ters and servants. It has been always observed, that none are so insolent, in power, as they who have usurped an authority to which they had no right; and so it is found to hold in this instance. The desires and passions of a vicious man, having once obtained an unlimited sway, trample him under their feet. They make him feel that he is subject to divers, and contradictory, as well as imperious, masters who often pull him different ways. His soul is rendered the receptacle of many repugnant and jarring dispositions; and resembles some barbarous country, cantoned out into different principalities, who are continually waging war one with another. Such is the state into which sinners have brought themselves, in order to be free from the supposed confinement of virtue. Where they promised themselves nothing but ease, and pleasure, they are made to experience restraints more severe, and mortifications more painful than any they would have undergone under the discipline of religion. Blair.

THE ALPINE HORN.

THIS instrument is constructed of the bark of the cherry-tree, and conveys sound to a great distance. The shepherds, who dwell on the highest of the Alps, the moment the last sunbeam is upon the summit, takes his horn, and calls aloud, "Praised be the Lord." Every echo catches it; every voice on the hills repeats the name of God; and every knee is bent in prayer. After their pure worship in the open air, the simple shepherds, with their families, retire to their rest of innocence

DAY fades apace; its broad red glow
Went up from all the vales below,
And, like a flash of lightning, sprung
From Alp to hoary Alp, and flung
A momentary crimson streak,

On every snow-wreath'd mountain peak.
Dark are the clouds that late were roll'd,
In red and purple, green and gold;
Even Jura takes a deeper blue,

And all the hills their cold grey hue:
All, save Mont Blanc, the king of day,
Still lingers on his icy rills,

And throws his last and brightest ray
In farewell to the king of hills.
Hush, 'tis a sweet and solemn sound,
Flows downward on the clear cold air;
And happy voices waft it round,

And grateful hearts are framed to prayer. Praised be the Lord; thine are the days, When storms the mountain cottage blanch; Thine vintage time; thine hand upstays

The snow-wreath, and the avalanche.
Praised be the Lord; it echoes round,
Nor one eternal Alp is mute!
And distant cities catch the sound,

Like the low breathing of a flute.
Praised be the Lord! fear not to sleep;

His eye shall see, his hand shall keep.

E

THE grand design of all human governments, in whatever form they are modelled and established, is the happiness of the people; and the end of supreme authority, however, and in whomsoever it is invested, is to promote this happiness, by the punishment of evil-doers, and the reward or protection of those who do well. It is highly incumbent, therefore, upon all those whom Providence hath advanced to this exalted station, to be as bold in the punishment of vice, as in the encouragement and support of virtue. Oppression will appear in many shapes, and want will extend her naked arms for comfort and redress. The indigent and fatherless will be suitors for their protection; and those who have no other friends on earth will resort to them as the proxies or representatives to heaven.

To deal out justice with an unsparing and impartial hand; to regard not the quality of the offender, but the nature of the offence; to administer comfort and relief to the poor and helpless; and protect the hard earnings of honest industry from the hands of rapine and oppression; to pull down corruption from the seat of honour, and to call forth modest merit and probity undisguised to fill its place; but, above all, to be themselves the bright examples, as well as patrons of every virtue, and to support the true spirit and dignity of government, without seeming to govern;-these are some of the most important duties of the kingly office; these will attract and command the esteem, veneration, and obedience of their subjects, more effectually than all the splendid regalia that surround the throne.

Nay, it is by the application of their power to such purposes as these, that they resemble the Divinity, and co-operate with Providence in his grand scheme of universal benevolence.

Happy that sovereign, who, by deeds of true patriotism, and the exercise of every public as well as every private virtue, establishes his throne in the hearts of his people; whose strength is their prosperity-whose will, their united voice-who studies to satisfy the real, not the imaginary, wants of his people—and who can readily distinguish betwixt the elamour of licentiousness and the still and affectionate voice of loyal liberty. Happy that people whom Providence hath favoured with a monarch possessed of such amiable qualifications; and thrice happy, my good friend, should we consider ourselves, who live under a mild and well-tempered government, in which the limits of power are so accurately adjusted, that the sovereign is invested with every necessary prerogative, and the just rights of the people well defined and well supported. O, may the glorious spirit which it breathes never be perverted into licentiousness, but handed down to the latest posterity, uncorrupted, and unshaken by the ignorance or craft of weak or wicked men! Caspipini's Letters.

SOME people are weak enough to believe, or are so weak as to imagine, that the religious character must necessarily be accompanied with, and distinguished

from, all others by a formal, precise, and reserved deportment, an austerity in the countenance and actions, a cautious avoiding of all intercourse or civil communication with those who do not, in their whole outward behaviour, conform to a certain standard which answers to their idea of a religious man.

Others, again, place this singularity in a perpetual talking upon religious subjects; their whole conversation, be they where they will, consists of nothing but common-place maxims, scriptural quotations, and seemingly pious remarks upon every occurrence they meet with in the course of the day; or, what is still worse, of vain and useless disputes about modes of faith, doctrine, or worship. Alas, my dear Charles, all this may very properly be called the pedantry of religion; and, like that of human learning, is a sure proof that their knowledge and experience are extremely superficial. Many of these solemn triflers do we daily meet with, who value themselves upon this affected singularity, and think they show a vast deal of religious heroism, by talking in a strain which they know to be exceedingly mortifying to the generality of their neighbours. But such persons as these would do well to take our Lord's advice, and seriously inquire what manner of spirit they are of; they would do well to examine their own hearts, and try whether they cannot discover a secret spring of spiritual pride, which sets their tongues in motion; and whether a word or two dropt in season, seemingly without design,