in its full extent, would be unfriendly to the social hap. piness of life. It would destroy that esteem and confidence in your virtues, which the best and wisest men have uniformly thought no inadequate counterpoise to their sorrows, and their cares. A bad man is terrible in society; but an unprincipled woman is a monster. The peace, happiness and honor of our sex, are so very much in the power of yours after marriage, that the most abandoned libertine shudders at the thought of an union with a woman, who has not piety and virtue. His intimacy with some females, of a certain description, has given him such a disgusting picture, as will never be forgotten. In his moments of reflection, he exe. crates his folly, and, when he deliberates, whom he should chuse for the companion of his life, appeals from the treacherous, ruffled bosom of an harlot, to one, that will be always faithful, and always serene. Without piety, indeed, a woman can never fully possess the true powers of pleasing. She will want that meek be nevolence, sympathy and softness, which give an inex pressible lustre to her features, and such a wonderful ascendency over our affections. We shall not other. wise approach her with confidence, or dare to repose any of our secrets, our concerns or our sorrows, in her sympathizing breast.

LETTER V.

MY DEAR GIRL,

IF your mind is in a proper frame, every thing in you and about you will inculcate the necessity, and prompt you to the continual exercise of, devotion. You will find yourself encompassed with innumerable fears, weaknesses, wants, sorrows, diseases, wishes, hopes, under which all human creatures will be unable to as sist, or give you any adequate relief; but wherever you cast your eyes, you will, at the same time, be environed with the immensity of a Being, who is possess

ed of all possible perfections, and who holdeth the issues of life and death, of happiness and misery, solely in his hands.

The power, majesty, grandeur and wisdom of this Being are discernible in every part of your frame, in every function of your body, and operation of your mind, nay, in the curious and exquisite formation of every animal and insect. They are seen, on a still sublimer scale, in the size, the distances, grandeur, and wonderful revolution of the heavenly bodies; in the beautifully variegated canopy of heaven, in all the delicious landskips of nature, in the pleasing succession of day and night, spring and autumn, summer and winter. In short, winds and storms, thunder and lightning, earthquakes and volcanoes, the grand, magnificent ocean, waves and comets, fulfilling his word, appearing and receding at his sovereign command; flowers, blossoms, fruits, fossils, minerals, petrifactions, precipices, hills, caverns, vallies, all tell you, that their Former is immensely magnificent," that he doeth what he will in the armies of heaven, and amongst the inhabitants of the earth, and that none can withstand the thunder of his power."

This God then is able to gratify your wishes, and support you under all your suffering; he has wisdom enough to protect and guide you; the question then is; is he willing! On this head, hearken to all nature, for it speaks aloud. Look through the numberless orders and gradations of animals, insects, nay the meanest rep. tiles, and you will be astonished with the attention that has been lavished on them, in the contrivance of their frame, the allotment of their situation, and the provis ion, made for their continual support. They are happy, Shift your eye to all the inanimate creation, and you will find it a scene of harmony, of order and beauty, and seemingly constructed for our gratification. Lovely picturesque views delight our imagination; shrubs and plants and flowers regale us with aromatic smells. But a poet of very descriptive talents, shall speak on this occasion:

B

Wherefore nature's form

So exquisitely fair? her breath perfum'd
With such ethereal sweetness? whence her voice,
Inform'd at will, to raise or to depress

Th' impassion'd soul, and whence the robes of light,
Which thus invest her with more lovely pomp,
Than fancy can describe? whence but from Thee,
O source divine of never failing love,

eye,

And thy unmeasur'd goodness? not content
With ev'ry food of life to nourish man,
Thou mak'st all nature, beauty to his
Or music to his ear; well pleas'd he scans
The goodly prospect, and with inward smiles,
Treads the gay verdure of the painted plain,
Beholds the azure canopy of heav'n,
And living lamps, that overarch his head
With a more than regal splendor, lends his ears
To the full choir of water, air, and earth.

