of an amiable wife and children, will often withhold a mar from the perpetration of crimes, which in other circum stances he would have unhesitatingly committed.

Who

Domestic happiness springs out of domestic cares. would be entirely without them? They add new pleasures to our existence. He must not be unacquainted with sorrow, who would experience rapture and delight. But we will find no happiness on earth equal to that which flows from a pure and virtuous mind.

We should not be too careless of the future. By attending only to our present circumstances, and forgetting every thing else in the possession of one object, we prepare for ourselves misery and ruin. We can enjoy no greater pleasure than that of improving our condition, by our own unwearied exertions. The inheritance of an unexpected fortune, does not afford us a tithe of the pleasure that would the earnings of our own industry. The more numerous therefore the difficulties we are obliged to encounter in promoting the welfare of our families, the more deep and lasting is the happiness we enjoy. A hundred trifles, which the eye of the stranger does not observe, are a source of joy, and we confidently feel, that domestic care is greatly productive of domestic happiness.

When our Saviour instructed us to "take no thought for the morrow," we are not to understand that he would recommend carelessness or inactivity. The whole course of his life proved the contrary to this. He provided for the happiness of the whole human family. He disclaimed against idleness and luxury. He taught his disciples not to

" eat any man's bread for nought." He warned them

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against a restless anxiety to heap up worldly treasures, which only tend to consume the noblest powers of the soul, and unfit us for elevating ourselves above the sordidness of earth.

To be

A certain degree of care is very beneficial; but too much solicitude is highly pernicious; because we are thereby prevented from avoiding many misfortunes, or at least from counteracting in some measure their disasterous consequences. He who possesses sufficient firmness to accomplish this, has already obtained half the victory. prepared for danger, is to escape its worst results. Conquer thyself, and thou hast conquered half the world.* Be temperate in thy wishes. Love nothing with so much earnestness as thy religious principles, then the loss of any earthly object will be the less painful to thee. Give thyself often to the reflection, that in a moment thou mayest be deprived of thy wife, thy children, thy friends, thy property, or thy reputation. Thou mayest also be deprived of that to which thou hast clung with too much fondness, and which hath hindered thee from raising the structure of thy happiness upon the basis of virtue and prudence. It is the will of God to call thy affections from the perishable things of earth, to those that are imperishable and full of glory. Prepare thyself for the greatest possible calamity, so that when the trying hour of peril comes, thou mayest not relinquish all happiness at a single blow. If thou lovest God, then thou art convinced that all things work together for the best.

*This is a German maxim, which means that it is easier to conthan our own passione and imbecilities

half the world

Parents, though bereft of their children, and doomed poverty; though they may be compelled to toil for th bread in a strange land, and among a strange people; they are not entirely miserable when they can contempl a better existence hereafter. The true christian posses those attributes, which will enable him to triumph over e ry misfortune. He cares but little for the opinions of cold and unfeeling world. Although sorrows may mol him, yet he remains undisturbed. He stands like the yielding rock amid the buffeting of the heaving and ang billows. It is only to a mind like this, fraught with eve thing that is pure and good, that domestic cares are prod tive of happiness: To the wise man, they are only as beams of light that fall upon a beautiful picture, and Those by wh crease its splendor and magnificence. he is surrounded are the dearer to him, because they quire his attention. No one esteems his health so high as he who has been a prey to sickness. How indiffer would many things appear, if they did not excite in us interest. The fields are covered with innumerable flowe but the single one we took care of and nourished, affor How sweet are t us more pleasure than all the rest. feelings of solicitude manifested by the mother for her bab Would she be deprived of it, rather than undergo the anxie which it occasions her? And thus, would the husba yield up his endearing wife? or the son his excellent fathe No! Then domestic cares must be a source of the high enjoyment. And even though they should occasion much sorrow and trouble, they will be sweetened by t

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and angry with every are produconly as the re, and in

power of love. Our afflictions are the lighter, when they are mutually borne by each other.

We again repeat, that our cares are productive of happiness and every calamity we cannot thereby avoid, is the dispensation of providence. Therefore is fear and anxiety in vain. The only true misfortune is the possession of corrupt and dishonest principles; for we can never wipe away the remembrance of a crime. No arguments can throw a mantle over our guilt. No one can console us, where our own consciences upbraid us. Men may acquit us, but the anguish of our souls will still burn on as fierce. ly as ever.

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It is a very common error to judge of the excellency individuals or nations, according to the wealth which the possess. The best and wisest governments, like some our noblest and most learned men, have not always bee the richest. Nor have the most opulent of either, bee always distinguished for their praise-worthy qualities.

The wealth of a nation, any further than that which necessary for her maintenance, does not contribute to th happiness of its individual members. On the other han the more a people have to toil, in order to procure a su sistence, the fewer are the opportunities for the improv ment of their minds, and less attention is consequent paid to the pursuits of learning and science. It is ther fore, no advantage to possess more or less than adequa means for support. A small fountain will quench our thir as completely as the largest river.

Our sympathy for the poor man, because he sleeps upe a bed of straw, is entirely misplaced. There are man who even envy his happiness. The poor are only to pitied, when their health is impaired from a want of t necessaries of life; or when they are obliged to labor continually, that the improvement of their minds is e tirely neglected, and they become thereby, mere walki machines. In both instances, the high purposes of the

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