mind, and the fenfitive faculty of the human heart, so inexaustible are the fources of delight that here stand open. Here no good word that is uttered falls to the ground; here no effect is without its reciprocal confequence; no fentiment that is not conceived, no teftimony of affection that is not returned, no civility that is not repaid, no fatisfaction that is not enjoyed by all, no emotion that is not transfused into every heart. Here the recollection of the past and the prospect of the future are intimately combined in the enjoyment of the prefent; all together form but one highly interesting whole; all take a lively part in all: and how much must not the agreeable employment and the pleasures of each by this means be multiplied! How much more than there, where only certain kinds of pleafures or amusements are to be found, which always wear the fame aspect, and always return with the fame restrictions; where a man is fo feldom thoroughly understood; must so often give his words to the wind; fo often exhibits thoughts and feelings, wherein none coincide either in fentiment or fenfation; so often excites envy by his contentedness, and dark looks by his chearful mien; and where commonly the most separate, and not unfrequently the most opposite interests actuate all the individuals of the fociety! No wonder then, if pleasure often fails, and its dull monotony renders it ftill oftener infipid!

The

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The happiness of domestic life compenfates the want of any other; but no other can compensate the want of that. Let the world, let thy country. men withhold from thee the justice, the refpect, and esteem that are due to thy merits; repay thy fervices with indifference and ingratitude: how speedily wilt thou forget these flights, or these injuries, on returning to the bofom of thy family, on being received by them with open arms and open hearts, and in paffing among them for what thou really art, obtaining the approbation which is truly thy defert, and in feeling the whole worth of their attachment and love! Has all the glittering tinsel of the great world, all the magnificence of the court, all the triumph of eminence and power, left thy heart empty and cold; has the farce of diffimulation, of artifice, of falfhood, of childish vanity that was there performed, wearied and difgufted thee: how foon does thy deadened heart expand itself as thou enterest the doors of thy houfe; how foon does it feel a mild and genial warmth in the circle of thy wife and thy children and friends; how foon do the fincerity, the franknefs, the affability, the innocence which there prevail, restore thy foul, and reconcile thee to the human race! On the other hand, be as full as thou wilt of the bounties of fortune; be the darling of the great; be the idol of the people; be the oracle. of the politeft companies; be even great and rich · thyfelf; prefide over as many others as thou canft;

but if thy habitation be the feat of difcord and jealoufy, and thy domestic life deny thee the peace, the fatisfaction, the pleasure it yields to the wife and good: how little will every outward and dazzling circumstance of fortune make thee amends for this effential inward defect! How much will this one defect embitter the enjoyment of every fpecies of fuccefs! How hard and intolerable will the burden of it be!

Hence it is, that the enjoyment of domestic happiness is always not lefs edifying and useful than pleafant. It is here a man learns the true ends of his being; here he is taught rightly to appreciate the value of all the goods of life; here he is convinced of the emptinefs of grandeur, of pomp, of rank and station. Here he is taught to think, and feel, and act like a reafonable creature; learns to forget his outward diftinctions, and to fee them in their proper light, more as toys and baubles, or even incumbrances, than as things in themselves covet. able. Here all hearts are united, and ever uniting clofer; the one becomes ftill dearer to the other, each is ever more ready and willing to affift and ferve the reft; all collect new avidity and new powers to fulfil the duties of their calling, more and more to deferve the eftéem and applaufe of the others, and thereby to promote the welfare of the whole community, which is but one heart and one foul. With what zeal must not the father and the mother of the family be animated in their affairs, of

what

what perfeverance will they not be capable, while they taste the fruit of their industry in the enjoyment of domestic happiness, in jocund converfe with their children, and provide themselves daily, by continued industry, with fucceffive pleasures and renewed delights! What an incitement must not this be to the faithful discharge of their duties! And must not those pleasures be of extraordinary value, which instruct and improve whofoever enjoys them?

Still more. To the enjoyment of domestic happinefs, no troublesome, no expenfive preparations and arrangements are needful. It may be enjoyed at all seasons, in every moment of life. No fooner does the hour of focial recreation, the hour of meeting again, the moment of finished labour arrive, but with them enter chearfulness and mirth into this happy circle. No fooner does the want of this pleafure make itself felt, but the means of fatisfying it are ready at hand. Selfishness and ill-humour, and a thousand pretended or real obftructions and restraints, which defeat the schemes of pleasure among people of fashion, have little influence here. The inclination of one is the inclination of the other. This chearfully bestows what he has, and as chearfully and gratefully accepts what another gives him. When one is glad, gladness inspires them all; when one of them enters to the reft with a brightened afpect, joy beams from the faces of all. When one has done fome good or obtained fome fuccefs, and imparts it to the objects of his affection, it is as if all

as well as he had done or enjoyed it. What advantages have not such pleasures and joys above thofe that often require whole weeks to be spent in planning, arranging, and expecting them; then by caprice or accident are still longer poftponed; and at laft, in a few hours, are over and gone, and very feldom produce what they promised!

To the enjoyment of domeftic happiness as little of art and dexterity is requifite as of preparation and arrangement. It is entirely the work of nature and fincerity; not the effect of preconcerted devices, of ftudied parts, of a troublesome obfervance of the rules of behaviour, and the modes that prevail for the day. A found mind, and a good affectionate heart, is all, my dear brother, that is required to the enjoyment of this felicity. The less constraint 'thou here putteft on thy mind and thy heart; the more freely thou alloweft them both to act: so much the more purely and perfectly wilt thou enjoy this happiness. Though, in the great world, both of them muft crouch under the yoke of fashion, and the mind can feldom venture to think aloud, and the heart feldom dares refign itself to its feelings; yet here they may both follow their bent unimpeded and free, and exert their powers and qualities, in fuch manner and degree as is fuitable to the inward impulfe and the present occafion.

This alfo, my pious hearers, gives the happiness of domestic life a great advantage, that the enjoyment of it is never attended by furfeit or disgust, by

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