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thy heart accufe me of injustice, and thou continue ftill a ftranger to thyfelf. Arife, therefore, and follow me."-I fprung' from the ground as it were with the wings of an eagle; I kiffed the hem of his garment in an extafy of gratitude and joy; and when I went out of my house, my heart leaped as if I had efcaped from the den of a lion. I followed Almalic to the caravanfera in which he lodged; and after he had fulfilled his vows, he took me with him to Medina. He gave me an apartment in the feraglio; I was attended by his own fervants; my provifions were fent from his own table; I received every week a fum from his treasury, which exceeded the most romantic of my expectations. But I foon difcovered, that no dainty was fo tafteful, as the food to which labour procured an appetite; no flumbers fo fweet, as those which wearinefs invited; and no time fo well enjoyed, as that in which diligence is expecting its reward. I remembered thefe enjoyments with regret; and while I was fighing in the midst of fuperfluities, which though they encumbered life, yet I could not give up, they were fuddenly taken away.

Almalic, in the midst of the glory of his kingdom, and in the full vigour of his life, expired fuddenly in the bath: fuch thou knoweft was the destiny which the Almighty had written upon his head.

His fon Aububekir, who fucceeded to the throne, was incenfed against me, by fome who regarded me at once with contempt and envy; he fuddenly withdrew my penfion, and commanded that I should be expelled the palace; a command which my enemies executed with fo much rigour, that within twelve hours I found myself in the streets of Medina, indigent and friendlefs, expofed to hunger and derifion, with all the habits of luxury, and all the fenfibility of pride. O! let not thy heart defpife me, thou whom experience has not taught, that it is mifery to lofe that which it is not happiness to poffefs. O! that for me this leffon had not been written on the tablets of Providence! I have travelled from Medina to Mecca; but I cannot fly from myfelf. How different are the flates in which I have been placed! The remembrance of both is bitter! for the pleasures of neither can return.-Haffan having thus ended his ftory, fmote his hands together; and looking upward, burst into tears.

Omar, having waited till this agony was

paft, went to him, and taking him by the hand, My fon," faid he, "more is yet in thy power than Almalic could give, or Aububekir take away. The leffon of thy life the prophet has in mercy appointed me to explain.

"Thou waft once content with poverty and labour, only because they were become habitual, and eafe and affluence were placed beyond thy hope; for when ease and affluence approached thee, thou waft content with poverty and labour no more. That which then became the object, was alfo the bound of thy hope; and he, whose utmoft hope is difappointed, must inevitably be wretched. If thy fupreme defire had been the delights of paradife, and thou hadst believed that by the tenor of thy life thefe delights had been secured, as more could not have been given thee, thou wouldst not have regretted that lefs was not offered. The content which was once enjoyed, was but the lethargy of foul; and the diftrefs which is now fuffered, will but quicken it to action. Depart, therefore, and be thankful for all things; put thy trust in Him, who alone can gratify the wish of reason, and fatisfy thy foul with good; fix thy hope upon that portion, in comparifon of which the world is as the drop of the bucket, and the duft of the balance. Return, my fon, to thy labour; thy food fhall be again tafteful, and thy reft fhall be fweet; to thy content also will be added ftability, when it depends not upon that which is poffeffed upon earth, but upon that which is expected in Heaven."

Haffan, upon whofe mind the Angel of inftruction impreffed the counsel of Ŏmar, haftened to proftrate himself in the temple of the Prophet. Peace dawned upon his mind like the radiance of the morning: he returned to his labour with chearfulness; his devotion became fervent and habitual; and the latter days of Haffan were happier than the first. Adventurer.

$109. Bad company-meaning of the phrafe -different claffes of bad company-ill chofen company what is meant by keeping bad company-the danger of it, from our aptness to imitate and catch the manners of others from the great power and force of custom-from our bad inclinations.

