54 ENGLISH OPINION dereliction of all the domestic duties, are never brought forward as any deduction from the all-atoning merit of graces of manner and vivacity of conversation. Divine Providence seems to have in- tended advanced age as a season of° repose, reflection, and preparation for death ; and to have sent its infirmities, sufferings, and debility, as gracious in- timations of our approaching change, and with amerciful view of our attaining by those remembrances, to the end of our faith, even the salvation of our souls. But one of the unhallowed projects on which these accomplished societies seem to have congratulated themselves, was in defeating this providential procedure. It was their boasted aim to cheat old age of itself- of its present inconve- niences, its decays, and its prospective views, by a more amusing method. They contrived to divert the stage of infirmity into a scene of superinduced gaiety and increased levity. Instead of desiring to
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