic, to take hold of the hearts of those whom they wish to make the instruments of their designs; that discovery of others' weaknesses, which constitutes the wisdom of the crafty: but it is produced by the absence of that more deep and dignified knowledge of man, which relates to his general nature, and which lies in such a view of the secret structure of his

mind, as leads to a conviction, that it is made to be the mansion of virtue, and that, until thus tenanted, it must possess the dreariness and vacuity of an uninhabited house."

CHARITY,

"Charity is a complete and con sistent thing. It is not a flash, but a flame; it is not a fragment, but a whole; it is not a segment, but a circle: its affections stream from God as their centre; all mankind compose their circumference; they go forth, not only in one, but in all directions, towards the production of others' good."

For the Christian Spectator.

THE USE AND ABUSE OF ARDENT SPIRITS.

Ir is a matter of painful regret to every benevolent man, that on looking around him, he is obliged to recognise the existence of many evils, without, at the same time, observing any efficient measures in operation for their removal. Of this kind is the improper use the abuse of ardent spirits.

We cannot easily ascertain the exact amount of this article, which is annually imported, distilled, and used, in our country; nor is it for this place thought necessary. The following general estimate, however, which has been taken from a respectable source, is probably not far from correct. "Imports, eight millions; the distillation at home, upwards of twenty-five millions of gallons, besides what is exported, leaving more than THIRTY-THREE MILLIONS for home consumption!"

"And however horrid it may seem to us (continues the same paper) that the Hindoos sacrifice themselves to their idols, yet more victims fall in these United States to this vile idolatry in one year, than are sacrificed in India in ten years. And were the bones of the dead drunkards bleaching upon the hills of America, as those of the devotees are upon the shores of the Orrissa, the eye of the traveller through our country, would be dazzled with their brightness in the sun-beams, no less than the eye of Buchanan was dazzled at the sight of the bones of the idol's victims, and the latter would not exceed the former in his tale of woe." Indeed the instances of intoxication are so frequent; with the want and wretchedness it occasions we are so familiar; that our senses have become blunted--we pass the drunkard by without emotion. We can behold the afflicted companion of his bosom with a number of helpless children, ragged, ignorant, and without the

means or prospect of education, with cold indifference. We can do all this, and it is frequently done. But if there be exceptions; if there be some who have their sympathies moved when these sufferers are before them; how soon afterwards are all their woes forgotten! How slight and transient is the impression made! How very seldom does it open the hand of charity, or excite to any exertion for the amelioration of their condition! O, how many a delicate female has been doomed to drag out a miserable life! How many have pined away in secret, and found an untimely grave! How many have been reduced from affluence to want, and even to beggary! How many of their dear children have been made orphans, and cast upon the charities of an unfeeling world! O, how great the variety and the aggregate of evils to society, to families, and to individuals, all which have their origin in THIS ONE, the improper use the abuse of ardent spirits!

But it is not our object simply to paint and bewail the evil; this has been done a thousand times before, and far better than the writer of these pages could hope to do it, and failed of producing any practical result. It is our object to inquire into the cause and criminality of the evil, and therefore to propose an antidote.

If these truths be self-evident, that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, are the common and unalienable rights of man; certainly, it cannot be less evident to every thinking person, that all our enjoyments, in order to be right, must be subject to the following conditions:-They must not be injurious to ourselves they must not infringe the rights of others-they must not violate the law of our God. Let us now examine the common use of ardent spirits by these acknowledged principles.

The common use, and by far the

greatest quantity of this article in many places, is for intoxication. Does not the drunkard injure himself? Yes; he wastes his property -he destroys his health-he sacrifices his reputation-he lessens his present enjoyment-he shortens the period of his existence; and, finally, he plunges his soul into everlasting perdition. These are facts, too obvious to every sober man to require proof: they are facts established by universal observation. Who does, or who can injure himself, if the drunkard does not? ... And does he not infringe the rights of others? Yes; society has a claim upon him, for his counselsfor his interest in its welfare-for his influence and services in various ways and innumerable instances. His family and friends have a claim upon him-the former particularly for support, for guardian care; and both for kind and affectionate treatment. But he disregards all these claims. He renders himself incapable of benefiting any, and becomes a

nuisance to all. His example and other influence are most pernicious. However amiable and kind might have been his natural disposition, he transforms himself into a monster of cruelty. . . . And does not the drunkard violate the law of his Maker? Most certainly he does. The whole tenor of the Scriptures stands directly opposed to his conduct. Here he is commanded to love his neighbour as himself; to do unto others, as he would that they should do unto him; to love and cherish the companion of his bosom ; to provide for his family; and in fine, to sustain all the relations of life, in a manner far different from what he is capable of doing in a state of intoxication. But the scriptures contain, not only such general precepts, from which we may infer his criminality who, like the drunkard, tramples on all the rights of society and of home; they point out the very character-they specify the very crime. Drunkard.