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and to see what they have often seen. Pleasures thus drawn to the dregs, become vapid and taftelefs. What might have pleafed long, if enjoyed with temperance, and mingled with retirement, being devoured with fuch eager hafte, fpeedily furfeits and difgufts. Hence thefe are the perfons, who, after having run through a rapid course of pleasure, after having glittered for a few years in the foremoft line of public amusements, are the most apt to fly at laft to a melancholy retreat; not led by religion or reafon, but driven by disappointed hopes and exhausted spirits, to the penfive conclufion, that "all is vanity "

If uninterrupted intercourfe with the world wears out the man of pleasure, it no lefs oppreffes the man of business and ambition. The ftrongest spirits must at length fink under it. The happieft temper must be foured by inceffant returns of the oppofition, the inconftancy, and treachery of men. For he who lives always in the bustle of the world, lives in a perpetual warfare. Here, an enemy encounters; there, a rival fupplants him. The ingratitude of a friend ftings him this hour; and the pride of a fuperior wounds him the next In vain he flies for relief to trifling amufe ments. Thefe may afford a temporary opiate to care; but they communicate no ftrength to the mind. On the contrary, they leave it more foft and defencelefs, when moleftations and injuries renew their attack.

Let him who wishes for an effectual cure to all the wounds which the world can inflict, retire from intercourse with men to intercourfe with his Creator. When he en. ters into his clofet, and fhuts the door, let him fhut out at the fame time all intrufion of worldly care; and dwell among objects divine and immortal. Thofe fair profpects of order and peace fhall there open to his view, which form the most perfect contrast to the confufion and mifery of this earth. The celestial inhabitants quarrel not; among them there is neither ingratitude, nor envy, nor tumult. Men may harafs one another; but in the kingdom of heaven concord and tranquillity reign forever. From fuch objects, there beams upon the mind of the pious man, a pure and enlivening light; there is diffused over his heart, a holy calm. His agitated fpirit reaffumes its firmnefs and regains its peace. The world finks in its impor. tance; and the load of mortality and mifery lofes almost all its weight. The "green pastures" open, and the "ftill waters" flow around him, befide which the "Shepherd of

Ifrael" guides his flock. The disturbances and alarms, so formidable to those who are engaged in the tumults of the world, feem to him only like thunder rolling afar off; like the noife of diftant waters, whofe found he hears, whofe course he traces, but whofe waves touch him not.

As religious retirement is thus evidently conducive to our happiness in this life, fo it is abfolutely neceffary in order to prepare us for the life to come. He who lives always in

public, cannot live to his own foul. Our converfation and intercourse with the world, is, in feveral refpects, an education for vice. From our earliest youth, we are accustomed to hear riches and honours extolled as the chief poffeffions of man; and proposed to us, as the principal aim of our future parfaits. We are trained up, to look with admiration on the flattering marks of distinction which they bestow. In queft of thofe fancied bleffings, we fee the multitude around us eager and fervent. Principles of duty, we may, perhaps, hear fometimes inculcated; but we feldom behold them brought into competition with worldly profit. The foft names, and plaufible colours, under which deceit, fenfuality, and revenge, are prefented to us in common difcourfe, weaken, by degrees, our natural fenfe of the distinction between good and evil. We often meet with crimes authorised by high examples, and rewarded with the careffes and fmiles of the world. Thus breathing habitually a contagious air, how certain is our ruin, unless we fometimes retreat from this peftilential region, and feek for proper correctives of the diforders which are contracted there! Religious retirement both abates the disease, and furnishes the remedy. It leffens the corrupting influence of the world; and it gives opportunity for better principles to exert their power. Solitude is the hallowed ground which religion hath, in every age, chofen for her own. There, her infpiration is felt, and her fecret mysteries elevate the foul; there, falls the tear of contrition; there, rifes towards heaven the figh of the heart; there, melts the foul with all the tendernefs of devotion, and pours forth itself before him who made, and him who redeemed it. How can any one who is unacquainted with fuch employments of mind, be fit for heaven? If heaven be the habitation of pure affections, and of intellectual joy, can fuch a state be relished by him who is always immerfed among fenfible objects, and has never acquired any taste for the pleasures of the understanding, and the heart ?

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The great and the worthy, the pious and the virtuous, have ever been addicted to ferious retirement. It is the characteristic of little and frivolous minds, to be wholly oc cupied with the vulgar objects of life. Thefe fill up their delires, and supply all the entertainment which their coarse apprehenfions can relifh. But a more refined and enlarged mind leaves the world behind it, feels a call for higher pleasures, and feeks them in retreat. The man of public fpirit has recourse to it, in order to form plans for general good; the man of genius, in order to dwell on his favourite themes; the philofopher, to pursue his discoveries; the faint, to improve himself in grace. "Ifaac went out to

meditate in the fields, at the evening tide." David, amidst all the fplendour of royalty, often bears witnefs both to the pleafure which he received, and to the benefit which he reaped, from devout meditation. Our bleffed Saviour him. felf, though of all who ever lived on earth, he needed leaft the affiftance of religious retreat, yet, by his frequent prac tice, has done it fignal honour. Often were the garden, the mountain, and the filence of the night, fought by him, for intercourfe with Heaven. When he had fent the mul titude away, he went up into a mountain, apart, to pray,"

The world is the great deceiver, whofe fallacious arts it highly imports us to detect. But in the midst of its pleafures and purfuits, the detection is impoflible. We tread, as within an enchanted circle, where nothing appears as it truly is. It is only in retreat, that the charm can be brok en. Did men employ that retreat, not in carrying on the delufion which the world has begun, not in forming plans of imaginary blifs, but in fubjecting the happiness which the world affords to a strict difcuffion, the fpell would diffolve; and in the room of the unreal profpects, which had long amufed them, the nakedness of the world would appear.

