land of Uz,-"Canst thou, by searching, find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection ?" and utterly silences all disposition to future cavilling, by that cutting rebuke to human pride.

"He who, through vast immensity can pierce;
See worlds on worlds compose one universe;
Observe how system into system runs,

What other planets circle other suns,
What varied Being peoples every star,-

May tell, why Heaven has made us as we are."

"Presumptuous man! the reason wouldst thou find,
Why formed so weak, so little, and so blind?
First, if thou canst, the harder reason guess,
Why formed no weaker, blinder, and no less?"

But as such knowledge is still too high for us, as it was in the days of Job-still beyond the possibility of our attainment, in this, our mortal state of existence, it certainly would be more becoming in us, rather, than display our ignorance, as well as presumption, by manifesting any disposition to cavilling, to take the short but comprehensive advice of the bard of Twickenham, whom I have just quoted:—

"Hope humbly then, on trembling pinions soar,

Wait the great teacher DEATH, and GoD adore ."

Which advice, it will be observed, is most powerfully backed by the language of the sweetly singing muse of the poet of the Seasons, in drawing towards the end of his task on WINTER:

"Ye vainly wise! ye blind presumptuous! now,
Confounded in the dust, adore that PowER,

And WISDOM, oft arraign'd! See now the cause,
Why unassuming worth in secret lived,

And died, neglected ;-Why the good man's share

In life was gall, and bitterness of soul ;-
Why the lone widow, and her orphans, pin'd

In starving solitude; while luxury,

In palaces, lay straining her low thought,

To form unreal wants;-Why heaven-born truth,

And moderation fair, wore the red marks

Of Superstition's scourge ;-Why licens'd pain,
That cruel spoiler, that embosom'd foe,
Imbitter'd all our bliss.

Ye good distrest!

Ye noble few! who here, unbending, stand
Beneath life's pressure, yet bear up a while;
And what your bounded view, which only saw
A little part, deemed evil, is no more!"

And we have the more reason to proceed in our duty, when

animated and inspired, to bear up under the pressure of the

accumulated ills of life, by considerations such as these, from the comfortable truths advanced, and held forth, by another of the sons of song of the last century, the well known author of "Night Thoughts:"

"Life's cares are comforts; such, by Heav'n design'd;

He that has none, must make them, or be wretched.
Cares are employments; and, without employ,
The soul is on the rack; the rack of rest,

To souls most adverse; action, all their joy!"

And again,

"The man who consecrates his hours, By vig'rous effort, and an honest aim,

At once he draws the sting of life and death;

He walks with nature;-and her paths are peace."

Such were the doctrines taught, by these, and others of the favourite poets of my juvenile days, among whom I may reckon GRAY, who wrote his beautiful Elegy in a Country Church-yard, in the middle of the last,-MILTON, whose sublime effusions shed a lustre over part of the preceding, and CowPER, who finished his earthly TASK, in the first year of the present, century: And, there can be no doubt, that their writings were not without their influence, in the formation of my early opinions, as well as of those of some of my contemporaries.

It remains to be seen, in the course of time, whether the doctrines taught and inculcated by the Byrons and the Scotts, of more modern date, will ensure, for themselves, an equally lasting reputation, as the afore-mentioned worthies have done; or afford to their admirers, so much solid mental food and nourishment, as may be, and have been, derived from the labours of their predecessors in this species of literature; adopting it as the test, to try the one, the definition of CICERO, who held "True honour to be, the concurrent approbation of good men," for this forcible reason, "Such, only, being fit to give true praise, who are, themselves, praiseworthy ;"-and the criterion, to judge of the others by, THE FRUITS Such doctrines are found calculated, in their tendencies, to produce ;—which rule of judging, will be found, to be exactly conformable, to the standard laid down in the NEW TESTAMENT.

CHAPTER II.

Good reasons why, man should not think of deserting his post in the hour of trial. Two descriptions of persons particularly excluded, by Rousseau, from the commission of suicide.-Christianity embraces a more comprehensive and perfect system of ethics.-No individual, by her standard, allowed to commit such a cowardly crime.—Other methods of suicide, besides the more sudden and violent ones-Who may be classed, among the betrayers of their trust, and true cowards of society.-Human life a state of trial and probation. A kind of isthmus, or middle state of preparation for another world-May be considered as a passage to another country; or, as I have expressed it on my title,-a Journey.-Different estimation, in which the man is held who boldly sets his front to the battle, to him, who basely deserts his post in the moment of danger.—Sublime spectacle, according to Seneca, Angels' estimate of human worth, according to Addison - Fortitude in adversity, one of the heroical virtues in morals, according to Lord Bacon. My conflicts, however severe and procrastinated, bear no resemblance whatever, to those of "the man of the hundred battles.”— One comfort to those who move in the humbler spheres of life ;- Another, they have not a hard task-master to deal with. An important question, how it only can be answered.-Other questions arising out of the former, which the Sexagenarian may be allowed to put, and which admit of more easy solution.

