events, singular blessings sent to our hope that they will recur to us at a friends, or new and powerful aids to more distant period, that we shall our own virtue, which call for pe-watch against them to-morrow, or that culiar thankfulness. And shall al! we shall gain the strength to resist these benefits pass away unnoticed? them which we will not implore? Shall we retire to repose as insensi- The evening is a fit time for prayer, ble as the wearied brute? How fit not only as it ends the day, but as and natural is it, to close with pious it immediately precedes the period acknowledgment, the day which has of repose. The hour of activity been filled with divine beneficence! having passed, we are soon to sink But the evening is the time to re-into insensibility and sleep. How view not only our blessings, but our fit that we resign ourselves to the actions, A reflecting mind will na- care of that Being who never sleeps, turally remember at this hour that to whom the darkness is as the light, another day is gone, and gone to tes- and whose providence is our only tify of us to our judge. How natu- safety! How fit to entreat him that ral and useful to inquire, what report he would keep us to another day; it has carried to heaven! Perhaps we or, if our bed should prove our grave, have the satisfaction of looking back that he would give us a part in the on a day, which in its general tenor resurrection of the just, and awake has been innocent and pure, which, us to a purer and immortal life! Let having begun with God's praise, has our prayers, like the ancient sacribeen spent as in his presence; which fices, ascend morning and evening. has proved the reality of our princi- Let our days begin and end with ples in temptation: and shall such a God. day end without gratefully acknowledging Him in whose strength we have been strong, and to whom we owe the powers and opportunities of christian improvement?

Channing.

171. On the Government of the Thoughts.

But no day will present to us re- It is necessary that our thoughts collections of purity unmixed with should be under regular discipline, sin. Conscience, if suffered to in- in order to the full and successful spect faithfully and speak plainly, exertion of our mental powers. What will recount irregular desires, and is called a vigorous and active mind defective motives, talents wasted and seems, after all, to mean only a mind, time mispent; and shall we let the of which the thoughts are all subjectday pass from us without penitently ed to the authority of its governing confessing our offences to Him who powers, and may therefore all be has witnessed them, and who has brought to bear, with their whole promised pardon to true repentance? force, on the business in which it is Shall we retire to rest with a burden occupied. Attention seems only of unlamented and unforgiven guilt another name for that state of mind, upon our consciences? Shall we when all its thoughts are fixed and leave these stains to spread over and collected, and bent to a single point; sink into the soul? and it is a power of attention, much

A religious recollection of our lives more than any original and native is one of the chief instruments of diversity of talents, which constitutes piety. If possible, no day should the intellectual difference among end without it. If we take no ac- men. Newton was accustomed to count of our sins on the day on declare, that if he differed from his which they are committed, can we fellow men, he owed it to his power

an

of patient meditation; in other words ry, in the second place, for our hapto his power of fixing his thoughts piness in actual life, and to fit us for intently and long on any subject with its common scenes and duties. A which he was occupied. We must great deal of misery is produced, have all observed the truth of these particularly among those, who have remarks in the course of our various no absorbing occupation, and those pursuits. If we examine our minds in whom the illusions of youth have at those periods when they are most not been corrected by the experience vigorously and successfully exerted, of actual life, by indulging the imawe shall observe that all other objects gination in forming schemes and are excluded from our minds, and that hopes of visionary felicity; or as it our thoughts are concentrated and en- is sometimes called, "building casgrossed by the task in which we are tles in the air." It is indeed very employed. If on the contrary we delightful to give the reins to the observe ourselves when our minds thoughts, to send fancy on the wing are indisposed, reluctant and ineffi- from this world of imperfection and cient, we shall find that our domi- pain, and sorrow and sin, to scenes nion over our thoughts is lost, that where every thing is perfect, happy, attention is dissipated and distracted and fair; where nature wears by a multitude of unrelated images, eternal bloom, where the skies are which float through the fancy, and always blue, and the winds always that all our powers are weakened, balmy; where children are always because discordant and divided. The virtuous, friends never faithless, and effect of suffering our thoughts to fortune is never fickle; where the eye wander without guidance and with- knows no tear, and the heart no pang. out object is too obvious to have es- But this is not life as we must excaped the most careless observer. pect to find it. This is not the It breaks up all our habits of regular world in which we are to live, and inquiry, indisposes us for any thing in which we are to act. It is not inwhich requires seriousness and pa- tended that this state of trial should tience, and especially unfits us for ever realize such dreams of fancy. meditation on divine things, which And the effects of indulging this from their nature the mind is with so luxury of vain imagination are neimuch difficulty brought steadily to ther salutary nor innocent. If we contemplate. If then we desire to could descend, indeed, from these effect any thing valuable in this short airy fabrics of unreal felicity, and life; if we seek to use our talents return as before to the common duaccording to the purposes of the ties of life, the harshest epithet which Giver; if we would improve our own we could apply to this employment minds for the service of God, and would be, that it was useless. the scenes of eternity; and contri- both our happiness and our fitness bute what we can, to the happiness for our duties are lessened by it. and improvement of our fellow men, When we awake from these deluwe must learn to control our thoughts, sions, we feel the full force of the restrain our vain and wandering ima- contrast between what we see and ginations, and seek to make the pro- what we have imagined. The scenes per business of life in our various and duties of common life appear callings, and the duties of devotion tame and insipid, after gazing on the at their appointed seasons, fill and beautiful creations of fancy. The occupy our minds. effects on the mind are precisely That our thoughts should be similar to those produced by works brought under discipline, is necessa-l of fiction, except that in this case

