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4 Exist, v to be, to have a being.

ists,4 it cannot but happen, that in the intercourse which men are obliged to maintain, their tempers will often be ill adjusted to that intercourse5: hence will jar and interfere with each other. Hence, in every station, the highest as well communication

as the lowest, and in every condition of life, public, private and domestic, occasions of irritation6 frequently arise.

3. We are provoked sometimes by the folly and levity of those with whom we are connected; sometimes by their indifference or neglect; by the incivility of a friend, the haughtiness of a superior, or the insolents behavior of one in lower station. Hardly a day passes without somewhat or other occurring, which serves to ruffle the man of impatient spirit.

4. Of course such a man lives in a continual storm. He knows not what it is to enjoy a traing of good humor. Servants, neighbors, friends, spouseț and children, al, through the unrestrained violence of his temper, become sources of disturbance and vexation to him. In vain is affluence, in vain are health and prosperity. The least trifle is sufficient to discompose is mind and potson his pleasures

5 Intercourse,

& commerce,

6 Irritation, a provocation, stimulation.

7 Levity, s in. constancy, light

ness.

8 Insolent, a haughty, cổn temptuous.

2

9 Train, s ase

ries, a consemethod; state of proceedure. † Spouse, sa

cration, process

husband or wife

married persons

His very amusements are mixed with turbulence2 and passion.

5. I would beseech this man to consider of what small moment the • provocations3 which he receives, or at least imagines himself to receive, are really in themselves; but of what great moment he makes them, by suffering them to deprive him of the possession of himself.

6. I would beseech4 him, to consider how many hours of happiness he throws away, which a little more patience* would allow him to enjoy; and how much he puts in the power of the most insignificant persons to reader him miserable.

7. "But who can expect," we hear him exclaim,5 "that he is to possess the insensibility of a stone? How is it possible for human nature to endure so many repeated provocations? or to bear calmly with such unreasonable behaviour?" My brother! if thou canst bear with no instances of unreasonable behaviour, withdraw thyself from the world.

8. Thou art no longer fit to live in it. Leave the intercourse of men. Retreat to the mountain, and the desert; or shut thyself up in

L

2 Turbulence, s tumult.

3 Provocation s cause of anger an appeal to a judge.

4 Beseech, va to entreat, to supplicate implore.

* Patience, s the power of suffering, endu. rance, calmness. under suffer

ings.

5 Exclaim, to rail against.

6 Withdraw, to draw back retreat."

7 Retreat, to go in private to retire.

a cell. For here, in the midst of society, offences must come.

9. We might as well expect when we beheld a calm atmosphere, 8 and a clear sky, that no clouds were ever to rise, and no winds to blow, as that our life was long to proceed, without receiving provocations from human frailty. The careless and the imprudent,9 the giddy and the fickle, the ungrateful and the interested, every where meet us.

10. They are the briars and thorns, with which the paths of human life are beset.f He only who can hold his course among them with patience and equanimity,2 he who is prepared to bear what he must expect to happen, is worthy of the name of a man.

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11. If we preserved ourselves composed but for a moment, we should perceives the insignificancy 3 Perceive, of most of those provocations which to discover, to

we magnify so highly.

When a few suns more have rolled over our heads, the storm will, of itself, have subsided; the cause of our present impatience4 and disturbance will be utterly forgotten.

12. Can we not then, anticipate5, this hour of calmness to ourselves; and begin to enjoy the peace which it will certainly bring? If others have behaved improperly, let us.

observe.

4 Iimpatience

uneasiness un

der suffering, 5 Anticipate, v to foretaste, to preclude..

leave them to their own folly, without becoming the victims of their caprice and punishing ourselves on their account.

Patience, in

this exercise of it, cannot be too much studied by all who wish their life to flow in a smooth stream. It is the reason of a man, in oppositions to the passion of a child. It is the enjoyme at of peace, in opposition to uproar and confusion.

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American-Sages.

I.

SEE on yon dark'ning height bold Franklin tread Heav'ns awful thanders rolling o'er his head; Convolving clouds the billowy skies deform, And forky flames emblaze the black'ning storm.

II.

See the descending streams around him burn, G'ance on his rod, and with his guidance torn; He bids conflicting heavens their blasts expire, Carbs the fierce blaze, and holds th' imprison'd

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No more, when folding storms the vault o'erspread, The livid glare shall strike thy face with dread Nortow'rs, nor temples, shud'ring with the sound, Sink in the flames, and spread destruction round

IV.

His daring toils, the threat'ning blasts that wait,
Shall teach mankind to ward the bolts of fate;
The pointed steel o'er-top th' ascending spire,
And lead o'er trembling walls the harmless fire;
In his glad fame while distant worlds rejoice,
Far as the lightning shines or thunders raise their

voice.

V.

See the Sage Rittenhouse, with ardent eye,
Lift the long tube, and pierce the starry sky;
Clear in his view the circling systems roll,
And broader splendors gild the central pole.

VI.

He marks what laws th' eccentric wand'rers bind,
Copies creation in his forming mind,
And bids, beneath his hand, in semblance rise,
With mimic orbs, the labor of the skies.

VII.

There wandring crowds, with raptur'd eye, behold The spangled heavens their mystic maze unfold; While each glad sage his splendid hall shall grace, With all the spheres that cleave the ethereal

space.

VIII.

To guide the sailor in his wand'ring way,
See Godfrey's toils reverse the beams of day.
His lifted quadrant to the eye displays
From adverse skies, the counteracting rays:
And marks, as devious sails bewildered roll,
Each nice gradation from the stedfast pole.

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