106

FABLE OF THE PAPER KITE.

water they at the same time saw the houses falling on both sides of the river, in the front of which, on the Lisbon side, the greater part of a convent fell, burying many of its inmates beneath the ruins, while others were precipitated into the river. The water was covered with dust, blown by a strong northerly wind; and the sun entirely obscured. On landing, they were driven by the overflowing of the waters to the high grounds, whence they perceived the sea, at a mile's distance, rushing in like a torrent, although against wind and tide. The bed of the Tagus was in many places raised to its surface; while ships were driven from their anehors, and jostled together with such violence, that their crews did not know whether they were afloat or aground. The master of a ship, who had great difficulty in reaching the port of Lisbon, reported that, being fifty leagues at sea, the shock was there so violent as to damage the deck of the vessel. He fancied he had mistaken his reckoning, and struck on a rock.

THE KITE; OR PRIDE MUST HAVE A FALL.

ONCE on a time a paper kite
Was mounted to a wondrous height,
Where, giddy with its elevation,
It thus express'd self-admiration :
"See how yon crowds of gazing people
Admire my flight above the steeple ;
How would they wonder if they knew
All that a kite like me can do!
Were I but free, I'd take a flight,

And pierce the clouds beyond their sight;
But, ah! like a poor pris'ner bound,
My string confines me near the ground:
I'd brave the eagle's tow'ring wing,
Might I but fly without a string."

It tugg'd and pull'd, while thus it spoke,
To break the string at last it broke.

Depriv'd at once of all its stay,

In vain it try'd to soar away;"

HATRED OF OUR FELLOW CREATURES REPROVED. 107

Unable its own course to guide,

The winds soon plung'd it in the tide.
Ah! foolish kite, thou hadst no wing,
How couldst thou fly without a string?
My heart replied, "O Lord, I see
How much this kite resembles me.
Forgetful that by thee I stand,
Impatient of thy ruling hand,

How oft I've wish'd to break the lines
Thy wisdom for my lot assigns!

9 How oft indulg'd a vain desire

For something more, or something higher!
And, but for grace and love divine,

A fall thus dreadful had been mine."

भ

WHATRED REPROVED, AND LOVE OF OUR FELLOW
CREATURES RECOMMENDED.

CONSIDER Whether the persons you hate are good or not. If they are good and pious, your hatred has a double guilt in it, since you are bound to love them both as men and Christians. Will you hate those whom God loves? Will you hate those who have the image of Christ, and in whom the Spirit of God inhabits? If they have any blameable qualities in them, let your charity cover those faults and follies: let your thoughts rather dwell upon their virtues, and their sacred relation to God. This will have a happy influence to turn your hatred into love. Think of them as members of Christ, and you cannot hate them if you are of that blessed body. If they are persons who neglect religion, and have not the fear of God, yet they may have some good qualities in them, some moral or social virtues, or some natural excellencies, which may merit your esteem, and invite your love: at least these agreeable qualities may diminish your aversion, and abate your hatred. I confess it is the nature of malice and envy, to overlook all that is good and amiable in a person, and to remark only what is evil and hateful: but this is not the spirit and temper of a Christian, nor of Jesus Christ our

108 AGAINST CAGING BIRDS. THOUGHTS of Death master. There was a young man who loved his riches so well, that he refused to become his disciple ;yet our blessed Lord saw some good qualities in him; he❝looked upon him, and loved him." But if the persons whom you hate have nothing good in them that you can find, then they ought to be pitied rather than to be hated: they are not worthy of your envy, nor do they need the punishment of your malice in this world, who expose themselves to the wrath and vengeance of God in the world to come. Will you say, they are so impious before God, and so injurious to men, that they deserve to be hated? But consider, if you were but punished in every respect as you deserve, both for your offences against God and man, what would become of you? Pity them, therefore, as you hope for pity. Imitate the goodness of "your Heavenly Father, who makes his sun to shine, and his rain to fall, on the just and on the unjust." This is the rule of Christ.

