SECTION II. Collect thy powers divine, and then drive off Through life till cherifh'd, and in death held faft. August 4. §. I. 1727. The au TH Day Thoughts. HE fun was rifing, when we mounted our horfes, and I athor's de- gain went out to try my fortune in the parture world; not like the Chevalier of La Mancha, ton-Lodge, in hopes of conquering a kingdom, or marfortune rying fome great Princefs; but to fee if I once more. could find another good country girl for a from Or to try his wife, and get a little more money; as they were the only two things united, that could fecure me from melancholy, and confer real happiness. To this purpose, as the day was extremely fine, and Finn had something cold, and a couple of bottles at the end of his valife, I gave my horfe the rein, and let him take what way his fancy chofe. For fome time, he gently trotted the path he had often gone, and over many a mountain made his road: but at last, he brought me to a place I was quite a ftranger to, and made a full ftop at a deep and rapid water, which ran by the bottom of a very high hill I had not been up before. Over this river I made him go, though it was far from being fafe, and in an hour's ride from that flood, came to a fine rural scene. earth a fells of §. 2. It was pafture-ground, of a large A delightextent, and in many places covered with ful pot of groves of trees, of various kinds; walnuts, mong the chefnuts, and oaks; the poplar, the plane- wmoretree, the mulberry, and maple. There was land. likewife the Phenician cedar, the larix, the large-leafed laurel, and the cytiffus of Virgil. In the middle of this place were the ruins of an old feat, over-run with fhrubby plants; the Virginia creeper, the box-thorn, the jeffamine, the honey-fuckle, the periwinkle, the birdweed, the ivy, and the climber; and near the door was a flowing fpring of water, which formed a beautiful ftream, and babbled to the river we came from. Charming fcene! fo filent, sweet, and pretty, that I was highly pleased with the discovery. tion of Ba §. 3. On the margin of the brook, un- A defcripder a mulberry tree, I dined, on fomething fil Groves, which Finn produced from his wallet, tongue the feat of Charles and Henley, and ham, and potted black cock; and havin drank a pint of cyder, fet out again, to t what land lay right onwards. In an hou we came to a large and dangerous water moor, which we croffed over with gre difficulty, and then arrived at a range mountains, through which there was a na row pass, wet and ftony, a long and ted ous ride, which ended on the border of fine country at four in the afternoon, w arrived on the confines of a plain, about hundred acres, which was ftrewed with va rious flowers of the earth's natural produc that rendered the glebe delightful to behold and was furrounded with groves. Th place had all the charms that verdure, fo reft, and vale, can give a country. In th centre of this ground was a handsome fqua building, and behind it a large and beaut ful garden, which had a low, thick, holly hedge, that encompaffed it. As the door this houfe was not locked, but opened by filver fpring turner, I went in, and found was one fine fpacious room, filled on ever fide with books, bound in an extraordinar manner. Globes, telescopes, and other in ftruments of various kinds, were placed o ftands, and there were two fine writing tables, one at each end of the library which had paper, ink, and pens. In th middle of the room there was a reading defk defk, which had a fhort infcription, and on it leaned the fkeleton of a man. The legend faid, -This skeleton was once Charles Henley, Efq; Amazed I ftood, looking on these things, and wondered much at the figure of the bones, tack'd together with wires; once, to be fure, the mafter of this grand collection of books and manufcripts, and this fine room, fo fweetly fituated in the centre of diftant groves; this skeleton had a striking effect on my mind; and the more fo, as it held a fcroll of parchment, on which was beautifully written in the court-band, (to appear more remarkable, I fuppofe) the following lines: "Fellow-mortal, whoever thou art, whom the fates fhall conduct into this chamber, remember, that before many years are paffed, thou must be laid in the bed of corruption, in the dark caverns of death, among the lifeless duft, and rotten bones of others, and from the grave proceed to the general refurrection of all. To new life and vigour thou wilt moft certainly be raised, to be brought to a great account. Naked and defenceless thou must stand before the awful tribunal of the great God, and from him receive a final fentence, which fhall determine and fix thee in an eternal state of happiness or misery. What my What an alarm fhould this be! Ponder, fellow-mortal, and remember, God now commandeth men every where to repent, because he hath appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man, whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given affurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.Fudge the world! - judgment ! - the the very found is folemn. Should it not deaden fome part, at least, of your concern for things temporal, and quicken your care and induftry for the future life; ought it not to make us condemn, before the dying hour, our vanity, and devotedness to bodily things, and make us employ the greatest part of our time in the acquifition of wisdom, and an improvement in virtue, that when we appear at the feffions of righteousness, a facred knowledge, a heavenly piety, and an angelic goodness, may fecure us from eternal punishment, and entitle us to a glorious eternity? Since a future judgment is most certainly the cafe, and the confequence eternal damnation or falvation, how contemptible a thing is a long bufy life, spent in raking through the mire of trade and business, in pursuit of riches and a large estate; or in fweating up the fteep hill of ambition, after fame and ambition; or in living and dreffing as if we were all body, and fent into |