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time devoted to study shall have closed. Nor ought any to complain of your resorting to such means. You may thereby incommode or disappoint an individual now and then; but the sum of evil will be greatly diminished.

6. Be careful, in visiting in private families,

NOT ΤΟ MAKE YOUR CALLS AT UNSEASON A

BLE HOURS. The law of custom has proscribed certain hours for visiting as unseasonable; and the law of domestick convenience entirely coincides with that of custom. In all well regulated families, there are certain hours set apart for particular family duties and arrangements. To these objects are commonly devoted three or four hours immediately following breakfast, and the same number immediately following dinner. To call, during these hours, (I refer now to populous towns, rather than to retired country places,) especially on the female: members of a family, is generally, agreed by a sort of conventional understanding, to be an impropriety, unless in special cases, or among intimate friends. This is so extensively known, that it might seem unnecessary to mention it, did not some liberally educated young men, as well as others, so frequently appear to lose sight of it. Make the case your own. Suppose any one to call on your family at three o'clock in the afternoon, and to sit until nine

or ten in the evening, and to require all this time to be attended by one or more individuals of the family circle;-what would be the consequence? You have only to imagine calls of this kind made frequently, and to what pass would domestick order and arrangements be brought? It would be utterly wrong, indeed, on the one hand, to apply a principle of this kind so rigidly as to preclude the performance of an obvious duty. But, on the other hand, it would be, to say the least, quite as improper to subject a family, from time to time, to a very great inconvenience, for the purpose of averting from yourself a small one. Endeavour then, as far as possible, to make your calls at those seasons which are commonly set apart, in orderly families, to social purposes; by which all understand to be meant the latter part of the forenoon, and the evening. You will be at such seasons, a far more welcome visitant, and your visits will, of course, be much more likely to be pleasant to yourself, and useful to

others.

7. If your lot should be cast in a populous town, you will have frequent invitations to attend DINING PARTIES. In some large cities invitations of this kind are received, if not for every day, at least several times in each week. Let me advise you to be very sparing in your

attendance on such parties. The tendency of frequent luxurious feasting is, to injure the health; to dissipate the mind; to indispose for theological study; to undermine all spirituality; to lower the tone of ministerial fidelity and influence; and in various ways to ensnare those who indulge in it. I have seldom known any minister who abounded in this practice, without incurring serious disadvantage in consequence of it; and in some cases the results have been of the most deplorable kind. If I were to lay down a rule on this subject, I would say, however numerous the invitations which you may receive, never as a habit, accept of more than one in a fortnight, or even three weeks. By this means your health will be better;-your head clearer;-your feelings more in harmony with your profession; and the impression left on the minds of those who invite you, more respectful and salutary.

S. Be careful, also, that YOUR CONVERSATION AND DEPORTMENT AT DINING PARTIES, be ex

emplary, and even edifying. It would be on many occasions, indeed, quite unseasonable to make at the dinner table a formal address on any point of theology, or of practical religion. How far or in what cases, the subject may be directly introduced at all, where the company is mixed, must be decided by good sense, and a knowledge of the world, under the guidance

of a prevailing taste for spiritual things. I have known quite as much mischief arise, on some occasions, from an ill-judged and ill-managed introduction of this subject, as, on other occasions, from a palpable and improper neglect of it. Wisdom is profitable to direct. Humbly seek direction in each case, and you will be led, substantially, in the right way. But there are some rules which a minister of the Gospel, when seated with a dining party, may and ought to observe, in all cases, and which can never give the smallest offence, when the company is, as we may reasonably take for granted it always will be when he is present—a decent one. Allow me to hint at a few of them. Some of those which I shall mention, have been partly brought into view before; but I choose to present them in a group in this place.

Never indulge, at the dining table, in loud talking, or boisterous mirth. This is, in most cases, a mark of vulgarity, or of something worse. And if it occur toward the close of dinner, it may excite a suspicion, in those who have not observed your strictly temperate drinking, that you are animated by wine.

Do not allow yourself to talk much of the excellence of particular articles of food, or kinds of cookery, or of the qualities of different wines. It is unworthy of a minister of the Gospel to manifest, or to feel, a disposition to

Do not even

attend to matters of this kind. praise, in a pointed or conspicuous way, any article before you on the table. Give no occasion to any one to remark, as has often been sarcastically done, that "the parson is very fond of good eating and drinking." If you enjoy an article of food or drink, do it pretty much in silence; or if a strong commendation of what you are eating, be pointedly addressed to you by another, assent to it, moderately, if you can consistently with candour; but not with that warmth and repetition which evince particular engagement of mind.

While you forbear to converse in a style which savours of the epicure and the wine-bibber; be careful to embrace every opportunity to throw out good sentiments, and pious hints. If you see no favourable opening to speak directly on the most precious of all subjects, there are many others, which you may introduce in all companies, without offence, and with much utility. Such, for example, as literature-education-new books-humane and benevolent institutions-plans of usefulness-striking anecdotes, adopted to impress good and seasonable sentiments-in short, any thing which may tend to benefit those around you, and to show that your own mind is running on something better than mere animal indulgence.

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