so forcibly expressed by Cowper, that I cannot resist the pleasure of quoting it, at the same time referring my readers to the first volume of Dr. Drake's Essays illustrative of the Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian, for the passage itself, and an amplification of its sentiment in the perspicuous and elegant style of that instructive and popular writer.

An humble ambition and hope

The voice of true wisdom inspires; 'Tis sufficient if peace be the scope And the summit of all our desires.

Peace may be the lot of the mind
That seeks it in meekness and love;
But rapture and bliss are confin'd

To the glorified spirits above.

This is the only conception of human happiness which introduces to the complete enjoyment of the pleasure of pursuit ; and at the same time preserves from the poignancy of disappointment, by a conviction of the fallacy of expectation. He who embarks on the voyage of life with this view of its most prosperous results, will glide down the stream of time with composure, till he arrive by imperceptible degrees in those regions of perfection, where human life is absorbed in an immensity of existence and enjoyment.

These speculations evidently assume, as a principle, that happiness is an object of pursuit in all respects worthy a rational being; or, rather, they contemplate it as an indisputable axiom, that a vast preponderance of enjoyment is the only condition upon which existence is desirable. To me, indeed, it has always appeared essential for a belief in the infinite benevolence of Deity, to suppose that the human race is either in actual possession of this preponderance of happiness, individually as well as collectively, or at least furnished with the means of its acquisition. These means are undoubtedly as various as the characteristics of the human mind, and the circumstances in which it is placed. Among the sources of its purest pleasures, however, may be distinguished, the acquisition of a devotional temper, the exercise of the benevolent affections, the retrospections of memory, and the enjoyments derived from a cultivated imagination. It would be easy to amplify these topics to considerable extent, but my readers must not forget that my object is to present them with materials for thinking, rather than to exhaust the several subjects of my respective "ponderings."

Of a devotional temper, I shall content myself with observing that it is essential to its purity, as

well as to the degree of gratification it can communicate, that it be uncontaminated by every particle of superstition. The pleasure may then be perfect as the Being it contemplates, and sublime as the power it worships. To this it may be added, that the strength of the benevolent affections will be the best criterion of the purity of devotion. For it is an indubitable truth, that they who" with God himself hold converse" will

"Behold and love

What he beholds and loves, the general orb
Of life and being-will be great, like him,
Beneficent and active;-

Will grow familiar, day by day,

With his conceptions-act upon his plan,
And form to his the relish of their souls."

AKENSIDE.

The retrospections of memory constitute a source of pleasure, not only of the most exquisite kind, but of a permanency which must be commensurate with the duration of our faculties. Future enjoyments are, with respect to our knowledge, purely contingent; but past gratifications are beyond the power of the fates; and, being deposited in the store-house of memory, may at any time be produced to furnish a feast of feeling. It must not be objected that these pleasures presuppose a virtuous course of conduct; for in

every inquiry respecting the means of securing the greatest possible sum of happiness, it ought ever to be recognised as an incontrovertible maxim, that it is as impossible to be happy without virtue, as to be susceptible of the pleasures of harmony without the faculty of hearing.

In enumerating the sources of our purest pleasures, to the retrospections of memory, were added the enjoyments derived from a cultivated imagination. By these we are capable of making the future, and the past, contribute to the enjoyment of the present. By memory, the past is ours, almost beyond the possibility of a deprivation; while through the medium of the imagination, we can derive delight from the treasures of futurity; and, darting beyond the little boundary of this infancy of intellect, we may enjoy, in anticipation, the happiness we shall derive from eternal advances in intellectual and moral excellencies, during our approximation to the source of all perfection.

L.

THE PONDERER. No. 3.

Igneus est ollis vigor, et cælestis origo.

The etherial vigor is in all the same;
And every soul is filled with equal flame.

VIRGIL.

DRYDEN.

ONE of the peculiar provinces of the essayist

appears to be, that of presenting subjects of acknowledged difficulty in a more alluring form than that in which they are generally treated, as well as within a shorter compass. His business is rather to furnish materials for thinking, than to exhaust the objects of his speculation, by an introduction of every topic of illustration of which they are susceptible. Perspicuity rather than originality, the several combinations of variety, rather than the splendid attractions of novelty, are the means which the essayist may advantageously employ in the prosecution of his undertaking; whether his more immediate design be to communicate pleasure, or to convey instruction.

The subject of the present essay has no claim to attention from novelty; but if my conceptions