But

we read merely the fiction of ano- unprofitably, without giving any of ther, and in that, we make the ro- the little, which remains, to the delumance for ourselves; and are there- sions of visionary happiness. fore more in danger of mistaking it But the necessity of regulating for reality. The realities of life our thoughts will appear more serimust always fall far short of the pic-ous, when we consider their influtures of fancy. When we descend ence on our moral character. All acfrom the lofty regions where in tion has its origin in the mind. The imagination we have been dwell-thought is the rudiment of the deed. ing, and are called on to perform Meditation produces desire, and dethe common-place duties of good sire leads to practice. If then we husbands and wives, and fathers, and would have our actions right, we children, and citizens, which of must make our thoughts pure, and course can very seldom call us to learn to forbear to think on what we feel much either of rapture or of an- are forbidden to do.

guish, we miss the strong stimulus The manner in which evil thoughts to which our passions have been ac- are connected with bad actions is obcustomed. We find that we have vious. There is no one, who is yet been nourishing a sickly and fasti- innocent, who is not shocked by the dious delicacy, which revolts at the idea of crimes, when they appear in plain and homely, and sometimes all their magnitude and deformity. coarse and disgusting employments, No one ever leaped over the limits to which we are destined. A spirit of virtue, into the confines of conof discontent and unhappiness is apt firmed vice, at a single bound. On to spring up. We lose our cheerful the contrary, the exclamation, " Is acquiescence in the purposes of Pro- thy servant dog that he should do vidence, and our ready submission this thing," is the natural impulse of to that wisdom which always decides every man's mind, whose conscience best for us. is yet unseared, at the very sugges

I do not say that this is always the tion of atrocious guilt. But by reeffect of any degree of indulgence volving with pleasure the safety, faciof these vain thoughts, but it is the lity, or advantages, of a wicked deed, tendency of it, and therefore it is he finds his constancy waver, his that we must seek to banish them. resolution relax, his detestation sofWe must refuse ourselves the luxury ten. The idea of some fraudulent of solitary musing, and building cas- stratagem or scene of guilty pleasure, tles in the air, and let hope and fan- which at first perhaps was admitted cy and memory be regulated by rea- into the mind from curiosity merely, son and religion. Our expectations is next regarded with complacency; from life must become accommo- comes at length to be cherished with dated to its true state. We must be fondness; at last assumes the form contented with the mixture of good of desire; and how nearly allied is and evil as it has been mingled for desire to transgression, there are too us, and not expect that we are born, many of us, alas, who know! What with a peculiar destiny, to a happi- we allow ourselves to wish, we are ness and perfection which is denied soon induced to attempt to gain. to others. If indeed it were nothing He who suffers his thoughts and more than an unprofitable waste of wishes to dwell too long on the pleatime, that alone would be reason sures and advantages which he enough to confine this dissipation of should derive from what another posthought, and restrain its irregulari-sesses, will begin to reconcile his ties. Enough surely of life is spent mind to some unlawful measure for

procuring it. He, who suffers his stances of its practical influence. imagination to be filled with images And here we would observe, that alof guilty and degrading pleasure, though knowledge is not virtue, yet will at length find his desire irresisti- to enlighten the conscience is in itbly stimulated to gratification. Every self an important means of improving moment spent in meditation on sin the heart. Wrong actions, even increases its dangerous power over with a good intention, have an effect us, till at length the idea of pleasure beyond the immediate evil they proovercomes the sense of guilt; the duce, dangerous to the virtue not last limit of innocence is, though only of the agent, but of others. He, perhaps timidly and reluctantly, past who thinks persecution or cruelty, -we enter into the confines of sin his duty, cannot practise them, with-it may be never to return. out having his bad passions called We are thus irresistibly led to the forth, and his heart hardened. Eveconclusion, that he who would govern ry error in conduct, as well as spehis actions by the laws of virtue, must culation, carries him further from regulate his thoughts by those of virtue and truth, and he is less likereason and religion. It is not pos-ly at each step, to act rightly or sible that a man should walk out- think correctly. Degrading prejuwardly in the law of God, who is dices or narrow views are sometimes constantly feeding his imagination so mingled with the best dispositions, with the pleasures of sin. The pas- that the natural tendencies of virtue sions will at last act. It is difficult are checked, its beauty tarnished, to stop when we have inflamed our- and influence perverted; while as selves with every possible incentive the views are corrected and enlarged, to advance; to abstain when appe- its efforts are facilitated, its charms tite is sharpened to its keenest edge. acknowledged, and its example comOf what therefore we are forbidden manding.

