of dissolution by his guilt, man should experience pleasure in executing the sentence. Death is the enemy even of brutes; and the irrational creation manifest symptoms of instinctive horror at his approach; and to find delight in throwing the shuddering victim to the devourer, is shocking. I would extend these remarks to all animals, and say, that it is unlawful to find sport in killing such as are noxious. Wolves, bears, serpents, are to be extirpated, because their continuance endangers human life; but to find pleasure in the act of killing even these, has a hardening tendency on the human heart.

Secondly. Some amusements tend to cherish selfish and avaricious feelings, and at the same time to produce that gambling taste which tends to the utter ruin of both the temporal and eternal interests of mankind. Billiards, cards, dice, have this tendency; and indeed, all other games that are played for money. The object of the player in these games is to get money, by a hasty process. What arts of fraud and deception are often resorted to, in order to avoid the loss and shame of defeat, and secure the gain and honour of success. What anger and ill-will are often produced in the mind of the unsuccessful party. Even the rules of decorum, observed in polished society, are not sufficient, in many cases, to restrain the passionate invective, and the profane oath. I may here most confidently appeal to the frequenters of the card-table for the truth of what I say, when I affirm, that a want of success during an evening at whist is a trial of temper, which few are able to bear with honour to themselves, or the comfort of those around them. Passion, petulance, and sullen

ness, are always waiting under the table, ready to appear in the persons and conduct of the loser. I have had scenes described to me by spectators of them, which I should have thought a disgrace to the vulgar company assembled at an alehouse, much more to the genteel party in the drawing-room. Have not the most serious misunderstandings arisen from this source between man and wife? What wrath and fury has the latter, by her tide of ill success, brought down upon her head from her irritated husband. The winner sees all this, retains his ill-gotten gain, and knows not that all the while a chilling frost of selfishness is upon his heart, freezing up the generous feelings of his nature.

No

thing is more bewitching than the love of gambling. The winner having tasted of the sweets of gain, is led forward by the hope of still greater gain, while the loser plunges deeper and deeper in ruin, with the delusive expectation of retrieving his lost fortune. How many have ruined themselves and their families for ever by this mad passion. How many have thrown down the cards and the dice, only to take up the pistol or the poison; and have rushed, with all their crimes about them, from the gambling-table to the-fiery lake in hell.

To affirm that these remarks are applicable only to those who play high, is nothing; because it is the nature of vice to be progressive. Besides, it is a fact, that many tradesmen, and even labouring people, have ruined themselves by the love of play. It is, as I have said, a most ensnaring practice, leading on from one degree to another, till multitudes, who began with only

an occasional game, end in the most confirmed and inveterate habits of gambling.

Thirdly. Some amusements tend to foster vanity and pride, while at the same time, they generate a distaste for all the serious pursuits of religion, and the sober occupations of domestic life.

If I mistake not, these remarks will apply to balls, routs, and concerts. I am not quite sure that the morals of society have not suffered considerable deterioration by assemblies. Cir cumstances are connected with this species o amusement, the tendency of which is more than questionable. The mode of dress adopted at these fashionable resorts; the nature of the employment; the dissipating tendency of the music, the conversation, and the elegant uproar; the lateness of the hour to which the dazzling scene is protracted; the love of display which is produced; the false varnish which is thrown over many a worthless character, by the fascinating exterior which he exhibits in a ballroom, have a tendency to break down the mounds of virtue, and expose the character to the encroachments of vice. And if it were c conceded, which it certainly cannot be, that no immoral consequence results to those who occupy the upper walks of life, who are protected by the decorum of elegant society, yet what mischief is produced to their humble imitators, who attend the assemblies which are held in the barn or the alehouse. I look upon dancing among these, to be a practice fraught with immorality; and my soul is horrified at this moment by remembering the details of a most tragic event which occurred in this neighbourhood, a few

years since, to an interesting female, who, after having lost her virtue on the night that followed the dance, was found, a few hours after, murdered either by her seducer or herself. Have nothing to do then with this fascinating, though injurious species of amusement. Besides, what an encroachment does it make upon time, which is demanded for other pursuits. How does it dissipate the mind, and poison it with a vain and frivolous taste for dress, and personal decoration. How completely does it unfit the soul for piety, and even the necessary occupations of domestic life. Let there be a love once acquired for these elegant recreations by any female, and, from my heart, I pity the man who is destined to be her husband.

My opinion of the stage I shall reserve for a separate chapter. In the mean time I shall reply to a question which no doubt, ere this you are ready to ask, "What amusements I would recommend."

I do not hesitate at once to observe, that young people stand in much less need than is supposed, of any amusement properly so called. Their spirits are buoyant, their cares are light, their sorrows few, and their occupations rarely very fatiguing to the mind. What more is necessary beyond mere change of employment, I should say, may be found in engagements both strengthening to the body and improving to the mind. A country ramble amidst the beauties of nature, where, surrounded by sights and sounds which have awakened and cherished the spirit of poetry, we may admire the works of God and man together, will, to every mind of taste or piety, be quite enough to refresh and

stimulate the wearied faculties. The perusal of an entertaining and instructive book, where our best authors have said their best things, and in their best manner too, will have the same effect. My children, acquire a taste for reading. Aspire to an independence of the butterflypursuits of the pleasure-hunter. Seek for that thirst after knowledge, which when the soul is jaded with the dull and daily round of secular affairs, shall conduct her to the fountains of thought contained in the well-stocked library; where, as she drinks the pure perennial streams of knowledge, she forgets in their murmurs the toils of the day. Or, the study of natural philosophy, attended where an apparatus can be commanded, with a course of illustrative experiments, would be at once refreshing and instructive. And where young people are happily situated beneath the wing of their parents, the pleasures of home, the agreeable intercourse of the domestic circle, are no mean or insufficient recreations from the fatigues of business.

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But perhaps many a youthful bosom will at this thought heave a sigh, and sorrowfully exclaim, "I am not at home. In that beloved retreat, and with its dear inhabitants, I should want no amusement. My father's greeting smile; my mother's fond embrace; the welcome of my brothers and my sisters; the kind looks, the fond inquiries, the interesting though unimportant conversation of all, would recruit my strength, and recreate my mind. But I am far from these. I am in a distant town, a stranger in a strange place; a mere lodger, where the attentions which I receive are all bought and