Why is pretended cleanliness placed among the virtues? -Lord Bacon.

Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes.-Isa. i. 16.

Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit.-2 Cor vii. 1.

In thy filthiness is lewdness.-Ezek. xxiv. 13.

Munditia illecebra animi est amantium.-Plautus.
Munditiis capimur.-Ovid.

Pura cum veste venite et manibus puris.—Tibullus.
Squalidus orba fide pectora carcer habet.—Ovid.
Meretrix reperit odium ocius sua immunditia.-Plautus.
CONCLUSION.

THEME L.-The Fruits of Labour are sweeter than the Gifts of Fortune.

INTRODUCTION.

That which we earn by labour and merit gives us greater pleasure than that which we inherit or receive as a gift.

1ST REASON. The fruits of Labour are full of good hope; being the produce of personal toil, they are an earnest of future success: But the gifts of Fortune bring no assurance with them of subsequent favours, and their recurrence can never be relied on.

2ND REASON.-There is somewhat of the feeling of paternity in the fruitful produce of personal labour, which is always sweet to the mind: The wages of Labour and the gifts of Fortune resemble two sons, one of which is the offspring "of our own proper loins," and the other the legacy of a defunct relative.

3RD REASON. In the earnings of honest industry no feeling of obligation burdens the mind with a sense of

unworthiness: But every gratuity is a species of slavery, and the weight of the bond materially detracts from the pleasure of the gift.

4TH REASON.-Success, the result of merit, yields both reputation and praise: But the gifts of Fortune bring with them detraction and envy.

5TH REASON.-Industry and personal merit create an appetite and capacity for the enjoyment of their fruits: But the gifts of Fortune and the gratuities of Favour generally mar their luxury, by being the testament of departed friends, or the doles of heartless charity.

6TH REASON.-The fruits of industry are used more prudently and providently than the gifts of Fortune: The prodigal, who receives the goods he never earned, is apt to waste them "in riotous living," and to eat afterwards "the bread of sorrow;" but the man who earns his prosperity with the "sweat of his brow," knows its value too well to "run into riot and excess."

SIMILES. The first wheat-sheaf of harvest will afford a husbandman far more pleasure than twice the quantity given him by a neighbour.

An author enjoys his own work more than that of any other man.

A mother loves her own offspring better than an adopted child.

A fisherman enjoys the tench caught with his own hook, better than the salmon served at a friend's table.

The fruit from our own garden, especially if the tree has been planted, reared, and pruned by our own hands, is more delicious than that which comes from the market.

Men of wealth, who would scorn to receive a hare for a present, will undergo the greatest fatigue with delight in order to procure one in the chase.

Very few birds will appropriate an old nest in preference to one built by themselves.

HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS.

QUOTATIONS.-Labour is the salt of life.

That which we earn is doubly sweet.
Venison is sweet of one's own killing.

Win it by play, and wear it proudly.

(Men) rejoice and are glad, they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag.—Hab. i. 16.

Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord . . . . for thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands, and happy shalt thou be.-Ps. cxxviii. 1, 2.

Glorious is the fruit of good labour.- Wisdom, iii. 15.
Honours best thrive,

When rather from our acts we them derive,
Than our foregoer's.-Shakspeare.

Will Fortune never come with both hands full,
But write her fair words still in foulest letters ?
She either gives a stomach and no food,

(Such are the poor in health); or else a feast,
And takes away the stomach (such are the rich
That have abundance and enjoy it not).—Shakspeare.
Game is cheaper in the market, but sweeter in the field.
Fred. I hate fat legacies!

Sir R. Bramble. Sir, that's mighty singular. They are pretty solid tokens of kindness, at least.

Fred. They are very melancholy tokens, uncle. They are the posthumous despatches Affection sends to Gratitude, to inform us we have lost a generous friend.Colman.

CONCLUSION.....

THEME LI. The Evils we bring on ourselves are more bitter than those which are

INTRODUCTION.

laid

upon us.

1ST REASON. When evils are undeserved, their bitterness is greatly mitigated by a sense of conscious innocence : But when they are a punishment for folly or sin, they are accompanied with the bitter remorse of self-accusation.

2ND REASON. When calamities come through persecution and injustice, the heart is allowed to spend its grief and relieve its bitterness by complaint: But when they are the result of sin or misconduct, the stings of grief strike inwards, and irritate the bleeding heart.

3RD REASON. When misfortunes are undeserved they excite the sympathy of neighbours and friends, which, like "the oil and wine of the good Samaritan," relieves the pain of the innocent sufferer: But when they are merited, the general voice pronounces the judgment to be just.

4TH REASON. The innocent sufferer has great consolation in the assurance, “that his light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory:" But the guilty sufferer only looks from his present bondage to "fiery indignation in the day of wrath."

5TH REASON. When misfortunes happen to the righteous, they " can rejoice and be exceeding glad," in the full conviction that God who suffered the cloud to overshadow them will also give them "songs in the night:" But when the wicked suffer, they suffer without hope.

6TH REASON. The evils that are laid upon men by God are wholesome chastisements for their improvement: They are a proof of love and of sonship, for "what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?" But the afflictions which the wicked draw upon themselves are the penalties of sin, and the bitter wages of a broken law.

7TH REASON.-When calamities are undeserved, every

one is willing to lend a helping hand, to set the fallen traveller on his feet again: But when they are the result of indiscretion and wickedness, as often as the sufferer attempts to rise, every one thrusts out his hand to "push him from his stool."

SIMILES.-If a ship is found to contain water, the crew would feel the evil to be much more serious if it proteeded from a leak, than if a wave had broken over the vessel.

Pain that proceeds from disease is far more dangerous than that which is the result of some external injury.

When a chimney smokes because the flue is leaky or otherwise defective, the evil is far more difficult to cure, than when it smokes from a superabundance of collected Boot.

A tree that is withered from disease will never shoot forth again, but many evergreens which have been blighted by pinching winds grow more vigorously and luxuriantly after they have been cut down.

When the water of a steam-engine refuses to boil, because "furr" has accumulated upon the sides of the boiler, there is great danger of an explosion: But when the water remains below 212 degrees of heat, because the fire applied to it is not sufficiently intense, the remedy is simple, and the evil without peril.

The classic poets always exaggerate those sufferings most, and paint them leading to despair, wherein the person accuses and tortures himself.--Lord Bacon.

When the glass of a window is full of flaws, every object seen through it appears distorted; but when it is covered with a transparent blind, the light is only partially obscured.

HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS.

QUOTATIONS. An innocent mind can find comfort on a bed of thorns.