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These, attending the judicious touches of the pencil; bid the drapery flow, and the embodied figure arise; bid the countenance wear the calm serenity of thought, or be agitated with the wild transports of passion. Without this circumstance of colour, we should want all the entertainments of vision, and be at a loss to distinguish one thing from another. We should hesitate to pronounce, and must take a little journey to determine, whether yonder inclosure contains a piece of pasturage, or a plot of arable land. We should question, and could not very expeditiously resolve, whether the next person we meet be a soldier in his regimentals, or a swain in his holiday suit; a bride in her ornaments, or a widow in her weeds. But colour, like a particular livery, characterizes the class to which every individual belongs. It is the label which indicates, upon the first inspection, its respective quality: it is the ticket which guides our choice, and directs our hand.

We have cursorily surveyed the upper rooms of our great habitation, and taken a turn along the ground floor; if we descend into the subterraneous lodgments, the cellars of the stately structure, we shall there also find the most exquisite contrivance, acting in concert with the most profuse goodness. Here are various minerals, of sovereign efficacy in medicine, which rectify the vitiated blood, and quicken the languid spirits, which often rekindle the fading bloom in the virgin's complexion, and reinvigorate the enfeebled arm of man. hood. Here are beds fraught with metals of the richest

This, I believe, suggests the true sense of those noble metaphors used by the divine speaker. It is turned as clay to the seal, and they stand as a garment:" it,' the earth, and all its productions, receive from the rising sun both colour and beauty; just as the soft clay, and the melting wax, receive an elegant Impression from the seal. They' (the morning and the dayspring mentioned in a preceding verse) stand as a garment; they act the part of a magnificent and universal clothing; give all visible objects their comely aspect, and graceful distinctions. Job xxxviii. 14.

What bold and fine images are here! The sea had been described as an infant, changeable, froward, and impetuous, with thick darkness for its swaddling-band. The light is represented as a handmaid, attending to dress the creation, and executing the Creator's orders with a punctuality that never fails, with a speed that cannot be equalled.

value from hence come the golden treasures, from hence the silver stores, which are the very life of traffic, and circulate through the body politic, as the vital fluid through the animal frame; which, in the refining hand of charity, are feet to the lame and eyes to the blind, and make the widow's heart sing for joy. Here are mines which yield a metal of meaner aspect, but of a firmer cohesion, and of superior usefulness: a metal that constitutes almost all the implements with which art executes her various designs. Without the assistance of iron, trade would be reduced to the lowest ebb, commerce would feel her wings clipped, and every species of mechanic skill either utterly fail, or be miserably baffled. Without the assistance of iron, it would be almost impossible to rear the steady mast, to display the daring canvas, or drop the faithful anchor. Destitute of this ever-needful commodity, we should have no plough to furrow the soil, no shuttle to traverse the loom, scarce any ornament for polite, or any uten. sil for ordinary life.

Here is an inexhausted fund of combustible materials, which supply the whole nation with fuel. These present their ministrations in the kitchen, and yielding themselves as aliment to the flame, render our food both palatable and healthy. These offer their service at the forge, and with their piercing heat mollify the most stubborn bars, till they become pliant to the stroke of the hammer. The coals pour themselves likewise into the glass-houses. They rage, amidst those astonishing furnaces, with irresistible but useful fierceness. They liquefy even the obdurate flint, and make the most rigid substances far more ductile than the softest clay, or the melting wax; make them obsequious, not only to the lightest touch, but to the impressions of our very breath.

By this means we are furnished, and from the coars est ingredients, with the most curious, beautiful, and

As for the earth,' says Job, out of it cometh bread :' corn, vegetables, and whatever is good for food, spring from its surface; while under it is turned up as it were fire' its lower parts, 'nлn, its deeper strata, yield combustible materials, which are easily enkindled into fire, and administer the most substantial fuel for the flame. Job xxviii, 5.

serviceable manufacture in the world: a manufacture, which transmits the light and warmth of the sun into our houses, yet excludes the annoyance of the rains, and the violence of the winds; which gives new eyes to decrepit age, and vastly more enlarged views to philosophy and science; which leads up the astrono mer's discernment even to the satellites of Saturn, and carries down the naturalist's observation as far as the animalcule race; bringing near what is immensely remote, and making visible what, to our unassisted sight, would be absolutely imperceptible.

We have also, when the sun withdraws his shining, an expedient to supply his place. We can create an artificial day in our rooms, and prolong our studies, or pursue our business, under its cheering influence. With beaming tapers and ruddy fires, we chase the darkness and mitigate the cold; we cherish conversa. tion, and cultivate the social spirit: we render those very intervals of time some of the most delightful portions of our life, which otherwise would be a joyless and unimproving void.

