He was an admirable example of temperance, fortitude, humility, and devotion. His piety and a religious sense of his dependence on God, was the basis of all his virtues, and the principle of his whole conduct. He was too sensible of his weakness to ascribe any thing to himself, or to conceive that he could subdue passion, or withstand temptation by his own natural power; he attributed every good thought, and every laudable action, to the Father of all Goodness. Being asked by a friend who had often admired his patience under great provocations, whether he knew what it was to be angry, and by what means he had so entirely suppressed that impetuous and ungovernable passion? he answered with the utmost frankness and sincerity, that he was naturally quick of resentment, but he had, by daily prayer and meditation, at length obtained to this mastery over himself. DR. JOHNSON. HUMILITY. Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his Maker? Behold, he puts no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly: How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth? They are destroyed from morning to evening: they perish for ever without any regarding of it. Doth not their excellency which is in them go away? They die, without wisdom. JOB, ch. IV. v. 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, &c.. THE VILLAGE. Sweet was the sound, when oft at evening's close There, as I pass'd with careless steps and slow, And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind. THE CHRISTIAN. Is this a saint? Throw tints and all away- Will weep indeed, and heave a pitying groan His master's interest and his own combined: His life should prove that he perceives their force, COWPER. EPITAPH. Tears flow, and cease not, where the good man lies, Till all who know him follow to the skies- And justly-few shall ever him transcend POPE. Pope is an imitator professedly, and of choice; but to most of those whom he copies he is at least equal; and to many of them superior : and it is pleasing to observe how he rises in proportion to his originals. Where he follows Denham, Buckingham, Roscommon, and Rochester, in his Windsor Forest, Essay on Criticism, and Poem of Silenci, he is superior indeed, but does not soar very high above them. When he versifies Chaucer, he catches, as by instinct, the ease, simplicity, and spirit of Dryden, whom he there emulates. *His Eloisa is beyond all comparison more sublime and more interesting than any of Ovid's Heroines. His imitations of Horace equal their archetypes in elegance, and often surpasses them in energy and fire. In the lyric style, he was no match for Dryden; but when he copies the manner of Virgil, and borrows the thoughts of Isaiah, Pope is superior not only to himself, but to almost all other poets. BEATTIE. Not to admire is all the art I know To make men happy, and to keep them so, Plain truth, dear Murray, needs no flowers of speech, So take it in the very words of Creech. Self centred sun, and stars that rise and fall, All the mad trade of fools and slaves for gold?? The mob's applauses, or the gifts of kings? The Starry Heavens shew the Power of God. Who, that looks upward to the midnight sky, and with an eye of reason, beholds its rolling wonders, who can forbear inquiring, of what were those mighty orbs formed? Amazing to relate! they were produced without materials; they sprang from emptiness itself: the stately fabric of universal nature emerged out of nothing. What instruments were used by the Supreme Architect, to fashion the parts with such exquisite niceness, and give so beautiful a polish to the whole? How was all connected into one finely-proportioned and nobly-finished structure? A bare fiat accomplished all,“ Let them be," said God. He added no more; and immediately the marvellous edifice arose, adorned with every beauty, displaying innumerable perfections, and declaring, amidst enraptured seraphs, its great Creator's praise. By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.' What forceful machinery fixed some of those ponderous globes on an immoveable basis? What irresistible impulse bowled others through the circuit of the Heavens? What coercive energy confined their impetuous courses within limits, astonishingly large, yet most minutely true? Nothing but his sovereign will. For all things were at first constituted, and all to this day abide," according to his ordinance." What cannot this uncontrollable power of the great Jehovah effect for his people?-Be them ever so galling, cannot this God relieve them? Be their wants ever so numerous, not this God supply them? Be their corruptions can |