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ent excellency overwhelm me with a sense of my own meanness, and I lay myself low in the dust, whence I and all my forefathers sprang: But, perhaps, a sudden moment turns my thoughts aside to my brethren, my fellowmortals; and when I imagine myself superior to some of them, the worm which lay level with the dust begins to swell and rise again, and a vain self-comparison with creatures interrupts the humble prostrations of my soul, and spoils my devotion to my God.

And here it is very astonishing to consider upon what trifling circumstances foolish man is ready to exalt himself above his neighbour. I am even ashamed to think, that when I stand among persons of a low stature, and a mean outward appearance, (especially if they are utter strangers) I am ready to look downward upon their understandings, as beneath my own, because nature has formed my limbs by a larger model, has raised this animal bulk upon higher pillars, and given me a full and florid aspect. Ridiculous thought, and wild imagination! as though the size and colour of the brute were the proper measure to judge of the man!

At another time, when I have been engaged in free discourse, I have heard a sprightly youth talk most pertinently on the proposed subject; but I felt myself ready before-hand to despise whatever he should say, because I happened to be born ten years before him; and yet how wretchedly inconsistent is this distemper of mind! for, I was tempted the next moment to neglect what was spoken by a grave gentleman present, because he was born twenty years before me: My own vanity would persuade me, that the one was so much younger than I, that he had not yet arrived at sense, and the other so much older, that he had forgotten it.

I find it is not youth or age, but it is self that is the idol and the temptation. My foolish heart is apt to say within itself, even when I am in the midst of persons of thought and sagacity, "Methinks they should all be of my mind, when I have given my opinion;" and I feel a secret inelination to flatter my own judgment, though I condemn the young and the old. Thus is pride busy and zealous to exalt self on every occasion, to set up the idol, and make all bow down to it.

These silent and unseen turns of thought within me are

so impudent, and so unreasonable, that I cannot bear to let them appear even before my own judgment; I scarce bring them to a trial, for I know they are evil; I condemn them as soon as they are born, I banish them for ever from my soul, and forbid their return. But ere I am aware, they will come to their old native seat again, in spite of all the laws and rules of reason and religion; they overleap all the bars and fences that I raise perpetually to keep them out.-This wicked pride is a home-born and domestic enemy; it knows every avenue of the soul, and is hardly excluded even by the severest watchfulness.

We are so fond to appear always in the right, that I find myself to need a great degree of self-denial, in order to believe that truth is truth, when I have happened to fall into a different sentiment; and what is this but pride of heart? I need not go far backward in my life, to find an instance of this folly or madness, something of this kind so often occurs.

Three days ago I was relating an affair of great consequence, and was opposed in my narrative by a friend, who knew the whole story perfectly: I felt my heart unwilling to yield to his opposition, though the reasonings that attended his narration carried superior light and force in them; I was hardly convinced that I was in the wrong, till I had left the company, and bethought myself. This conceit, how it blinds the eyes to reason, and bars our conviction! And it is the same disease of the mind that prevents our confession of an error, even when we are inwardly convinced of it. It is pride that cramps the organs of speech, and makes these words, I was mistaken, so hard to pronounce in every language.

When I am debating a point of controversy, how much am I pleased when I overcome! and how ready do I find my tongue to contend for victory, too often with greater solicitude than for truth! I feel the mischief working, though I hate it. I look inward, I blush, and chide myself; but in the next company, nature returns, the inward distemper stirs again, I am ambitious of conquest in the next dispute; yet profess to be a philosopher, a disciple of wisdom, and a lover of truth; but I feel I am a son of Adam.

I watch against the first risings of this inbred evil; but it is before-hand with me: I resolve to speak my

sentiments with a modest air, but vanity sits upon my lips, and forms the sentence, or at least gives some swelling accents to the sound: Then I sigh inwardly at the sudden reproach, What a vain wretch am I! and should condemn myself as the very vilest piece of human nature, if I did not observe the same folly working at my right hand and at my left, and shewing itself all around me in a variety of shapes.