to do, we must learn to forbid our- But is there not in these studies a selves to think; and make the pro- direct tendency not merely to enpriety of action a test of the propri- lighten the conscience, but to form ety of thought. If it is wrong to and cherish that moral sensibility, gratify revenge, it is wrong to dwell which is at once the prompt inspirer on it in imagination. If we must and jealous guardian of virtue? The resist the allurements of pleasure, first influence of this kind, we shall we must refuse to contemplate them. notice, is upon those engaged in such We must not seek to indemnify our- inquiries. Truths which are freselves for the restraints which we quently presented to the mind, can impose on our actions, by the sinful hardly fail, imperceptibly perhaps, indulgences of imagination. There to produce some effect upon it. But must be no discordance between the when these truths are the subjects of inward and outward man; thought, personal speculation, when their chaword, and deed, must be constantly racter, relations and practical conand inseparably united. sequences are the constant topics of Thacher. study and interest, this effect must be greatly increased.

172. Practical influence of the study of Moral Science.

A disposition to consider our own pursuits and discoveries as all important to society, and sometimes to Having spoken of the necessity make the most incongruous applicaand objects of moral philosophy, tion of them, has often given just ocwe proceed to notice some circum-casion to the wit of the satirist. The

poem is well enough, said the mathe-scriptions of natural scenery owe matican; but I do not see, that it much of their beauty and interest to proves any thing. The chemist and the moral associations they awaken. physical philosopher are deeply in- In like manner fine turns of expresterested in the application of their sions or thought often operate more principles to the arts; and will not by suggestion than enumeration. the same law of our nature operate But when feelings and passions are in moral speculations? Can he rest directly described, or embodied in at ease, whose conduct is constantly the hero and called forth by the inat variance with the principles he is cidents of a story, it is then, that the labouring to establish, and the rules magic of fiction and poetry is comhe is forming for others? Will he plete, that they enter in and dwell in not rather, if he cannot suit his life the secret chambers of the very soul, to his theory, accommodate his the- moulding it at will. In these moory to his life? Thus Rousseau sub-ments of deep excitement, must not stituted sentiment for virtue; and the a bias be given to the character, and profligacy of his manners was at much be done to elevate and refine, once the cause and the effect of the or degrade and pollute, those sympaprofligacy of his writings. I am un-thies and sentiments, which are the willing to think that one can have sources of much of our virtue and the beauty of moral order, and the happiness, or our guilt and misery? indications of moral design, con- The danger is that, in such cases, stantly in view, without having his we do not discriminate the distinct feelings touched and his heart made action of associated causes. Even better. Can you breathe the pure in what is presented to the senses, mountain air, and not be refreshed? we are aware of the power of haCan you walk forth amidst the beau-bitual combination. An object natiful and grand of the works of God, turally disagreeable becomes beautiand feel no kindling of devotion? ful, because we have often seen the If the effect, we have described, sun shine or the dew sparkle upon be natural, it cannot be confined to it, or it has been grouped in a scene the philosopher alone; it will extend of peculiar interest. Thus the powitself in his instructions and writings. ers of fancy and of taste blend assoThe same views will be gradually ap- ciations in the mind, which disguise plied in the formation of the dispo- the original nature of moral qualisitions and habits of children; they ties. A liberal generosity, a disinwill become an important branch of terested self-devotion, a powerful enliberal knowledge; and thus exert a ergy or deep sensibility of soul, a control over the higher classes of so- contempt of danger and death are ciety, over men of letters and the po- often so connected in story with the pular authors of the day. most profligate principles and manThis suggests to us another means ners, that the latter are excused and of practical influence. Those com- even sanctified by the former. The positions in poetry and prose, which impression, which so powerfully constitute the literature of a nation, seizes all the sympathies, is one; and the essay, the drama, the novel, it the ardent youth becomes almost amcannot be doubted, have a most ex-bitious of a character, he ought to tensive and powerful operation upon abhor. So too sentiments, from the moral feelings and character of which in their plain form delicacy the age. The very business of the would revolt, are insinuated with the authors of such works is directly or charms of poetical imagery and exindirectly with the heart. Even de- pression; and even the coarseness