83.4 MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS. themselves ; the aged arise and stand up. When the ear hears him, then it blesses him ; the eye that sees him, gives witness to him ; because he has delivered the distressed soul that cried, he has relieved the fatherless, and him that had none to help. The blessingof those that are ready to perish comes daily upon him, and he causes the widow's heart to sing for joy. He is a father to the poor, and the cause which he knows not he searches out. He breaks the jaws of the wicked, and plucks the spoils out of their teeth ; Job xxix. 0° The vilest wretches of the earth cannot but love the man, while they hate the reforming magistrate. Not the united malice of his worst enemies can find any occasion against him, but con - cerning the law of his God; and were it not upon that account, he would have no enemies at all. " The world wonders and enquires, Whence all these accomplishments ! How did this man arrive at this true great- ness, and all these uncommon excellencies! Those who are his intimates know the spring of them. He makes the word of God his daily counsellor, and he seeks directions from heaven in all his affairs on earth : He reads the examples of Daniel and Job in his bible, and joins them together in his own practice ; for he thinks one of them alone too little for a christian. " When I had read this in a room where Invido was pre- sent, one of the company commended the ingenuity of my friend in drawing up so fair, so divine a character. Some of them gave it as their opinion, that the excellencies and good qualities were set too thick together, and that there was no such person in nature, therefore it must be the mere work of fancy: They confessed it was well imagined indeed, it was a fine picture, but there was no such original. -- Invido had no longer patience to hear such compliments passed on the writer ; but with his usual eagerness, " Your friend, said he, was never capable of composing such a piece;' there is not a line of it owing to his own invention, for the whole character is a mere copy. This friend of yours has lived some years in Albinus's family, and has only stole his picture." You are much in the right, Invido ; it was so designed ; and I am glad the features are so well touched, and the likeness so finely preserved, that a man of your temper should consent to know the piece, should name the original, and confess the likeness. Happy Albinus, and favoured of heaven beyond the common' rate even of the best of men, when envy itself is constrained to pay public honours to Lis merit !
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