while they paid him the sarcastical compliment, that they had never known another believer in Christianity of whose understanding they had any opinion. Read the story of Father Nicolas in the Lounger. Withdraw timely and resolutely from the enslaving power of love. Up-God has formed thee with a wiser view, Calls thee to cope with enemies, and first From hopes which you would blush to own, and cannot realise, turn to hope that maketh not ashamed. "To neglect that supreme resplendency which shines in God, for "those dim representations of it that we doat "on in the creature, is as preposterous and "absurd, as it were for a Persian to offer his "sacrifice to a parhelion, instead of adoring "the sunt." • Cowper. + Seraphic Love, by the Hon. Robert Boyle.-Written for a young friend under the hopeless passion of love, not to annihilate but to transfigure it. O solitude, the man who thee forgoes, When lucre lures him, or ambition stings, Shall never know the source whence real grandeur springs. O lost to virtue, lost to sober thought, Who think it solitude to be alone. A bashful reader loves these verses: they seem to justify his wish to be alone, when he experiences the "noble sallies." Thinking it easy to resume, he neglects to preserve them. Rousseau, in his early journeys, derived from the successive views of nature, charming images and delicious sentiments, which he painted in the moment with a vigour of pencil, and freshness of colouring, and strength of expression, superior, he says, to what is found in his writings, and regrets that he had not preserved them. It is important when alone to keep the heart, and rather than harbour ill thoughts to flee from solitude. In the presence of another, one comes to himself, in the presence of many he becomes one of them, and in social intercourse he fulfils relative duties: it is not good to be much alone, a recluse is a de serter. * Beattie's Minstrel, E Sir Matthew Hales, in his retirement on Sunday evenings, fixed his mind on useful contemplations by writing them. He found through the week the good effects of a wellspent Sabbath. "In Roman Catholic countries there are «houses of spiritual retreat, where the well“disposed retire at times to commune with "God and with their own hearts. A public "institution of this kind may seem ostentatious, but the spirit of it is laudable. In “the busiest life, a day may be found for "sacred solitude. The youth who has ac 66 66 quired a relish for the pleasures of devo tion, yields his heart to those pleasures. He "views at a proper distance the active life 66 upon which he has entered, and makes a "true estimate of wealth, and fame, and pre"eminence. He attends to his character as an "accountable being, and thinks of the time “when success or disappointment will figure "less than the steps by which they arrived; "when the pleasure of success will be in"creased by the honourable means of attain❝ing it, and the pain of disappointment les"soned because nothing dishonourable was “done to avert it. The particular duties of his sphere are reviewed: if the review pre "sent imperfections, he does not disguise "them to his own mind, nor does he check 66 66 66 humility. Under the impression of divine goodness he learns to forgive himself, and "to improve the experience of former errors against future temptation. Plans of use"fulness are devised, and kind affections "cherished. The beauties of virtue open in prospect, and like a traveller refreshed, he "sets forward with alacrity*." 66 Kames's Culture of the Heart. ON BASHFULNESS. Part Third. UPON bashfulness Christian humility may be grafted, and the fruit which was by nature wild, becomes good. The bashful are annoyed by many things, of which there is no reason to be ashamed: the Son of Syrac mentions some of them*: by attending to these, false shame is distinguished from humility. A sense of duty overcomes false shame, and the painful combat is in some degree compensated by the thought of having succeeded. Colonel Gardiner refused to fight a duel because he feared God: a few such examples might discourage that fashionable murder. The faithful discharge of duty may incur re Ecclesiasticus 44. |