But all things else about her drawn I saw her upon nearer view, Her household motions light and free, A countenance in which did meet And now I see with eye serene CONTENTEDNESS.-JEREMY TAYLOR. If you will secure a contented spirit, you must measure your desires by your fortune and condition, not your fortunes by your desires; that is, be governed by your needs, not by your fancy; by nature, not by evil customs and ambitious principles. He that would shoot an arrow out of a plough, or hunt a hare with an elephant, is not unfortunate for missing the mark or prey; but he is foolish for choosing such unapt instruments: and so is he that runs after his content with appetites not springing from natural needs, but from physical, fantastical, and violent necessities. These are not to be satisfied; or if they were, a man hath chosen an evil instrument towards his content: nature did not intend rest to a man by filling of such desires. Is that beast better that hath two or three mountains to graze on, than a little bee that feeds on dew or manna, and lives upon what falls every morning from the store-houses of heaven, clouds and providence? Can a man quench his thirst better out of a river than a full urn; or drink better from the fountain when it is finely paved with marble, than when it swells over the green turf? Pride and artificial gluttonies do but adulterate nature, making our diet healthless, our appetites impatient and unsatisfiable, and the taste mixed, fantastic and meretricious. But that which we miscall poverty, is indeed nature and its proportions are the just measures of a man, and the best instruments of content. But when we create needs that God or nature never made, we have erected to ourselves an infinite stock of trouble that can have no period. Sempronius complained of want of clothes, and was much troubled for a new suit, being ashamed to appear in the theater with his gown a little thread-bare; but when he got it, and gave his old clothes to Codrus, the poor man was ravished with joy, and went and gave God thanks for his new purchase; and Codrus was made richly fine and cheerfully warm by that which Sempronius was ashamed to wear; and yet their natural needs were both alike; the difference only was that Sempronius had some artificial and fantastical necessities superinduced, which Codrus had not; and was harder to be relieved, and could not have joy at so cheap a rate: because he only lived according to nature; the other by pride, and ill customs, and measures taken by other men's eyes and tongues, and artificial needs. He that propounds to his fancy things greater than himself or his needs, and is discontented and troubled when he fails of such purchases, ought not to accuse providence, or blame his fortune, but his folly. God and nature made no more needs than they mean to satisfy; and he that will make more, must look for satisfaction where he can. METAPHOR. LOVE'S EXCUSE FOR SADNESS.-BULWER, Chide not, beloved, if oft with thee I feel not rapture wholly ; For aye the heart that's filled with love, To streams that glide in noon, the shade That, chide me not, if with the light RELIGION,-Erskine. Depend upon it, the world cannot be held together without morals; nor can morals maintain their station in the human heart without religion, which is the corner stone of the fabric of human virtue. We have lately had a most striking proof of this sublime and consoling truth, in one result, at least, of the revolution which has astonished and shaken the earth.Though a false philosophy was permitted for a season to raise up her vain fantastic front, and to trample down the christian establishments and institutions, yet, on a sudden, God said, “Let there be light, and there was light." The altars of religion were restored; not purged indeed of human errors and superstitions, not reformed in the just sense of reformation, yet the christian religion is still re-established; leading on to farther reformation; fulfilling the hope, that the doctrines and practice of christianity shall overspread the face of the earth. THE CHRISTIAN SOLDIER'S DEATH.-MONTGOMERY. "Servant of God! well done; The battle fought, the victory won, Enter thy Master's joy." -The voice at midnight came; A mortal arrow pierced his frame: Tranquil amidst alarms, A veteran slumbering on his arms, It was a two-edged blade, And double were the wounds it made, "T was death to sin;-'t was life Oft with its fiery force His arm had quelled the foe, Bent on such glorious toils, The world to him was loss; Yet all his trophies, all his spoils, He hung upon the cross. At midnight came the cry, "To meet thy God prepare!" He woke,—and caught his Captain's eye; Then, strong in faith and prayer, His spirit, with a bound, Burst its encumbering clay; His tent, at sun-rise, on the ground, A darkened ruin lay. The pains of death are past, Labor and sorrow cease, And life's long warfare closed at last, His soul is found in peace. Soldier of Christ! well done; INVENTION.-E. EVERETT, From time to time, a chosen hand sometimes directed by chance, but more commonly guided by reflection, experiment, and research, touches a spring till then unperceived; and through what seemed a blank and impenetrable wall,—the barrier to all farther progress, a door is thrown open into some before unexplored hall in the sacred temple of truth. The multitude rushes in, and wonders that the portals could have remained concealed so long. When a brilliant discovery or invention is proclaimed, men are astonished to think how long they had lived on its confines, without penetrating its nature. TYRANNY,-TALFOURD, I know enough to feel for thee; I know O think before the irrevocable deed Shuts out all thought, how much of power's excess As that of the scourged slave whose chains it severs? Of eve which purpled them, our cunning frailty |