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conquefts, may render the name of a man famous, without rendering his character truly honourable. To many brave men, to many heroes renowned in ftory, we look up with wonder. Their exploits are recorded. Their praises are fuug. They stand as on an eminence above the reft of mankind. Their eminence, nevertheless, may not be of that fort, before which we bow with inward esteem and respect. Something more is wanted for that purpofe, than the conquering arm, and the intrepid mind. The laurels of the warrior muft at all times be dyed in blood, and bedewed with the tears of the widow and the orphan. But if they have been ftained by rapine and inhunianity, if fordid avarice has marked his character; or low and grofs fenfuality has degraded his life; the great hero finks into a little man. What at a diftance, or on a fuperficial view, we admired, becomes mean, perhaps odious, when we examine it more clofely. It is like the Coloffal ftatue, whofe immenfe fize ftruck the spectator afar off with aftonifhment; but when nearly viewed, it appears difproportioned, unfhapely, and rude.

Obfervations of the fame kind may be applied to all the reputation derived from civil accomplishments; from the refined politics of the ftatefman; or the literary efforts of genius and erudition. Thefe beftow, and within certain bounds, ought to beftow, eminence and distinction on men. They difcover talents which in themselves are fhining; and which become highly valuable, when employed in advancing the good of mankind. Hence, they frequently give rife to fame. But a diftinction is to be made between fame and true honour. The ftatefman, the orator, or the poet, may be famous; while yet the man himself is far from being honoured. We envy his abilities. We wish to rival them. But we would not choose to be claffed with him who poffeffed them. Inftances of this fort are too often found in every record of ancient or modern history.

From all this it follows, that in order to discern where man's true honour lies, we must look, not to any adventitious circumftance of fortune; not to any single sparkling quality; but to the whole of what forms a man; what entitles him, as fuch, to rank high among that clafs of beings to which he belongs; in a word, we must look to the mind and the foul.

A mind fuperior to fear, to felfifh intereft and corruption; a mind governed by the principles of uniform rectitude and intégrity; the fame in profperity and adverfity; which no bribe can feduce, nor terror overawe; neither by pleasure melted into effeminacy, nor by distress funk into dejection; fuch is the mind which forms the diftinction and eminence of man. One, who in no fituation of life, is either afhamed or afraid of discharging his duty, and acting his proper part with firmnefs and conftancy; true to the God whom he worships, and true to the faith in which he profeffes to believe; full of affection to his brethren of mankind; faithful to his friends, generous to his enemies, warm with compaffion to the unfortunate; felf-denying to little private interefts and pleafures, but zealous for public intereft and happinefs; magnanimous, without being proud; humble, without being mean; juft, without being harth; fimple in his manners, but manly in his feelings; on whofe word we can entirely rely; whofe countenance never deceives us; whofe profeffions of kindness are the effufions of his heart; one, in fine, whom independent of any views of advantage, we would choofe for a fuperior, could truft in as a friend, and could love as a brother. This is the man, whom in our heart, above all others, we do, we must honour.

SECTION XIII.

BLAIR.

The influence of Devotion on the Happiness of Life.

WHATEVER promotes and ftrengthens virtue, whatever calms and regulates the temper, is a fource of happiness. Devotion produces thefe effects in a remarkable degree. It infpires compofure of fpirit, mildnefs, and benignity; weakens the painful, and cherishes the pleafing emotions; and, by thefe means, carries on the life of a pious man in a smooth and placid tenor.

Befides exerting this habitual influence on the mind, devotion opens a field of enjoyments, to which the vicious are entire ftrangers; enjoyments the more valuable, as they peculiarly belong to retirement, when the world leaves us; and to adverfity, when it becomes our foe. These are the two feafons, for which every wife man would moft wish to provide fome hidden ftore of comfort. For let him be placed in the moft favourable fituation which the human ftate admits, the

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world can neither always amufe him, nor always fhield him from diftrefs. There will be many hours of vacuity, and many of dejection, in his life. If he be a ftranger to God and to devotion, how dreary will the gloom of folitude often prove! With what oppreffive weight will fickness, disappointment, or old age, fall upon his fpirits! But for thofe penfive periods, the pious man has a relief prepared. From the tirefome repetition of the common vanities of life, or from the painful corrofion of its cares and forrows, devotion transports him into a new region; and furrounds him there with fuch objects, as are the most fitted to cheer the dejection, to calm the tumults, and to heal the wounds of his heart. If the world has been empty and delufive, it gladdens him with the profpect of a higher and better order of things, about to rife. If men have been ungrateful and bafe, it difplays before him the faithfulness of that Supreme Being, who, though every other friend fail, will never forfake him. Let us conlult our experience, and we fhall find, that the two greatest fources of inward joy, are, the exercise of love directed towards a deferving object, and the exercife of hope terminating on fome high and affured happinefs. Both these are fupplied by devotion; and therefore we have no reason to be surprised, if, on fome occafions, it fills the hearts of good men with a fatisfaction not to be expreffed.

