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youth, if they have flown away without improvement-if he has foolishly confumed them in trifling occupations, or loft them in idleness.

4. What more diftreffing object can be held to the view of fociety than that of a man whofe faculties, instead of being unfolded and enlarged by exercise, are benumbed by inactivity, or debilitated or worn out in the fervice of vice ; carrying with him, into the maturer feafon, nothing but the difgraceful feelings of weakness, regret and remorfe?

5. On the other hand, What pleasure must not a person experience in recalling to his mind the fpring of life, who has employed it in forming his mind and his heart in preparing himself for ufeful occupations; and who, having cultivated the precious feed which the Creator has fown within us, can hope to reap for himself and others the moft excellent fruits? How delightful is the fight of such a man to every sensible and virtuous person !

6. Happy will it be for me if I may one day taste this fatisfaction, and procure it for my parents and fellow citizens. Happy for me if I entertain at prefent the fame opinion of the important design of youth as I fhall certainly have in maturer years, and in old age, in the hours of retirement and recollection, and at the approach of death.

7. But ah! how different is the point of view in which manhood and old age fee the days of their youth, from that in which they are beheld by the young man himself! And how much more likely to be juft is their opinion which is formed on their own experience and that of others! Where is the man who ever repented of having well employed his youth?

8. Does not this period of life, when paffed in piety and innocence, procure us the most valuable advantages, and the most noble pleasures? On the other hand, how many deplore the loss or abuse of these most favorable days of their lives, and bitterly lament over the unhappy confequen. ces of youthful errors?

9. How many are there who, in the flower of their lives, are a prey to the infirmities of a premature old age, become incapable of tafting the pleafures and comforts of domestic life, or to whom these pleasures are embittered and poisoned by remorfe of confcience?

10. And fhall not these lessons and experiences, fo proper to instruct and encourage me, make me more wife and prudent? Shall they not engage me wifely to employ the days of youth; to fly the steps of those unfortunate persons whofe very appearance terrifies me ;

11. To proceed with a firm and perfevering ftep in the path where fo many of my predeceffors have reaped the advantages they now enjoy, and by which they have become valuable men, ufeful citizens, and wife and happy beings?

12. The present is the feason for fowing. If, at a more advanced period, I would not be reduced to the want of neceffaries ; if I would not be a burden to myself and others; if I would gather a rich and abundant harvest, I must fow the good feed, and carefully cultivate the ground which receives it. I must adorn my mind with wisdom, and my heart with virtue; I muft lay in a ftore of useful knowl edge, and early acquire the habit of acting juftly.

13. I must combat my evil thoughts before they gain the mastery; I muft extirpate my evil habits before they have taken deep root; I muft endeavor to fecure the love and esteem of my fellow citizens, by à rational, modeft, attentive, regular conduct, that I may be able to depend in future on their protection and support.

14. Youth is the time for difcipline and preparation; in this season I fhould acquaint myfelf with, and properly val ue, and exercise my faculties and powers, if I would one day employ them with facility and fuccefs; I should ac quire the information and the talents for which I fhall have occafion in future life, and without which I fhall ftumble at every step, and find myself involved in a thousand perplexing difficulties.

15. I must accuftom myself to felf denials; to bear contradiction and oppofition; to endure fatigue, trouble, and affliction; to fubdue my paffions; to conquer my fen fual appetites; if I would not one day fink under the weight of every duty and every trial.

16. How important then is the present season of life! Mere wishes, flothful and feeble efforts, will not fuffice to fulfil its duties and defign. It is only by perfevering endea vors, by a conftant application, and by an unfhaken firm nefs, that I can attain the end which I propose.

17. But need I be difcouraged and alarmed at the neceffity of diligence, application and refiftance? Will not the wages be proportioned to the labor, and the triumph to the combat? Shall I poftpone to an uncertain hereafter that which I can and ought to do at prefent? Is not the time I lofe really left forever? Has not every future period of my existence its particular employment ?

18. Will it be the time for fowing when the feafon of gathering fhall come, or for inftruction when I fhall be called to make use of my knowledge? What it is incumbent on me to do at this season, and which I neglect because of its difficulties, will become every year and every day more difficult?

19. Notwithstanding the health and strength I enjoy in the fpring of life, may I not lose my powers, and die in the flower of my days? And what doom may I expect in the future ftate, if I have foolishly wafted the prime of life in the flavery of irregular paffions and the corruptions of vice?

