that the day is wafting; if the change of feafons did not impress upon us the flight of the year, quantities of duration equal to days and years would glide unobserved. If the parts of time were not variously coloured, we fhould never difcern their departure or fucceffion, but fhould live thoughtless of the paft, and careless of the future, without will, and perhaps without power, to compute the periods of life, or to compare the time which is already loft with that which may probably remain.

Yet it is certain that these admonitions of nature, however forcible, however importunate, are too often vain; and that many who mark with fuch accuracy the course of time, appear to have little sensibility of the decline of life. Every man has fomething to do which he neglects; every man has faults to conquer, which he delays to combat.

So little do we accuftom ourselves to confider the effects of time, that things neceffary and certain often surprise us like unexpected contingencies. We leave the beauty in her bloom, and, after an abfence of twenty years, wonder, at our return, to find her faded. We meet those whom we left children, and can scarcely perfuade ourselves to treat them as men. The traveller vifits in age thofe countries through which he rambled in his youth, and hopes for merriment at the old place. The man of business, wearied with unfatisfactory profperity, retires to the town of his nativity, and expects to play away the last years with the companions of his childhood, and recover youth in the fields where he once was young.

From this inattention, fo general and fo mifchievous, let it be every man's ftudy to exempt himself. Let him that defires to fee others happy, make haste to give while his gift can be enjoyed, and remember, that every moment of delay takes away fomething from the value of his benefaction. And let him who feeks his own happiness, reflect, that while he forms his purpose the day rolls on, and the night cometh, when no man can work.'

Filial

Filial Affection; the Story of Fidelia.

FIDELIA is the only child of a decrepid father,

life is wound up in hers. This gentleman has used Fidelia from her cradle with all the tendernefs imaginable, and has viewed her growing perfections with the partiality of a parent, that foon thought her accomplished above the children of all other men, but never thought 'fhe was come to the utmost improvement of which fhe was capable. This fondness has had very happy effects upon his own happiness; for the reads, fhe dances, fhe fings, ufes her spinet and lute, to the utmost perfection: And the lady's ufe of all thefe excellencies is, to divert the old man in his eafy chair, when he is free from the pangs. of a chronical diftemper. Fidelia is now in the twenty-third year of her age; but the application of many lovers, her vigorous time of life, her quick fenfe of all that is truly gallant and elegant in the enjoyment of a plentiful fortune, are not able to draw her from the fide of her good old father. Certain it is, that there is no kind of affection

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affection fo pure and angelic as that of a father to a daughter. He beholds her both with and without regard to her fex. In love to our wives there is defire, to our fons there is ambition; but in that to our daughters, there is fomething which there are no words to exprefs. Her life is defigned wholly domeftic; and the is fo ready a friend and companion, that every thing that paffes about a man is accompanied with the idea of her prefence. Her fex alfo is naturally fo much expofed to hazard, both as to fortune and innocence, that there is perhaps a new cause of fondness arifing from that confideration alfo. None but fathers can have a true fenfe of this fort of pleasures and fenfations.

Fidelia, on her part, as accomplished as fhe is, with all her beauty, wit, air, and mien, employs her whole time in care and attendance upon her father. How have I been charmed to fee one of the most beautiful women the age has produced, on her knees, helping on. an old man's flipper! Her filial regard to him is what she makes her diverfion, her business, and her glory. When she was asked by a friend of her deceased mother to admit of the courtship of her fon, fhe answered, That The had a great refpect and gratitude to her for the overture in behalf of one fo dear to her, but that during her father's life fhe would admit into her heart no value for any thing that should interfere with her endeavour to make his remains of life as happy and easy as could be expected in his circumftances. The lady admonishcd her of the prime of life with a fmile; which Fidelia answered with a frankness that always attends unfeigned virtue: "It is true, Madam, there are to be fure very great fatisfactions to be expected in the commerce of a man of honour, whom one tenderly loves; but I find fo much fatisfaction in the reflection, how much I mitigate a good man's pains, whose welfare depends upon my affiduity about him, that I willingly exclude the loofe gratifications of paffion for the folid reflections of duty. I know not whether any man's wife would be allowed, and (what I still more fear) I know

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not whether I, a wife, fhould be willing to be as officious as I am at present about my parent." The happy father has her declaration that the will not marry during his life, and the pleasure of seeing that resolution not uneafy to her. Were one to paint filial affection in its utmost beauty, he could not have a more lively idea of it than in beholding Fidelia serving her father at his hours of rifing, meals, and rest.

Whilft the general crowd of female youth are con fulting their glaffes, preparing for balls, affemblies, or plays; for a young lady, who could be regarded among the foremost in those places, either for her person, wit, fortune, or conversation, yet to contemn all these entertainments, to sweeten the heavy hours of a decrepid parent, is a refignation truly heroic. Fidelia performs the duty of a nurse with all the beauty of a bride; nor does the neglect her person, because of her attendance on him, when he is too ill to receive company, to whom fhe may make an appearance.

What adds to the entertainment of the good old man, is, that Fidelia, where merit and fortune cannot be overlooked by epiftolary lovers, reads over the accounts of her conquefts, plays on her fpinet the gayeft airs, (and while fhe is doing fo, you would think her formed only for gallantry) to intimate to him the pleasures she defpifes for his fake.

Those who think themselves the pattern of good breeding and gallantry, would be aftonifhed to hear that, in those intervals when the old gentleman is at ease and can bear company, there are at his house, in the most regular order, affemblies of people of the highest merit, where there is converfation without mention of the faults of the abfent, benevolence between men and women without paffion, and the highest fubjects of morality treated of as natural and accidental difcourfe; all which is owing to the genius of Fidelia, who at once makes her father's way to another world eafy, and herself capable of being an honour to his name in this.

Family Disagreements the frequent Cause of Immoral Conduct.

FTER all our complaints of the uncertainty of human affairs, it is undoubtedly true, that more mifery is produced among us by the irregularities of our tempers, than by real misfortunes.

And it is a circumftance particularly unhappy, that these irregularities of the temper are very apt to display themselves at our fire-fides, where every thing ought to be tranquil and ferene. But the truth is, we are awed by the presence of strangers, and are afraid of appearing weak or ill-natured when we act in the fight of the world; and so, very heroically, referve all our ill-humour for our wives, children, and fervants. We are meek where we might meet with oppofition, but feel ourselves undauntedly bold where we are sure of no effectual resistance.

The perverfion of the best things converts them to the worst. Home is certainly well adapted to repose, and folid enjoyment. Among parents and brothers, and all the tender ties of private life, the gentler affections, which are always attended with feelings purely and permanently pleasurable, find an ample fcope for proper exertion. The experienced have often declared, after wearying themselves in pursuing phantoms, that they have found a substantial happiness in the domestic circle. Hither they have returned from their wild excurfions in the regions of diffipation; as the bird, after fluttering in the air, defcends into her neft, to partake and to increase its genial warmth with her young ones.

Such and fo fweet are the comforts of home, when it is not perverted by the folly and weakness of man. Indifference, and a careleffness on the subject of pleasing those whom it is our best interest to please, often render it a scene of dulnefs and infipidity. Happy if the evil extended no farther. But the tranfition from the

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