alizing his expectation. Take great care to avoid all ambiguous subterfuges and deceitful promises!

4 No benefaction is superior to that of instructing and cultivating the mind of others. Every person who has contributed any thing towards making us wiser, better and happier, has the strongest claim to our everlasting and warmest gratitude. Although he should not have exerted himself to the best of his abilities, yet we ought not to be ungrateful for the little improvement which we owe to him.

5 People who have devoted themselves zealously to the important occupation of educating the rising generation, generally deserve being treated with peculiar regard. To form and cultivate the mind of man is indeed a most difficult and arduous task, the accomplishment of which cannot be rewarded with money.

6 The schoolmaster of even the most insignificant village, who executes the duties of his calling with faithful diligence, is unquestionably one of the most useful and important persons in the state; and as his income generally is scanty enough, it is but just we should endeavor to sweeten the laborious life of such a useful member of society, by treating him at least with due respect.

7 Humanity and prudence require we should be civil, just and kind to our debtors. It is a very reprehensible principle to think that a person who owes us money, has thereby become our slave, that he must take up with all sorts of humiliation, that he is not at liberty to decline complying with any demand which we may think proper to make, and, in general, that the pecuniary assistance we afford to our fellow creatures can authorize us, at any time, to look contemptuously down upon them, and to treat them as our inferiors.

8 Pay your creditors punctually, and be faithful to your promises; confound not the honest man who lends on moderate interest to gain a livelihood by it, with the extorting usurer, and you will always find people who are ready to assist you in pecuniary matters.

SECTION VIII.

On our conduct towards others in various and peculiar situations and relations.

1 It is not always in our power to render ourselves beloved, but it depends at all times on ourselves not to be despised. General applause and praise are not necessary to render us happy. Even the knave cannot help respecting a really wise

and virtuous man, and two or three sincere friends are sufficient to cheer our path through life.

2 People who groan under the heavy pressure of adverse fate, who are persecuted by the malice of men, reduced to poverty, neglected, or have strayed from the path of truth and virtue, have a just claim to our compassion, and ought to be treated with kind forbearance and humanity.

3 Assist the poor, if Providence have granted you the power to afford him relief in his distress. Send not the penurious from your door while you can give him a small gift without being unjust to your family. Dispense your charity with a cheerful heart and with a good grace. Do not inquire whether the man whom you can relieve, has been the cause of his own misfortunes. Who would be found entirely innocent of the sufferings under which he groans, were we always to inquire minutely after their causes?

4 Shun not the scenes of human misery, nor flee from the abode of distress and poverty; for if we desire to be capable of having compassion for the sufferings of an unfortunate brother, we must be acquainted with the various scenes of misery which this world exhibits.

5 Where humble poverty groans and dares not to step forth from its gloomy retirement to implore assistance; where adverse fate persecutes the diligent man who has seen better days; where a virtuous and numerous family strive in vain to procure, by the most indefatigable diligence, and the daily labor of their hands, as much as is sufficient to protect them against hunger, nakedness, and disease; where, upon the hard couch, bashful tears run down the pallid cheek! thither, my charitable and humane readers, bend your steps. There you have the noblest opportunity of laying out your money, the superfluity which Providence has intrusted to you, and to gain that interest which no bank in the world can give you.

6 Of all the unfortunate sufferers whom this vain world contains, none are more to be pitied than such as have involved themselves in a long train of guilty actions by a single wrong step, suppressed all sense for virtue, acquired a baneful habitude in doing wrong, lost all confidence in God and men, and all courage to return again to the path of virtue, or are, at least, on the point of sinking so low.

7 They have the strongest claim upon our compassion, because they are deprived of the only consolation that can support us in the greatest misfortunes, namely, of the conscious

ness of not having wantonly brought upon themselves the evils under which they groan.

8 Nothing, moreover, is so apt to render a man mean as public contempt, and the marks of growing mistrust for his amendment. Let us finally believe, for the honor of mankind, that no person can sink so low, or be corrupted so completely, as to render it impossible for us to save him by a judicious and zealous application of proper means.

9 An honest, industrious, and skilful tradesman and mechanic, is one of the most useful persons in the state, and the little deference which we pay to that class of people is very disgraceful to our moral character and understanding. What preference has an idle courtier, or an overgrown merchant, to an honest citizen who gains his bread in a lawful manner by the work of his hands?

10 This class of people work to satisfy our principal and most natural wants; if it were not for their assistance, we should be obliged to prepare all the necessaries of life with our own hand; therefore, if a tradesman or a mechanic (as frequently is the case) raise himself above the rest by his ingenuity, and shows that he spares no labor to improve his art, he has an additional claim to our regard.

