Not Heav'n itself upon the past has pow'r;

But what has been, has been, and I have had my

hour.

Fortune, that, with malicious joy,
Does man her flave opprefs,
Proud of her office to deftroy,
Is feldom pleas'd to blefs:
Still various and unconftant fill,
But with an inclination to be ill,
Promotes, degrades, delights in ftrife,
And makes a lottery of life.

I can enjoy her while fhe's kind;

But when she dances in the wind,

And shakes her wings and will not ftay,
I puff the flutt'ring thing away :

The little or the much fhe gave, is quietly refign'd.
Content with poverty, my foul I arm:

And virtue, tho' in rags, will keep me warm.

What is't to me,

Who never fail in her unfaithful fea,

If ftorms arife, and clouds grow black;
If the maft fplit, and threaten wreck?
Then let the greedy merchant fear

For his ill-gotten gain;

And pray to Gods that will not hear,

While the debating winds and billows bear,

His wealth into the main..

For me, fecure, from fortune's blows Secure of what I cannot lofe,

In my fmall pinnace 1 can fail, Contemning all the bluft'ring roar; And running with a merry gale, With friendly ftars my fafety feek Within fome little winding creek; And fee the ftorm afhore.

A Young man, whofe name was Humphries,

was a dull companion, but an excellent workman. Nothing ran in his head fo much as the wish to become a mafter, but he had not money to gratify that wish. A merchant, however, who was well acquainted with his induftry, lent him an hundred pounds, in order that he might open fhop in a proper ftile.

It will from hence naturally follow, that Humphries thought himself one of the happiest men in the world. He fuppofed his warehouse already filled with goods, he reckoned how many cuftomers would croud to buy them, and what would be his profits thereon.

In the midft of thefe extravagant flights of fancy, he perceived an alehoufe. "Come faid he, on entering it, I will indulge myself with fpending one fixpence of this money." He hesitated, however fome few moments, about calling for punch, which was his favourite liquor, as his confcience, loudly told him, that his time for enjoyment ought to be at fome diftance, and not till he had paid his friend the money he had borrowed; that it would not be honest in him, at prefent, to expend a farthing of that money but in abfolute neceffaries. With these right ideas he was nearly leaving the alehouse; but bethinking himself, on the other hand, that if he fpent a fixpence of his money, he should still have an hundred pounds all but that fixpence, that fuch a fum was fully fufficient to fet him up in trade, and that a fingle half hour's ind y would amply make amends for fuch a trifling pleafure as he wished then to enjoy.

He called for his punch, and the firft glafs-banished all his former qualms, little thinking that

fuch a conduct would, by infenfible degrees, open a way to his ruin. The next day, he recollected the pleasures of the former glafs, and found it eafy to reconcile his confcience to the spending of another fixpence. He knew he should still have an hundred pounds left all but one fhilling.

The love of liquor had at last completely conquered him, and every fucceeding day he constantly returned to his favourite alehoufe, and gradually increafed his quantity, till he spent two fhillings and fixpence at each fitting. Here he feemed to make a ftand, and every time he went he confoled himself by saying, that he was spending only half-a-crown, and that he need not fear but he fhould have enough to carry on his trade.

By this delufive way of reafoning, he filenced the prudent whifpers of confcience, which would fometimes, in spite even of liquor, break in upon him, and remind him, that the proper ufe of money confifted in prudently applying every part of it to advantageous purposes.

Thus you fee how the human mind is led into deftructive extravagancies by infenfible degrees. Industry had no longer any charms to allure him, being blindly perfuaded, that the money he