We should enter upon the new century with the pleasing idea that the progressive series of events tends to human improvement.

The light which broke out at the era of the reformation, continues to send forth its rays, and will illuminate the most distant regions of the globe! The human faculties which had slumbered for ages, were then roused into action, and the discovery of the art of printing facilitated the spread of truth in districts whither its beams had not before penetrated. Since that illustrious period, science has lifted up her head -commerce has spread abroad her sails-and religion has unfolded prospects of futurity highly favourable to human felicity. Our ideas seem now to flow in channels which cannot easily be interrupted. More just views of the Supreme Being are entertained, and clearer notions indulged respecting the rights and privileges of humanity. Man will henceforward become more sensible of his advantages, and will, it is to be hoped, convey them entire and unmutilated to their posterity. The benevolent of every class rejoice in the prospect. Feeling for his species, the good man will exult in the recollection, that the night of ignorance and misery is passing away, and that it will be assuredly lost in the full blaze of perfect day.

Finally, let us, upon the commencement of the new century, realize the perfections and government of the Supreme Being, under whose superintendance every thing will be conducted to a happy conclusion.

A fatherless world! an orphan universe! are ideas agonizing to every well constituted mind. The present system bears unequivocal marks of the wisdom and goodness by which it was originally constituted. The parts themselves, and the relation they bear to each other, point out the ends for which they are intended. The sun, moon, and stars, perform with regularity their destined revolutions. The earth vegetates at the assigned period of fertility, and pours forth its stores for the sustenance and comfort of the human race.

The intellectual and moral powers of

man lead him to the perception, and by the force of motives properly weighed, impel him to the practice of right conduct. The REVELATION with which we are favoured, is in every respect honourable to the divine government. The reasonableness of its doctrines, the purity of its precepts, and the sublimity of its prospects, recommend it to our serious attention. Even the futility of the objections made to its origin, shews in a more striking point of view its divinityfor the envenomed shafts of infidelity, recently aimed at the heavenly shield, have been seen to fall pointless to the ground. In such circumstances, and with such viewsMAN is empowered to look abroad at the commencement of a century, and to realise the perfections and government of the Supreme Being, with whom there is no variableness nor the shadow of turning! in neglecting this privilege, he omits to discharge an important duty. He sinks himself upon a level with the brutes, and relinquishes means calculated to promote and secure his perfection.

From the honourable ideas which we have been taught to form of Deity, we cannot for a moment suspect the equity with which he presides over every part of his wide extended empire! The architect prides himself on the proportion and regularity with which his buildings have been raised. The artist contemplates the niceness and accuracy after which his pieces of mechanism have been constructed. The statesman congratulates himself on the sagacity with which his plans have been devised and accomplished. In a similar manner the Deity has regulated every procedure of his government with the profoundest wisdom, in conjunction with a benevolence which exceeds our loftiest conceptions. Immediately after the creation, God surveyed the works of his hands, and pronounced them to be-good! And, humanly speaking, he must at all times look down with an eye of distinguished complacency on the subserviency of his government to general felicity.

4

Man, however, furnished with scanty powers of perception, is cooped up on every side, and vainly strives to disclose the secrets of futurity. "We

know not what to-morrow brings forth." This is a measure ordained in infinite wisdom. The anticipation of our joys, or of our griefs, is often a burden too heavy to be borne. Pretensions, indeed, are made to a knowledge of our future destiny-but the imposition has been detected and exposed. Our wisest way is to throw the reins over a vain curiosity. Let us never attempt, on any occasion, to lift up the awful veil which divides the present moment from futurity! Such a procedure shews only drown impiety and folly. Contented with that portion of information which is commensurate with our faculties and congenial with our present situation, let us devote our knowledge to the purposes of faith and practice. A larger degree of intelligence cannot, perhaps, in this life, be the legitimate object of attainment. Henceforwards, then, let us dismiss our anxious thoughts, banish our corroding cares, and shudder at the indulgence of impious anticipations. In fine, let us calmly and cheerfully resign ourselves to the disposal of that Great Being who cannot err, and who will with consummate ability conduct the affairs of his wise and righteous government to the happiest termination:

IMMORTAL KING! from all mutation free!
Whose endless being ne'er began to be;
Who ne'er was nothing-who was ever all,
Whose kingdom did not rise, and cannot fall;
On a mysterious throne, high rais'd above,
E'en the fair chains which heavenly orders prove!
While their bright excellence progressive grew,
He perfect was-ne'er imperfection knew!
Ere worlds began, with boundless goodness blest,
Ne'er needing to be better-always best!
The pensive muse who thus a mournful sigh,
Hath paid to stars that fall, and flowers that die ;

While the short glories brief as fair she mourns,
TO HIM, the GREAT ENDURER, joyful turns.
Glad she adores, deprest by gloomy wanes,
That undecreasing LIGHT, who all ordains;
On HIM she leans, relieved from withering things,
And his immortal counsel raptur'd sings:

That scheme of good, which all that dies survives,
Whate'er decays, forever fair that thrives:

Whose progress, adverse fates and prosperous chance,
Virtue and vice, and good and ill advance,

Which draws new splendour from all mortal gloom,
Which all that fades, but feeds with riper bloom;
Each human fall but props--each fall succeeds,
And all that fancy deems obstruction-speeds:
In nature's beauteous frame as cold and heat,
And moist and dry, and light and darkness meet-
Harmonious in the moral system-join
Pleasure and pain, and glory and decline !-Fawcett.

Section V.

ON WRITING LETTERS.

The great utility and importance of Epistolary Writing, is so well known, and so universally acknowledged, that it is needless to insist on the necessity of being acquainted with an art replete with so many advantages. Those who are accomplished in this art are too happy in their knowledge to need further information concerning its excellence; and those who are unqualified to convey their sentiments to a friend, without the assistance of a third person, feel their deficiency so severely, that nothing need be said to convince them, that it is both their interest and their happiness to be instructed in what is so necessary and agreeable.

Had letters been known at the beginning of the world, Epistolary Writing would have been as old as

iting

love and friendship; for, as soon as they began to flourish, the verbal messenger was dropped, and the language of the heart was committed to characters that faithfully preserved it, and hereby secrecy was maintained, and social intercourse rendered more free and extensive.

The Romans were perfect masters of this art, and placed it in the number of liberal and polite accomplishments; and we find Cicero mentioning with great pleasure, in some of his letters to Atticus, the elegant specimen he had received from his son in this way. It seems indeed to have formed a part in their education; and in the opinion of Mr. Locke, it well deserves to have a share in ours.

The writing of letters enters so much into all the occurrences of life, that no lady or gentleman can avoid shewing themselves in compositions of this kind. Occasions will daily force them to make this use of their pen, by which their sense, their abilities, and their education are exposed to a severer examination than by any oral discourse.

Epistolary Writing, in the common and just acceptation of the word, is confined to those compositions which serve to transact the common business of life, or to promote its most pleasing intercourses. In this point of view, letter writing is the most necessary, at the same time it is happily the most easy of all literary accomplishments.

It was a just observation of the honest Quaker, that, If a man think twice before he speak, he'll speak twice the better for it. With great propriety the above may be applied to epistolary as well as to all sorts of writing.

In letters from one relation to another, the different characters of the persons must be first considered : Thus a father in writing to a son, will use a gentle authority; a son to a father will express a filial duty. And again, in friendship the heart will dilate itself with an honest freedom: it will applaud with sincerity, and censure with modest reluctance.