In ev'ry part

We trace the bright impressions of his hand,
In earth, or air, the meadow's purple stores,
The moon's mild radiance, or the virgin form,
Blooming with rosy smiles, we see pourtray'd
That unereated beauty, which delights

The mind supreme

Indeed, if you reason for a moment, why could the Almighty create at all, but to diffuse and variegate enjoyment? Inexhaustible source of happiness, from all eternity, he needed not, and, in fact, could not receive, an addition to his own. In himself supremely blessed, fountain of eternal majesty and splendor, adored by seraphs, surrounded by myriads of angels and archangels, what dignity could he derive from the existence, or services of man, who is but a worm, or the produc tion of ten thousand worlds? It was infinite wisdom, therefore, that sketched out the plan of universal nature, and all-communicative goodness, that bade so many worlds exist, and bade them to be happy. The su

preme and gracious Former wished to communicate some scattered rays of his glory and his blessedness to this extended world of matter and of life, and has therefore replenished every leaf, every drop of water, and every possibility of space with shoals of inhabitants; for

Scarce buds a leaf, or springs the lowest weed,
But little flocks upon his bosom feed ;
No fruit our palate courts, or taste or smell,
But on its fragrant bosom, nations dwell.

Is it not then a certain conclusion, that he created you, as well as all inferior animals, for happiness? On this you may depend, as much as you can upon the certainty of your existence; and that he is always more willing to be your protector, than you are ready to request it.

Open the sacred book, and from beginning to end, it will confirm this opinion, and exalt your ideas of the divine perfections. "I delight in exercising lovingkindness, saith the Lord.-The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works. If he clothes the grass of the field, which, to-day, is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more shall he clothe you, O ye of little faith?" That religion is built on wrong notions, or a melancholy temper, that fills us with imaginary terrors. All nature breathes a language of hope and mercy. And nature is the messenger of God.

There

It is true there is evil in the world, as well as good; there are marks of judgment, as well as mercy. are hurricanes, as well as fanning breezes; noxious are intermixed with useful animals; poisonous and salutary herbs grow beside each other, and roses have their thorns. There are wars and rumors of wars; there are earthquakes, that desolate whole countries; a thousand forms of disease; a thousand modifications of sorrow, anxiety, death. If he, who sits at the helm, be so gracious, whence all this disorder? If his infinite power be

combined with equal wisdom and goodness, why did he not prevent it?

If men were not to be free agents, the total prevention of sin and evil seems an impossibility. Moral liberty could not consist with a mechanical, forced obedi ence; and if we had not been free, the idea of punishments or rewards, of a heaven or an hell, would be the greatest of all possible absurdities. So that the question ultimately amounts to this, whether it was proper for the Almighty to create such a world at all? Had we not better reserve the propriety of this conduct to be disputed with him, at his great tribunal? There, I doubt not, we shall be amply convinced, that the crea tion was a work of infinite mercy, as well as power, and that a greater degree of happiness, than misery has arisen from it. There too, when we are able to discern with glorified eyes, the whole chain of causes and effects, from the beginning, to the end of time; the dependence of one link of being on another, and of worlds, on worlds; this evil we now complain of, may become a means of exalting our ideas of the attributes of the Almighty; and we shall blush at ourselves for even having questioned his goodness for a moment, or encouraged a reasoning pride, so ill becoming creatures, whose days are few, whose strength is weakness, whose wisdom folly; and who, in the present immurement of their understanding, scarcely know the nature of a blade of grass, or of the very pebbles, on which they tread.

This

This question concerning the origin of evil has puzzled the whole tribe of reasoners and philosophers, from the creation, to the present moment. The scripture alone has solved the enigma to our satisfaction. deranged state of things is the providential punishment of guilt, but at the same time, contrived in mercy, as a salutary regimen, and as a mode of purifying fallen creatures for the innocence and happiness of a better world. It is a chaos, fitted to our present constitution, and will refine as we do, into its primitive beauty and