LETTERS ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE MIND, LETTER I. ON THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF RELIGION. MY DEAREST NIECE, THOUGH you are so happy as to have parents, who are both capable and desirous of giving you all proper instruction, yet I, who love you so tenderly, cannot help fondly wishing to contribute something, if possible, to your improvement and welfare: and, as I am so far separated from you, that it is only by pen and ink I can offer you my sentiments, I will hope that your attention may be engaged, by seeing on paper, from the hand of one of your warmest friends, Truths of the highest importance, which, though you may not find new, can never be too deeply engraven on your mind. Some of them, perhaps, may make no great impression at present, and yet may so far gain a place in your memory, as readily to return to your thoughts when occasion recalls them. And, if you pay me the compliment of preserving my letters, you may possibly reperuse them at some future period, when concurring circumstances may give them additional weight;-and thus they may prove more effectual than the same things spoken in conversation. But, however this may prove, I cannot resist the desire of trying to be in some degree useful to you, on your setting out in a life of trial and difficulty; your success in which must determine your fate for ever. Hitherto you have "thought as a child, "and understood as a child ;" but it is time "to put away childish things."-You are now in your fifteenth year, and must soon act for yourself; therefore it is high time to store your mind with those principles, which must direct your conduct and fix your character. If you desire to live in peace and honour, in favour with God and man, and to die in the glo rious hope of rising from the grave to a life of endless happiness-if these things appear worthy your ambition, you must set out in earnest in the pursuit of them. Virtue and happiness are not attained by chance, nor by a cold and languid approbation; they must be sought with ardour, attended to with diligence, and every assistance must be eagerly embraced that may enable you to obtain them. Consider, that good and evil are now before you; that, if you do not heartily choose and love the one, you must undoubtedly be the wretched victim of the other. Your trial is now begun; you must either become one of the glorious children of God, who are to rejoice in his love for ever, or a child of destruction-miserable in this life, and punished with eternal death hereafter. Surely, you will be impressed by so awful a situation! you will earnestly pray to be directed into that road of life, which leads to excellence and happiness; and, you will be thankful to every kind hand that is held out, to set you forward in your journey. The first step must be to awaken your mind to a sense of the importance of the task before you; which is no less than to bring your frail nature to that degree of Christian perfection, which is to qualify it for immortality, and, without which, it is necessarily incapable of happiness; for, it is a truth never to be forgotten, that God has annexed happiness to virtue, and misery to vice, by the unchangeable nature of things; and that a wicked being (while he continues such) is in a natural incapacity of enjoying happiness, even with the concurrence of all those outward circumstances, which in a virtuous mind would produce it. As there are degrees of virtue and vice, so are there of reward and punishment, both here and hereafter but, let not my dearest Niece aim only at escaping the dreadful doom of the wicked-let your desires take a nobler flight, and aspire after those transcendant honours, and that brighter crown of glory, which await those who have excelled in virtue; and, let the animating thought, that every secret effort to gain his favour is noted by your allseeing judge, who will, with infinite goodness, proportion your reward to your labours, excite every faculty of your soul to please and serve him. To this end, you must inform your understanding what you ought to believe, and to do.-You must correct and purify your heart; cherish and improve all its good affections; and continually mortify and subdue those that are evil.-You must form and govern your temper and manners, according to the laws of benevolence and justice; and qualify yourself, by all means in your power, for an useful and agreeable member of society. All this you see is no light business, nor can it be performed without a sincere and earnest application of the mind, as to its great and constant object. When once you consider life, and the duties of life, in this manner, you will listen eagerly to the voice of instruction and admonition, and seize every opportunity of improvement; every useful hint will be laid up in your heart, and your chief delight will be in those persons, and those books, from which you can learn true wisdom. The only sure foundation of human virtue |