"Evil communication," fays the text, "corrupts good manners." The affertion is general, and no doubt all people fuffer from fuch communication; but above all, the minds of youth will fuffer; which G 2

are

are yet unformed, unprincipled, unfurnifhed; and ready to receive any impreffion.

But before we confider the danger of keeping bad company, let us firit fee the meaning of the phrafe.

In the phrafe of the world, good company means fashionable people. Their itations in life, not their morals, are confidered and he, who affociates with fuch, though they fet him the example of breaking every commandment of the decalogue, is ftill faid to keep good company. I fhould wish you to fix another meaning to the expreffion; and to confider vice in the fame deteftable light, in whatever company it is found; nay, to confider all company in which it is found, be their station what it will, as bad company.

The three following claffes will perhaps include the greatest part of thofe, who deferve this appeilation.

In the first, I should rank all who endeavour to deftroy the principles of Chriftianity-who jeft upon Scripture-talk blafphemy—and treat revelation with contempt.

A fecond clafs of bad company are thofe, who have a tendency to destroy in us the principles of common honefty and integrity. Under this head we may rank gamefters of every denomination; and the low and infamous characters of every pro

feflion.

A third clafs of bad company, and fuch as are commonly most dangerous to youth, includes the long catalogue of men of pleasure. In whatever way they follow the call of appetite, they have equally a tendency to corrupt the purity of the

mind.

Befides thefe three claffes, whom we may call bad company, there are others who come under the denomination of illchofen company: trifling, infipid characters of every kind; who follow no bufinefs -are led by no ideas of improvementbut spend their time in diffipation and folly -whofe highest praise it is, that they are only not vicious.-With none of thefe, a ferious man would with his fon to keep company.

It may be afked what is meant by keeping bad company? The world abounds with characters of this kind: they meet us in every place; and if we keep company at all, it is impoffible to avoid keeping company with fuch perfons.

It is true, if we were determined never to have any commerce with bad men, we muft, as the apoftle remarks, " altogether go out of the world." By keeping bad company, therefore, is not meant a cafual intercourfe with them, on occafion of bufinefs, or as they accidentally fall in our way; but having an inclination to confort with them-complying with that inclination-feeking their company, when we might avoid it-entering into their parties

and making them the companions of our choice. Mixing with them occafionally, cannot be avoided.

The danger of keeping bad company, arifes principally from our aptnefs to imitate and catch the manners and fentiments of others-from the power of customfrom our own bad inclinations-and from the pains taken by the bad to corrupt us*.

In our earliest youth, the contagion of manners is obfervable. In the boy, yet incapable of having any thing instilled into him, we easily discover from his first actions, and rude attempts at language, the kind of perfons with whom he has been brought up: we fee the early fpring of a civilized education, or the first wild shoots of rufticity.

As he enters farther into life, his behaviour, manners, and conversation, all take their calt from the company he keeps. Obferve the peafant, and the man of education; the difference is ftriking. And yet God hath beltowed equal talents on each. The only difference is, they have been thrown into different scenes of life; and have had commerce with perfons of different stations.

Nor are manners and behaviour more eafily caught, than opinions, and principles. In childhood and youth, we naturally adopt the fentiments of those about us. And as we advance in life, how few of us think for ourselves? How many of us are fatisfied with taking our opinions at fecond hand ?

The great power and force of custom forms another argument against keeping bad company. However feriously dif pofed we may be; and however shocked at the first approaches of vice; this fhocking appearance goes off, upon an intimacy with it.

Cuftom will foon render the moit disguitful thing familiar. And this is indeed a kind provifion of nature, to render labour, and toil, and danger, which are the lot of man, more eafy to him. The raw

* See this fubje&t treated more at large in an anonymous pamphlet, on the employment of time.

foldier,

foldier, who trembles at the first encounter, becomes a hardy veteran in a few campaigns. Habit renders danger familiar, and of courfe indifferent to him.

