Those who are fools in their own estimation, will most assuredly be illuminated with a ray from heaven. That man who feels a deep sense of his own nothingness, and a grateful sensibility of the divine favours, will never walk in darkness. The astronomer, who points out with the utmost accuracy the motions, periods, and velocity of the heavenly bodies; the opposite forces of the planets called the centripetal and centrifugal, the one tending to, the other flying from the centre; yet with all his boasted learning, he may live and die in intellectual darkness. He may see the order, harmony, beauties and benefits of creation, without venerating and adoring the almighty Author of all those beauties and benefits. He views the seasons walking hand in hand, pouring out their abundance, which he participates with unthankfulness. Alas! blessings have been poured upon us in super-abundance, but our abuse of them has rendered them the most formidable

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curses; hence we impeach Providence with the consequences of our own delinquency and ingratitude.

God has granted to man the knowledge of a Supreme Intelligence, in order to win him to his own happiness; but man from this simple sentiment, has manufactured a thousand religions, as inhuman as the priests by whom they are administered, who are continually learning every art but the art of being happy. The earth every where produces abundance for man, while thoughtless, thankless. man, every where waters that same earth with the tears and blood of man, unhappy man! It is not nature, but man that is to be impeached with the miseries and ills of life. O that I could convince the unfortunate man, who sickens at the gloomy spectacle which this wicked world presents to his view, that his heavenly Father and his Friend is always ready to alleviate his sorrows, and that he only afflicts him to-day, to reward him to-morrow.

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The rich and affluent think all are mise- . rable who live out of the circumference of fashionable life ; but they themselves are the most miserable, because they counteract the laws of nature, and live in opposition, and not in subordination to her dictates ; such persons have no relish but for vain delights, no sight but for shadows, no pleasure but in sensuality: While they have no relish for God, they are total strangers to true pleasure, and their whole life is a mise. rable dream. They are in the midst of the superb works of God, and yet admire only their own grandeur. They are continually fed (like a hog feeding upon acorns, who never knows nor cares from whence they fall) by the liberal hand of the Creator, and yet they infringe his rights, and counteract his excellent laws. Surely the oppressor thus acts; and the just re-action of Providence repays

him in his own coin. With the same measure he metes, it is measured unto him again. The more men are ope

pressed, the more feeble and wretched are their oppressors; for they produce misery,

រ and misery produces murders, robberies, prostitution, rebellion and civil wars, which end in their ruin.

This re-action of evil is observable in the governments of modern, as well as of ancient times. We see even in the present day, governments judicially infatuated, who with long and steady strides, approach the brink of political annihilation. They do not remember, that the cause must be removed before the effects will cease. The world is filled with wretchedness and misery, which are the offspring of cruelty and oppression, and not the produce of nature. Man, who is weak, man, who stands on the brink of the grave, man, who is poor, who is nothing, has the temerity to impeach God with the fruits and effects of his own folly ; as an answer to which, I will beg leave to transcribe a few verses applicable to the

present subject, from my tragical poem entitled "Avenia," second edition, page 244:

"The hosts on high,

With gazing saints, lean forward from the sky, From clouds, all fring'd with gold, their bodies bent, With eager eyes, they view the sad event;

They view the hero's wrongs, the foe's delight,
They view his wrongs, and loath the hateful sight:
Then veil their eyes, refulgent to behold,

With their white wings, all tipp'd with dawny gold;
To whom, while blushing, from the chief they look,
The Sire of men, the Sire of angels spoke.
Around his brows a brilliant cloud was spread,
And floods of glory roll'd above his head.

Like mighty thunders, lo, his voice he rear'd,

Hosts dropp'd their harps, and worshipp'd as they

heard.

With awe, they see the chequer'd lightnings play,
And turn their eye-balls from the golden ray.
Thus, in the starry courts, enthron'd on high,
Sat the majestic monarch of the sky;

A robe, beyond the thought of mortals, white,
He wore, all fring'd with stars and golden light;
Bright azure gilds the arches of his brows,
And on his cheeks the purple morning glows.
Around his em'rald throne arch-angels meet,