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When we enter into retirement; when we pafs into folitude: we are then, in regard of thought, more active than paffive. We act more from ourselves, and by our proper energy, than allow other things to act upon us. Our attention is lefs interrupted, is more continued and ftrong. We may felect from

among the objects of our reflection; tarry as long as we will with those that, in prefent circumftances, are most profitable and pleasant; confider them on morefides than one, in more than one combination; compare them with our farther perceptions, with our other thoughts; apply them more calmly to ourselves; imprint them deeper in our memory and our heart ; and revolve them so long and in such various ways, till they diffuse a pure light upon our minds, and fhed a genial warmth into our hearts, and thus become fo fixed that they cannot be forgotten. Thus may we, by filent, folitary reflection, one while extend and rectify certain notions in religion, at another unravel fome difficulties which perplexed our mind on the theatre of the world, now quiet our troubles and cares by a clearer conception of their caufes, and the beft grounds of comfort, then collect new forces for the performance of our duty, and for making progrefs on the way of perfection, then again, by more attentively confidering our worldly affairs and concerns, learn more wifdom and prudence for carrying them on. At all events, we exercife and ftrengthen our mental powers; many obfcurities that render our path hard to pursue, disperse and retire

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and we return, with more chearfulness and content, to active and focial life. The sphere of our fight becomes enlarged by reflection; we have learnt to furvey more objects, and to conne&t them together; we carry with us a clearer fight, a jufter judgment, and firmer principles, into the world wherein we live and act; and are then able, even amidst various dif tractions, fo much the longer to arreft our attention, and to think and determine more rightly, in proportion as we have accustomed ourselves to this exercise in retirement.

In the filence of folitude, we have, fecondly, a more intimate consciousness of ourfelves, of our existence, of our faculties, of our dignity. How often and how eafily do we forget ourselves in the hurry of business, in the distractions of company, in the eddy of a bustling life! How apt are we there to exist far more in others than in ourselves, to esteem far more the judgments and approbation of others, than the judgment and approbation of our hearts, take far more pains to give fatisfaction to others than to fatisfy ourselves, rejoice much more in being thought wife and good, rich and great, by others, than in the intimate conviction that we intrinfically are fo! But, the more a man exifts and lives in public and the lefs to himself: fo much the lefs frequently and lefs perfectly does he enjoy his life; fo much the more does it refemble a dream; and fo much the more eafily will he be deceived by every error and appearance that offers.

Whereas

Whereas in folitude, my dear brethren, our mind, as it were, returns home; there fhe collects her fcattered forces, and concentrates them within herself. There we wake, as it were, from a dream; there we separate ourselves from all that is without us and is not properly our own; there we separate our very thoughts from that which thinks within us. There we intimately feel, that we are, that we live, that we think, that we are intelligent, free, fpontaneoufly-· acting creatures, capable of great things, immortal. And what a bleffed fentiment is hot this! It is the joyful fentiment of one awakening from a trance, whose fenfes had been faft locked up, who had loft all arbitrary movement, all consciousness, and now opens his eyes to the clear light of day, is fenfible to his internal faculties, exerts them freely and with perfpicuous confcioufnefs, and, impreffed with thefe delicious fenfations, praises his great preferver, that he still exists and lives, and can in fpirit raise himself to him!

How much nobler, how much more bleffed is this fentiment of ourselves and our ability, than the deceitful view of our figure, our apparel, our outward circumftances, our riches, our borrowed beauties and prerogatives, which fo frequently tranfports us from ourselves, without allowing us to discern what actually belongs to our proper being, what gives us our true worth and dignity, from among the multitude of things to which we falfely attribute them! And when thus, in the folemn hour of folitude, the fenti

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ment of felf is quick within us; when thus the daz zling glare of what is foreign to us, what is only for a fhort period connected with us, vanishes from before our eyes; when thus our mind, as it were, looks into the depths of its nature: what capacities, what powers, what difpofitions for higher perfection and happiness, does it not discover in itfelf! With what a lively fentiment is it not then convinced, that its present ftate is not the compleatest mode of its exiftence, not the ultimate end of its being; that it is not and becomes not here, what it may be and becoine; that an ever active faculty dwells within it, conftantly embracing more, and conftantly aiming at remoter things, which is ever struggling to burst its narrow bounds, and to produce, in other circumstances, in other connections with the vifible and with the fpiritual world, totally different effects, and to procure for itself the enjoyment of quite other fatisfactions and fruitions! And what a glorious prefentiment is this! What views it opens of everlafting being, and of everlasting progrefs! Yes, then does a man truly rejoice in his existence and his life; rejoice in them far more than in all the externals that belong to him; feels his entire worth, his inherent dignity, feels what he is capable of doing and performing; and feels himself fufficiently ftrong to accomplish every duty of life, to fuftain its afflictions and troubles, to bear every privation of outward things, and to quit this life itself, the firft ftep of his existence, without reluctance, and prefs for. ward,

ward, with refolution and ardour, into the fuperior life.

In the filence of folitude, we not only acquire and keep up a more intimate consciousness of ourselves in general, but we learn likewife, thirdly, to know ourselves, and particularly our failings and infirmities, far better than in the tumult of fociety. What a number of checks and hindrances does not this falutary knowledge of ourfelves meet with in focial life! Here are multifarious and intricate affairs; there alluring diverfions and fafcinating pleafures, which entirely draw off our attention from ourselves, and fix it altogether on externals. Here we meet with flatterers, who, from interested views or from weakness and exuberant complaifance, pronounce us to be better than we are; there partial judges, who think to excufe their own faults and extrava gancies by justifying ours. Here are teftimonies of politeness and others of friendship which bias our judgment of ourselves and our actions. Here are prevailing maxims and customs; there fafcinating examples, which prevent us from infpecting our failings and feeling our defects.

On coming into filence, on entering into folitude, the illufions of felf-love difperfe. The attention is fixed on ourselves: the flatterer holds his peace; no partial or corrupted judge, no civil friend takes our judgment by furprize: the force of example is weakened or evaded: the common excuses lofe all their validity. A man is more familiar with him

felf,

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