20. Let me watch continually over myself, over all the fecret motions of my heart; let me not fuffer myself to be feduced by the vain promises of vice, by the charms of an apparent liberty, or a treacherous joy.

21. Wisdom raises her voice to tell me that the intoxication of fenfe endures but for an inftant; that the enchanted cup of luxury fhall not be always fweet to my tafte; that the pleasure I find in drinking it fhall foon vanish, as a fleeting dream from which we are fearfully awakened; that the liberty with which I am flattered by vice is nothing but the vilest slavery, and that all its joys are poifoned at their fource.

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22. Whereas, no innocent pleasure which I forego, from a principle of virtue, fhall be loft to me; fooner or later it fhall be returned to me with intereft. A train of pure and lafting joys fhall recompenfe me, in manhood and old age, for the deftructive or vain gratifications which I have prudently renounced.

23. And even when prevented, by an early death, from gathering, in this world, the fruits of a well regulated youth, hall I not reap a prodigious advantage if I am prepared to nter a more perfect abode, and fufficiently qualified for the

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fublime employment and delicious pleasures which await the virtuous in a future existence?

24. Yes, O my God, it is only by keeping thy com mandments-by making wisdom and virtue, reafon and religion his faithful guides, that a young man can preserve his innocence, look with calmness on the beginning of his course, and advance nearer and nearer to his fupreme destination.

25. O may these faithful guides always accompany me in the journey of life! Oh Almighty and moft merciful God, do thou thyfelf conduct me, by thy fpirit, in the ftraight road. Preferve me, by thy grace, from the wan derings of youth, and the tyranny of paffions.

26. Let thy wife and good providence remove far from my path the obftacles and temptations which may occafion my fall. Affift my endeavors to become wife, and virtu ous, and holy; and accompany them with thy bleffing. Place me in circumftances favorable to my improvement. Give me faithful friends and guides, and enable me to fol. low them in the paths of goodness.

27. Thou delighteft, O God, to grant the defires which flow from a fincere heart, and to fecond the efforts of those who seriously afpire after greater perfection. Supported and guided by thee, I cannot fail of attaining in this world the design of my existence, and of arriving in the other at my fupreme end.

THE EFFECTS OF PARENTAL PARTIALITY.

1. THE intrinfic moral worth of any character is entirely diftinct from, and independent of, external circumftances. Every fituation in human life affords fufficient portunities for the cultivation of virtuous habits, and the per formance of good actions;

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2. And as far as a man's virtues refpect himself, it is of little confequence, whether they be difplayed to public view from an exalted station, or concealed from the notice of the world in the humble retreats of poverty.

3. If the pine or the oak happen to grow in the valley,

the one is not on that account, in itself, the less lofty, nor the other the less majestic.

4. With respect, however, to the impreffions which the virtues of one man may make on the imagination or feeling of another, or the degree of force with which his example. will operate, much depends on the fituation in which they appear, and the light in which they are exhibited.

5. In the ftill walks of domestic life, and under the lowly roof where honeft labor dwells, if you will be at the pains to fearch for them, you will find many amiable and refpectable characters, adorned and enriched with virtues which entitle them to a place among "the excellent of the earth," who, nevertheless, live unnoticed and forgotten; without reward, without praise, perhaps almost without fupport:

6. While others, whom fortune hath furrounded with the glare of earthly grandeur, continually fet forth their whole ftock of fhining qualities before the gazing multitude, and are fure of obtaining at least as much admiration and applaufe as they deserve.

"Full many a flower is born to blush unfeen,
And wafte its fweetness on the defart air."

7. Perhaps we owe it to the extraordinary revolutions which happened in the life of Jofeph (whofe character and history we are now to confider) and to the elevated station which he filled in the court of Pharaoh, that the virtues of his early years, while he was a fhepherd in the land of Canaan, a fervant to Potiphar, and a prisoner in Egypt, were not buried in oblivion.

8. Under the former of these characters, the facred hiftory prefents him to us, as at once a proper object of our admiration and pity. While we admire the gentleness of his difpofitions, the innocence of his character, and the fimplicity of his manners, we cannot but lament his misfortune, and be afflicted to fee him fall a facrifice to the imprudent partiality of his father, and the envy and malice of his brethren.

9. "Ifrael loved Joseph more than all his children :" And why? Was it because he took better care of the flocks and herds; because he was more dutiful and affectionate to

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