Let us prepare ourselves, then, to encounter the light of truth; and refolve rather to bear the disappointment of fome flattering hopes, than to wander forever in the para dife of fools. While others meditate in fecret on the means of attaining worldly fuccefs, let it be our employment to fcrutinize that fuccefs itself. Let us calculate fairly to what it amounts; and whether we are not lofers on the whole, by our apparent gain. Let us look back for this purpose on our past life. Let us trace it from our earliest youth; and put the queftion to ourselves, what have been its hap pielt periods? Were they thofe of quiet and innocence, or

thofe of ambition and intrigue? Has our real enjoyment uniformly kept pace with what the world calls profperity ? As we advanced in wealth or ftation, did we proportionally advance in happiness Has fuccefs, almoft in any one inftance, fulfilled our expectations? Where we reckoned upon molt enjoyment, have we not often found leaft? Whereever guilt entered into pleasure, did not its fting long remain, after the gratification was paft? Such questions as thefe, candidly anfwered, would in a great measure uninafk the world. They would expofe the vanity of its pretenfions; and convince us, that there are other fprings than thofe which the world affords, to which we must apply for happinefs. While we commune with our heart concerning what the world now is, let us confider alfo what it will one day appear to be. Let us anticipate the awful moment of our bidding it an eternal farewell; and think, what reflections will moft probably arife, when we are quitting the field, and looking back on the fcene of action. In what light will our clofing eyes contemplate thofe vanities which now fhine fo bright, and thofe interefts which now well into fuch high importance? What part fhall we then wifh to have acted? What will then appear momentous, what trifling, in human conduct ?-Let the fober fentiments which fuch anticipations fuggeft, temper now our misplaced ardour. Let the laft conclufions which we hail form enter into the prefent eftimate which we make of the world, and of life.

Moreover, in communing with ourfelves concerning the world let us contemplate it as fubject to the Divine dominion. The greater part of men behold nothing more than the rotation of human affairs. They fee a great crowd ever in motion; the fortunes of men alternately rifing and falling virtue often diftreffed, and profperity appearing to be the purchase of worldly wifdom. But this is only the outfide of things: behind the curtain, there is a far greater fcene, which is beheld by none but the retired, religious fpectator. If we lift up that curtain, when we are alone with God, and view the world with the eye of a chriftian; we fhall fee that while "man's heart devifeth his way, it is the Lord who directeth his fteps." We fhall fee, that however men appear to move and act after their own pleasure, they are, neverthelefs, retained in fecret bonds by the Al mighty, and all their operations rendered fubfervient to the ends of his moral government. We fhall behold him oblig

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ing "the wrath of man to praise him; punishing the finner by means of his own iniquities; from the trials of the righteous, bringing forth their reward; and to a state of feeming univerfal confufion, preparing the wifeft and most equitable iffue. While the fashion of this world is paffing faft away, we fhall discern the glory of another rifing to fucceed it. We fhall behold all human events, our griefs and our joys, our love and our hatred, our character and memory, abforbed in the ocean of eternity; and no trace of our present existence left, except its being forever" well with the righteous, and ill with the wicked."

SECTION XI.

Hiftory of ten days of Seged, emperor of Ethiopia.

Of Heaven's protection who can be
So confident to utter this?-
To-morrow I will spend in bliss.

BLAIR.

F. LEWIS,

SEGED, lord of Ethiopia, to the inhabitants of the world: to the fons of prefumption, humility, and fear; and to the daughters of forrow, content and acquiefcence.

Thus, in the twenty-feventh year of his reign, spoke Seged, the monarch of forty nations, the distributer of the waters of the Nile: "At length, Seged, thy toils are at an end; thou haft reconciled difaffection, thou haft fuppreffed rebellion, thou haft pacified the jealousies of thy courtiers, thou haft chased war from thy confines, and erect. ed fortreffes in the lands of thy enemies. All who have offended thee tremble in thy prefence; and wherever thy voice is heard, it is obeyed. Thy throne is furrounded by armies, numerous as the locufts of the fummer, and resistlefs as the blasts of peftilence. Thy magazines are stored with ammunition, thy treafures overflow with the tribute of conquered kingdoms. Plenty waves upon thy fields, and opulence glitters in thy cities. Thy nod is as the earthquake that shakes the mountains, and they fmile as the dawn of the vernal day. In thy hand is the strength of thousands, and thy health is the health of millions. Thy palace is gladdened by the fong of praise, and thy path perfumed by the breath of benediction. Thy fubjects gaze upon thy greatness, and think of danger or mifery no more. Why, Seged, wilt not thou partake of the bleffings thou bestowelt? Why shouldst thou only forbear to rejoice in this general felicity? Why fhould thy face be clouded with anxiety, when the meaneft of those who call thee fove

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