you sink, of course, in the opinion of the public, into the same despicable rank.

Allow me to warn you, that the most gay and pleasing are sometimes the most insidious and dangerous companions; an admonition which respects both the sexes. Often they attach themselves to you from interested motives; and if any taint or suspicion lie on their character, under the cover of your rank, your fortune, or your good reputation, they seek protection for themselves. Look around you, then, with attentive eye, and weigh characters well, before you connect yourselves too closely with any who court your society. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise; but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. Wherefore, enter not thou into the council of the scorner. Walk not in the way with evil men; avoid it; pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.

In order to prevent the influence of evil communications, it is farther needful that you fix to yourselves certain principles of conduct, and to be resolved and determined on no occasion to swerve from them. Setting the consideration of religion and virtue aside, and at

Prov. iv. 14; xiii. 20.

tending merely to interest and reputation, it will be found that he who enters on active life without having ascertained some regular plan, according to which he is to guide himself, will be unprosperous in the whole of his subsequent progress. But when conduct is viewed in a moral and religious light, the effect of having fixed no principles of action, of having formed no laudable standard of character, becomes more obviously fatal. For hence it is, that the young and thoughtless imbibe so readily the poison of evil communications, and fall a prey to every seducer. They have no internal guide whom they are accustomed to follow and obey; nothing within themselves that can give firmness to their conduct. They are of course the victims of momentary inclination or caprice; religious and good by starts, when, during the absence of temptation and tempters, the virtuous principle stirs within them; but never long the same; changing and fluctuating according to the passion that chances to rise, or the instigation of those with whom they have connected themselves. They are sailing on a dangerous sea, which abounds with rocks; without compass, by which to direct their course; or helm, by which to guide the vessel. Whereas, if they acted on a system, if their behaviour made it appear that

they were determined to conduct themselves by certain rules and principles, not only would they escape innumerable dangers, but they would command respect from the licentious themselves. Evil doers would cease to lay their snares for one whom they saw moving above them, in a higher sphere, and with a more steady course.

As a farther corrective of evil communications, and as a foundation to those principles which you lay down for conduct, let me advise you sometimes to think seriously of what constitutes real enjoyment and happiness. Your days cannot be entirely spent in company and pleasure. How closely soever you are surrounded and besieged by evil companions, there must be some intervals, in which you are left by yourselves; when, after all the turbulence of amusement is over, your mind will naturally assume a graver and more pensive cast. These are precious intervals to you, if you knew their value. Seize that sober hour of retirement and silence. Indulge the meditations which then begin to rise. Cast your eye backwards on what is past of your life; look forward to what is probably to come. Think of the part you are now acting; and of what remains to be acted, perhaps to be suffer

ed, before you die. Then is the time to form your plans of happiness, not merely for the next day, but for the general course of your life. Remember, that what is pleasing to you at twenty, will not be equally so at forty or fifty years of age; and that what. continues longest pleasing, is always most valuable. Recollect your own feelings in different scenes of life. Inquire on what occasions you have felt the truest satisfaction; whether days of sobriety and a rational employment have not left behind them a more agreeable remembrance, than nights of licentiousness and riot. Look round you on the world; reflect on the different societies which have fallen under your observation; and think who among them appear to enjoy life to most advantage; whether they who, encircled by gay companions, are constantly fatiguing themselves in quest of pleasure; or they to whom pleasure comes unsought in the course of an active, virtuous and manly life. Compare together these two classes of mankind, and ask your own hearts, to which of them you would choose to belong. If, in a happy moment, the light of truth begin to break in upon you, refuse not admittance to the your hearts secretly reproach you

ray.

If

for the wrong choice you have made, bethink

yourselves that the evil is not irreparable.

Still there is time for repentance and retreat; and a return to wisdom is always honourable,

Were such meditations often indulged, the evil communications of sinners would die away before them; the force of their poison would evaporate; the world would begin to assume in your eyes a new form and shape. Disdain not, in these solitary hours, to recollect what the wisest have said and have written concerning human happiness and human vanity. Treat not their opinions as effusions merely of peevishness or disappointment; but believe them to be what they truly are, the result of long experience, and thorough acquaintance with the world, Consider that the season of youth is passing fast away. It is time for you to be taking measures for an establishment in life; nay, it were wise to be looking forward to a placid enjoyment of old age. That is a period you wish to see; but how miserable when it arrives, if it yield you nothing but the dregs of life; and present no retrospect, except that of a thoughtless and dishonoured youth.

Let me once more advise you, to look forward sometimes beyond old age; to look to a future world. Amidst evil communications, let your belief, and your character as Christians arise to your view.

Think of the sacred