PYTHAGORAS. you; for respect produces admiration, but fear excites hatred, Between friends the utmost care should be taken to avoid contention, which can only be done by shunning as much as possible all occasions for strife, resentment, and exercising mụtual forbearance. It is an evident proof of a good education, to be able to endure the want of it in others. Reproof and correction are useful and becoming from the elder to the younger, especially when accompanied on the part of the reprover with evident tokens of affection. Mutual confidence is never for a moment to be interrupted between friends, whether in jest or earnest; for nothing can heal the wounds which are made by deceit, A friend must never be forsaken in adversity, nor for any infirmity in human nature, excepting only invincible obstinacy and moral depravity. Before we abandon a friend we should endeavour by actions as well as words to reclaim him. True friendship is a kind of union which is immortal. bar The great design and object of all moral and virtuous precepts is to lead men to the imitation of God. Since the Deity directs all things, every good thing is to be sought for from him alone; and nothing is to be done which is contrary to his pleasure. While we are performing divine rites piety should be al SOCRATES, They who excel others in good qualities or virtue ought to be praised. Wisdom is the composure of the soul; and they are the wisest men who err against nature and reason the least. Be not over-forward in speech, for many times the tongue hath cut off the head. The best and most rational way of worshipping God is to do what he commands, to abhor vice and to follow the practice of virtue. Our prayers should be for blessings in general for God knows best what is good for us; our offerings proportioned to our abilities for he considers integrity not display.. An honest death is far better than a dishonest life. Ji Contentedness is like a short or pleasant way, it hath much delight, little toil. We ought not to seek pleasure in others, but in ourselves, the body being predisposed according as it ought. There can be no better way to obtain glory than to endeavour to be good as well as to seem such. Men must obey the laws of their country wives wives their husbands. The reproof of a father is a kind remedy, it brings more ease than pain. He is the richest man who is contented with the least, for content is the riches of nature. It is arrogance to speak all and be unwilling to hear any thing. SEVEN WISE MEN. foolish but may teach thee something. Husband thy time, for it is of more value to thee than wealth; the one may be acquired, the other never. Regard the future in thy ac tions, and let not present gratification alone be all thy care. Do no injury to any one: thou hast no right to injure any man as he has no right to injure thee. Have respect and kindness for servants and dependants, though inferior in rank they are thy fellow-creatures. Children should be instructed and brought up in the paths of virtue. What thou hast to spare bestow upon others: they may want it more than thyself. Abhor deceit fear it as you would an enemy, for it will destroy your serenity of mind, and bring you into danger. Speak well of every one; let no lies or calumny be uttered by your mouth. In all thy judgments let the strictest justice prevail: equity is the right of all. Whatsoever thou knowest to be right that do though thy conduct may meet with reproach and ridicule. Abstain from bloodshed, thou hast no right to spill the blood of another. Avoid envy, it is the canker of the soul. Never use calumny or detraction. Be modest and calm in your CHRIST. Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. These things I command you that ye love one another. Precepts, some of which are manifestly immoral, and others of a very doubtful tendency ;Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace but a sword; I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's foes shall be they of his own household. " Agree with thine adversary quickly while thou art in the way with him, lest, at any time, the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and thou be cast into prison. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. After carefully reading and diligently examining the above maxims, let any man, let any fair-judging Christian decide whether or no the science of ethics is of comparatively modern date. Let him ask himself whether the virtuous precepts and moral axioms of these Heathen philosophers are not equally worthy of divine origin as the precepts of Christ. Let him ask himself whether any of them are inferior, whether all of them are not equal, and whether some are not superior to those promulgated in the New Testament. To say that He must answer in favour of the Pagans would be begging the question of his judgment, and be considered unfair dealing towards a silent adversary; but if he be a man of learning, of justice, and of truth, the great probabi lity SEVEN WISE MEN. deportment. Labour with equity, and do not that of which thou mayst repent. When having sinned be penitent, preserve amity and be grateful for kindnesses. Avoid hatred, malice, calumny, and unjustice, observe concord, violate no secrecy, and pursue what is honourable. Condole with the unhappy. Be in childhood modest; in youth temperate; in manhood just, and in old age prudent, and let thy death be calm and unruffled. CHRIST. neither SOW; neither reap, which neither have storehouse nor barn, and God feedeth them. If God so clothe the grass which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith. I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I, if it be already kindled. Sell that ye have, and give alms. ! Those mine enemies that would not I should reign over them, bring hither and slay them before me. If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and sisters; yea, and his own life, also, he cannot be my disciple. lity is, that he could so decide, at least tacitly, if not openly. A man who had never heard either of Paganism or Christianity, consequently having no previous bias to either, would be an impartial umpire; and to which such a man would adjudge the palm of merit, taking all the moral and immoral precepts of Christ equally into consideration, there can hardly remain a doubt. It plainly appears that morality is of so pure, so holy a nature, as to shine conspicuously with its own light, which has been visible to all countries, and in all ages, and its practices universally followed without the intervention of a divine mission from God to make it apparent. I am, &c. T. G. SIR, ON THE NATURE OF OATHS. To the Editor of "The Republican,” 1 I HAVE been attentively reading your Address to the Legislature in your last Number, and its perusal suggests the following reflections relative to oaths, and to the establishment of some means for ensuring true testimony. Oaths are evidently founded on the principle that men of bad dispositions, who are, nevertheless, imbued with sincere religious feelings, and a belief of a future state of rewards and punishments, will not stick at a common lie as being only a venial fault, but will dread the consequence of a solemn asseveration in the name of God, from it being declared a deadly sin. Now, I object to oaths-on this ground, that their real or pretended necessity, as a mode of eliciting truth, teaches men to undervalue truth when spoken in common; but still, as society is so full of faithless witnesses, and as the temptations to swear falsely are often so powerful, it seems reasonable to seek for a criterion of true testimony. 1 It was a principle laid down by Sir Samuel Romilly, and recognized as just by the best political lawyers, and the profoundest philosophers of our times, that, though the love of truth be an internal principle, and is a powerful motive to veracity, yet witnesses cannot be expected to speak the truth, when they are operated on by more powerful motives to speak falsely. Now, surely, there are many cases in which the sum of the motives to veredicity are less than the sum of the motives to false swearing, and as the balance of motives must ever régulate moral actions, so we may from hence derive a general expression for the chances of true, testimony. They will vary directly as the degree of preponderance of the inducements to true over the inducements to false affirmation. As the motives to false swearing were various, and as they were often indiscoverable from the frightful security which resides in the pernicious nature of secrecy, so legislators in the earliest ages endeavoured to set up, and establish as a principle of action, a sort of posthumous tribunal of divine police, whose judge could not be deceived, being the omnipresent and instantaneous inspector of the human heart; and thus they guarded against deceptions on earth, which no earthly police could always detect, by making the successful deceiver of mortals dread an immortal avenger of deception. Hence oaths, affidavits, and swearing of every kind, in every age, and in every country. |