l82 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



" My Ton, the Almighty has decreed to virtue, 

 ** the power of fupporting all the events of hu- 

 *' man life, in order to let us fee that it alone can 

 " make the proper ufe of them, and find in them 

 ** felicity and glory. When He referves for it an 

 *' illuftrious reputation, he elevates it on a great 

 " theatre, and fets it a-confli6ling with death: then, 

 *' it's courage ferves as an example, and the re- 

 *' membrance of it's misfortunes receives a tribute 

 *' of tears from pofterity, for ever. This is the 

 *' immortal monument referved for it, upon a 

 ** globe where every thing pafles away, and where 

 ** even the memory of the generality of Kings is 

 " fpeedily buried in everlafting oblivion.] 



•' But Virginia exifts ftill. Obferve, my fon, 

 ** how every thing on the Earth changes, and that 

 ** nothing is loft ; no human {kill can annihilate 

 ** the fmalleft particle of matter ; and could that 

 ** which was rational, fenfible, fufceptible of love, 

 ** virtuous, religious, have periOied, when the ele- 

 ** menis with which it was invefted, are not liable 

 " to deftruclion : Ah \ if Firginia enjoyed happi- 

 " nefs once in our fociety, how much more does 

 *' fhe enjoy now 1 There is a God, my fon ; all 

 " Nature announces it ; there is no occafion to 

 " prove it to you. Nothing but the wickednefs 

 " of men could make them deny a juftice which 

 ** they contemplate with terror. A fentiment of 



" Him 



