MISCELLANROUS THOUGHTS. 336 XV. A Lesson of humility. HOW vain a thing is man ! How ready to be puffed up with every breath of applause, and to forget that he is a crea- ture, and a sinner ! He that can bear to he surrounded with approbations and honours, and yet keep the same air and countenance without swelling a little at heart, has passed an hour of temptation, and cone off conqueror. "'As the fining-pot for silver, and the furnace for gold, so is a man to his ptaise ;" Prov. xxvii. 21. Eudoxus is a gentleman of exalted virtue, and unstained reputation : Every soul that knows him, speaks well of him ; he is so much honoured, and so well beloved in his nation, that he must flee his country if he would avoid praises. So sensible is he of the secret pride that has tainted human nature, that he holds himself in perpetual danger, and maintains an everlasting watch. He behaves now with the same modesty as when he was unknown and obscure. He receives the acclamations of the world with such an humble mein, and with such an indifference of spirit that is truly admirable and divine. It is a lovely pattern, but the imitation is not easy. I took the freedom one day to ask him, how he acquired this wondrous humility, or whether he was born with no pride about him ? " Ah, no, said he, with a sacred sigh, I feel the working poison, but I keep my antidote at hand when my friends tell me of my many good qualities and talents, I have learnt from St. Paul to say, What have I that I have not received? My own consciousness of many follies and sins constrains use to add, What have I that I have not misimproved? And then reason and religion join together to suppress my vanity, and teach ene the proper language of a creature and a sinner : What then have I to glory in ?" 171.6. XVI. The Waste of Life. ANERGUS was a young gentleman of a good estate, he was bred to no business, and, could not contrive how to waste his hours agreeably he had no relish for any of the proper works of life, nor any taste at all for the improvements of the mind ; he spent generally ten hours of the four and twenty in his bed ; he dozed away two er three more on his couch, and as many were dissolved in good liquor every evening, if he met with company of his own humour. Five or six of the rest be sauntered away with much indolence : The chief business of them was to contrive his meals, and to feed his fancy before -hand with the promise of a dinner and supper ; not that he was so very a glutton, or so entirely devoted to appetite ; but chiefly because he knew not how to employ his thoughts better, he let them rove about the sustenance of his body. Thus he had made
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