But habit, which is intended for our good, may, like other kind appointments of nature, be converted into a mifchief. The well-difpofed youth, entering first into bad company, is fhocked at what he hears, and what he fees. The good principles, which he had imbibed, ring in his ears an alarming leffon against the wickedness of his companions. But, alas! this fenfibility is but of a day's continuance. The next jovial meeting makes the horrid picture of yesterday more eafily endured. Virtue is foon thought a fevere rule; the gofpel, an inconvenient restraint: a few pangs of confcience now and then interrupt his pleasures; and whisper to him, that he once had better thoughts: but even thefe by degrees die away; and he who at first was fhocked even at the appearance of vice, is formed by cuftom into a profligate leader of vicious pleafures-perhaps into an abandoned tempter to vice.-So carefully fhould we oppofe the first approaches of fin! fo vigilant fhould we be againit fo infidious an enemy!

Our own bad inclinations form another argument against bad company. We have fo many paflions and appetites to govern; fo many bad propenfitics of different kinds to watch, that, amidst fuch a variety of enemies within, we ought at least to be on our guard against thofe without. The breaft even of a good man is reprefented in fcripture, and experienced in fact, to be in a fate of warfare. His vicious inclinations are continually drawing him one way; while his virtue is making efforts another. And if the fcriptures reprefent this as the cafe even of a good man, whofe paffions, it may be imagined, are become in fome degre cool, and temperate, and who has made fome progrefs in a virtuous courfe; what may we fuppofe to be the danger of 2 raw unexperienced youth, whofe paffions and appetites are violent and feducing, and whofe mind is in a ftill lefs confirmed flate? It is his part furely to keep out of the way of temptation; and to give his bad inclitations as little room as poffible to acquire Lew ftrength. Gilpin.

110. Ridicule one of the chief arts of corruption-bod company injures our characters, as well as manners-prefumption the forerunner of ruin➡he advantages of good

company equal to the difadvantages of bad -cautions in forming intimacies.

These arguments against keeping bad company, will ftill receive additional ftrength, if we confider farther, the great pains taken by the bad to corrupt others. It is a very true, but lamentable fact, in the hiftory of human nature, that bad men take more pains to corrupt their own fpecies, than virtuous men do to reform them. Hence thofe fpecious arts, that show of friendship, that appearance of difintereftednefs, with which the profligate feducer endeavours to lure the unwary youth; and at the fame time, yielding to his inclinations, feems to follow rather than to lead him. Many are the arts of thefe corrupters; but their principal art is ridicule. By this they endeavour to laugh out of countenance all the better principles of their wavering profelyte; and make him think contemptibly of thofe, whom he formerly refpected; by this they ftifle the ingenuous bluth, and finally deftroy all fenfe of thame. Their caufe is below argument. They aim not therefore at realoning. Raillery is the weapon they employ; and who is there, that hath the fteadincfs to hear perfons and things, whatever reverence he may have had for them, the fubject of continual ridicule, without lofing that reve rence by degrees?

Having thus confidered what principally makes bad company dangerous, I fhall juit add, that even were your morals in no danger from fuch intercourfe, your characters would infallibly fuffer. The world will always judge of you by your companions: and nobody will fuppofe, that a youth of virtuous principles himself, can poffibly form a connection with a profligate.

In reply to the danger fuppofed to arise from bad company, perhaps the youth may fay, he is fo firm in his own opinions, fo steady in his principles, that he thinks himfelf fecure; and need not reftrain himself from the most unreferved converfat on.

Alas! this fecurity is the very brink of the precipice: nor hath vice in her whole train a more dangerous enemy to you, than prefumption. Caution, ever awake to danger, is a guard against it. But fecurity lays every guard afleep. "Let him who thinketh he ftandeth," faith the apoftle, "take heed, left he fall." Even an apoftle himfelf did fall, by thinking that he food fecure. "Though I should die with

G 3

thee,"

thee," faid St. Peter to his mafter, "yet will I not deny thee." That very night, notwithstanding this boafted fecurity, he repeated the crime three feveral times. And can we fuppofe, that prefumption, which occafioned an apoftle's fall, fhall not ruin ur unexperienced youth? The ftory is recorded for our inftruction; and should be a ftanding leffon against prefuming upon our own ftrength.

