REMNANTS OF TIME. 471 piness ! but point our affections to those diviner objects whose nature is everlasting; let us seek those religious. attainments and those new - created powers of a sanctified mind, concerning which it shall never be pronounced, " that their time shall be no longer." O may every one of us be humbly content at the call of hea- ven to part with all that is pleasing or magnificent here on earth ; let us resign even these agreeable talents when the God of nature demands ; and when the hour arrives that shall close our eyes to all visible things, and lay our fleshly structure in the dust, let us yield up our whole selves to the hands of our. Creator, who shall reserve our spirits with himself; and while we chearfully give up all that was mortal to the grave, we may lie down full of the joy- ful hope of a rising immortality. New and unknown powers and glories, brighter flames of imagination, richer scenes of wit and fancy and diviner talents are preparing for us when we shall awake from the dust ; and the mind itself shall have all its facul- ties in a sublime state of improvement. These shall make us equal, if not superior, to angels, for we are nearer a-kin to the Son of God than they are, and therefore we shall be made more like him. X. --The Rake reformed in the House of Mourning. FLORINO was young and idle ; he gave himself up to all the diversions of the town, and roved wild among the plea- sures of sense ; nor did he confine himself within the limits of virtue, or withhold his heart from any forbidden joy. Often hath he been heard to ridicule marriage, and affirm that no man can mourn heartily fora dead wife, for then lie bath leave by thelaw to choose a new companion, to riot in all the gayer scenes of a new courtship, and perhaps to advance his fortune too. When he heard of the death of Serena, " Well, said he, I will go visit my friend Lucius, and rally him a little on this occa- sion." He went the next day in all the wantonness of his heart to fulfil his design, inhuman and barbarous as it was, and to sport with solemn sorrow. But when Lucius appeared, the man of gaity was strangely surprised, he saw such a sincere and inimita- ble distress sitting on his countenance, and discovering itself in every air and action, that lie dropt his cruel purpose, his soul be- gan to melt and he assumed the comforter. Florino's methods of consolation were all drawn from two topics : Some from fate and necessity, advising an heroic indo- lence about unavoidable events which are past and cannot be re- versed ; and some were derived from the various amusements of life which call the soul abroad, and divide and scatter the thoughts, and suffer not the mind to attend to its inward anguish. " Come, Lucius, said he, come, smooth your brows a little and brighten up for an hour or two : Come along with me to a concert this even-
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