On the other hand, study without prayer is exposed to equal miscarriage; as it argues a mind presuming upon its own powers, or at best, grossly insensible of its dependence on the Father of lights, who is wont to conceal himself from those who lean to their own understanding. Even the scriptures themselves are insufficient to conduct persons of this character to the knowledge of true religion; and when, in disdain of these infallible oracles, they commit themselves, which is commonly the case, solely to their own researches, as then they are left to wander without any certain guide, they are in still greater danger of proceeding from one fiction to another, till they terminate in atheism itself.

Of the truth of this remark, the present age, no less fruitful of monstrous notions

the book of God's word and works, divinity and philo sophy; but rather let them endeavour an endless progression in both; only applying all to charity, and not to pride; to use, not ostentation; without confounding the two different streams of philosophy and revelation together." Vol. I. p. 18. Shaw's edit.

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than of extraordinary events, exhibits
- abundant and melancholy proof. What
the fool only said in his heart, There is no
God*, his more daring successors proclaim
openly with their lips, and publish in their
writings. Instead of keeping the glorious
discovery to themselves, and passing by
with philosophic indifference the religious
prejudices of the vulgar, they display all
the zeal of a proselyting spirit, prepare and
send forth their missionaries, and abuse
every literary vehicle, to convey the deadly
poison into every corner of Europe.

He then who desires to find God in solitude, ought to preserve a jealous watch against these imposters, and to block up every avenue to their seductions, lest, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, his mind should insensibly be deceived and corrupted, and, instead of meeting a paradise, he should find himself betrayed into a waste wilderness; a land of darkness and the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness †.

*Psalm xiv. I.

+ Job x. 21, 22.

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Blessed is the man, says the Psalmiist, that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But if unhappily he should be so far engaged in the discussion of their impious notions, as to have deprived himself of the power of retreat, let him beware of surprises, and of short and superficial views; let him not mistake confidence for proof, or ridicule for argument; and he may hope, by proceeding with modest resolution and an ardent desire of truth, in a steady reliance on the divine guidance and blessing, gradually to make his way through the mazes of sophistry, and at length to attain that elevated and vantage ground, whence the true intellectual and moral sytem of the universe will open to his view with wonder and delight.

As when a scout

Through dark and desert ways, with peril gone
All night, at length by break of cheerful dawn
Obtains the brow of some high-climbing hill,

The goodly prospect of some foreign land
First seen, or some renown'd metropolis,
With glitt'ring spires and pinnacles adorn'd,
Which now the rising sun gilds with his beams!

On the Knowledge of Ourselves.

THERE is no precept of wisdom which has been more generally or justly celebrated than that which enjoins the knowledge of ourselves; a precept which was held, even by pagan antiquity, in such high estimation, as to be ascribed to the oracle at Delphi.

Though we should take this knowledge in the lowest sense, and refer it only to the body, it deserves to be placed at the head of all natural science; since we are more concerned to be acquainted with that little portion of matter to which we are so intimately united, than with the whole extent of the material universe; and should we consider it in relation to the soul, then it evidently transcends all knowledge of corporeal nature, and ought to be ranked, in point of importance, next

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