I can hardly forbear transcribing the grateful and pious remark which Socrates makes on this occasion: demonstrating, from the advantageous and benign constitution of things, God's indulgent care for mankind, he asks, To de kaι TO TUρ Tоρισαι ημιν, επικουρον μεν ψυχους, επίκουρον δε σκότους, συνεργόν δε προς πασαν τεχνην, και παντα όσα ωφελείας ενεκα άνθρωποι κατασκευάζονται ; Ως γαρ συνελόντι ειπείν, ουδεν αξιολογον ανευ πυρος άνθρωποι των προς βιον χρησιμων κατασκευάζονται. Το which his pupil very intellgently replies, Υπερβάλλει και τουτο φιλανθρωπία. Vid. Socrat. Memor. lib. iv.; a work which may be ranked among the finest remains of antiquity: equal, it is acknowledged, to any of the ancient compositions in purity of style, and dignity of sentiment: superior, I think, to them all, for the artful, delicate, and happy manner of conveying instruction.

I wish the author of the preceding dialogues had been better acquainted with the Socratic method, and I could wish that young students for the ministry would adopt the skill of this heathen philosopher. Perhaps no qualification of human growth, would more effectually contribute to render them what St. Paul styles didaktikoug. It seems to be the most insinuating and successful way both to convince and instruct: nay, it convinces the opponent out of his own mouth, and makes the pupil instruct himself. It is what the Teacher sent from God practised, in those incomparable sketches of obliging and masterly address, the parable of the two debtors, and of the good Samaritan. Luke vii. 41.

X. 30.

These obscure caverns are the birth-place of the most sparkling gems; which when nicely polished, and prodigal of their lustre, stand candidates for a place on the royal crown, or a seat on the virtuous fair one's breast; and I will not, with our men of gallantry, say, emulate the living brilliancy of her eyes, but serve as a foil, to set off the loveliness and excellency of her accomplished mind and amiable conversation; 'whose price,' according to the unerring estimate of inspiration, is superior to sapphires, is far above rubies."

Here are quarries stocked with stones, inferior in beauty to the jeweller's ware, but much more eminently beneficial; which, when properly ranged, and cemented with a tenacious mortar, form the convenient abodes of peace, and build the strongest fortifications of war; defending us from the inclemencies of the wea. ther, and the more formidable assaults of our enemies. These constitute the arches of the bridge, which convey the traveller, with perfect security, over the deep and rapid stream. These strengthen the arms, the stupen. dous arms, of the mole, which stretch themselves far into the ocean, break the impetuosity of the surge, and screen the bark from tempestuous seas. These stony treasures are comparatively soft while they continue in the bowels of the earth, but acquire an increasing hardness when exposed to the open air. Was this remarkable peculiarity reversed, what difficulties would attend the labours of the mason! His materials could not be extracted from their bed, nor fashioned for his purpose, without infinite toil. Were his work completed, it could not long withstand the fury of the elements, but insensibly mouldering, or incessantly decaying, would elude the expectations of the owner; perhaps might prove an immature grave, instead of a durable dwelling.

Here are various assortments or vast layers of clay; which however contemptible in its appearance, is abundantly more advantageous than the rocks of diamond, or the veins of gold. This is moulded with great expedition and ease, into vessels of any shape, and of

Prov, xxxi. 10.

almost every size: some so delicately fine, that they compose the most elegant and ornamental furniture for the tea-table of a princess; others so remarkably cheap, that they are ranged on the shelves, and minister at the meals, of the poorest peasant: all so perfectly neat, that no liquid takes the least taint, nor the nicest pa late any disgust, from their cleanly services.

A multiplicity of other valuable stores are locked up by Providence in those ample vaults. The key of all is committed to the management of industry, with free permission to produce each particular species, as necessity shall demand, or prudence direct.

Which shall we most admire, the bountiful heart, the liberal hand, or the all-discerning eye of our great Creator? How observable and admirable is his precaution, in removing these useful but cumberous wares from the superficies, and stowing them in proper repositories beneath the ground! Were they scattered over the surface of the soil, the earth would be embarrassed with the enormous load: our roads would be blocked up, and scarce any portion left free for the operations of husbandry. Were they buried extremely deep, or sunk to the centre of the globe, it would cost us immense pains to procure them, or rather, they would be quite inaccessible. Were they uniformly spread into a pavement for nature, the trees could not strike their roots, nor the herbs shoot their blades, but universal sterility must ensue: whereas, by their present disposition, they furnish us with a magazine of metallic, without causing any diminution of our vegetable treaFossils of every splendid and serviceable kind enrich the bowels, while bloom and verdure embellish the face of the earth,

So judicious is the arrangement of this grand edifice! so beneficent the destination of its whole furniture !* in which all is regulated with consummate skill, and touched into the highest perfection: all most exactly adapted to the various intentions of Providence, and the manifold exigencies of mankind; to supply every

No notice is taken of the ocean in this little rent-roll of nature's wealth, because a distinct sketch is given of that grand receptacle and its principal services in Letter IX.

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