fyftem of fuch mutual benevolence, each would enjoy the ftrength, virtue, and efficacy of the whole. You have, Sir, faid Harry, here drawn an exceeding fweet picture of fociety, and you know I am but a fool and a novice in fuch matters. But, if any other mant breathing had given me fuch a defcription, I fhould, from all my little reading, have withstood him to the face. Look through all the ftates and affociations that ever were upon earth; throughout the republics of Greece, Italy, Afia Minor, and others the moft renowned for urbanity and. virtue; and yet, what do you find them, fave fo many bands of public robbers and murderers, confederated for the deftruction of the reft of mankind? what defɔlation, what bloodshed, what carnage: from the beginning! what a delight in horrors! what a propenfity in all to inflict mifery upon others! The malignity of the fiends can, I think, pierce no deeper! Neither is this, Sir, as I take it, the extent of their malevolence. For when any of thefe bands, or ftates, as you call them, have conquered or flaughtered all around them, they never fail, for want: of employment, to fall out among themfelves, and cut the throats of their very Confederates; and this puts me in mind of 5 3 what what is faid by the Prince of peace, "The "prince of this world cometh, and has no part in me." And again he fays to the purpofe, that fathers and fons, and mothers and daughters, fhall be divided against each other; and that "a man's enemiesfhall be thofe of his own household." I lately met with a fragment of an epic poem, that ftruck me wonderfully at the time; and I recollect fome of the lines that contain, in my opinion, the moft genuine, the trueft picture that ever was drawn of the state of mankind. "Man comes into this paffing world in weakness, "And cries for help to man,--for feeble is he, "And many are his foes. Thirft, hunger, nakednefs; "Difeafes infinite within his frame; "Without, inclemency, the wrath of feasons, "Famines, pefis, plagues, devouring elements, Earthquakes beneath, the thunders rolling o'er kim; "Age and infirmity on either hand; "And death, who fhakes the certain dart behind him! "Thefe, furely, one might deem, were ills fufficient. "Man thinks not fo; on his own race he turns "The force of all his talents, exquifite "To fhorten the fhort interval, by art, "Which nature left us- -Fire and fword are in "His «His hand, and in his heart are machinations, Say then, my deareft father, tell me, whence comes this worse than flinty, this cruel heartedness in man? Why are not all like you? Why are they not happy in communicating happiness? If my eyes did not daily fee it, in fact, as well as in history, I fhould think it impoffible that any one should derive pleasure from giving pain to another. Can it be more bleffed to destroy than to preserve, to afflict than to gladden, to wound than to heal. My heart wrings with regret for being caft into a world, where nation againft nation, family against family, and man against man, are perpetually embattled, grudging, coveting, grafping, tearing every enjoyment, every property, and life itself, from each other. Here Harry, for a while, held his handkerchief to his eyes; while his fond uncle dropt a filent tear of delight, at beholding the amiable emotion of his beloved. Take care, my Harry, rejoined Mr Fenton, beware of the smallest tincture of uncharitableness! You fee only the worse - part, part, the cutward fhell of this world; while the kernel, the better part, is concealed from your eyes. There are millionsof worthy people and affectionate faints. upon earth; but they are as a kingdom within a kingdom, a grain within a husk; it requires a kindred heart and a curious eye to discover them. Evil in man, is like evil in the elements: earthquakes, hurricanes, thunders, and lightnings are confpicuous, noify, glaring; while goodness, like warmth and moisture, is filent and unperceived, though productive of all the beauties and benefits in nature. I once told you, my darling, that all the evil which is in you belongs to yourfelf, and that all the good which is in you belongs to your God. That you cannot in or of your felf, fó much as think a good thought, or form a good with, or oppose a fingle ten plation or evil motion of any kind. And, what I then faid of you, may equally be faid of all men, and of the higheft angels now in blifs.. No creature can be better than A CRAVING AND DARK DESIRE. No efforts of its own can puffioly kindle the malleft portion of light or of love; till God, by giving hin.clr, gives his light and love into it.. Here Here lies the eternal difference between evil and good, between the creature and the Creator: the spirits who are now in darkness, are there for no other reason, but for their defire of a proud and impoffible independence; for their rejecting the light and love of that God, in whom, however, they live, and move, and have their defolate being. God is already the fulness of all poffible things; he has, therefore, all things to give, but nothing to defire. The creature, while empty of God, is a wanting defire; it has all things to crave, but nothing to beftow. No two things, in the universe, can be more oppofite, more contrasted. Remember, therefore, this distinction in yourself and all others; remember that, when you feel or fee any inftance of selfifhnefs, you feel and fee the coveting, grudging, and grappling of the creature; but that when you feel or fee any inftance of benevolence, you feel and fee the informing influence of your God. All poffible vice and malignity fubfifts in the one; all poffible virtue, all poffible beauty, all poffible bleffedness, fubfiits in the other. As God, alone, is Love, and nothing but Love; no arguments of our own can reafon love into us, no efforts of our own can |