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dreaded, the delicate purity of the mind seems to be injured by it, as the beauty of some fruits and flowers is sullied, merely by touching the farina that covers them. Many crimes of great enormity, many odious offences, and many shocking and disgusting scenes, therefore, are studiously kept from their eyes. They must, however, be gradually developed to persons of riper years, whose duty indeed it is to prevent, sup. press, and punish them: but, in consequence of this painful increase of knowledge and experience, they are apt to think, that the world is become more wicked; and that the same enormities did not exist in former times, because, when young, they were not permitted to know them.

It may be farther remarked, that only an extensive intercourse with the world, such as is utterly incompatible with youth, can render us familiar with the various forms of selfishness, hypocrisy, and fraud; and it is not till we have acquired a state of comparative independence, or the power of conferring substantial benefits, that we can be exposed to the machinations of the worthless;-that we excite the malevolence

of envy, and feel the pang, which ingratitude, or neglect, too often inflicts. It is, indeed, so ordered by a wise and gracious God, that the

most favorable views of life should be disclosed to us early; while those events which mortify and disappoint us are reserved, in general, for a later period of existence. Thus, are we encouraged, in the morning of life, to run with joy the race that is set before us; and thus also are we gradually weaned from the world in the evening of our days, and prepared, through the merits and atonement of Christ, for a state of immortality. As an instance to illustrate this, we are soon taught to value the watchful tenderness, the anxious cares, and disinterested love of a parent; but it is not till many years have passed away, that we may have to grieve for the vices and follies of an undutiful child; or for the death of those, who formed the chief part of our happiness on earth. Notwithstanding this, the world is not worse; nor were the former days better than these. Our experience only is enlarged, and the needful discipline of life, which this invariably produces, should teach us true wisdom.

Misapprehensions on the subject of our present meditation may be promoted, also, by such books as are generally put into our hands when young. The poet, the philosopher, and even the historian, sometimes lead us over a sort of

fairy land, and represent rather what human nature should be, than what it is. It is, indeed, more pleasing and instructive to view the bright side of the picture; and there are few preceptors, who would not give their pupils an opportunity of studying, with a hope that they might emulate, the virtues of the wise and good, rather than exhibit to the youthful imagination such examples of frailty, infamy, and guilt, as might engender a sort of craft and caution, instead of leading them to any honorable exertions; or else beget an indolent self-love, which is satisfied with mere negative merit, and is fostered by that mixture of pride, ignorance, and suspicion, which always accompanies uncharitable views of human nature.

If, therefore, in giving the multiplied and varied history of our fellow-creatures, some failings are suppressed, and some good qualities exalted, from inclination and affection,-if acquirements are magnified, and virtues overcharged, by the biographer, or historian, in order to excite admiration, and to give, in the character of an individual, a pleasing, but too flattering a view of human nature, still it is an error on the right side; and the only ill effect to be apprehended from it is, that we might supply real persons for

the creatures of imagination; and, in looking abroad in the world with the vain expectation of finding their equals, might soon be disappointed, and come to the gloomy conclusion, that "former days were better than these.”

It may be farther observed, that the habits, manners, and fashions of the world, are continually varying; and the young often take pleasure in following them through all their capricious novelties. Now, though these things are, for the most part, indifferent, and in some respects beneficial to society; yet there is a period, when they cease to interest, and when, indeed, all change annoys us. We are apt, therefore, to charge the present generation with caprice, frivolity, and extravagance. We form comparisons greatly in favor of the age that is past, forgetting that we also left our predecessors behind, and are now only adhering with inflexible constancy, and the same degree of fondness, to the fashions and the follies, perhaps, of another century.

Having considered some of the many motives that might lead us to form erroneous estimations with respect to the goodness of former times and the present, it may now be proper to

state what reasons there are for supposing that former days were not better than these, but that the world is in a course of gradual improvement.

I am aware that this inquiry, if prosecuted too far, would lead to historical disquisitions, and comparative statements, by no means adapted to the instruction that is expected from the Pulpit. I shall only remark, therefore, that before the destruction of the world by the general deluge, we have the authority of the Holy Scriptures for saying, that mankind had degenerated; and that "their wickedness was great in the earth" but it should be remembered, that the state of our first parents, who fell from their original righteousness, was without a precedent, and must be without a parallel. If their posterity degenerated, it was from a model that was created perfect; and the progressive wickedness of that early period was calculated to exhibit, in the most striking manner, the fatal consequences of disobedience, and the awful punishment of sin. I need not remind you, that a redemption from the sentence passed on our first parents was graciously promised at the very time of their expulsion from Paradise;