practical; the follies, like the beauties of his youth, fade away, and the soul's dark mansion lets in new light through the openings which time has made.

It would seem also, that the science of government is an unappropriated region in the universe of knowledge. Those sciences with which the passions can never interfere, are considered to be attainable only by study, and by reflection; while there are not many young men who doubt of their ability to make a constitution, or to govern a kingdom : At the same time, there cannot, perhaps, be a more decided proof of a superficial understanding, than the depreciation of those difficulties which are inseparable from the science of government. To know well the local, and the natural man ; to track the silent march of human affairs; to seize, with happy intuition, on those great laws which regulate the prosperity of empires; to reconcile principles to circumstances, and be no wiser than the times will permit; to anticipate the effects of every speculation upon the entangled relations, and awkward complexity of real life; and

to follow out the theorems of the senate to the daily comforts of the cottage; is a task which they will fear most, who know it best; a task in which the great, and the good have often failed, and which it is not only wise, but pious, and just in common men to avoid.

There is a malignity of disposition which is unfavorable to the interests of the country in which we live, a weariness of the general content, a disgust at the diffusion of happiness, and a desire to forget internal vexation, by the sight of a contagious, and epidemic misery. In a dif ferent temperament, this predisposing cause is a love of turbulence, 'an impatience of every thing tranquil, and a horror of stagnant serenity, and insipid content. Above all, there is that horrid passion of convulsing, and reversing which would place the heel of the rustic upon the neck of the noble,-would worship the pandects, and decretals of peasants,-and thrust the sacred gold of the sceptre into hands that had ever clenched the scythe, and the spade.

There lies at the bottom of all vast communities, a numerous sect of men, of

open, or disguised poverty, who have lost fortune, and fame, in the sink of pleasure, and quenched every particle of God in voluptuous enormities, and crimes; base, bad men, who prey upon industry, and hate virtue; who would tear down the decencies, and pollute the innocence of life, that they might make mankind as wretched as themselves, and spread the horror of ungoverned passions, and unqualified indulgence. Here is the first nucleus of all revolutions, it matters not whether the object be to enslave the people, or to free them; to give them up to another's tyranny, or to the more cruel dominion of their own folly; to establish a despotism, or a democracy. In all revolutions there is plunder, and change; and here are the hordes of assassins, and robbers, the tools of political violence, tutored by their ancient pleasures, and their present distress, to callous inhumanity, and boundless rapine. This source of danger to our country needs but very little comment; the cure of such an evil falls under that general law of self-defence, by which

we crush a venomous reptile, or slaughter a beast of prey. No other argument can here be of the smallest importance, but. the argument of brute force, and determined opposition.

Many people who are conscious, and justly conscious, of merit, are less disposed to the love of their country from finding themselves neglected by their superiors in rank, and reputation; every man is desirous of rising in life, and ambitious of connecting himself in the most eligible manner; The world unfortunately measure by one scale, and the individual by another; and disappointment is always attributed to the injustice of those who confer reputation, rather than the overrated pretensions of him who seeks it.

It is natural to every man to wish for distinction; and the praise of those, who can confer honour by their praise, in spite of all false philosophy, is sweet to every human heart: But as eminence can but be the lot of a few, patience of obscurity is a duty which we owe not more to our own

happiness, than to the quiet of the world at large: Give a loose, if you are young, and ambitious, to that spirit which throbs within you; measure yourself with your equals; and learn, from frequent competition, the place which nature has allotted to you; make of it no mean battle, but strive hard; strengthen your soul to the search of truth, and follow that spectre of excellence which beckons you on beyond the walls of the world, to something better than man has yet done: It may be, you shalt burst out into light, and glory, at the last but if frequent failure convince you of that mediocrity of nature which is incompatible with great actions, submit wisely, and cheerfully to your lot: Let no spirit of revenge tempt you to throw off your loyalty to your country; and to prefer a vicious celebrity to obscurity crowned with piety, and virtue. If you can throw new light upon moral truth, or by any exertions multiply the comforts, or confirm the happiness of mankind, this fame guides you to the true ends of your nature: But, in the name of God, as you tremble at retributive justice, and in the name of mankind,