11 I must also observe, that we frequently meet amongst this class of people with men of the brightest understanding, who are less given to prejudices than many of a superior rank, who have perverted their sound reason by study and slavish devotion to systems. Therefore honor a worthy and diligent tradesman and mechanic, and treat him with civility.

SECTION IX.

Principal causes of the want of domestic pleasures: 1 Amongst all the numerous sources of human happiness, domestic life undoubtedly is the richest and most productive; but to which unhappily too many of the higher and middling classes rarely resort. This source of pleasure and happiness is accessible at all times to every man; its use is not confined to time, and the enjoyment of it requires not the least laborious preparations.

2 The more pleasures the wise draw from this source, the richer and more copious it grows; the more frequently he resorts to it, the more he will relish the blessings which it af fords. If we really wish to enjoy domestic pleasure and happiness, mutual love and regard must be the foundation ;

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and while we neglect to preserve and strengthen these ties, domestic life must lose its sweetest charms.

3 Want of mutual concern is one of the most prominent features of the absence of domestic pleasure and happiness. It is impossible we should be capable of enjoying domestic happiness, while we do not take the liveliest interest in every concern of our consort. Want of taste for innocent and simple pleasures contributes likewise very much to destroy domestic and social happiness, and to render our home irk

some to us.

4 Married people who must see each other every day, and therefore have opportunities enough to get acquainted with each other's faults and humors, and suffer many inconveniences even from the most trifling of them, cannot be too circumspect in their conduct; and it is highly important for them to find out means of preventing their society from being troublesome and tedious to one another, and to guard against mutual indifference, coldness and aversion.

5 Dissimulation is one of the worst expedients that can be adopted for that purpose; but nothing is more efficacious than a certain regard for our own person, and an unremitted care to avoid every thing that can produce bad impressions. I would therefore advise married people carefully to cultivate mutual civility, which is the true spirit and characteristic of conjugal familiarity, and at all times distinguishes a man of good breeding. Discord between married people has always a bad influence on the education of their children. Economy is one of the first requisites of conjugal happiness.

6 Want of materials for conversations and enjoyment is a no less common cause of the want of domestic happiness and pleasure. Conversation, particularly with a smaller circle of friends, requires we should be in possession of various materials to keep it alive, that its sources may not be dried up and make room for tediousness and satiety; and that our enjoyment should be multiplied and refined by noble feelings, if we wish to preserve it from degenerating into disgust.

7 Those that bring an empty head and a cold heart into social life, and are capable only of supporting a conversation on the most hackneyed subjects, or being affected by violent sensual impressions, cannot indeed expect to derive much. pleasure and happiness from it. Pleasures which are merely sensual are soon exhausted, as well as the little incidents of the day.

8 But when those in near connexion possess an accom

plished understanding, and a well disposed heart; when they have a decided taste for every thing which is noble and good; when they have the capacity, and a sincere wish to instruct and to be instructed; when the joint reading of a good and instructive book serves them instead of splendid assemblies; when they mutually strive after wisdom, virtue and higher perfection; when they unite for the common enjoyment of the pleasures of religion and rational devotion, and take the most lively interest in every thing that concerns mankind and their mutual peace; then it is impossible the sources of domestic pleasures and happiness should ever be exhausted!

9 How necessary it therefore is for every one panting after domestic bliss, that he should never cease to cultivate his mind and heart; and how natural it is that our modern method of educating our children should render them totally unfit for enjoying the purest pleasures which this sublunary world can afford!

10 Is it not natural that our social circles afford us so little real pleasure, while the majority of our young men possess no other knowledge but what they have acquired in taverns, play houses, &c. or gathered from novels and newspapers.

SECTION X.

On candor and tolerance in conversation.

1 Want of candor and tolerance in conversation is one of the most common and baneful enemies of social and domestic pleasure.

2 All our notions are produced and shaped by sensual perceptions, by instruction, education, reading, conversation, meditation, and the conclusions drawn therefrom. As for the notions produced by sensual perceptions, it is obvious to the most common understanding, that if some object affects the sensual organs, as the eye, for instance, we cannot avoid judging of it conformably to the perceptions it produces through that medium upon the mind.

3 We must see what we do see. We must think an object to be green, if it appear in that color to our eyes, although to every other person it should seem to be blue. Neither ought we to condemn any one for the notions he owes to his education, instruction, reading, and conversation with others. It is not his fault that he was placed by Providence in the situation in which he is, and that he received no other ideas but such as naturally resulted from it.

4 But what confusion, what disorder could be occasioned