of their bodies and their minds, till, at lafl, the victims of indolence or vice, they have become utterly extinct?

III. In the next place, induflry in fome ufeful purfuit is connected with the improvement and perfection of the powers of

Our nature.

Continual exercife and employment is neceffary to the flrength and vigor both of the corporeal, and the mental qualities. This is a law of nature established by that infinite goodness of which we every where fee the proofs, and which has intended to promote the perfection of our own nature by means that fhould be, at the fame time, effentially connected with the good of mankind. That action that is moft beneficial to ourselves is that which is alfo moft ufeful to othersAny faculty that remains unexerted becomes, in time, paralized and enfeebled, and is hardly capable of being applied to the ends for which nature intended it. The ancients, who underflood fo well the cducation of youth, prepared their citizens to become vigorous defenders of their country by the most athletic exerciks; and in their

fchools they endeavoured to cultivate the reafon and the genius by fludies that required an intenfe and continued exertion of those powers.-Induftrious and useful employment, when mixed with proper recreation favours the vigor and perfection of the body, promotes the improvement of the mind, and imparts ferenity and purity to the affections. Idlenefs degenerates every thing; and mere amufement, where it occupies a large portion of our time, evaporates the greatest and most respectable qualities of human nature.

Besides, idleness is not only an enfeebling quality but forms alfo a contemptible character. A man who is not employed as the author of nature intended he fhould bewhofe talents are ufelefs, and whofe example is pernicious-who merely cats, and drinks, and fleeps, or lounges from place to place, an inactive burden on the earth, must be despised by the rest of mankind; and he will feel, if he has any fentiment remaining, that he deferves to be defpifed. The induftrious will regard him with fufpicion, as a nuisance to society, and as likely to prove at laft a burden upon their charity, if they can be fortunate enough to escape his frauds

The ingenious will look with fcorn on that ignoble difpofition that can confent to bury the heaven-born spark of reafon under a mafs of inactive corruption-that has no ambition to excel--and cannot be penetrated with the divine beauties of truth and science -And all muft hold in contempt the man who does nothing worthy the rational, focial, and human nature.

IV. Industry, is intimately connected with many other virtues.

Order, fobriety, integrity, and temperance in pleasure, are ufually affociated with industrious merit. When a man's powers are fully occupied on ufeful objects, he is, in a great meafure, exempted from the temptations that lead to vice. Labour tends to cool the boiling ardor of the paffions, and to introduce among them tranquility and order. Intenfe application to bufinefs, exhaufts that irregular and impure fire that is continually drawing afide into vice those who live without proper employ

ment.

Man being formed for action is restless and unhappy without it, and is prone to feek

that excitement from vicious ideas and purfuits which he ought to receive only from beneficial plans and virtuous engagements. His imagination is apt to be filled with loofe fcenes-criminal defires rife and ferment in his heart-fenfual appetites are the only principles that have force fufficient to roufe and occupy him.-If we look back on life, has it not been when we were most idle that we have been molt expofed to temptation? Among the idle do we not usually find the flaves of intemperance and debauchery? Among the idle do we not find those who facrifice honor, confcience, and time, by a bafe and pernicious gambling, the ordinary refource of people without ideas and without industry. Are they not the idle to whom time feems tedious, and who fly to diffipation to fill the painful void created by want of useful occupation? Do we not among the idle commonly find thofe who, having wafled their eftates, or fuffered them, through inattention, to fall into decay, have been tempted to employ dishonest and criminal means in order to repair them? Are they not the idle alfo who are the tatlers and whisperers of fociety, and the authors of mifunderftanding and difcontent between

friends and neighbours. Not feeling the excitement to action that arises from virtuous principles and induftrious habits, they abandon themselves to the ftimulus of a low and prying curiofity, and their miserable employment is to hear and retail the anecdotes of flander.

But, from no cause are the idle more expofed to danger than from companions like themselves. They mutually mislead and enfnare one another. Their evil habits, and their finful paffions acquire additional force, by being feparated from the good, and affociated, only with the bad. How many do we daily fee, falling, by this means, the victims of habitual intemperance? How many, among the pooreit claffes of fociety, giving up the active and diligent pursuit of honeft, though humble occupations, for the contemptible andruinous habits of fauntering and tipling, leave their unhappy families to fuffer at home? How many who ought to live by their daily labour, do we fee turning malicious tale bearers or ridiculous politicians, and regulating, in their pretended wisdom, the affairs of the flate, while their own trades are falling into decay? These