136 LIFE not VAIN, 
the pleafures of piety and virtue, alone, which do not cloy ; 
thefe will remain whilft reafon can adt freely ; and reason, if 
we attend to its dictates, will guide us fafe to the end of our 
journey, till we change the objects of this, for thofe of ano- 
ther state. Nature performs her talk moft wonderfully, let 
us perform ours. Even in the great article of life and death, 
what the poet fays is literally true, that we are gently conducted 
to the grave, 
<£ Taught half by reafon , half hy mere decay , 
“ To welcome death , and calmly pafs away ! ' 
Would any one wish for more? It is enough that our glafs 
runs out fairly. It may alfo be as truly faid of the virtuous 
fenfible man, who has feen what life is, and is contented to die, 
<c p rom nature s temp' rate feaft he rofe well satisfy’d, 
“ ThanKd god that he had liv’d, and that he dy’d.” 
Surely this is not vanity ! nor is it fo, I hope, to receive in- 
ftrudtion from thefe poetical fentences. But 
“ Let us , (fince life ca?i little more ftp ply, 
u Than juft to look about us , and to die J" 
confider attentively for what end our being is given us, and by 
what means to obtain that end. Happinefs is the objedt in 
view, not of this life only, but of a future ftate alfo. From 
our eagerness to grafp that portion of felicity which this world 
affords, we may form fome idea of thofe permanent joys which 
we have in reverfion ; and hence learn to quicken our endevors 
towards the attainment of them ; that whether itpleafes heaven to 
make our abode in thefe regions of mortality of very long or fhort 
duration, we may be always ready and willing to launch into 
2 eternity. 
