66

says, to die is to go out of the body. "It is not properly another world, for there is the same heaven and earth still." The bodies of men who lived in past ages have undergone many changes. Butler, in Hudibras, says the particles of matter in the body of the immortal Cæsar may now be stopping a beer barrel. "Death opens our eyes, enlarges our prospects, presents us with a new and more glorious world, which we can never see while shut up in the flesh." We introduce this as our own opinion. According to Xenophon, Cyrus said, when dying, to his son: I would not have you think, my dear son, that I have departed from you: that I exist nowhere; when I was with you, you could not see my spirit." To live here according to nature, enlightened by revelation, is to live in such a manner that life will be prosperous and death pleasant. To live according to nature is to live with a disposition to be happy here; to be honest, and make virtue and integrity the only test of utility; to defraud no one in his purse, possessions, or character. This is a morality of the heart, that thinketh no evil of his neighbor, and filches not from another "what makes me naught the richer, but makes him poor indeed."

Justice, Cicero says, though a single virtue, is the mistress and queen of all other virtues.* * It is the shadowing forth of integrity of heart. Humility is the highest Christian grace. It manifests by acts or fruits that heaven is not taken possession of as a conquered country, or as one purchased by good deeds, but one received as a free gift, from one who has made the purchase by the sacrifice of his own life. Still this purchase does not justify wrong acts. The concealment of what is wrong

*"Justitia, enim una virtus, omnium domina regina virtutum."

in thought and word, were it possible, will not excuse the guilt. Cruelty to man or beast is morally wrong: it is punishment without desert, which by the Stoics was held to be a high offence: even the killing a hen without just cause was an offence of great magnitude. It is forbidden by the law of nature and nations. The Athenians cut off the thumbs of the Egirians to prevent their becoming sailors. Cæsar cut off the hands of a nation that had borne arms against him. Both of these cases are strictly forbidden by the law of nations, and certainly by the law of kindness.

In the matter of Regulus, a prisoner at Carthage, who was sent to Rome for release of Carthagenian prisoners, and an oath was exacted if not released he would return. He went, advised the retaining the prisoners, and returned, and was put to death by torture. Cicero puts the question, whether such an oath was binding? Grotius thinks in case of a robber, where the oath is extorted, it is not binding; but where voluntary, as in the case put, it is binding, which is against Cicero's opinion. Hobbs thinks, a promise extorted by fear is not the less binding where benefit is derived from it. Puffendorff thinks, merely abstaining from your injury does not make the robber a benefactor. Barbeyrac agrees with Puffendorff. Adam Smith thinks the promise binding. Paley leaves the question balanced as to consequences. Montaigne thinks, the promise, though extorted by fear, for the word's sake, should be held good.

In the case of the ten Romans after the battle of Cannæ, who were sent by Hannibal for a like object, under like oaths, and one of them returned, and when he got back pretended he had forgotten something, and went back to

Rome and remained there, Cicero says, he could not release himself from his oath in this way.

This treatise will be to the reader and learner profitable or not, as it is received. It furnishes the means of benefit, if rightly improved. Examination and reflection. are necessary. It is but the hand with the finger pointing to the right way.

ESSAYS.

ON READING.

To the young, I say, cultivate a taste for reading; I recommend it not merely or solely for the improvement of the understanding, but as a protection to you against vicious courses. In general, we may lay it down as a maxim, that the studious and reading boy is beyond the influence and power of vicious company.

Read the most approved works of taste and imagina. tion. By thus doing you will create a taste for reading, if you have it not, and improve it if you have it. Read those works also, because without a knowledge of them you cannot understand other books, which refer or allude to them. Read all books understandingly. Never pass a word or sentence without understanding its meaning. Cultivate a taste for reading, because it will be productive of happiness to yourself, the great end of your being. Books preserve contentment and virtue, which are happiness. Reading will make and keep you cheerful. It will shield you from the snares of the world. This taste will elevate your character. Nothing low or vulgar is found in the friends you silently associate with, if properly

chosen.

The taste you cultivate for the wise, peaceful and temperate friends of the past and present age, will operate as a restraint upon your whole life and give it a purer

F