Approaching at length the borders of a forest, he said to himself, "Here I shall find protection, notwithstanding Heaven has neglected me, and turned a deaf ear to my prayers." But as he went forward, a robber sprang out suddenly from behind a bush, and the traveller, affrighted at the prospect of instant death, fled out of the forest, exposing himself again to the tempest, of which he had so grievously complained. The robber, in the mean time, fitting an arrow to his bow, took exact aim; but the bow-string being relaxed by the moisture of the weather, the arrow fell short of its mark, and the traveller escaped unhurt. As he continued his journey, a voice proceeded, awful, from the clouds: "Cease, mortal, to repine at the divine dispensations; and learn to acknowledge the goodness of God, in refusing as well as in granting your petitions. The storm, which you complained of so bitterly, has been the means of your preservation. Had not the bow-string of your enemy been rendered useless by rain, you had fallen a victim to his violence."

NUMBER C.

OF A RESTLESS DESIRE TO KNOW WHAT OTHERS SAY OF US.

"Take no heed to all words that are spoken, lest thou hear thy servant curse thee." SOLOMON.

PERHAPS no weakness of our fallen, feeble, and erring nature, is more disquieting to ourselves, or more troublesome to our acquaintances, than an overweening curiosity to know what is said of us.

A person of this turn is never at his ease. Jealousy is, in him, an ever-waking sentinel. Even his familiars, he fears, will slander or undervalue him; and if he happens to hear that any one of them has spoken of him slightingly, he instantly regards that one as his foe, and thenceforward is the more jealous of all the

rest.

In company, he views every look with a suspicious eye. He reads a plot against himself, even in a nod, or a whisper. If what he finds to have been said of him can admit of a double meaning, he gives it the worse meaning of the two. If he finds himself commended as to his general character, but censured in some particular instance, he is wounded, just as though the whole of his character had fallen under reproba tion.

This restless curiosity to know what is said of him, keeps his mind perpetually upon the rack. Day by day, he is anxiously inquisitive upon this point. If he fail of the object of his inquiries, and can hear of little or nothing said about him, either one way or the other; then he is stung at the heart with imagined neglect. And, contrariwise, if he chance to find that which he so anxiously inquires after, he finds it, perhaps, to his own cost and discomfort. He will have gained an article of intelligence which he had better have been without. His experience, peradventure, will have accorded with what we are plainly advertised of, in the above-cited pithy, admonition of the Wise Man.

The distemper of mind here spoken of, may arise fom an ardent desire of esteem, and the consequent dread of disesteem; and it may be found in persons possessed of some very estimable qualities of heart. But whatever be its origin, or in whomsoever it be found, it is the cause of a great deal of useless disquietude, and ever exposes one to wanton sport and ridicule.

Now, it being a great pity that persons of the one sex or the other, who are estimable in some respects, and yet labor under this infirmity, should not reason themselves out of it; I crave leave to lay before them the following considerations.

1. Those even, whose characters are good in the main, must needs be sensible, if they have any competent measure of selfknowledge, that they are not quite perfect. And why, then, should they be angry that others too, are sensible of it, and that their imperfections are sometimes spoken of? It is by no means certain that there is in this thing any enmity or real ill-will.

2. Persons possessed of this morbid or excessive sensibility

with regard to their own reputations, cannot but remember that themselves, one time or another, and in free conversation, have remarked on the foibles and faults of those whom they highly esteem upon the whole, and for whom they have, at the same time, a sincere friendship. And assuredly it is unreasonable for one to be angry for receiving the same measure which one metes out. If a person you thought your friend, hath spoken slightingly of you, in one single respect or other;-what then? Have you not yourself, sometimes, and in some particulars, spoken slightingly of those whom you were inclined to rank in the number of your friends? If you have done it, you should not be angry when the same is done to you.

3. In a fit of levity, or of ill-humor, it is not uncommon for some folks to speak with partial disrespect of the self-same persons whom, at other times, they mention with expressions of high esteem and affectionate regard. So that a great part of people's ill sayings of one another, are attributable to peevishness or thoughtlessness, and not to malignity alone. Hence the author of the admirable book of Ecclesiasticus observes," There is one that slippeth in his speech, but not from his heart.”

4. Even the ill-natured remarks of an enemy might be turned to a profitable use, by carefully correcting in one's self the fault or foible that occasioned them. It is told of the Prince of Condé, who was the most eminent hero of his day, that, his domestics observing with what great attention he was reading a certain pamphlet, one of them said to him: "This must be a very fine piece, since you take so much pleasure in reading it." To which the Prince replied: "It is very true that I read this with great pleasure, because it tells me my faults, which no man dares

venture to do. The pamphlet was in the strain of severe invective against the errors, faults, and foibles of the same Prince of Condé.

5. We seldom miss it more than in imagining that all about us take an interest in our ordinary concerns. If we think the world spends much attention about us, one way or the other, we have a mistaken notion of our own consequence. For, with a few exceptions, the individuals of the community are very little the subjects of each other's thoughts and conversation; the generality being too busy in thinking of themselves, to employ many of their thoughts elsewhere. Had one, by the help of magic, or by whatever means, the power of rendering himself invisible, and should he, in using the privilege of invisibility, go about from house to house, over his whole neighborhood and town, he would, probably, find himself spoken of by his neighbors and acquaintances more seldom than he had expected; and, in all probability too, he would hear the very same persons speak quite differently of him at different times.

In few words; universal and unqualified approbation it is folly to expect. And although we should, by no means, be regardless of what others think or say of us, yet the best way, or rather the only good way, is to be more solicitous to deserve esteem than to win it-more solicitous to do well, than to obtain the credit of doing well; and thus, to proceed on in the straight line, without angling for praise, or being too fearful of reproach. Whoso acteth in this manner, and upon pure, evangelical principles, enjoys a consciousness of feelings far more delightful, than any thing that can spring from the unmerited applause of ten thousand tongues.