many instances of men being betrayed into habits of profligacy, by the influence of their social passions." A smouldering barrier divides the bigot from idolatry; as fragile is the line which separates strong liking from inardinate longing. When men, above all things, seek the indulgence of particular wishes, and those wishes have little affinity with promoting the happiness of others, but tend immediately to self-gratification, all attention to the rule of right gradually disappears, and individual enjoyment supersedes every law, human and divine. Then, indeed, are these men in bondage; their paramount affection loses its form of innocence, and Dalilah-like, having cheated them with smiles, and shorn them of strength, leads them whither it wills, from the love of society to court dissipation; from the love of persons to a spirit of faction; from the love of fame to the intrigues of ambition. In short, unless men's inclinations. and passions are regulated by virtue, (who points to the end, and enjoins temperance to keep us in the path), they will shoot from their sphere. They are the allegorical horses

in the car of Phoebus, which, when guided by their master's skill, went their equable, luminous and all-vivifying round; but when the daring hand of Phaëton seizes the reins, the impetuous animals break from his unpractised grasp, dash in wild liberty from side to side, and setting the whole universe on fire, precipitate the rash youth into the burning elements. There never was a victim to his passions, who could not, if he chose to speak honestly, give a true exposition of this fable.

The social affections have a different tendency, and can no more produce profligacy, than virtue can produce vice. A passion for society may lead to the tankard's foaming and social noise, and other evil consequences; but affection is still and circumscribed; it cannot be distributed among many; the endearing ties can never be very extensive. As a river divided into many channels, flows weak and shallow; so affection, when dissipated among many objects, becomes feeble and ineffectual. Hence it may be inferred, that affection (which is the common excuse of those who run into social excesses), never carried a man to the

table of revellers or the rendezvous of profligates. The affections cannot abide with rudeness and phrenzy; they are warm and gentle, social but pure. It is my firm belief that the genuine impulse of the social affections never yet produced intoxication; they no more lead to wine, than learning to atheism; they require no stimulus; they burn in a fire of their own! But men like to dignify their vices, and to utter any paradox rather than acknowledge their own worthlessness. They conceive that the lesson of temperance is difficult to learn and harsh in its practice, and therefore are content to borrow the names of the amiable virtues, rather than make any sacrifice or any essay to possess them in reality. They are not aware that the path of virtue is not only the field of honour, but the way of peace. Its conquests may be hardly won, but when once gained, they produce a lasting tranquillity, an elevation of soul, a mighty power of action, which none but the ruler of himself can possess. No regrets follow these bloodless victories, for every one of them add to his territory, and make him more a king. When

Alexander had subdued the world, and wept that none were left to dispute his arms, his tears were an involuntary tribute to a monarchy that he knew not-Man's empire over himself. When we yield to passion, we surrender both the temptation and its price; our virtue and our passion leave us together; in the very moment in which we gratify intemperate desire, it dies; for a passion satisfied is a passion destroyed. "When any inordinate appetite is sated, it requires no more; nay, we turn loathing from its repetition; the zest is gone, and nothing remains, but the consciousness of sacrificed innocence, and the conviction that we are slaves."-Such is the fate of the ambitious man, as well as of the voluptuary. The usurper, who makes his way to a throne through blood, and the Sybarite, who murders his manhood on the altar of pleasure, are equally the prey of remorse the gorged demon within, turns his scorpions. upon the breast that fed him; and unless he is amused with fresh oblations, his guilty captive becomes the victim. By new outrages, new devastations, new usurpations, the tyrant

appeases the clamour: the sensualist drowns his senses in the cup of excess, and dreams of a bliss he is for ever precluded from enjoying. -Both are miserable.

GLORY.

1.

THE journey of high honour lies not in smooth ways.

Remark.

This truth is exemplified, in the choice of Hercules, who turned from the couch of pleasure to climb the precipice of virtue; in the election of Achilles, who chose death and renown rather than life and oblivion; and in the resolution of Curtius, who leaped into the burning gulph to save his country.