The refined pleasures of a pious mind, are, in many refpects, fuperior to the coarse gratifications of fenfe. They are pleasures which belong to the highest powers and beft affections of the foul; whereas the gratifications of fense refide in the lowest region of our nature. To the latter, the foul ftoops below its native dignity. The former, raife it above itself. The latter, leave always a comfortlefs, often a mòrtifying, remembrance behind them. The former, are reviewed with applaufe and delight. The pleasures of fense refemble a foaming torrent, which, after a diforderly course, speedly runs out, and leaves an empty and offenfive channel. But the pleasures of devotion resemble the equable current of a pure river, which enlivens the fields through which it paffes, and diffufes verdure and fertility along its banks. To thee, O Devotion! we owe the highest improvement of our nature, and much of the enjoyment of our life. Thou art the support

of our virtue, and the reft of our fouls, in this turbulent world. Thou compofeit the thoughts. Thou calmeft the paffions. Thou exalteft the heart. Thy communications, and thine only are imparted to the low, no lefs than the high; to the poor, as well as to the rich. In thy prefence, worldly diftinctions ceafe; and under thy influence, worldly forrows are forgotten. Thou art the balm of the wounded mind. Thy fanctuary is ever open to the miferable; inacceffible only to the unrighteous and impure. Thou beginneft on earth the temper of heaven. In thee, the hofts of angels and bleffed fpirits eternally rejoice.

SECTION XIV.

BLAIR,

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The Planetary and Terrestrial Worlds, comparatively considered: To us, who dwell on its furface, the earth is by far the moft extenfive orb that our eyes can any where behold: it is alfo clothed with verdure, distinguished by trees, and adorned with a variety of beautiful decorations; whereas, to a fpectator placed on one of the planets, it wears a uniform afpect; looks all luminous; and no larger than a fpot. To beings who dwell at ftill greater diftances, it entirely difappears. 2 That which we call alternately the morning and the evening ftar, as in one part of the orbit fhe rides foremoft in the proceffion of night, in the other ufhers in and anticipates the dawn, is a planetary world, which, with the four others that fo wonderfully vary their miftic dance, are in themselves dark bodies, and shine only by reflection; have fields and feas, and skies of their own; are furnished with all accommodations for animal fubfiftence, and are fuppofed to be the abodes of intellectual life; all which, together with our earthly habitation, are dependent on that grand difpenfer of divine munificence, the fun; receive their light from the distribution of his rays, and derive their comfort from his benign agency.

The fun, which feems to perform its daily ftages through the fky, is in this refpect fixed and immoveable it is the great axle of heaven, about which the globe we inhabit, and other more fpacious orbs, wheel their stated courfes. The fun, though feemingly fmaller than the dial it illuminates, is abundantly larger than this whole earth, on which so many lofty mountains rife, and fuch vaft oceans roll. A line extending from fide to fide through the centre of that refplend

ent orb, would measure more than eight hundred thousand miles a girdle formed to go round its circumference, would require a length of millions. Were its folid contents to be eftimated, the account would overwhelm our understanding, and be almost beyond the power of language to express Are we startled at thefe reports of philofophy? Are we ready to cry out in a transport of furprise, "How mighty is the Being who kindled fuch a prodigious fire; and keeps alive, from age to age, fuch an enormous mafs of flame !" let us attend our philofophic guides, and we shall be brought acquainted with fpeculations more enlarged and more inflaming. 5This fun with all its attendant planets, is but a very little part of the grand machine of the univerfe; every star, though inpearance no bigger than the diamond that glitters upon a lady's ring, is really a vaft globe, like the fun in fize and in glory; no lefs fpacious, no lefs luminous, than the radiant fource of day. So that every ftar is not barely a world, but the centre of a magnificent system; has a retinue of worlds, irradiated by its beams, and revolving around its attractive influence, all which are loft to our fight in unmeasurable wilds of ether. That the ftars appear like fo many diminutive, and scarcely distinguishable points, is owing to their immenfe and inconceivable diftance. Immenfe and inconceivable indeed it is, fince a ball, fhot from the loaded cannon, and flying with unabated rapidity, muft travel, at this impetuous rate, almost seven hundred thousand years, before it could reach the neareft of thofe twinkling luminaries.

> While beholding this vaft expanfe, I learn my own extreme meanness, I would also discover the abject littleness of all terreftrial things. What is the earth, with all her oftentatious fcenes, compared with this aftonishing grand furniture of the fkies? What, but a dim fpeck, hardly perceivable in the map of the univerfe ?sIt is obferved by a very judicious writer, that if the fun himfelf, which enlightens this part of the creation, were extinguished, and all the host of planetary worlds, which move about him, were annihilated, they would not be miffed by an eye that can take in the whole compafs of nature, any more than a grain of fand upon the fea fhore. The bulk of which they confift, and the space which they occupy, are so exceedingly little in comparison of the whole,

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