MINE OWN FIRE-SIDE. LET others seek for empty joys My own fire-side! These simple words A gentle form is near me now; And ask, what joys can equal thine: What care I for the sullen war My refuge ever from the storm Of this world's passion, strife, and care; Thy precincts are a charmed ring, Oh, may the yearnings, fond and sweet, My own-my own fire-side!-ALARIC A. WATTS. Accumulated. Distorted. Abstinence. Purification. Transient. THE mental condition which we call DESIRE appears to lie in a great measure at the foundation of character; and, for a sound moral condition, it is required that the desires be directed to worthy objects, and that the degree or strength of them be accommodated to the true and relative value of each of these objects. If the desires are thus directed, worthy conduct will be likely to follow in a steady and uniform manner. If they are allowed to break from the restraints of reason and the moral principle, the man is left at the mercy of unhallowed passion, and is liable to those irregularities which naturally result from such a derangement of the moral feeling. If, indeed, we would see the evils produced by desire, when not thus controlled, we have only to look at the whole history of human kind. What accumulated miseries arise from the want of due regulation of animal propensities in the various forms in which it degrades the character of rational and moral beings! What evils spring from the love of money, and from the desire of power; from the contests of rivals and the tumults of party! What envy, hatred, malignity, and revenge! What complicated wretchedness follows the train of ambition-contempt of human suffering countries depopulated, and fields deluged with blood. Such are the results of desire when not directed to objects worthy of a moral being, and not kept under the rigid control of conscience and the immutable laws of moral rectitude. When, in any of these forms, a sensual or selfish propensity is allowed to pass the due boundary which is fixed for it by reason and the moral principle, the mental harmony is destroyed, and even the judgment itself comes to be impaired and distorted in that highest of all inquiries, the search after moral truth. 66 The desires, indeed, may exist in an ill-regulated state, while the conduct is yet restrained by various principles, such as submission to human laws, a regard to character, or even a certain feeling of what is morally right, contending with the vitiated principle within. But this cannot be considered as the healthy condition of a moral being. It is only when the desire itself is sound that we can say the man is in moral health. "He who grieves at his abstinence," says Aristotle, “is a voluptuary;" and this also is the great principle so strikingly enforced in the sacred writings, Keep thy heart with all diligence, because out of it are the issues of life." "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Thus, there are desires which are folly, and there are desires which are vice, even though they should not be followed by indulgence; and there are desires which tend to purify and elevate the moral nature, though their objects should be beyond the reach of our full attainment in the present state of being. Perfect moral purity is not the lot of man in this transient state, and is not to be attained by his own unaided efforts. But subservient to it is that warfare within, that earnest and habitual desire after the perfection of a moral being, which is felt to be the great object of life, when it is viewed in relation to the life which is to come. For this attainment, however, man must feel his total inadequacy; and the utmost efforts of human reason have failed in unfolding the requisite aid. The conviction is thus forced upon us, that a higher influence is necessary, and this influence is fully disclosed by the light of revealed truth. We are there taught to look for a power from on high, capable of effecting what human efforts cannot accomplish,-the purification of the heart.-ABERCROMBIE' On the Moral Feelings. NOTHING is easier than simplicity and ingenuity; it is open and ready, without trouble and artificial cares; fit for communities, and the proper virtue of men; the necessary appendage of useful speech, without which language were given to men as nails and teeth to lions, for nothing but to do mischief. It is a rare instrument of institution, and a certain token of courage; the companion of goodness and a noble mind, the preserver of friendship, the band of society, the security of merchants, and the blessing of trade; it prevents infinite quarrels and appeals to judges, and suffers none of the evils of jealousy. Men by simplicity converse as do the angels; they do their own work, and secure their proper interest, and serve the public, and do glory to God. But hypocrites, and liars, and dissemblers spread darkness over the face of affairs, and make men, like the blind, to walk softly and timorously; and crafty men, like the close air, suck that which is open, and devour its portion, and destroy its liberty; and it is the guise of devils, and the dishonour of the soul, and the canker of society, and the enemy of justice, and truth, and peace, of wealth and honour, of courage and merchandize. He is a good man with whom a blind man may safely converse, to whom, in respect of his fair treatings, the darkness and light are both alike; but he that bears light on the face, with a dark heart, is like him that transforms himself into an angel of light when he means to do most mischief. Remember this only, that false colours laid on the face besmear the skin and dirty it; but they neither make a beauty nor mend it. "For without shall be dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie."-JEREMY TAYLOR. THE FIFTEENTH PSALM. LORD, who's the happy man that may Not stranger-like to visit them, But to inhabit there? 'Tis he, whose every thought and deed By rules of virtue moves; Whose generous tongue disdains to speak Who never did a slander forge Nor hearken to a false report By malice whisper'd round. Who vice in all its pomp and power Who to his plighted vows and trust And though he promise to his loss, Whose soul in usury disdains The guiltless to destroy. The man who, by this steady course, Has happiness insured, When earth's foundation shakes, shall stand, By Providence secured. TRUTH and reality have all the advantages of appearance, and many more. If the show of anything be good for anything, I am sure sincerity is better; for why does any man dissemble, or seem to be that which he is not, but because he thinks it good to have such a quality as he pretends to ? for to counterfeit and dissemble is to put on the appearance of some real excellency. Now, the best way in the world for a man to seem to be anything, is really to be what we would seem to be. Besides that it is many times as troublesome to make good the pretence of a good quality as to have it; and if a man have it not, it is ten to one but he is discovered to want it, and then all his pains and labour to seem to have it are lost. There is something unnatural in painting, which a skilful eye will easily discern from native beauty and complexion. It is hard to personate and act a part long; for, where truth is at the bottom, nature will always be endeavouring to return, and will peep out and betray herself one time or other. Therefore, if any man think it convenient to seem good, let him be so indeed, and then his goodness will appear to everybody's satisfaction; so that upon all accounts sincerity is true wisdom. Particular as to the affairs of this world, integrity hath many |