ter;

3. Her garden is a very beautiful one, and kept with great neatness and elegance; but if you take a walk with her into it, she talks to you of nothing but blights and storms, of snails and caterpillars, and how impossible it is to keep it from the litter of falling leaves, and worm-casts. If you sit down in one of her temples, to enjoy a delightful prospect, she observes to you, that there is too much wood, or too little wathat the day is too sunny, or too gloomy; that it is sultry or windy; and finishes with a long harangue upon the wretchedness of our climate. When you return with her to the company, in hopes of a little cheerful conversation, she casts a gloom over all, by giving you the history of her own bad health, or of some melancholy accident that has befallen one of her children. Thus she insensibly sinks her own spirits, and the spirits of all around her; and at last discovers, she knows not why, that her friends are grave.

4. Melissa is the reverse of all this. By babituating herself to look on the bright side of objects, she preserves a perpetual cheerfulness in herself, which, by a kind of happy contagion, she communicates to all about her. If any misfortune has befallen her, she considers that it might have been worse, and is thankful to Providence for an escape. She rejoices in solitude, as it gives her an opportunity of knowing herself; and in society, because she communicates the happiness she enjoys. She opposes every man's failings to his virtues, and can find out something to cherish and applaud in the very worst of her acquaintance. She opens every book with a desire to be entertained or instructed; and, therefore, seldom misses what she looks for. Walk with ber, though it be but on a heath, or a common, and she will discover numberless beauties, unobserved before, in the hills, the dales, the brooms, brakes, and the variegated flowers of weeds and poppies. She enjoys every change of weather, and of season, as bringing with it some advantages of health or convenience.

5. In conversation, you never hear her repeating her own grievances, or those of her neighbours, or (what is worst of all) their faults and imperfections. If any thing of the latter kind is mentioned in her hearing, she has the address to turn it into entertainment, by changing the most odious railing into a pleasant raillery. Thus Melissa, like the bee, gathers honey from every weed; while Arachne, like the L

spider, sucks poison from the fairest flowers. The consequence is, that of two tempers, once very nearly allied, the one is forever sour and dissatisfied, the other always pleased and cheerful; the one spreads a universal gloom, the other a continual sunshine.

To Parents.

1. To you, who are parents, nature itself has given as tender a concern for your children's welfare as your own; and reminds you justly, that, as you have brought them into the dangers of life, your business is to provide that they get well through them. Now, the only provision commonly attended to, of wealth and honours, can never produce happiness, unless the mind, on which all depends, be taught to enjoy them properly. Fortune, without this, will but lead them to more abandoned sallies of extravagance, and expose them to more public censure. Education, then, is the great care with which you are intrusted; scarcely more for their sakes than your own. You may be negligent of your son's instruction, but it is on you, as well as himself, that his ignorance and contemptibleness will bring both reproach and inconve nience. You may be regardless of his morals, but you may be the person who will at last most severely feel the want of them.

2. You may be indifferent about his religion; but remember, dutifulness to you is one great principle of religion, and unless you promote such habits, by cultivating them in him, you may bitterly repent the omission when too late, and die miserable on his account, whom timely care would have made your joy and comfort. Therefore, in a case of such moment, let no false shame, nor favourite passion, prevail over you, but" give your hearts wholly to the Lord, who made you.

3. Lay the foundation of your lives here on the firm ground of Christian faith; and build upon it whatever is just and good, worthy and noble, till the structure be complete in inoral beauty. The world, into which your children are entering, lies in wait for them with a variety of temptations. Unfavourable sentiments of religion will soon be suggested to them, and all the snares of luxury, false honour, and interest, spread in their way, which, with most of their rank, are too successful, and to many, fatal.

4. Happy the few, who, in any part of life, become sensible of their errors, and with painful resolution, tread back the wrong steps which they have taken! But happiest of men is he, who, by an even course of right conduct, from the first, as far as human frailty permits, has at once avoided the miseries of sin, the sorrows of repentance, and the difficulties of virtue; who not only can think of his present state with composure, but reflect on his past behaviour with thankful approbation; and look forward with unmixed joy to that important future hour, when he shall appear before God, and humbly offer to Him a whole life spent in his service.

Youth the proper season for gaining Knowledge. 1. THE duty which young people owe to their instructers, cannot be better shown, than in the effect which the instructious they receive have upon them. They would do well, therefore, to consider the advantages of an early attention to these two things, both of great importance,-knowledge and religion.