BUT, if it is not to be surmised, that man, in consequence of any obstacles he may meet with, or difficulties he may find in his way, and which, a little time, and patient perseverance, might enable him to remove or overcome, is to lie down, or stand still, a jaring string in the creation of God,—while so much harmony, in the midst of such ceaseless activity, prevails, and is produced, around him; so, far less, is it to be imagined, that a Being, possessed with so many noble, and ennobling powers and energies, as he is, should deem himself at liberty to desert his post in the hour of trial, or fly like a coward from that contest, in which, a little firmness of mind, and a proper exercise of the faculties, which nature, who (to use a homely phrase) usually "makes the back meet for the burden," has furnished him with, might enable him to come off victorious.

There are two descriptions of persons particularly excluded, according to the reasoning of Jean Jacques Rousseau, from

1

the commission of suicide, viz., the FATHER OF A FAMILY, the well-being of which might be a good deal involved, or wrapt up, in the prolongation of his life,—and the DEBTOR, the inte rests of whose creditors might suffer by his demise; but, if this amiable enthusiast in some respects, had allowed himself to be influenced in others, by the more comprehensive and expansive system of Christian ethics, instead of the principles he had embraced, and acted on, as a deistical philosopher, he would soon have discovered, that the same kind of reasoning might, with equal propriety, have been applied to every individual of the human race. There was much meaning, indeed, in the benevolent commandment, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself;" and should there be, or have been, any mistake on that head, it must be completely obviated by the answer given to the question," And who is my neighbour ?" by the great founder of Christianity himself;for no man, possessed of the smallest powers of discrimination and judgment, can mistake the meaning of the parable of the good Samaritan, however it may operate against antiquated prejudices, or previously conceived barbarous opinions.

Yes, there can be no doubt, that, according to the doctrine of the truly philanthropic religion of the New Testament, all mankind must be considered in the light of brethren-not only children of the same common parent, but all interested in each other's comfort and welfare, by the same mutual and reciprocal ties. The Christian debtor, and father of a family, has therefore a double claim upon HIм to continue at the post allotted to him by providence, until he is relieved in the natural way, and so, at the appointed time; because, besides the considerations above alluded to-and these are far from being unimportant-he has other ties of consanguinity, and other feelings to attend to and consult, before he betakes himself to the dreadful alternative, and is undone. And this expression, I do not wish to be understood, as meant to be confined entirely to those, who, placed in such responsible and interesting circumstances, have recourse to the more sudden and violent means of getting rid of their present mode of existence. They are all suicides, in principle, although differing in the manner of carrying their intentions into exe

cution, who, under the pressure of any calamity whatever, fly to the cup of intoxication, to drown their sorrows, as they say; but which, a little reflection, during their lucid intervals from this dreadful infatuation, must convince them, is only to sink themselves, alas! the deeper in that misery, which it would be their wisdom rather to strive to remove. These are the true cowards of society—the pusillanimous deserters of the sacred trust committed to their charge-the betrayers of the rights, and claims upon them, it may be, of their own poor helpless family; and, at all events, the fell destroyers of their own health, reputation, and future means of subsistence; to say nothing of, as a farther aggravation of the mischiefs they occasion, the fearful wounds they make in the feelings of those, who feel more for them, than, to all appearance, they feel for themselves! And what do they gain by this, in the estimation of the public? To be branded as being addicted to a beastly vice, and occasionally pointed out by the finger of scorn as being "as drunk as David's Sow ;"but neither the one expression, or the other, is sufficiently strong, or properly applied, to mark the dreadful enormity of this most disgusting, and degrading-may I not rather call it -unnatural crime, sinking, as it does, the noble creature man, beneath his inferiors in the scale of creation; for intoxieation is not the vice of the lower animals; and David's Sow, notwithstanding all its filthy and grovelling propensities, was never seen reeling home drunk in its life!

In regard to Christianity, it totally disclaims them; for, a Christian drunkard is an anomaly that cannot possibly exist in the creation. The moment a man of that denomination betakes himself to a course of intemperance, he renounces his profession, and ceases to be a Christian; the laws of which, while they forbid not the temperate and moderate use of the good things of this life, being quite peremptory, and perfectly explicit on this head,

It is, indeed, impossible to conceive aright of human life, and "to vindicate," in the language of an author I have already, more than once, quoted, "the ways of God to man," in plain and intelligible terms, otherwise, than by considering it in the light of a state of trial and probation-as a kind of