In conclufion, fuch as the dangers are, which arife from bad company, fuch are the advantages, which accrue from good. We imitate, and catch the manners and fentiments of good men, as we do of bad. Custom, which renders vice lefs a deformity, renders virtue more lovely. Good examples have a force beyond inftruction, and warm us into emulation beyond precept; while the countenance and converfation of virtuous men encourage, and draw out into action every kindred difpofition of

our hearts.

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Befides, as a fense of shame often prevents our doing a right thing in bad company; it operates in the fame way in preventing our doing 'a wrong one in good. Our character becomes a pledge; and we cannot, without a kind of dishonour, draw back.

It is not poffible, indeed, for a youth, yet unfurnished with knowledge (which fits him for good company) to chufe his companions as he pleafes. A youth must have fomething peculiarly attractive, to qualify him for the acquaintance of men of eftablished reputation. What he has to do, is, at all events, to avoid bad company; and to endeavour, by improving his mind and morals, to qualify himfelf for the best.

Happy is that youth, who, upon his entrance into the world, can chufe his company with difcretion. There is often in vice, a gaiety, an unreferve, a freedom of manners, which are apt at fight to engage the unwary: while virtue, on the other hand, is often modeft, referved, diffident, backward, and easily difconcerted. That freedom of manners, however engaging, may cover a very corrupt heart: and this aukwardness, however unpleafing, may veil a thousand virtues. Suffer not your mind, therefore, to be eafily either engaged, or difgufted at first fight. Form your intimacies with referve: and if drawn unawares into an acquaintance you difapprove, immediately retreat. Open not your hearts to every profeffion of friendship. They, whofe friendship is worth accepting, are, as

you ought to be, referved in offering it. Chufe your companions, not merely for the fake of a few outward accomplishments

for the idle pleasure of spending an agreeable hour; but mark their difpofition to virtue or vice; and, as much as poffible, chufe thofe for your companions, whom you fee others refpe&t: always remembering, that upon the choice of your company depends in a great meafure the fuccefs of all you have learned; the hopes of your friends ; your future characters in life; and, what you ought above all other things to value, the purity of your hearts. Gilpin.

$111. Religion the best and only Support in Cafes of real Strejs.

There are no principles but thofe of religion to be depended on in cafes of real firefs; and thefe are able to encounter the worst emergencies; and to bear us up under all the changes and chances to which our life is fubject.

Confider then what virtue the very first principle of religion has, and how wonder. fully it is conducive to this end: That there is a God, a powerful, a wife and good Being, who firft made the world, and continues to govern it; by whofe goodnefs all things are defigned and by whofe providence all things are conducted to bring about the greateft and beft ends. The forrowful and penfive wretch that was giving way to his misfortunes, and mournfully finking under them, the moment this doctrine comes in to his aid, hufhes all his complaints-and thus fpeaks comfort to his foul," It is the Lord, let him do what feemeth him good. Without his direction, I know that no evil can befal me,without his permiffion, that no power can hurt me;-it is impoffible a Being fo wife fhould mistake my happiness or that a Being fo good fhould contradict it.-If he has denied me riches or other advantages-perhaps he forefees the gratifying my wishes would undo me, and by my own abufe of them be perverted to my ruin.-If he has denied me the request of children-or in his providence has thought fit to take them from me how can I fay whether he has not dealt kindly with me, and only taken that away which he forefaw would embitter and fharten my days?-It does fo to thoufands, where the difobedience of a thanklefs child has brought down the parents grey hairs with forrow to the grave. Has he vifited me with ficknefs, poverty, or

