nicious sentiments on the nature of this evil. You cannot consider the abolition of Marriage and the universal substitution of Concubinage as a change beneficial to mankind; and yet, "what should prevent it from becoming univer"sal, if it is innocent and allowable in you ?”— Do not then, I repeat, add to weakness of practice, the wickedness of defending it on principle*.

But if you really are benevolent, can you rest here? Can you contemplate the mischiefs of Libertinism, and, unmoved by the view, make no determined effort to relinquish the habit? For wealth, for reputation, what sacrifices are constantly made! What privations of enjoyment are submitted to in camps, in tedious voyages, in unhealthy climates, or at confined countinghouses! For these objects, what care, what selfdenial, what perseverance are exercised! And

* Dr. Johnson (we are informed by one of his Biographers) was much pleased with the sentiment of a young man whose passions had betrayed him into an illicit amour : "To the injury I have done her person (said he,) I will not "add that of corrupting her mind: we have indeed done "wrong, and I will not attempt to persuade her to think "otherwise."

shall no energy be exerted in the far nobler, and unquestionably more important pursuit of improving and exalting our moral characters;-of promoting the virtue, and consequently the welfare of our fellow-creatures; conciliating thereby the favour of that Being, from whom flows all that is great and good and honourable? Shall we sacrifice our comforts, our health, and even our lives, for the mere chance of riches, and shall we shrink from the more reasonable and generous sacrifice of our selfish propensities to the good of our fellow-creatures?

Alas! mortifying as may be the fact to the credit of human nature, experience proves that, in this point, though the principle of humanity and equity may, in amiable and considerate dispositions, restrain in some degree the frequency and extent of the practice, and may excite an humiliating consciousness of its impropriety, (effects indeed very desirable and important-may these sheets promote them!) yet it will rarely, if ever produce an uniform resistance to the propensity, unless to a sense of its baneful consequences to society, be superadded a settled conviction of its being offensive to God; and of course injurious to

our own dearest and eternal interests. That what is thus hurtful to mankind should be displeasing to the Supreme Being, is eminently probable in itself; but Christianity puts the matter beyond all doubt. The following passages from the New Testament may stand for all; "Marriage and "the bed undefiled, is honourable among all "men; but Whoremongers and Adulterers, "GOD will judge." (Heb. chap. xiii. ver. 4.) "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not in"herit the Kingdom of God? Be ye not de"ceived neither Fornicators, nor Idolaters, nor "Adulterers, &c. &c. shall inherit the Kingdom "of God." (1 Cor. chap. vi. ver. 9. & 10.)—— The World indeed, you may truly reply, has formed a different standard of right and wrong, in respect to this and other subjects; but if our future state will be decided, not by the fluctua ting and arbitrary standards of propriety we may find it convenient to adopt, but by that of reason and of eternal justice, it surely behoves each man seriously to reflect, on which of these rules of conduct it may be safest for him to regulate his life.

I now beg leave to address myself more par

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ticularly to my YOUNGER readers.-You who are now passing into manhood, are about to appear on an eventful stage, where you have a most interesting part to perform; that of rational, accountable, and immortal Beings, entering on a probation which is to decide nothing less, than the colour of your fate in this life, and also in a future and eternal state. No view of man can be more awful, none more conformable to reason, and none more certain from Revelation.

In grand and striking distinction from the ir rational creation, (which being governed by instinct, is incapable of virtue or vice, their rewards or punishments) you are endowed with a consciousness of right and wrong;-with passions and affections susceptible of impressions from good and from evil; with freedom of choice and of action; and with conscience to approve or condemn the election you may make. A state of probation necessarily includes the idea of duties to perform and of errors to avoid. If vice had no allurements; if these required no effort to resist them, virtue could have no merit, and therefore could look for no reward. Through, out the constitution of nature, we find that no

thing desirable is accomplished without effort. The earth is formed indeed with a capacity of yielding food, but, without labour, there would be no bread; without sowing, no harvest. In the ordinary course of human affairs, independence, reputation, and the various enjoyments of life, are not to be acquired without exertion and self-denial; while indolence and self-indulgence naturally lead to poverty and contempt. In perfect analogy to this order of things in the natural world, energy and self-government are indispensable to the attainment of virtue and of its rewards; as supineness and unresisting compliance with every importunate passion, infallibly produce vice, its pains and punishment.

It is also of extreme importance to recollect that in virtue and vice it is impossible to be stationary; because we must be making progress in HABITS, whether good or bad:-and it is these, rather than any particular acts, that form and decide the actual character; it is these which must be the object of future reward or punishment. Now, rapid as is the growth of habit, quickly as the pygmy becomes a giant, in no respect is this more strikingly the case than in