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- selves. We should prudentl}'' consider how we are consti- 

 tuted by nature, and not submit ourselves to trials too strong 

 for our virtue. Indifference or Apathy may walk over the 

 burning ploughshares, which Sensibility and Ardour cannot 

 approach with safety. That the earth shall be peopled, and 

 its inhabitants happy, rather than the wealth should encrease 

 and the pride be fostered, of families or individuals, is the 

 manifest design of Providence, He has therefore planted in 

 man and woman the strongest, and, in civilised life, the 

 most delicate of passions. It is the fashion to ridicule it as 

 absurd and romantic ; and the generality of marriages are 

 contracted with a determined disregard of this necessary party. 

 It is painful to reflect on the consequences daily oblruded 

 upon US. Love avenges too often the slights he receives ; 

 and the devotee of rank or fortune, finds too late, that nei- 

 ther can supply the place of affection. A habit of propriety, 

 or reverence for religion, may be safeguards in the iiour 

 of trial — but without them, what becomes of the deluded 

 tempter of her own virtue ; who in rebelling against the na- 

 tural institutions of the Author of her being, yields volun- 

 tarily to a life of struggles ; and sacrifices the finest feelings 

 with which he has hallowed our nature, to anguish and des- 

 pondence, or to shame and misery. 



It is true, congenial minds may not always meet, or if they 

 meet, cannot always be united — but it is ever in our jxjwer 

 to shun a discordant union ; and how much happier than a 



