PROVIDENCE.

Divine

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.

Providence.-WILLIAM COWPER.

PROVIDENCE in Nature.

When I look on a leaden bullet, therein I can read both God's mercy and man's malice. God's mercy, whose providence foreseeing that men of lead would make instruments of cruelty, did give that metal a medicinal virtue; as it hurts so also it heals; and a bullet sent in by man's hatred into a fleshy and no vital part, will (with ordinary care and curing), out of a natural charity, work its own way out.

Mixt Contemplations, I.-THOMAS FULLER.

PROVIDENCE Overrules all.

There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all: Since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is't to leave betimes?

Hamlet, Act v. Scene II.-SHAKSPERE.

PROVIDENCE in Works of Nature.

Divine providence is remarkable in ordering that a

fog and a tempest never did nor can meet together in

nature. For as soon as a fog is fixed the tempest is allayed; and as soon as a tempest doth arise the fog is dispersed. This is a great mercy; for otherwise such small vessels as boats and barges, which want the conduct of the card and compass, would irrecoverably be lost. Mixt Contemplations on these Times, v. THOMAS FUller.

PRUDENCE and LOVE.

Prudence and love are inconsistent; in proportion

as the last increases, the other decreases.

Maxims, CCCLIX.-ROCHEFOUCAULT.

Rage.

Rage is essentially vulgar, and never vulgarer than when it proceeds from mortified pride, disappointed ambition, or thwarted wilfulness. A baffled despot is the vulgarest of dirty wretches, no matter whether he be the despot of a nation vindicating its rights, or of a donkey sinking under its load.

RAINBOW.

Biographia Borealis.-HARTLEY COLERIDGE.

The

From Pearls her lofty bridge she weaves,
A gray sea arching proudly over;
A moment's toil the work achieves,

And on the height behold her hover!
Beneath that arch securely go

The tallest barks that ride the seas,

No burthen e'er the bridge may know,

And as thou seek'st too near-it flies!
First with the floods it came, to fade
As roll'd the waters from the land;
Say where that wondrous arch is made,
And whose the Artist's mighty hand?
Parables and Riddles.-SCHILLER.

READING.

For general improvement, a man should read whatever his immediate inclination prompts him to; though, to be sure, if a man has a science to learn, he must regularly and resolutely advance. What we read with inclination makes a stronger impression. If we read without inclination, half the mind is employed in fixing the attention, so there is but half to be employed on what we read. I read Fielding's Amelia through without stopping. If a man begins to read in the middle of a book, and feels an inclination to go on, let him not quit it to go to the beginning. He may perhaps not feel

again the inclination.

READING,

On

The Rambler.-DR. JOHNSON.

Let us read with method, and propose to ourselves an end to which all our studies may point. Through neglect of this rule, gross ignorance often disgraces great readers; who, by skipping hastily and irregularly from one subject to another, render themselves incapable of combining their ideas. So many detached parcels of knowledge cannot form a whole.

Abstract of my Readings.--EDWARD GIBBON.

READING.

Influence of Retirement and

The man whose bosom neither riches, nor luxury, nor grandeur, can render happy, may, with a book in his hand, forget all his torments under the friendly shade of every tree; and experience pleasures as infinite as they are varied, as pure as they are lasting, as lively as they are unfading, and as compatible with every public duty as they are contributory to private happiness.

Solitude, Cap. II.-J. G. ZIMMERMAN.

REFRAINING. The Power of

Refrain to-night:

And that shall lend a kind of easiness

To the next abstinence: the next more easy;
For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
And master the devil, or throw him out
With wondrous potency.

Hamlet, Act III. Scene IV.-SHAKSPERE.

RELIGION. Definitions of

Religion, O thou life of life,

How worldlings, that profane thee rife,
Can wrest thee to their appetites!
How princes, who thy power deny,
Pretend thee for their tyranny,

And people for their false delights.

All is not Gold that Glitters.-JOSHUA SYLVESTER.

Religion being the chief band of human society, it is a happy thing when itself is well contained within the

true band of unity. The quarrels and divisions about religion were evils unknown to the heathen.

Essay on "Unity in Religion."-LORD BACON.

RELIGION. Ministration of

The Author of our religion everywhere professes himself the wretch's friend; and, unlike the false ones of this world, bestows all his caresses upon the forlorn. *Thus, my friends, you see religion does what philosophy could never do it shews the equal dealings of Heaven to the happy and the unhappy, and levels all human enjoyments to nearly the same standard. It gives to both rich and poor the same happiness hereafter, and equal hopes to aspire after it.

The Vicar of Wakefield, Chapter XXIX.- -GOLDSMITH.

RELIGION. Importance of

Religion, on account of its intimate relation to a future state, is every man's proper business, and should be his chief care. Of knowledge in general, there are branches which it would be preposterous in the bulk of mankind to attempt to acquire, because they have no immediate connection with their duties, and demand talents which nature has denied, or opportunities which Providence has withheld. But with respect to the primary truths of religion the case is different; they are of such daily use and necessity, that they form not the materials of mental luxury, so properly, as the food of the mind. Sermon on The Advantages of Knowledge to the Lower Classes. Rev. ROBERT HALL.