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Her hand seeketh employment; her foot delighteth not in gadding abroad.

She is clothed with neatness, she is fed with temperance; humility and meekness are as a crown of glory circling her head.

On her tongue dwelleth music; the sweetness of honey floweth from her lips.

Decency is in all her words; in her answers are mildness and truth.

Submission and obedience are the lessons of her life, and peace and happiness are her reward.

Before her steps walketh Prudence, and Virtue attendeth at her right hand.

Her eye speaketh softness and love; but Discretion, with a sceptre, sitteth on her brow.

The tongue of the licentious is dumb in her presence; the awe of her virtue keepeth them silent.

When scandal is busy, and the fame of her neighbour is tossed from tongue to tongue, if charity and good nature open not her mouth, the finger of silence resteth on her lip.

Her breast is the mansion of goodness, and therefore she suspecteth no evil in others.

Happy were the man that should make her his wife; happy the child that shall call her mother.

She presideth in the house, and there is peace; she commandeth with judgment, and is obeyed.

She ariseth in the morning, she considers her affairs, and appointeth to every one their proper business.

The care of the family is her whole delight; to that alone she applieth her study; and elegance, with frugality, is seen in her mansions.

The prudence of her management is an honour to her husband; and he heareth her praise with a secret delight.

She informeth the minds of her children with wisdom; she fashioneth their manners from the example of her own goodness.

The word of her mouth is the law of their youth; the motion of her eye commandeth their obedience.

She speaketh, and her servants fly; she pointeth, and the thing is done for the law of love is in their hearts, and her kindness addeth wings to their feet.

In prosperity she is not puffed up; in adversity she healeth the wounds of fortune with patience.

The troubles of her husba. I are alleviated by her counsels, and sweetened by her endearments; he putteth his heart in her bosom, and receiveth comfort.

Happy is the man that has made her his wife; happy the child that calleth her mother.

ECONOMY OF HUMAN LIFE.

VICE AND VIRTUE.

LET any man, in a cool hour, when he is disengaged from business and undisturbed by passion, as such cool hours will sometimes happen, sit down, and seriously reflect with himself what state or temper of mind he would choose to feel and indulge, in order to be easy and to enjoy himself. Would he choose for that purpose to be in a constant dissipation and hurry of thought; to be disturbed. in the exercise of his reason; to have various, and often interfering phantoms of good playing before his imagination, soliciting and distracting him by turns; now soothing him with amusing hopes, then torturing him with anxious fears; and to approve this minute what he shall condemn the next? Would he choose to have a strong and painful sense of every petty injury; quick apprehensions of every impending evil; incessant and unsatiable desires of power, wealth, honour, pleasure; an irreproachable antipathy

against all competitors and rivals; insolent and tyrannical dispositions to all below him; fawning, and at the same time envious, dispositions to all above him; with dark suspicions and jealousies of every mortal? Would he choose neither to love nor be beloved of any; to have no friend in whom to confide, or with whom to interchange his sentiments or designs; no favourite, on whom to bestow his kindness, or vent his passions; in fine, to be conscious of no merit with mankind, no esteem from any creature, no good affection to his Maker, no concern for, or hopes of his approbation; but instead of all these, to hate, and know that he is hated, to contemn, and know that he is contemned by all; by the good, because he is so unlike; and by the bad because he is so like themselves; to hate or to dread the very Being that made him; and in short, to have his breast the seat of pride and passion, petulance and revenge, deep melancholy, cool malignity, and all the other furies, that ever possessed and tortured mankind?— Would our calm inquirer after happiness pitch on such a state, and such a temper of mind, as the most likely means to put him in possession of his desired ease and self-enjoyment? Or would he rather choose a serene and easy flow of thoughts; a reason clear and composed; a judgment unbiassed by prejudice, and undistracted by passion; a sober and well governed fancy, which presents the images of things true and unmixed with delusive aud unnatural charms, and therefore administers no improper or dangerous fuel to the passions, but leaves the mind free to choose or reject, as becomes a reasonable creature; a sweet and sedate temper, not easily ruffled by hopes or fears, prone neither to suspicion nor revenge, apt to view men and things in the fairest lights, and to bend gently to the humours of others rather than obstinately to contend with them? Would he choose such moderation and continence of mind, as neither to be ambitious of power, fond of honours, covetous of

wealth, nor a slave to pleasure; a mind of course neither elated with success, nor dejected with disappointment ; such a modest and noble spirit as supports power without insolence, wears honours without pride, uses wealth without profusion or parsimony, and rejoices more in giving than in receiving pleasure; such fortitude and equanimity as rises above misfortunes, or turns them into blessings; such integrity and greatness of mind, as neither flatters the vices nor triumphs over the follies of men ; as equally spurns servitude and tyranny, and will neither engage in low designs, nor abet them in others? Would he choose, in fine, such mildness and benignity of heart as takes part in all the joys, and refuses none of the sorrows of others 3 stands well-affected to all mankind; is conscious of meriting the esteem of all, and of being beloved by the best; a mind which delights in doing good without any show, and yet arrogates nothing on that account; rejoices in loving and being beloved by it's Maker, acts ever under his eye, resigns itself to his providence, and triumphs in his appro bation? Which of these dispositions would be his choice in order to be contented, serene, and happy? The former temper is vice; the latter, virtue. Where one prevails, there misery prevails, and by the generality is acknowledged to prevail. Where the other reigns, there happiness reigns, and by the confession of mankind is acknowledged to reign. The perfection of either temper is misery or happiness in perfection. Therefore every approach to either extreme is an approach to misery, or to happiness; that is to say, every degree of vice or virtue is accompanied with a proportionable degree of misery or happiFORDYCR.

ness.

MORAL SEXES.

THE minds of both sexes are as much formed one for the other by a temperament peculiar to each, as their per

The strength, firmness, courage, gravity, and dignity of the man, tally to the softness, delicacy, tenderness of passion, elegance of taste, and decency of conversation of the woman. The male mind is formed to defend, deliberate, foresee, contrive, and advise. The female one to confide, imagine, apprehend, comply, and execute. Therefore the proper temperament of these different sexes of minds makes a fine moral union; and the well-proportioned opposition of different or contrary qualities, like a due mixture of discords in a composition of music, swells the harmony of society more than if they were all unisons to each other. And this union of moral sexes, if we may express it so, is evidently more conducive to the improvement of each, than if they lived apart. For the man not only protects and advises, but communicates vigour and resolution to the woman. She, in her turn, softens, refines, and polishes him. In her society he finds repose from action and care; in her friendship, the ferment, into which his passions were wrought by the hurry and distraction of public life, subsides and settles into a calm; and a thousand nameless graces and decencies, that flow from her words and actions, form him for a more mild and elegant deportment. His conversation and example, on the other hand, enlarge her views, raise her sentiments, sustain her resolutions, and free her from a thousand fears and inquietudes, to which her more feeble constitution subjects her. Surely such dispositions, and the happy consequences, which result from them, cannot be supposed to carry an unfriendly aspect to any duty he owes either to God or FORDYCE.

to man.

PROOF OF A FUTURE STATE FROM

ANALOGY.

IN tracing the nature and destination of any being, we form the surest judgment from his powers of action, and

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