ed with fountains, and murmuring with waterfalls. Here Obidah paused for a time, and began to confider whether it were longer fafe to forfake the known and common track; but remembering that the heat was now in its greatest violence, and that the plain was dufty and uneven, he refolved to purfue the new path, which he fuppofed only to make a few meanders, in compliance with the varieties of the ground, and to end at last in the common road.

Having thus calmed his folicitude, he renewed his pace, though he suspected that he was not gaining ground. This uneafinefs of his mind inclined him to lay hold on every new object, and give way to every fenfation that might footh or divert him. He liftened to every echo; he mounted every hill for a fresh profpect; he turned afide to every cafcade; and pleafed himself with tracing the courfe of a gentle river that rolled among the trees, and watered a large region with innumerable circumvolutions. In thefe amufements, the hours paffed away unaccounted; his deviations had perplexed his memory, and he knew not towards what point to travel. He stood penfive and confused, afraid to go forward left he should go wrong, yet confcious that the time of loitering was now paft. While he was thus tortured with uncertainty, the sky was overfpread with cloulds; the day vanished from before him; and a fudden tempeft gathered round his head. He was now roufed by his danger to a quick and painful remembrance of his folly; he now faw how happiness is loft when eafe is confulted; he lamented the unmanly impatience that prompted him to feek shelter in the grove; and defpifed the petty curiofity that led him on from trifle to trifle. While he was thus reflecting, the air grew blacker, and a clap of thunder broke his meditation. He now refolved to do what yet remained in his power, to tread back the ground which he had paffed, and try to find fome iffue where the wood might open into the plain. He proftrated himself on the ground, and commended his life to the Lord of Nature. He rofe with confidence and tranquillity, and preffed un with refolution. The beasts of the defert were in motion, and on every hand were heard the mingled howls of rage and fear, and ravage and expiration. All the horrors of darknefs and folitude furround

ed him the winds roared in the woods; and the torrents tumbled, from the hills.

Thus forlorn and diftreffed, he wandered through the wild, without knowing whither he was going, or whether he was every moment drawing nearer to fafety, or to deftruc tion. At length, not fear, but labour began to overcome him; his breath grew fhort, and his knees trembled; and he was on the point of lying down in refignation to his fate, when he beheld, through the brambles, the glimmer of a taper. He advanced towards the light; and finding that it proceeded from the cottage of a hermit, he called humbly at the door, and obtained admiffion. The old man fet before him fuch provifions as he had collected for himself, on which Obidah fed with eagerness and gratitude.

When the repaft was over, "Tell me," faid the hermit, "by what chance thou haft been brought hither? I have been now twenty years an inhabitant of the wilderness, in which I never faw a man before." Obidah then related the Occurrences of his journey, without any concealment or palliation.

"Son," faid the hermit, "let the errors and follies, the dangers and escape of this day, fink deep into thy heart. Remember, my fon, that human life is the journey of a day. We rife in the morning of youth, full of vigour and full of expectation; we fet forward with fpirit and hope, with gaiety and with diligence, and travel on a while in the direct road of piety towards the manfions of reft. In a short time, we remit our fervour, and endeavour to find fome mitigation of our duty, and fome more eafy means of obtaining the fame end. We then relax our vigour, and refolve no longer to be terrified with crimes at a diftance; but rely upon our own conitancy, and venture to approach what we refolve never to touch. We thus enter the bowers of ease, and repofe in the fhades of fecurity. Here the heart foftens, and vigilance fubfides; we are then willing to inquire whether another advance cannot be made, and whether we may not, at leaft, turn our eyes upon the gardens of pleasure. We approach them with fcruple and hesitation; we enter them, but enter timorous and trembling; and always hope to pafs through them without lofing the road of virtue, which, for

a while, we keep in our fight, and to which we purpose to return. But temptation fucceeds temptation, and one compliance prepares us for another; we in time lofe the happinefs of innocence, and folace our difquiet with fenfual gratifications. By degrees, we let fall the remembrance of our original intention, and quit the only adequate object of rational defire. We entangle ourselves in bufinefs, immerge ourselves in luxury, and rove through the labyrinths of inconftancy; till the darkness of old age begins to invade us, and difeafe and anxiety obstruct our way. We then look, back upon our lives with horror, with forrow, with repentance; and wifh, but too often vainly with, that we had not forfaken the ways of virtue. Happy are they, my fon, who fhall learn from thy example, not to despair; but shall remember, that, though the day is paft, and their ftrength is wafted, there yet remains one effort to be made that reformation is never hopeless, nor fincere endeavours ever unaffifted; that the wanderer may at length return after all his errors; and that he who implores ftrength and courage from above, fhall find danger and difficulty give way before him. Go now, my fon, to thy repofe; commit thyself to the care of Omnipotence; and when the morning calls again to toil, begin anew thy journey and thy life."

