ful; in a foreign land, if wealthy, you are respected; if poor, nobody knows it; are you married, your house is cheerful; unmarried, you live without care; children afford delight; childless, you have no sorrow; youth is vigorous, and old age is venerable! The wise man therefore would not choose but to have existed."

Dr. Edward Young published a True Estimate of Human Life, Part THE FIRST, dedicated to Queen Anne; drawn in sufficiently sombrous colours. But the SECOND part, intended to describe the cheerful side of life, without which it cannot be deemed a True Estimate, though announced as soon to be published, never appeared! His Night Thoughts also are replete with melancholy strains; indeed the muse indulges in such querulous representations of the world, as to lead the reader almost to question the wisdom and goodness of the Supreme Being in the present constitution of things. And yet we are assured that Dr. Young was by no means a miserable man, though disappointed as to church preferment. He instituted among his parishioners an assembly room, and a bowlinggreen, participating along with them the many innocent enjoyments of life. And it must be added that, Dr. Samuel Johnson wrote his Rasselas, a tale in which, with all the charms of

oriental imagery, and all the force of which the English language is capable; he leads us through the most important scenes of human life, showing us, that this stage of our being is full of vexation of spirit! In his Vanity of Human Wishes, a poem of a similar tendency, he has, however, made ample amends by his concluding lines:

Where then shall Hope and Fear their objects find?
Shall dull suspense corrupt the stagnant mind?
Must hopeless man, in ignorance sedate,

Fall darkling down the torrent of his fate?

Shall no dislike alarm, no wishes rise,

No cries attempt the mercy of the skies?
Inquiries cease; petitions yet remain,

Which HEAVEN may hear, nor deem Religion vain:
Still raise for good the supplicating voice,

But leave to HEAVEN the measure and the choice.
Safe in his hand, whose eye discerns afar
The secret ambush of a specious prayer;
Implore his aid, in his decisions rest;
Secure whate'er he gives-he gives the best.
Yet, when the sense of sacred presence fires,
And strong Devotion to the skies aspires;
Pour forth thy fervours for a healthful mind,
Obedient passions, and a will resign'd:
For Love, which scarce collective man can fill;
For Patience, sovereign as transmuted ill;
For Faith, which, panting for a happier seat,
Courts Death, kind nature's signal for retreat.
These goods for MAN the laws of Heaven ordain,
These goods he grants, who grants the power to gain;
With these CELESTIAL WISDOM calms the mind,
And makes the Happiness she cannot find!—

Indeed, we shall at all times do well to cherish

a spirit of moderation. In prosperity we should not be too elated, nor in adversity too much depressed. The great Author of the fair system of nature is infinitely powerful and good. The evils which afflict the world are remedial, and will be absorbed by the prevalence of universal felicity. Though the days of man be, according to the patriarchal complaint, few and evil, yet every scene of life has its peculiar enjoyments. And when the present evanescent existence of the virtuous comes to its end, it is succeeded by a state of perfect bliss, of which finite beings can have no conception. Vanity is inscribed on all sublunary things; but Virtue and Religion have on them the impress of ETERNITY. Addison, who in his exquisitely beautiful Vision of Mirzah, represents human life under the allegory of a Bridge of seventy arches, has this appropriate conclusion:

"Look no more on MAN (said the Genius) in the first stage of his existence, in his setting out for Eternity, but cast thine eye on that thick mist into which the tide bears the several generations of mortals that fall into it.'-I directed my sight as I was ordered, and whether or no the good Genius strengthened it with any supernatural force, or dissipated part of the mist that was before too thick for the eye to penetrate, I saw

the valley opening at the farther end, and spreading forth into an immense ocean, that had a huge rock of adamant running through the midst of it, and dividing it into two equal parts. The clouds still rested on one half of it, insomuch that I could discover nothing in it; but the other appeared to me a VAST OCEAN planted with innumerable islands, that were covered with fruits and flowers, and interwoven with a thousand little shining seas that ran among them! I could see persons, dressed in glorious habits, with garlands on their heads, passing among the trees, lying down by the sides of fountains, or resting on beds of flowers; and could hear a confused harmony of singing birds, falling waters, human voices, and musical instruments! Gladness grew in me upon the discovery of so delightful a scene. wished for the wings of an eagle that I might fly away to those happy seats, but the Genius told me there was no passage to them except through the gates of DEATH, that I saw opening every moment upon the bridge! The islands,' said he, 'that lie so fresh and green before thee, and with which the whole face of the ocean appears spotted as far as thou canst see, are more in number than the sands of the sea-shore; there are myriads of islands behind those which thou here discoverest, reaching further than even thine eye

I

or even thy imagination can extend itself. These are the mansions of good men after death, who, according to the degree and kinds of virtue in which they excelled, are distributed among these several islands, which abound with pleasures of different kinds and degrees, suitable to the relishes and perfections of those who are settled in them; every island is a paradise accommodated to its respective inhabitants! Are not these, O Mirzah, habitations worth contending for? Does LIFE appear miserable that gives the opportunity of earning such a reward? Is DEATH to be feared that will convey thee to so happy an existence? Think not MAN was made in vain who has such an ETERNITY reserved for him!'

What Addison has so elegantly expressed in prose, the young reader may be pleased to have communicated to him in the animated strains of poetry.

Gay smiles THE SPRING, gay are the spangled fields,
The flowerets bursting from their winter graves
Scatter their new-born fragrance, and perfume
The morning breezes, that delight to bend
The painted blossoms in their gentle tract.-
SO SHALL WE RISE! So shall our VIRTUES bloom
For ever, where the Spirits of the GREAT
And Good exult, in their ETERNAL HOME!
Creation's voice proclaims the sacred truth;
MAN is immortal-MAN, alone high rais'd
Above the inferior tribes of earth, declares