other

other difappointments?-can I fay, but
thefe are bleffings in difguife ?-fo many
different exprefions of his care and con-
cern to difentangle my thoughts from this
world, and fix them upon another-ano-
ther, a better world beyond this!"-This
thought opens a new face of hope and con-
felation to the unfortunate:-and as the § 112. Ridicule dangerous to Morality and
periuation of a Providence reconciles him
to the evils he has fuffered, this prospect
of a future life gives him ftrength to de-
fife them, and efteem the light afflictions of
this life, as they are, not worthy to be com-
pared to what is referved for him here-

is of that price, that it cannot be had at
too great a purchase; fince without it, the
beft condition of life cannot make us hap-
py; and with it, it is impoffible we should
be miferable even in the worst.
Sterne's Sermons.

after.

Things are great or fmall by comparifon-and he who looks no further than this world, and balances the accounts of his joys and fufferings from that confideration, finds all his forrows enlarged, and at the clofe of them will be apt to look back, and cast the fame fad reflection upon the whole, which the Patriarch did to Pharoah, "That few and evil had been the days of his pilgrimage." But let him lift up his eyes towards heaven, and stedfaftly behold the life and immortality of a future ftate, he then wipes away all tears from of his eyes for ever; like the exiled captive, big with the hopes that he is returning home, he feels not the weight of his Chains, or counts the days of his captivity; but looks forward with rapture towards the country where his heart is fled before.

Thefe are the aids which religion offers us towards the regulation of our fpirit under the evils of life, but like great cordials, they are feldom ufed but on great occurrences. In the leffer evils of life, we feem to ftand unguarded-and our peace and contentment are overthrown, and our happiness broke in upon, by a little impatience of fpirit, under the crofs and outward accidents we meet with. Thefe ftand unprovided for, and we neglect them as we do the flighter indifpofitions of the bodywhich we think not worth treating feriously, and fo leave them to nature. In good habits of the body, this may do, and I would gladly believe, there are fuch good habits of the temper, fuch a complexional eafe and health of heart, as may often fave the patient much medicine. We are ftill to confider, that however fuch good frames of mind are got, they are worth preferving by all rules:-Patience and contentment, which like the treasure hid in the field for which a man fold all he had to purchase

Religion.

The unbounded freedom and licentioufnefs of raillery and ridicule, is become of late years fo fafhionable among us, and hath already been attended with fuch fatal and deftructive confequences, as to give a reafonable alarm to all friends of virtue. Writers have rofe up within this last century, who have endeavoured to blend and confound the colours of good and evil, to laugh us out of our religion, and undermine the very foundations of morality, The character' of the Scoffer hath, by an un. accountable favour and indulgence, met not only with pardon, but approbation, and hath therefore been almoft univerfally fought after and admired. Ridicule hath been called (and this for no other reason but becaufe Lord Shaftesbury told us so) the teft of truth, and, as fuch, has been applied indifcriminately to every fubject.

But in oppofition to all the puny followers of Shaftesbury and Bolingbroke, all the laughing moralifts of the last age, and all the fneering fatyrifts of this, I shall not fcruple to declare, that I look on ridicule as an oppreffive and arbitrary tyrant, who like death throws down all diftinction; blind to the charms of virtue, and deaf to the complaints of truth; a bloody Moloch, who delights in human facrifice; who loves to feed on the fleth of the poor, and to drink the tear of the afflicted; who doubles the weight of poverty by fcorn and laughter, and throws the poifon of contempt into the cup of diftrefs to embitter the draught.

Truth, fay the Shafte fburians, cannot poffibly be an object of ridicule, and therefore cannot fuffer by it-to which the answer is extremely obvious: Truth, naked, undifguifed, cannot, we will acknowledge with them, be ridiculed; but Truth, like every thing elfe, may be mifreprefented: it is the bufinefs of ridicule therefore to difguife her; to drefs her up in a strange and fantastic habit; and when this is artfully performed, it is no wonder that the crowd fhould fmile at her deformity.

The nobleft philofopher and the bet G 4 moralift

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