2. The great use of knowledge, in all its various branches, is, to free the mind from the prejudices of ignorance; and to give it juster and more enlarged conceptions than are the mere growth of rude nature. By reading, we add the experience of others to our own. It is the improvement of the mind chiefly, that makes the difference between man and man, and gives one man a real superiority over another.

3. Besides, the mind must be employed. The lower orders of men have their attention much engrossed by those employments, in which the necessities of life engage them: and it is happy that they have. Labour stands in the room of education; and fills up those vacancies of mind, which, in a state of idleness, would be engrossed by vice. And if they who have more leisure, do not substitute something in the room of this, their minds also will become the prey of vice; and the more so, as they have the means to indulge it more in their power. It is an undoubted truth, that one vice indulged, introduces others; and that each succeeding vice becomes more depraved. If, then, the mind must be employed, what can fill up its vacuities more rationally than he acquisition of knowledge? But, however necessary to is knowledge may be religion, we know, is infinitely more

so. The one adorns a man, and gives him, it is true, superiority, and rank in life; but the other is absolutely essential to his happiness.

4. In the midst of youth, health, and abundance, the world is apt to appear a very gay and pleasing scene: it engages our desires; and, in a degree, satisfies them also. But it is wisdom to consider, that a time will come, when youth, health, and fortune, will all fail us: and if disappointment and vexation do not sour our taste for pleasure, at least, sickness and infirmities will destroy it. In these gloomy seasons, and, above all, at the approach of death, what will become of us without religion? When this world fails, whither shall we fly, if we expect no refuge in another? Without holy hope in God, and resignation to his will, and trust in him for deliverance, what is there that can secure us against the evils of life?

ne great utility, therefore, of knowledge and religion being thus apparent, it is highly incumbent upon us to pay a studious attention to them in our youth. If we do not, it is more than probable that we shall never do it; that we shall grow old in ignorance, by neglecting the one; and old in vice, by neglecting the other.

6. For improvement in knowledge, youth is certainly the fittest season. The mind is then ready to receive any impression. It is free from all that care and attention which, in riper age, the affairs of life bring with them. The me mory too is stronger, and better able to acquire the rudiments of knowledge; and as the mind is then void of ideas, it is more suited to those parts of learning which are conversant in words. Besides, there are sometimes in youth a modesty and docility, which, in advanced years, if those years especially have been left a prey to ignorance, become self-sufficiency and prejudice; and these effectually bar up all the inlets to knowledge. But above all, unless habits of attention and application are early gained, we shall scarcely acquire them afterwards. The inconsiderate youth seldom reflects upon this, nor knows his loss, till he knows also that it cannot be retrieved.

7. Nor is youth more the season to acquire knowledge, than to form religious habits. It is a great point to get habit on the side of virtue it will make every thing smooth and easy. The earliest principles are generally the most lasting;

and those of a religious cast are seldom wholly lost. Though the temptations of the world may, now and then, draw the well-principled youth aside; yet his principles being continually at war with his practice, there is hope, that, in the end, the better part may overcome the worse, and bring on a reformation: whereas, he who has suffered habits of vice to get possession of his youth, has little chance of being brought back to a sense of religion and virtue.

8. There are persons who would restrain youth from imbibing any religious principles, till they can judge for themselves, lest they should imbibe prejudice for truth. But why should not the same caution be used in sciences also, and the minds of youth left void of all impressions! The experiment, I fear, in both cases, would be dangerous. If the mind were left uncultivated during so long a period, though nothing else should find entrance, vice certainly would; and it would make the larger shoots, as the soil would be vacant. It would be better that young persons receive knowledge and religion mixed with error, than none at all. For when the mind comes to reflect, it may deposite its prejudices by degrees, and get right at last but in a state of stagnation it will infallibly become foul.

9. To conclude, our youth bears some proportion to our more advanced life, as this world does to the next. In this life, we must form and cultivate those habits of virtue, which will qualify us for a better state. If we neglect them here, and contract habits of an opposite kind, instead of gaining that exalted state, which is promised to our improvement, we shall of course sink into that state which is adapted to the habits we have formed.

10. Exactly thus is youth introductory to manhood; to which it is, properly speaking, a state of preparation. During this season, we must qualify ourselves for the parts we are to act hereafter. In manhood we bear the fruit which has in youth been planted. If we have sauntered away our youth, we must expect to be ignorant men. If indolence and inattention have taken an early possession of us, they will probably increase as we advance in life; and make us a burden to ourselves, and useless to society. If again we suffer ourselves to be misled by vicious inclinations, they will daily get new strength, and end in dissolute lives. But if we cultivate our minds in youth, attain habits of attention