Great wits sometimes may gloriously offend, And rise to faults true critics dare not mend, From vulgar bounds with brave disorder part, And snatch a grace beyond the reach of art; While they who ne'er the paths of science trod, May justly tremble at the critic's rod.

THE AUTHORESS.

INTELLECTUAL SENTIMENTS.

Of the beauty of the body, of ideas, and

AMONG all the blessings diffused around us, perfection is the most invaluable. It is as it were the ensign of happiness, and there is a hidden delight accompanies

whatever induces us to think we are possessed of it. This imagination so interesting is produced by our own fancy, out of the various materials furnished by education, constitution, society, and our own reflections.

We in general think it

to consist of a collection of qualities foreign to us, which can be given or taken. away by the caprice of fortune.

How

absurd the idea! But reason soon exults over it, and always gains the ascendancy in those who are led by her axioms.

'Tis but by parts we follow good or ill,
For vice or virtue, self directs it still.

The principal end of all moral philosophy is to give us just sentiments appertaining to this point.

Perfection consists in the possession of such qualities of the body, mind, and soul, as are calculated to procure our principal happiness, in compliance to the intentions of our Divine Creator, which are engraven in the nature of our existence. We advance to a higher degree of perfection in proportion as the body is less distempered, and is able to perform the motions assigned to it according as the mind is less deceived, and can with ease understand and set forth the beauty of truth. In fine, we become more perfect as the soul is less corrupt, and the more free she is from the seeds of envy, malevolence, and uneasiness, the more she is inclined to direct her desires by a clear and sure judgment, the object of which is firm and durable felicity,

But let us not confine this solid happiness to the limits of a few years. Inward sense ought to convince us, that this principle is indivisible, and in course immortal. The prospect of future happiness ought always to be esteemed as the principal part of the present.

It is from this idea of perfection that friendship borrows such immanent delight, though certain philosophers have imagined its origin to be derived from our impotence, without the aid of others, to obtain the necessaries of life.

Yet if there is such a tie, which is only a hireling traffic of self-interest, there is another, the object of which is far more exalted. In this we less consider bene