208. When adult age is approaching, how many children are careful to hide their thoughts, and acts, from parents; how many have already learned to dissemble, and to put one thing for another, when called to an account. And is not this the time of life, when a parent should know everything of children, which any mortal ought to know of any other? Is not this the very time, when a son, or a daughter, should find in parents, the most sincere, affectionate, and confidential advisers? And is it not, with very many, the time, when the parent's eye, ear, and voice, are shunned? If these things be so, to any extent, whose fault is it? Certainly, the fault of those who have the ordering of youthful condition. The head and the hands, are educated. The heart, (figuratively the seat of the affections. and feelings on which human welfare essentially depends) is not educated. In other words, moral edu cation, which should be the first object of solicitude, is too commonly, the very last.

209. Adult age. Every male who has entered on this period of life, may be, at the same time, a son, a brother, a husband, and a father. He may be engaged in some one of the various departments of labor, (intellectual, or physical, or both), into which human employment is divided. He may be a neighbor, a member of a social community; a member, also, of divers associations; he may be entrusted with some official duties; and must be a member of the great social community of which every one is a member. Every female who is of adult age, may be, at the same time, a daughter, a sister, a wife, and a mother. She may be a neighbor, a member of several communities; and, like every body else, must be a member of the great commonwealth of society. Men, who are engaged in business, whatever that may be, well know, that they govern themselves by rules, which they were instructed in, while they were passing through the youthful period. Every mechanic, manufacturer, navigator, farmer, and even laborer, acquires rules by which he governs himself in his vocation. These

rules are so entirely distinct, in each case, that nc member of any one class, can do the work of any other. So the scientific members of society, govern themselves by rules, which are so distinct from each other, that no member of any one scientific class, however learned he may be in its pursuits, can trust himself to apply the rules of any other. Among females, the mistress of a family, the fol lower of some one of the vocations in which female industry appears, even a common cook, must have rules; and no one among them can assume to do well, in a department of labor, wherein no rules of conduct have been acquired. If one wants to have a house, a ship, a mill, built, he must employ a person who knows the proper rules, and how to apply them. So, of scientific employments, as chemistry, medicine, mathematics, theology, war, law, and all others. Among female vocations, the principle is the same. Among all these varieties, who are they who command confidence, and have the greatest success? Those who know the best rules, and who have the greatest facility in applying them to practical use. What is that science which runs through all these varieties of employments, and makes an harmonious whole out of all the parts, numerous and diversified as they may be? Nor only so, what is that science which governs all the members of the great community, all members of its interior communities, and which enters into all domestic relations, and into the inmost secrecy of HOME? The science of MORALS, sanctioned by CHRIS

TIAN REVELATION.

210. The rules of this science are called for, in every act of human life. If there be a call for a mechanic's art, his rule is ready. If there be a call for a physician's science, his rules are ready. But if one be called on to decide upon the nature, force, and bearing of the commonest moral obligation, where is his rule, when, of whom, and of what authority, did he learn it? How often are persons seen in a state of doubt and perplexity, because they wish to do right, but have not, and cannot find, the rule of right?

How often are seen mournful errors, because the rule was to be created, at the moment when a well known and familiar rule, would be the only one to be used? The truth extracted from the aforegoing truths is this: There are moral rules; the young should be instructed in them; they should be, like other rules, ready for the occasion; ready for all occasions.. The Author of that prayer, which is almost the first thing learned in infancy, knew the human heart. He commands suppliants to pray, Lead us not into temptation. This supplication is to be understood, Lead us so to learn THY law, that we can sure ourselves from becoming the victims of temptation. Will not every experienced person admit, that the sorrows and miseries which he has known, and his keenest self accusing, were occasioned by the absence of moral rules, when in the presence of temptation? Is it right to leave the young to pass to, and through, adult age, in the hope, that they will find their own moral rules, as they go on? It would be as reconcilable with common sense, to require of a skilful farmer who had never seen the ocean, to take the command of a ship, to a far distant port, in time of war.

211. Decline and old age. If there were proper moral instruction in youth; if the treasury of moral rules, then acquired, were carried into use throughout adult age, to the time of decline; would there be seen, sorrowful and dependent old age? If children were well trained, and life were continued to them, till they became old; and if their followers were trained in like manner, the presence of the old, would be no. inconvenience to the young. Can any one fancy to himself a more interesting picture, than a cheerful, pious mind, in a dissolving earthly frame, bright with the beams shed on it by grateful remembrance of precious counsels, guardian care, and honorable example? To set forth, what is the true condition of the aged, in not a few instances, nor limited to any particular condition in society, would be a painful task. There are touching miseries to many, in this period of life. Why

is it so? It may arise, sometimes, from inevitable misfortunes. But, if there were sound moral instruction, in early youth, these misfortunes might have been avoided; and if not, there might be sympathies and consolations, which would take away their bitterness. There are miseries in youth, and miseries in adult age, from not having moral rules at command. But the keenest misery is when one feels, that the light of his earthly day is soon to go down, and forever; and when he looks back on a wretched waste of life; and forward, with doubt and dismay ;-and when his most cheering hope is, that he shall live no more, and is soon to be forgotten where he has lived.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Duties which one owes to Himself.

212. Life as a whole. The whole of life must be taken together to acquire a knowledge of its duties. In this respect there is a strong analogy to the natural world. Every thing which appears to be made of matter, has a beginning, a duration, and an end. Life is a succession of parts; infancy, youth, manhood, maturity, decline, old age, and death. As with the vegetable kingdom, so is it with man. What he becomes, depends in part on his genealogy; as his infancy is, so will be his youth; as his youth is, so will be his manhood; as his manhood is, so will be his maturity; as maturity is, so will be decline; as decline is, so will be old age. If youth be passed in idleness, ignorance, folly and crime, how can one hold his way in the world, side by side with the intelligent, the worthy, and the virtuous? If manhood be passed in low pursuits, in rooting in the heart evil propensities; in wasting natural vigor, what awaits one in old age but poverty, pity, and contempt? If infancy be devoted to the reasonable expansion of the physical and intel

lectual powers; if knowledge of human duty be ac quired, and be rightly used, will not manhood be worthy, maturity respectable, decline honored, and old age venerable? Life then must be taken as one event, made up of many successive ones. On these unquestionable truths we found all that is worthy of any notice in the following pages.

213. Purposes of Life. Human life rightly understood, and rightly used, is a beneficent gift ;-it can be so understood and used. It is irreconcilable to reason that man was sent into this world only to suffer and to mourn; it is from his own ignorance, folly, or error, that he does so. He is capable of informing himself; the means of doing this, are within his power. If he were truly informed, he would not have to weep over his follies and errors. It is not pretended that every one can escape at once, from a benighted condition, and break into the region of reason, and good sense. But it is most clear, from what is well known to have happened in the world, that each generation may improve upon its preceding one; and that each individual, in every successive period of time, may better know the true path, from perceiving how others have gone before him. There can be no miracle in this. It will, at best, be a slow progress: and the wisdom arrived at in one age, must command the respect of succeeding ones, and receive from them, the melioration which they can contribute. We understand nothing of what is called the perfectability of human nature; but we understand this, that if human nature can be made to know wherein its greatest good consists, it may be presumed, that this good will be sought and obtained. Man was created on this principle, he acts on this principle, although he is seen, so frequently, to make the most deplorable and distressing mistakes. If it be not admitted that mankind will always strive to obtain whatsoever seems to them good, and strive to avoid whatsoever seems to them evil, then moral teaching is in vain. If this principle be admitted, the sole inquiry is, what is good, and what is evil.