ftring I had touched ceased to vibrate-in a moment or two Maria turned to herself-let her pipe fall, and

rofe up.

And where are you going, Maria? faid I.—She faid, to Moulins.Let us go, faid I, together.-Maria put her arm within mine, and lengthening the string to let the dog follow-in that order we entered Moulins.

Though I hate falutations and greetings in the market place, yet when we got into the middle of this, I ftopped to take my last look and laft farewell of Maria. Maria, though not tall, was nevertheless of the first order of fine forms- -affliction had touched her looks with fomething that was scarce earthly still fhe was feminine and fo much was there about her of all that the heart wishes, or the eye looks for in woman, that could the traces be ever worn out of her brain, and those of Eliza's out of mine, fhe fhould not only eat of my bread and drink of my own cup, but Maria fhould lie in my bofom, and be unto me as a daughter. Adieu, poor lucklefs maiden ;-imbibe the oil and wine which the compaffion of a ftranger, as he journieth on his way, now pours into thy wounds- -that Being who has twice bruifed thee, can only bind them up for ever.

The

The Want of Piety arises from the Want of Sensibility.

IT appears to me, that the mind of man, when it is free from natural defects and acquired corruption, feels no less a tendency to the indulgence of devotion, than to virtuous love, or to any other of the more refined and elevated affections. But debauchery and excess contribute greatly to destroy all the fufceptible delicacy with which nature ufually furnishes the heart; and, in the general extinction of our better qualities, it is no wonder that so pure a sentiment as that of piety fhould be one of the first to expire.

It is certain that the understanding may be improved in a knowledge of the world, and in the arts of fucceeding in it, while the heart, or whatever constitutes the feat of the moral and sentimental feelings, is gradually receding from its proper and original perfection. Indeed experience seems to evince, that it is hardly poffible to arrive at the character of a complete man of the world, without lofing many of the most valuable fentiments of uncorrupted nature. A complete man of the world is an artificial being; he has difcarded many of the native and laudable tendencies of his mind, and adopted a new system of objects and propenfities of his own creation. These are commonly grofs, coarse, fordid, selfish, and fenfual. All, or either of these attributes, tend directly to blunt the fense of every thing liberal, enlarged, difinterested; of every thing which participates more of an intellectual than of a sensual nature. When the heart is tied down to the earth by luft and avarice, it is not extraordinary that the eye should be feldom lifted up to heaven. To the man who fpends the Sunday (becaufe he thinks the day fit for little elfe) in the counting-house, in travelling, in the tavern, or in the brothel, those who go to church appear

as

as fools, and the bufinefs they go upon as nonfenfe. He is callous to the feelings of devotion; but he is tremblingly alive to all that gratifies his fenfes or promotes his intereft.

It has been remarked of thofe writers who have attacked Christianity, and reprefented all religions merely as diverfified modes of fuperftition, that they were indeed, for the most part, men of a metayphysical and a difputatious turn of mind, but ufually little diftinguished for benignity and generofity. There was; amidst all their pretenfions to logical fagacity, a cloudinefs of ideas, and a coldness of heart, which rendered them very unfit judges on a queftion in which the heart is chiefly interested; in which the language of nature is more expreffive and convincing, than all the dreary subtleties of the difmal metaphysicians. Even the reasoning faculty, on which we fo greatly value ourselves, may be perverted by exceffive refinement; and there is an abstruse, but vain and foolish philosophy, which philofophifes us out of the nobleft parts of our noble nature. One of those parts of us is our instinctive sense of religion, of which not one of those brutes which the philofophers most admire, and to whofe rank they wish to reduce us, is found in the flightest degree to participate.

Such philofophers may be called, in a double fense, the enemies of mankind. They not only endeavour to entice man from his duty, but to rob him of a moft. exalted and natural pleafure. Such, furely, is the pleasure of devotion. For when the foul rises above this little orb, and pours its adoration at the throne of celestial Majesty, the holy fervour which it feels is itself a rapturous delight. Neither is this a declamatory representation, but a truth felt and acknowledged by all the fons of men; except those who have been defective in fenfibility, or who hoped to gratify the pride or the malignity of their hearts, by fingular and pernicious fpeculation.

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It is, however, certain, that a devotional tafte and habit are very defirable in themselves, exclufive of their effects in meliorating the morals and difpofition, and promoting present and future felicity. They add dignity, pleasure, and fecurity to any age; but to old age they are the most becoming grace, the moft fubftantial fupport, and the fweeteft comfort. In order to preferve them, it will be neceffary to preferve our fenfibility; and nothing will contribute fo much to this purpose, as a life of temperance, of innocence, and fimplicity.

Self-Delusion.

it be reasonable to eftimate the difficulty of any enterprise by frequent miscarriages, it may justly be concluded that it is not eafy for a man to know himfelf; for wherefoever we turn our view, we fhall find almost all with whom we converse so nearly as to judge of their fentiments, indulging more favourable conceptions of their own virtue than they have been able to imprefs upon others, and congratulating themselves upon degrees of excellence, which their fondeft admirers cannot allow them to have attained.

Those representations of imaginary virtue are generally confidered as arts of hypocrify, and as fnares laid for confidence and praife. But I believe the fufpicion often unjuft; thofe who thus propagate their own reputation, only extend the fraud by which they have been themselves deceived; for this failing is incident to numbers, who feem to live without defigns, competitions, or pursuits; it appears on occafions which promife no acceffion of honour or of profit, and to perfons from whom very little is to be hoped or feared. It is, indeed, not eafy to tell how far we may be blinded by the love of ourselves, when we reflect how much a fecondary paffion can cloud our judgment, and how few faults a man, in the first raptures of love, can discover in the perfon or conduct of his mistress.

One fophifm by which men persuade themselves that they have thofe virtues which they really want, is formed by the substitution of single acts for habits. A miser who once relieved a friend from the danger of a prifon, fuffers his imagination to dwell for ever upon his own heroic generofity; he yields his heart up to indignation at those who are blind to merit, or infenfible to mifery, and who can pleafe themselves with the enjoyment of that wealth, which they never permit others to partake.

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