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our fancies we immolate every thing,

which proves an obstruction to those undefined desires.

Glory is like a circle in the water,
Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself,

Till by broad spreading it disperse to nought.

Of the happiness united to virtue.

What stronger breast-plate than a heart untainted?
Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just,
And he but naked (though lock'd up in steel),
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.

Wisdom and Fortune, combating together,
If that the former dare but what it can,
No chance may shake it.

HEALTH, riches, and pleasure, become evils when we know not how to make a proper use of them. Wisdom alone merits the name of goodness, since by her

medium misfortune is often converted to happiness; on the other hand, those things which we compute the greatest felicity, frequently turn out quite the reverse. In my opinion it is degrading virtue to make her principal occupation consist in being a guard to her rivals, health, riches and pleasure. Virtue removes all painful sensations, and excites those of the most delightful nature. Grief for the past, murmuring at the present, and anxiety for the future, are the greatest punishments of mankind; but virtue, directed by wisdom, guards us from them by limiting our desires, by making them conformable to reason, subjecting them to the laws of our Supreme Creator, and placing our perfection on immutability, not in airy phantoms and fleeting objects,

but in the proper use of our faculties, such as are suited to our present situation. Anger and Discontent spread their pernicious infection through every rank and condition, but Wisdom they dare not approach; she wards off disease, which is too often the effect of intemperance. She excludes not the pleasures of the senses, but offers them refined and innocent; and they become pleasing, in proportion as we stand in need of them. The pleasures of the mind follow in her train, and are ever attendant on her; even in solitude, affliction, and adversity, they never forsake her.

Hark! Virtue calls thee-Truth proclaims,

That pleasure, rightly understood,

Whate'er Vice feigns, or Folly dreams,

Dwells only with the wise and good.

Whenever a virtuous person turns his thoughts on God, his neighbour, friends, or mankind in general, he experiences motions of secret joy, and conforms himself to the design of our Divine Creator, and lives worthy the esteem of his friends and acquaintance. Such a character, perfectly free from fear and hatred, employs the short period of life in the constant exercise of benevolence, or in other words, in the fruition of the most pleasing sensations; and thus, all the various sorts of agreeable sensations are united in favour of wisdom, and being combined in proportion, regulated by their sprightliness, duration, and agreement, they form the most delightful harmony.

But it is at the hour of death the vir

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