V

REMONSTRANCE AGAINST CAGING BIRDS,

THOUGH richest hues the peacock's plumes adorn, Yet horror screams from his discordant throat. Rise, sons of harmony, and hail the morn,

While warbling larks on russet pinions float Or seek at noon the woodland scene remote, Where the grey linnets carol from the hill. O let them ne'er with artificial note,

To please a tyrant, strain the little bill,
But sing what heav'n inspires, and wander where
they will.

I CANNOT but think that patient very ill advised, who thinks it not time to entertain thoughts of death as long as his doctor allows him any hopes of life; for, în ase they should both be deceived, it would be much

THOUGHTS OF DEATH.

109

easier for the mistaken physician to save his credit. than for the unprepared sinner to save his soul. Such like considerations having put me upon the thoughts of death, I presume you may have some curiosity to know what these thoughts were. One thing, then, that I was considering, was, in how wretched a condition I should now be, if I had been of the same mind with the generality of those who are of the same age with me; for these presume that youth is as much made for pleasures as capable of them, and is not more a temptation to vanity than an excuse for it. They imagine themselves to do a great matter, if, whilst youth lasts, they do so much as to resolve to grow better when it is gone; and they think that for a man to be otherwise than intentionally religious, before his hair begins to change colour, were not only to lose the privileges of youth, but to encroach upon those of old age. But, alas! how few are destroyed by that disease, in com parison of those who die before they attain it! And how little comfort is it upon a death-bed, to think, that by the course of nature, a man might have lived longer, when that very thought might suggest to him, that this untimely death is not so much a debt due to nature, as a punishment of sin! All the fruition of the deluding pleasures of sin cannot countervail the horror that a dying man's review of them will create; who not only sees himself upon the point of leaving them for ever, but of suffering for them as long and on the contrary, the review of sinful pleasures declined for virtue's and religion's sake, will afford a dying man far higher joys than their fruition would ever have afforded him. And one thing more there is, that I dare not conceal from you, how much cause soever I have to blush at the disclosing it; it is, that I judge quite otherwise of a competent preparation for death, now I am near it, than I did when I was in health. Therefore, if one, that, since his conscience was first thoroughly awakened, still resolved to be a Christian, and though he too often broke these good resolutions, never renounced them, but tripped and stumbled in the way to heaven, without quitting his purpose of continuing in it, finds a formidableness in the approach of death; how un

110

THOUGHTS OF DEATH.

comfortable must that approach be to those that have still run on in the ways of sin, without once so much as seriously intending to forsake them! A youth, free from scandal, and sometimes productive of practices that were somewhat more than negative piety, is not so frequent among those that want not opportunities to enjoy the vanities and pleasures of the world, but that the charity of others, being seconded by that great inward flatterer self-love, made me imagine that I was in a condition fitter to wish for death, than to fear it. But now I come to look on death near at hand, and see beyond the grave, that is just under me, that bottomless gulf of eternity; methinks it is a very hard thing to be sufficiently prepared for a change, that will transmit us to the bar of an omniscient Judge, to be there doomed to an endless state of either infinite happiness or misery. There is no act of memory like a death-bed's review of one's life. Sickness, and a nearer prospect of death, often make a man remember those actions, wherein youth and jollity made him forget his duty and those frivolous arguments, which, when he was in health and free from danger, were able to excuse him to his own indulgent thoughts, he himself will scarce now think valid enough to excuse him unto God, before whom, if the sinless angels cover their faces, sinful mortals may justly tremble to be brought to appear. When the approach of death makes the bodily eyes grow dim, those of the conscience are ena bled to discern, that, as to many of the pleas we formerly acquiesced in, it was the prevalence of our senses that made us think them reason; and none of that jolly company, whose examples prevailed with us to join them in a course of vanity, will stand by us at the bar to excuse the actions they tempted us to; and if they were there, they would be so far from being able to justify us, that they would be condemned themselves. It is true, if we consider death only as the conclusion of life, and a debt all men, sooner or later, pay to nature,not only a Christian, but a man may entertain it without fear: but, if one consider it as a change, that after having left his body to rot in the grave, will bring his soul to the tribunal of God, to