Vanisso was in company while the paper was read, in which Senotus confessed this foible of his soul; and with some confusion broke out thus: "What! Senotus, the wise and pious, the modest and the humble, say all this! Senotus, the venerable man of the Episcopal order, and the glory of our church, talk at this rate! O for an eternal succession of such bishops in every see !-But what lesson shall I learn by it? I will retire to my closet and search inward; for, how many vices soever hang about me, yet I never thought myself a proud man before; I begin to suspect me now."

LESSON LXXVI.

The Fertility caused by the Nile.-ROLLIN.

THERE is no country in the world where the soil is more fruitful than in Egypt; which is owing entirely to the Nile. For whereas other rivers, when they overflow lands, wash away and exhaust their vivific moisture: the Nile, on the contrary, by the excellent slime it brings along with it, fattens, and enriches them in such a manner, as sufficiently compensates for what the foregoing harvest had impaired.

The husbandman, in this country, never tires himself with holding the plough, or breaking the clods of earth. As soon as the Nile retires, he has nothing to do but to turn up the earth, and temper it with a little sand, in order to lessen its rankness; after which he sows it with great ease, and with little or no expense. Two months

after, it is covered with all sorts of corn and pulse. The Egyptians generally sow in October and Novem

ber, according as the waters draw off, and their harvest is in March and April.

The same land bears, in one year, three or four different kinds of crops. Lettuces and cucumbers are sown first; then corn; and after harvest, several sorts of pulse which are peculiar to Egypt. As the sun is extremely hot in this country, and rains fall very seldom in it, it is natural to suppose, that the earth would soon be parched, and the corn and pulse burnt up by so scorching a heat, were it not for the canals and reservoirs with which Egypt abounds; and which, by the drains from thence, amply supply wherewith to water and refresh the fields and gardens.

The Nile contributes no less to the nourishment of cattle, which is another source of wealth to Egypt. The Egyptians begin to turn them out to grass in November, and they graze till the end of March. Words could ne

ver express how rich their pastures are, and how fat the flocks and herds (which, by reason of the mildness of the air, are out night and day,) grow in a very little time. During the inundation of the Nile they are fed with hay and cut straw, barley and beans, which are their common food.

A man cannot help observing the admirable providence of God to this country, who sends at a fixed season such great quantities of rain in Ethiopia, in order to water Egypt, where a shower of rain scarce ever falls; and who, by these means, causes the driest and most sandy soil to become the richest and most fruitful country in the universe.

Another thing to be observed here, is, that (as the inhabitants say) in the beginning of June and the four following months, the north-east winds blow constantly, in order to keep back the waters, which otherwise would flow too fast; and to hinder them from discharging themselves into the sea, the entrance to which these winds bar up, as it were from them. The ancients have not omitted this circumstance.

The same providence, whose ways are wonderful and infinitely various, displayed itself after a quite different manner in Palestine, in rendering it exceeding fruitful; not by rains, which fall during the course of the year, as is usual in other places; nor by a peculiar inundation like

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that of the Nile in Egypt; but by sending fixed rains at two seasons, when the people were obedient to God, to make them more sensible of their continual dependance upon him.

God himself commands them, by his servant Moses, to make this reflection: "The land whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs; but the land whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven." After this, God promises to give his people, so long as they shall continue obedient to him, "the former and latter rain :" the first in autumn, to bring up the corn; and the second in the spring and summer to make it grow and ripen.

LESSON LXXVII.

Forgetfulness.-GUARDIAN AND MONITOR.

"My dear Charles," said Mrs. Ellerton to her little boy, "did you remove that geranium into the green-house last night, as I desired you?" Charles blushed deeply, and replied," indeed mamma, I intended doing it, but Edward and I went to play, and when I heard the bell ring for supper, I ran in and quite forgot it." The plant was found severely injured by the frost, which so often succeeds the warmest days in spring; and Mrs. Ellerton, alarmed for the consequences of careless forgetfulness in this amiable child, as well as grieved at the unfortunate fate of her plant, endeavoured to impress his mind with the importance of avoiding it in future, lest it should become habitual to him.

While I sat listening with delight to her maternal instructions, I could not help feeling impressed with the many consequences attendant on this common excuse for inattention, and regretting that I, among the rest, had often sheltered myself beneath it. I determined, however, to guard against it as much as possible for the future, and by way of assisting my firmness in keeping this reso

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