ances and sweet changes of raiment9 are visible almost hourly. But these creatures are of lower life, and give but feeble displays of the Maker's wisdom.

5. Let us raise our contemplations2 another story, and survey a nobler theatre of divine wonders, What endless armies of animals is the hand of God mouldings and figuring this very moment, through out his brutal dominions! What immense flights of little birds are now fermenting4 in the eggs, heaving and growing towards shape and life!

9 Raiment, & clothes, dress,

vesture.

† Visible, a conspicuous, 0Pen

2 Contemplations, meditations, studies.

3 Moulding, part moddling, forming.

4 Fermenting, part putting the parts into intestine motion.

6. What unknown myriads of insects in their various cradles and nesting places, are now working towards vitality5 and motion! And thousands of them with their painted wings just beginning to unfurl6 and expand themselves into fluttering and daylight; while other fam-open. ilies of them have forsaken their

5 Vitality, a power of subsisting in life. Unfurl, v to expand, to

7 Exult, v to

husky beds, and exulty and glitter rejoice above

in the warm sunbeams!

7. An exquisite world of wonders is complicated8 even in the body of every little insect; an ant, a gnat, a mite, that is scarcely visible to the naked eye. Admirable engines 19 which a whole academy of philosophers could never contrive; which the nation of poetst hath neither

measure.

8 Complicated part part folded together. • Engines, s machines.

† Poet, sa writer of poems art nor colours to describe; nor has a world of mechanics2 skill enough to frame the plainest or coarsest of them.

8. Their verves, their muscles, 3 and the minute4 atoms which compose the fluids fit te run in the little channels of their veins, escape the notice of the most sagacious mathematician, 5 with all his aid of glassThe active powers and curiosity 6 of human nature are limited in their pursuits, and must be content to lie down in ignorance.

es.

9. It is a constant triumph over all the intellectual powers of man, which God maintains in these inimitables works of nature, in these impenetrable recesses of divine art! The flags and banners of Almighty wisdom are now displayed round balf the globe, and the other half waits the return of the sun to spead the same triumph over the southern world.

10. The sun is God's prime minister in this wondrous world of beings, and he works with sovereigu vigort on the surface of the carth, and spreads his influence under the clods to every root and fibre2 moulding them iuto their proper forms by divine direction.There is not a plant, nor a leaf, nor one little branching thread, a

2 Mechanic. a manufacturer.

3 Muscles,

fleshy fibres.

4 Minute, a

small, slender trifling.

5 Mathemati

cian, s one skilled in matheanatics. inquisitiveness.

6 Curiosity,

7 Int llectual, a mental, ideal. 8 Inimitable,a not to be imica, ted.

9 Prime a ear

ly, blooming, principal, firstrate, first, original,excellent. † Vigor. s ficacy, force.

bove or beneath the ground, that escapes the eye or influence of this benevolent luminary:3 an illustrieus emblem of the omnipotence4 and universal activity of the Crea

tor.

The Pleasures of Virtuous Sensibility.

5 Sensibility.e a quickness of sensation.

The good effects of true sensibility5 on general virtue and happtness, admit of no dispute. Let us consider its effect on the happiness of him who possesses it and the various pleasures to which it gives him access.6 If he is master of riches or influence, it affords himmission,

the means of mcreasing his own enjoyment,7 by relieving the wants or increasing the comforts of oth.

ers.

2. If he commands not these advantages, 8 yet all the comforts, which he sees in the possession of the deserving, become iu somesart his, by rejoicing in the good which they enjoy. Even the face of na ture yields a satisfaction to him which the insensible can never know. The profusion of goodness which he beholds poured forth on the universe, dilates his heart

6 Access, sad

approach, means of approach, proach, 7 Enjoyment, sfruition, Map. piness.

8 Advantage, superiority; op portunity.

9 Profusion profuseness, exuberant, plenty,

† Universe, the world, general system of things.

4

with the thought, that innumerable multitudes2 around him are blest and happy.

3. When he sees the labors of men appearing to prosper, and views a country flourishing in wealth and industry ;3 when he beholds the spring coming forth in its beauty, aud reviving the decayed face of nature; or in autumn4 beholds the fields loaded with plenty, and the year crowned with all its fruits; he lifts his affections with gratitudes to the great Father of all, and rejoices in the general felicity and joy.

4. It may, indeed, be objected, that the same sensibility 6 lays open the heart to be pierced with many wounds, from the distresses which abound in the world; expose us to frequent suffering from the participations7 which it communicates of the sorrows as well as the joys of friendship. But let it be consider'ed that the tender melancholy of sympathys is accompanied with a sensation, which they who feel it would not exchange for the gratification of the selfish.

A

5. When the heart is strongly moved by any of the kind affections, even when it pours itself forth in virtuous sorrow, a secret attractive9 charm mingles with the pain

ful emotion; there is a joy in the midst of grief. Let it be further.. considered, that the griefs, which sensibility introduces, are counterbalanced by pleasures which flow & Counterbafrom the same source. Sensibility lanced, make amends, heightens, in general, the human equal. powers, and is connected with acuteness2 in all our feelings.

6. If it makes us more alive to 8

to

2 Acuteness, sharpness; subtleness,

some painful sensations, in return, quickness. it renders the pleasing ones more vivids and animated. The selfish 3 Vivid, a lives man languishes in his narrow cir- ly, sprightly, cle of pleasure. They are confined quick, active. to what affects his own interest. He is obliged to repeat the same gratifications, till they become insipid. But the man of virtuous4 sensibility moves in a wider sphere of felicity.

4 Virtuous, a morally good, chaste, devout.

5 Occupation, s business, em ployment..

7. His powers are much more frequently called forth into oоссираtions,5 of pleasing activity. Numberless occasions open to him of indulging his favourite taste, by conveying satisfaction6 to others. 6 Satisfaction, Often it is in his power, in one way s being pleased or other, to sooth the afficted heart; to carry some consolation into the house of woe.

8. In the scenes of ordinary life, in the domestic and social interCourse of men, the cordiality of his

E

or satisfied..

7. Domestic, a belonging to a house, private; not wild..