I

CHAP. III.

DIDACTIC PIECES.

SECTION 1.

DR. JOHNSON.

The importance of a good Education.

CONSIDER a human foul, without education, like marble in the quarry which fhows none of its inherent beauties, until the fkill of the polither fetches out the colours, makes the furface fhine, and difcovers every ornamental cloud, fpot, and vain, that runs through the body of it. Education, after the fame manner, when it works upon a noble mind, draws out to view every latent virtue and perfection, which, without fuch helps, are never able to make their appearance.

If my reader will give me leave to change the allufion

fo foon upon him, I fhall make use of the fame inftance to illustrate the force of education, which Aristotle has brought to explain his doctrine of fubftantial forms, when he tells us that a ftatue lies hid in a block of marble; and that the art of the ftatuary only clears away the fuperfluous manner, and removes the rubbish. The figure is in the stone, and the fculptor only finds it. What fculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human foul. The philofopher, the faint, or the hero, the wife, the good, or the great man, very often lies hid and concealed in a plebeian, which a proper education might have difinterred, and have brought to fight. I am therefore much delighted with reading the accounts of favage nations; and with contemplating thofe virtues which are wild and uncultivated to fee courage exerting itfelf, in fierceness, refolution in obftinacy, wisdom in cunning, patience in fullennefs and defpair.

:

Men's paffions operate variously, and appear in different kinds of actions, according as they are more or lefs rectified and fwayed by reafon. When one hears of negroes, who, upon the death of their masters, or upon changing their fervice, hang themfelves upon the next tree, as it fometimes happens in our American plantations, who can forbear admiring their fidelity, though it expreffes itfelf in fo dreadful a manner? What might not that favage greatnefs of foul, which appears in these poor wretches on many occafions, be raised to, were it rightly cultivated? And what colour of excufe can there be, for the contempt with which we treat this part of our fpecies; that we should not put them upon the common foot of humanity; that we fhould only fet an infignificant fine upon the man who murders them; nay, that we fhould, as much as in us lies, cut them off from the profpects of happiness in another world, as well as in this; and deny them that which we look upon as the proper means for attaining it?

It is therefore an unfpeakable bleffing, to be born in thofe parts of the world where wifdom and knowledge flourish; though, it must be confeffed, there are, even in these parts, feveral poor uninftructed perfons who are but little above. the inhabitants of thofe nations of which I have been here Ipeaking;, as thofe who have had the advantage of a mere

liberal education, rife above one another by feveral different degrees of perfection. For, to return to our ftatue in the block of marble, we fee it fometimes only begun to be chipped, fometimes rough hewn, and but juft sketched into a human figure; fometimes, we fee the man appearing distinctly in all his limbs and features; fometimes, we find the figure wrought up to great elegancy; but feldom meet with any to which the hand of a Phidias or a Praxiteles could not give feveral nice touches and finishings.

SECTION II

On Gratitude.

ADDISON.

THERE is not a more pleafing exercise of the mind, than gratitude. It is accompanied with fuch inward fatisfaction, that the duty, is fufficiently rewarded by the performance. It is not, like the practice of many other virtues, difficult and painful, but attended with fo much pleasure that were there no pofitive command which enjoined it, nor any recompenfe laid up for it hereafter, a generous mind would indulge in it, for the natural gratification which it affords.

If gratitude is due from man to man, how much more from man to his Maker? The Supreme Being does not only confer upon us those bounties which proceed more immediately from his hand, but even thofe benefits which are conveyed to us by others. Every bleffing we enjoy, by what means foever it may be derived upon us, is the gift of Him who is the great Author of good, and the Father of mercies.

If gratitude, when exerted towards one another, naturally produces a very pleafing fenfation in the mind of a grateful man, it exalts the foul into rapture, when it is employed on this great object of gratitude; on this beneficent Being, who has given us every thing we already poffefs, and from whom we expect every thing we yet hope for. ADDISON.

SECTION III.

On Forgiveness.

THE moft plain and natural fentiments of equity concurs with divine authority, to enforce the duty of forgiveness. Let him who has never in his life done wrong, be allowed the privilege of remaining inexorable. But let fuch as are