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to eye the former without much regret-the latter without much fear. It is not indeed necessary that he should forbear looking back, neither will he be the worse for contemplating and examining what is before: but it is necessary that he views the past with firmness, and the future with undauntedness. Certainly let him meditate, but let him meditate with proper feelings; perhaps his meditation might be this:-I have exchanged, it is true, a comparatively secure and happy state for one where I am exposed to numerous dangers, and where probably no happiness may be found; but it seemed necessary that the exchange should be made, and therefore I ought not to despond, but stand against my difficulties, with all my efforts, and make myself just as happy, as contented, as I can. There are many

dangers threatening, yet I have much in my own power; much depends on my own conduct; and though I cannot make sure of steering clear of them, still I can do much to avoid them. The more eagerly I labour the sooner will my labour

be finished, and the sooner I will be able to re

turn to the place I have left.

And if, at my re

turn, I find the same kind

friends ready to re

ceive me, if I again meet the warm embraces I so long enjoyed, then I shall be able to appreciate them the more for having once left them. Yet, hard as it is, if those I love should be taken away, and I am left, as it were, alone in this vale of life, still I will not be without comfort; for the very associations of the scene will go far to give me happiness. Memory will be ever busy in supplying food for the lone mind. The place I am in, though it may continually tell me that my greatest friends, and my greatest comforts are for ever departed, yet will it thus as continually keep them fresh in my remembrance, and enable me, fled as they are, to draw happiness from them till the hour that I drop into the grave. And, even though it be decreed I am never to visit my home again, and never to taste even of these ideal joys; though it be doomed I am to die in the land of strangers, still am I content; for so be it I die well, it matters little where

Of chance or change O let not man complain,
Else shall he never never cease to wail;
For, from the imperial dome, to where the swain
Rears the lone cottage in the silent dale,
All feel the assault of Fortune's fickle gale:
Let those deplore their doom,

Whose hope still grovels in this dark sojourn ;
But lofty souls, who look beyond the tomb,

Can smile at fate, and wonder how they mourn.

It has been beautifully and truly said

Our affections

Must have a rest; and sorrow, when secluded
Grows strong in weakness. Pen the body up
In solitary durance, and, in time,

The human soul will fix its fancy

E'en on some peg, stuck in the prison's wall,
And sigh to quit it.

The mind accustomed even to a disagreeable state comes in time to imbibe an affection for it. It seems to be a law, that whatever we have been long connected with, although, at the time the connexion was begun we disliked and did not choose it; although all along we may be discontented and continually wishing the connexion broke; yet, when the time comes that we have it in our power to break it, in doing so we feel some reluctance. Although we never dreamed

of it before, at the time that we are about to break the tie which binds us to the hated object, we find that somewhat of our hatred has fled, that enough of affection exists to draw forth a sigh as we break it. And more-the affection is not the feeling of a moment; it remains-and very probably increases, after the bond is loosed; for ever after, the disagreeable state may be looked back on with kindness; nay, it may even be wished for. The man who for many years has been kept plodding continually in the walks of business, considers it a most laborious, unsettled, and uncomfortable life; and his greatest hope is that by-and-by he will be able to give it up, and get into some snug spot of ease and retirement. But when he has accomplished his wish, he finds not the enjoyment he looked for, and ill as he liked it when obliged to be in it, he sighs again for the bustling world. When the unhappy prisoner, who, for half a century never had crossed the threshold of his lone cell, was allowed, on the ruin of despotism, to go back into the world,

he found not any comfort in it, and he returned and demanded his dungeon and his chains that he might again have happiness.

And in an Indian voyage we have also an illustration of the feeling. Although at the beginning the adventurer finds himself miserably situated; although to the very end he may look on his situation as a most tedious and uncomfortable one; although every day there may be stronger wishes for the termination of the voyage-and, at last, indeed scarcely any thing else seems thought of; yet when the period of his release is drawing near, he finds he can look with a little less dislike on his situation; when his strongest wishes are just about to be fulfilled, he finds they have lost a little of their strength; his eagerness to get rid of his unhappy birth has abated considerably, and even something like affection for it appears. When he is stepping from the ship, the scene of all his miseries, the place of his bitterest execrations; when he is exchanging the little cabin and the tumbling cot,

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