Allow me to recommend for your perufal the following allegory, which gives a just reprefentation of the confequences of the fault against which I have been cautioning you.

"Efculapius, after his deification or admittance among the gods, having revifited his native country, and being one day (as curiofity led him a rambling) in danger of being benighted, made the best of his way to a houfe he faw at fome distance, where he was hofpitably received by the mafter of it. Cremes, for that was the mafter's name, though but a young man, was infirm and fickly-Of feveral difhes ferved up for fupper, Cremes obferved that his guest eat but of one, and that the moft fimple; nor could all his entreaties prevail on him to do otherwise. He was, notwithstanding, highly delighted with Efculapius's converfation, in which he obferved a chearfulness and knowledge fuperior to any thing he had hitherto met with. The next morning Efculapius took his leave, but not till he had engaged his good-natured host to pay him a vifit at a small villa, a few miles from thence, where he informed him of his dwelling. Cremes came accordingly, and was most kindly received; but how great was his amazement, when fupper was ferved up,

to fee nought but milk, honey, and a few roots, dreffed in the plainest but neatest manner, to which hunger, chearfulness, and good sense, were the only fauces. Efculapius feemed to eat with pleasure, while Cremes fcarce tafted of them. On which a repaft was ordered, more suitable to our guest's taste. Immediately there fucceeded a banquet composed of the most artful dishes that luxury could invent, with great plenty and variety of the richest and most intoxicating wines. These too were accompanied by damfels of bewitching beauty. It was now Cremes gave a loose to his appetites, and every thing he tafted raised extafies beyond what he had ever known. During the repaft, the damfels fung and danced to entertain them; their charms enchanted the enraptured guest, already fluftered with what he had drunk; his fenfes were loft in extatic confufion. Every thing round him feemed Elyfum, and he was on the point of indulging the most boundless freedoms, when, on a fudden, their beauty, which was but a vizard, fell of, and difcovered forms the most hideous and forbidding imaginable.-Luft, revenge, folly, murder, meagre, poverty, and despair, now appeared in the most odious shapes, and the place instantly became a most dire scene Y

of mifery and confufion. How often did Cremes with himself far distant from fuch diabolical company, and now dreaded the fatal confequences which threatened him. His blood ran chill at his heart; his knees smote each other with fear, and joy and rapture were perverted to amazement and horror! When Efculapius perceived it had made fufficient impreffion on his gueft, he thus addreffed him:

Know, Cremes, it is Efculapius who has • thus entertained you, and what you have here beheld, is a true image of the deceitfulness ⚫ and mifery infeparable from luxury and intem'perance. Would you be happy, be tempe• rate; temperance is the parent of health, virtue, wisdom, plenty, and every thing that can make you happy in this, or the world to come. It is indeed the true luxury of life, for without it, life cannot be enjoyed.' This faid, he disappeared, and left Cremes (instead of an elegant apartment) in an open plain, full of ideas quite different from thofe he had brought with him. On his return home, from the most luxurious he became one of the most temperate of men; by which wife method, he foon regained health. Frugality produced riches, and from an infirm and crazy constitution, and almost ruined estate, by virtue of

this infallible elixir, he became one of the happieft men breathing, and lived to a healthy old age, revered as an oracle for his wifdom throughout all Greece.

NUMBER XXVI.

Hark! groans come wing'd on every breeze.

THE MAN OF SORROW.

AH! what avails the lengthening mead,
By nature's kindest bounty spread

Along the vale of flowers!

Ah! what avails the darkening grove,
Or Philomel's melodious love,

That glads the midnight hours!

From me (alas!) the god of day
Ne'er glitters on the hawthorn spray,
Nor night her comfort brings:
I have no pleasure in the rofe;
For me no vernal beauty blows,
Nor Philomela fings.

See how the sturdy peasants ftride
Adown yon hillock's verdant fide,
In chearful ignorance blest!

Alike to them the rofe or thorn,
Alike arifes every morn,

By gay Contentment drest.

Content, fair daughter of the skies,
Or gives fpontaneous, or denies,
Her choice divinely free:

She vifits oft the hamlet cot,
When Want and Sorrow are the lot

Of Avarice and me.

But fee or is it Fancy's dream?
Methought a bright celestial gleam
Shot fudden thro' the groves;
Behold, behold, in loose array,
Euphrofyne, more bright than day,
More mild than Paphian doves!

Welcome, O! welcome, Pleafure's queen!
And fee, along the velvet green

The jocund train advance :
With fcatter'd flowers they fill the air,
The wood-nymph's dew-bespangled hair
Plays in the sportive dance.

Ah! baneful grant of angry Heaven,
When to the feeling wretch is given
A foul alive to joy!