fended modefty. A young man, of the name of LUX, a commissary for Mayence, published a few days after a pamphlet, in which he propofed raising a statue to her honour, and infcribing on the pedestal, " GREATER "THAN BRUTUS." He was confined the next day in prifon, where he did nothing but talk of the example given by CHARLOTTE CORDAY, and transforming the guillotine into an altar, he was only folicitous to receive death from the fame inftrument by which fhe had perifhed. As he was leading to execution, he is faid to have exclaimed,

Look abroad through nature, to the utmost range

of planets, funs, and adamantine spheres,
wheeling unfhaken through the void immense;
and fpeak, O man! does this capacious scene
with half that kindling majefty dilate
thy ftrong conception, as when BRUTUS rofe
refulgent from the ftroke of CÆSAR's fate,
amid the crowd of patriots; and his arm
aloft extending, like eternal JovE

when guilt brings down the thunder, call'd aloud

on Tully's name, and thook his crimson fteel,

and bade the father of his country hail!

For lo!-the tyrant proftrate on the duft,
and ROME again is free!

PERSONS of a mild character are not qualified for difcharging aright many duties, to which their fituation may call them. When all is calm and smooth around them; when nothing occurs to agitate the mind, or to disturb the tenor of placid life, they behave with abundance of propriety. They are beloved, and they are ufeful. They promote the comfort of human society; and, by gentleness, and courtesy of manners, serve to

8

cement

cement men together in agreeable union. But to fail on the tranquil furface of an unruffled lake, and to fleer a fafe course through a troubled and stormy ocean, require different talents: and, alas! human life oftener resembles the stormy ocean, than the unruffled lake. We fhall not have long embarked, without finding the resemblance to hold too closely. The present state of man is a mixed ftate, of comfort and forrow, of prosperity and adverfity; neither brightened by uninterrupted funshine, nor overcaft with perpetual fhade; but fubject to alternate fucceffions of the one, and the other. Amidst the bustle of the world, amidst the open contentions, and fecret enmities, which prevail in every fociety, mildness and gentleness alone are not fufficient to carry us, with honour, through the duties of our different ftations. Trials arife, which demand vigorous exertions of all the moral powers; of patience, vigilance, and felf-denial; of conftancy and fortitude, to fupport us under danger and reproach; of temperance, to restrain us from being carried away by pleafure; of firm and determined principles, to fupport us under the different and trying circumstances of life. Unless we be thus armed and fortified, whatever good intentions have been in our heart, they are likely to

be

be fruftrated in action. Good nature, for inftance, is in danger of running into that unlimited complaifance, which affimilates men to the loofe manners of those whom they find around them. Pliant, and yielding in temper, they have not force to ftand by the decifions of their own minds, with regard to right and wrong. Through innocent, but unguarded weakness, and from want of the feverer virtues, they are, in process of time, betrayed into downright crimes. They were equipped for the season of funfhine and ferenity; but when the sky is overcaft, and the days of darknefs come, their feeble minds are deftitute of shelter, and ill provided for defence. Then is the time, when more hardy qualities are required; when courage must face danger, conftancy support pain, patience poffefs itfelf in the midft of difcouragements, and magnanimity difplay its contempt of threatenings. If those high virtues be altogether strangers to the mind, the mild and gentle will certainly fink under the torrent of difafters.

Such are the feelings incident to persons of mixed and imperfect goodness: fuch are the defects of a character formed merely of the amiable, without the eflimable qualities of man.

It

It becomes us therefore to guard against either too great leverity, or too great facility of manners. These are extremes, of which we every day behold inftances in the world.

He who leans on the fide of severity, is harfh in his cenfures and narrow in his opinions. He cannot condescend to others in things indifferent. He makes no allowance for human frailty; nor believes, that

With him, all gaiety is finful levity; and every amufe

ment is a crime.

To this extreme the admonition of

SOLOMON feems to belong,

BE NOT RIGHTEOUS OVERMUCH.

Nothing, it must be confeffed, in moral conduct, is more difficult, than to avoid turning either to the right hand or the left.

One of the greatest trials both of wisdom and virtue is, to preserve a JUST MEDIUM, between that harshness of aufterity, which disgusts and alienates mankind, and that weakness of good-nature, which opens the door to fin.

One

One who is of the former character, ftudies too little to be agreeable, in order to render himself useful. He who is of the latter, by ftudying too much to be agreeable, forfeits his innocence. If the one hurts religion, by clothing it in the garb of unneceffary ftrictness; the other, by unwarrantable compliance, ftrengthens the power of corruption in the world. TRUE RELIGION enjoins us to stand at an equal distance from both; and to pursue the difficult, but honourable, aim, of uniting GOOD-NATURE with FIXED PRINCIPLES; and AFFABLE MANNERS with UNTAINTED

VIRTUE.

VOL. IV.

5 D

SECT.