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charity is waxed cold, and where truth is nearly obscured. Whenever it pleases God to appoint you to the government of a parish, you will find work enough to employ you. Therefore, before that time comes, you should be careful to provide yourself with all necessary knowledge; lest, by and by, when you ought to be building, you should have your materials to look for, and to bring together. Besides, the habit of studying and thinking, if it is not acquired in the first part of life, rarely comes afterwards. For want of spiritual exercises, a man is miserably drawn into the eddy of a worldly dissipation, and knows not how to get out of it again; the faculties of his soul are benumbed; and he sinks into indolence, till "the night cometh, when no man can work." Happy, therefore, is he, who betimes acquires a relish for holy solitude, and accustoms himself in his youth, to bear the yoke of Christ's discipline: who can sit alone and keep silence, and seek Wisdom diligently where she may be found, in the Scriptures of faith, and in the writings of the Saints; who, from these flowers of Paradise, extracts the honey of knowledge and divine love, and with it fills every cell of his understanding and affections; The winter of affliction, disease, and old age, will not surprise such an one in an unprepared state. He will not be confounded in the perilous time! and in the days of dearth, he will have enough to strengthen, comfort, and support, him and his bre thren.

Precious beyond rubies are the hours of youth and health! Let none of them pass unprofitably away: for surely they make to themselves wings; and they are as a bird cutting swiftly the air, and the trace of her can no more be found. If well

spent, they fly to Heaven with news that rejoices angels; and they meet us again, as witnesses for us, at the tribunal of the Lord. When the graces of time run into the glories of eternity, how trifling will the labour seem, that has, through grace, procured us everlasting rest; for which the apos tles toiled night and day, and the martyrs "loved not their lives unto death!"

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These, my dear are my sentiments: would to God that my practice were more conformable to them than it is, that I might be less unworthy to advise and exhort others! But, I trust, that the persuasion I have of the truth of what is said above, (which every day's experience more and more confirms,) will influence my con duct in this particular, and make me more watchful in time to come. In the mean season, I can not forbear pressing the same upon you, as I should do with my dying breath; since upon the due proportioning and employing of our time, all our progress in grace and knowledge depends.

If there be any thing with regard to the choice or matter of your studies in which I can assist you, let me know, as you can have no doubt of my being, in all things,

Most affectionately yours,

GEORGE HORNE.

LETTERS OF CONGRATULATION.

Miss Robinson, (afterwards Mrs. Montagu,) to Mrs. Donnellan.-On the New Year.

DEAR MRS. DONNELLAN,

Bullstrode, Jan. 1, 1742.

THOUGH there is no day of the year in which one does not wish all happiness to one's friends, this

is the day in which the heart goes forth in particular vows and wishes for the welfare of those we love. It is the birth of a new year, whose entrance we would salute, and hope auspicious. Nor is this particular mark of time of little use; it teaches us to number our days, which a wise man thought an incitement to the well spending of them. And indeed, did we consider how much the pleasure and profit of our lives depend upon the economy of our time, we should not waste it, as we do, in idle regret or reflection on the past, or in a vain, unuseful regard for the future. In our youth, we defer being prudcnt till we are old, and look forward to a promise of wisdom as the portion of latter years: when we are old, we seek not to improve, and we scarcely employ ourselves; we look backward to our youth, as to the day of our diligence, and take a pride in laziness, saying, we rest, as after the accomplishment of our undertakings. We ought to ask for our daily merit, as for our daily bread. The mind, no more than the body, can be sustained by the food taken yesterday, or promised for to-morrow. Every day ought to be considered as a period apart: some virtue should be exercised, some knowledge improved, some pleasure comprehended, in it. Many look upon the present day as only the day before to-morrow, and wear it out with a weary impatience of its length. I pity those people who are ever in pursuit, but never in possession. I would wish myself as little anxious as possible about the future; for the event of things generally mocks our foresight, eludes our care, and shows us how vain is the labour of anxiety.

May the sun every day this year, when it rises, find you well with yourself: and, at its setting,

leave you happy with your friends! Let yours be rather the felicity of ease and contentment, than the ecstasy of mirth and joy! May your mind repose in virtue and truth, and never in indolence or negligence! That you already know much, is the best incitement to know more; if you study trifles, you neglect two excellent things, knowledge and your own understanding. I wish we were as cautious of unbending the mind as we are of relaxing our nerves. I should as soon be afraid of stretching a glove till it was too strait, as of making the understanding and capacity narrow by extending them to things of a large comprehension; yet this is a common notion.

Our happy society is just breaking up; but I will think with gratitude, and not with regret, of the pleasant hours which I have had.-I hope this year will be happy to me: the last was encumbered with fears, and I had not much health in it; yet I was concerned at taking leave of it yesterday. I had not for it the tenderness one feels for a friend, or the gratitude one has to a benefactor: but I was reconciled to it as an old acquaintance. It had not enriched, nor, I fear, improved me; but it suffered me and admitted my friends.

The duchess of Portland thanks you for your letter she will answer it by word of mouth. I am sorry you have been low-spirited, but I can never like you the less for it. Mutual friendships are built on mutual wants: were you completely hap. py, you would not need me: imperfection wants and seeks assistance.

I am, dear madam, &c.

ELIZABETH ROBINSON.

Dr. Conyers Middleton to Mrs. Montagu.-On her marriage.

MADAM,

Hildersham, Aug. 17, 1742.

I SHOULD have paid my compliments earlier on the joyful occasion of your marriage, if I had known whither to address them, for your brother's letter, which informed me, happened to lie several days at Cambridge before it came to my hands. My congratulation, however, though late, wants nothing of the warmth with which the earliest was accompanied: for I must beg leave to assure you, that I take a real part in the present joy of your family; and feel a kind of paternal pleasure, from the good fortune of one, whose amiable qualities I have witnessed, from her tenderest years, and to whom I have ever been wishing and ominating every thing that is good. I always expected that your singular merits and accomplishments would recommend you,. in proper time, to an advantage. ous and honourable match; and I was assured that your prudence would never suffer you to accept any which was not worthy of you: so that it gives me not only the greatest pleasure on your account, but a sort of pride also on my own, to see my expectations fully answered, and my predic. tions literally fulfilled,

You have the fairest prospect of conjugal felicity now open before you, by your marriage with a gentleman, not only of figure and fortune, but of great knowledge and understanding: who values you not so much for the charms of your person, as for those of your mind, which will always give you the surest hold of him; as they will every day be gathering strength, whilst the others are daily

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