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panions to entice, and dangerous fullies to ensnare them. To these we may add the strange diversities of system, and oppositions of science, falsely so called,' that divide and perplex mankind, in relation to the conduct which they should pursue. Let me explain myself on this last point.

The opinions of the greater part, respecting the track they are to follow, may be chiefly ranked in two classes. On the one hand, you find little else but ceremony without substance, speculation without practice, faith without works; a high flown orthedoxy, which, if it does not avowedly supercede the necessity of sound morals, takes, however, all occasions to undervalue them; and, in fire, a fiery zeal, which burns up every sentiment of moderation and charity:-On the other hand, you hear of honesty without piety, good nature without real principle, modern honour in place of old-fashioned virtue, or, at most, certain decencies of demeanour, that leave men at liberty to indulge the most criminal dispositions, provided only that appearances are preserved.

If you listen to the advocates for these several schemes, they would every one persuade you that they, and they only, are in the right; that such as differ from them are equally mistaken and miserable; in a word, that by espousing their party in preference to all the rest, you can alone insure felicity. This they maintain with as much positiveness and vehemence as if truth and they were born together. From the narrowness and partiality which they all betray, it appears, indeed, that they are all erroneous; yet none of them are without a multitude of followers, each system being not only propagated with a confidence that imposes, but also

adapted to smooth and screen the sinful propensitier of men, while each seems to provide some kind of compensation: a circumstance which ought of itself to render both suspected, for this obvious reason, that complying with one obligation can rever be a just excuse for not complying with another. But what shall we say? Youth is a stranger to suspicion. Pausing pale Distrust,' as the poet has beautifully described it, the assistant of that slow mistress Experience,' is only to be found in the school of the world. Fond confiding youth, yet unacquainted with the perfidy and futility daily practised there, is forward to believe whatever is boldly asserted, especially if it leave a latitude, much more if it gives encouragement to the favourite desires of nature.

But now suppose a young person hitherto uncorrupted, modest, simple, possessed of the amiable dispositions which our Divine Master so much admired and applauded in children: imagine hun to hear those opposite schemes proposed and pressed with the usual eagerness: How shall he proceed? What course shall he steer in this wide uncertain ocean of contending opinions?

There is but one safe course; it is pointed out by the Hand that made him, and that sent him forth on the voyage of life: he finds it traced upon his heart; his reason recognises and recommends it as the work of the Creator. 'He hath showed thee, O man, what is good, and what thy Lord thy God requireth of thee; to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.' Our ingenious inquirer listens to the voice of the Most High within him, as thus addressing his conscience: “Behold, I have placed thec in the mind of that youth, as my

representative. Fail not to exert tay power, in blessing him with tranquility and joy, while he con tinues his allegiance: but should he rebel, give him to know that it is an evil and a bitter thing,' by punishing him with dejection and disquietude. Follow him every where, and make him always sensible that his peace and welfare depends on the veneration he entertains for God's vicegerent.

Be not deceived, my young friends; he who ultimately dreads any other cersure than that of his own mind, or surrenders himself implicitly to any other direction than that of the being who made him, may be pronounced a slave, let him pretend to what freedom or dignity he will. He is driven on by pride, or vanity, or interest, or inclination; by the fear of man, or the fashion of the day, or the caprice of the moment, or the opinion of his company, or the tone of the crowd, which he is taught to regard as consonant to the rules of honour, if not actually prescribing them. But consider, I beseech you, how poor, and how precarious a conduct, to say no worse, that must be, which is actuated by principles so fantastic, because so variable in different men, in different nations, in different ages; so blind in their origin, as proceeding from passion instead of reason; and so uncertain in their effects, as depending solely on the casual influence of education, complexion, or situation, of governments, courts, or climates, or whatever other circumstance, alike accidental. Is it possible, that virtue can derive solidity or steadiness from such motives; or that any thinking man can feel security or satisfaction within, who, instead of faithfully observing the great unerring lines of duty marked out by an undepraved conscience, commits himself to the in

extricable maze of human fally? No, Gentlemen, there is but one comprehensive, one obvious, one immutable rule of honour, which you can follow with safety, amidst the perilous, the changeable, the dubious, and the partial maxims on either side, that have been devised by self-love, worldly policy, or false refinement. You have heard it already; but you cannot hear it too often; it is the whole art of acting worthily, of acting nobly, comprised in a single short sentence; Never, while you breathe, to offend deliberately the inward monitor- My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.'

TEN PRECEPTS,

GIVEN BY

WILLIAM LORD BURGHLEY,

LORD HIGH-TREASURER OF ENGLAND,

TO HIS SON

ROBERT CECIL,

AFTERWARDS THE EARL OF SALISBURY.

SON ROBERT,

THE virtuous inclination of thy matchless mother, by whose tender and godly care thy infancy was governed, together with thy education under so zealous and excellent a tutor, puts me in rather assurance than hope, that you are not ignorant of that summum bonum, which is only able to make thee happy as well in thy death as life; I mean the true knowledge and worship of thy Creator and Redeemer, without which all other things are vain and miserable so that, thy youth being guided by so sufficient a teacher, I make no doubt but he will furnish thy life with divine and moral documents. Yet, that I may not cast off the care beseeming a parent towards his child, or that thou shouldest have cause to derive thy whole felicity and welfare rather from others than whence thou receivedst thy breath and being, I think it fit and agreeable to the affection I bear thee, to help thee with such rules and advertisements for the squaring of thy life, as