the duties we owe to Heaven, society, our families, and ourselves.

It has been, and I believe very justly, remarked, that the French and some other continental nations are indebted to their moderation in eating and drinking, as well as to their caution in the particular species of it, for that fine flow of spirits, cheerfulness, and activity, which they confessedly possess above Britons.-The superior salubrity and clearness of their air greatly contribute, however, to those advantages; but certainly their moderation more, and particularly in drinking.

It is a vulgar saying, that it is much easier for a physician to extract a hogshead of wine than an ox from a patient-meaning, that excess in eating is more dangerous to the constitution than excess in drinking,

But, however injurious this species of excess may be to the body, the mind, or the purse, it is not so criminal, in many respects, as that of living only to be a thoroughfare for wine and strongdrink; for he that places his supreme delight in a tavern, and is uneasy till he has drank away his senses, soon renders himself unfit for every thing else. A frolic at night is followed by pains and sickness in the morning; and, then, what was before the poison, is administered as the cure; it being a received opinion among the debauched, that half the quantity of the same liquor is ne

cessary,

cessary,

the next day, to restore the nerves and the stomach to their proper tone, raise the spirits, and give the mental powers their usual vigour : in this manner they accustom themselves to require and to excite, by such pernicious arts, a kind of false spirits, which flag again with the gradual decrease of the effects of the wine or liquor they have drank. Their natural spirits, by degrees, are totally destroyed, nor rise above their native flow, without continually resorting to the bottle-a remedy worse than the disease, and which death only in such a case will render unnecessary.

Some there are, who, with a manly resolution, have decidedly left off the pernicious practice, and by continued temperance have regained their health and spirits, and that strength of nerves and mind which excess in drinking is always sure to injure, in a greater or a less degree, according to the nature of the constitution it is exercised. upon.

A whole life is often wasted in the above expensive kind of frenzy, poverty itself only cutting off the means, not the inclination; and a merry night being still esteemed worth living for, though fortune, friends, and even health itself, have deserted us; nay, though we are never mentioned but with contempt and disgrace, and to warn others from the vices that have been our undoing. When, therefore, you are most inclined

to

to stay another bottle, be sure to go. That is the most certain indication which can be given that you have drank enough. The moment after, your reason, like a false friend, will desert you, when you most need its assistance: you will be ripe for every mischief, and more apt to resent, than follow, any good counsel that might preserve you from it.

You know, from classical history, that it was a constant practice among the Spartans, that manly, wise, and warlike nation, to exhibit their slaves drunk before their children, in order to disgust them of intemperance, by the ridiculous and beastly effects of it upon these poor wretches: it had the wished-for effect of putting drunkenness quite out of fashion among them; and could we but be made sensible of the real pleasure and enjoyment there is in a clear head, and cheerful serene spirits when we rise in the morning, it would soon get out of fashion with us too.

This is the first lesson of TEMPERANCE, that sober virtue, or rather the mother and nurse of the virtues. If you carefully cultivate this leading virtue within your own heart, it will pave the way for the introduction of all the rest. But I consider it here in a larger extent than is commonly imagined, as relating not merely to the government of sense and appetite, but of the mind also, and its passions; and, perhaps, the last have as much need of its wholesome controul as the first;

́first; for only beastly wretches are prone to sensual excesses. Gluttony and drunkenness have something too gross and shocking in them to men of any taste or refinement in pleasure. But the most ingenuous and high-spirited natures are the aptest to run into excess when any glaring species of pleasuring ideas strike their imaginations from the side of honour, friendship, religion, or any of the social and kind affections. When any of these finer passions are, by means of the wrong association of our ideas respecting them, directed to improper objects, or employed on right ones to the exclusion of all others, and in a greater proportion than the balance of human affection will admit of, they become, of all others, the most ungovernable and pernicious in their effects; as in the case of love, anger, hatred, fear, religious or political controversy, &c. And, therefore, it must also be the office of temperance to preside over the whole band of affections and passions, to adjust their mutual forces, and prevent the partial indulgence of any of them to the exclusion or weakening of others equally or more generous and extensive. Consequently it must be a part, and a very important part, of its work to stop those images of beauty and partial good in the very office where they are coined, viz. the IMAGINATION, till they are strictly examined, confronted with their objects, and their separate value weighed.

Youth

Youth ought to watch over their fancies with great care, and accustom themselves to an early habit of examining the value of every object, enjoyment, or species of good, that solicit their choice; of comparing the different kinds; and never trusting to the most specious appearances. Those objects ought never to be admired,

highly rated, which have no necessary connexion with real merit; as wealth, birth, beauty, rank, and the like.

Ideas of worth, greatness, or honour, should never be annexed to the mere possession of these. You ought immediately to correct the false associations, and undeceive yourself by referring the decision to your own reason, and experience of things.

1

How shall we strip wealth, pomp, pleasure, and all the gay or solemn ageantry of life of their glare, but by appealing to our original impres sions of beauty, and confronting them with what is most excellent and sublime of the kind?

When those confused ideas of beauty or good, which accompany wealth and voluptuousness, are thus subdued, it will not be difficult to carry the same habit of temperance to the ambitious views of power, viz. titles, coronets, garters, and all the trappings of grandeur; which must appear contemptible, when placed in competition with internal freedom, uncorrupted honour, and selfapplause.

There