and destroy themselves. We are now a distressed country our wants are great, and our resources not improving; our enemies are many, and our friends are few and yet it is my sincere opinion, that the worst evils the land suffers, or will suffer, are from itself; and for these there can be no remedy, till better principles shall take place amongst us, and public spirit, which is now dead, shall revive again.

That you may be able, in body as well as mind, to go through the duties of your profession, you must also remember, that the first qualification necessary in a soldier, is to endure hardness; and he that would suffer least by hard accidents and trying occasions, will find it his wisdom as well as his duty to keep himself in continual practice. The common men, who must endure many and great hardships, are never so well reconciled to them as when they see that their officer does not spare himself; who will thus secure their respect and win upon their affections; and then there will be a mutual confidence in the time of danger.

Charles the XIIth of Sweden quieted a mutiny that was beginning in his army by eating some bread that was mouldy, without making a wry face at it. He owned it was not very good, but proved that it might be eaten, by his own example; and then his soldiers had nothing more to say.

The great point with all persons in office, is to act with temper and steadiness; to show that they are not influenced by pride and ill-nature, but only by a sense of duty. When a man seems to think of himself more than of his business, his authority either loses ground or becomes odious. All this may be attended to by an officer, without incurring the suspicion of meanness or weakness it will, on the contrary, demonstrate a

firmness of mind, and shew that he is fit to command others who can thus command himself.

Drunkenness is a vice so much below a gentleman, that I hope you will want but little advice on that head. Every school-boy that makes a theme will be able to tell you why soldiers ought to be sober. He that is in liquor has lost his strength, and will easily be worsted by an antagonist of inferior ability. When drink takes away reason, a man is off his guard, and becomes a traitor against himself: he is like one who has permitted the enemy to shoot his centinel. History will inform you how armies have fallen a prey when they were besotted with liquor; and there have been instances, when a subtle enemy has drawn an army into their own ruin by some stratagem for intoxicating them; as we kill vermin by baiting a trap.

In your dress, be neither slovenly nor fanciful. Slovenliness in the person generally denotes some defect in the mind and understanding: and as to foppishness, it is a sad mistake, when he who should be a soldier, forgets that he is a man..

With regard to your behaviour in company, (which will now be of a new sort) the best general rule I can give, and which I would advise you to carry with you every where, is, not to talk too much nor too fast: for the one will be apt to make you troublesome, and the other may bring you into danger: a youth of too many words will let his tongue outrun his wit; and when he pushes on too hastily, he will fall into some embarrassment with his company, where he may neither know how to proceed with safety, nor retreat with dignity. Recommend yourself, if you possibly can, to some old respectable officer of your corps, who may admonish you with the freedom of a friend and the authority of a father, if you should be guilty of any

little mistakes at first, from accidental levity or inexperience. Here my subject brings the practice of duelling into sight, a practice too horrible to be reformed by the pen. No Roman ever thought of this foolish expedient for determining a private dispute: they made it a principle to reserve their swords to be turned against the enemies of their country; and you have a pleasant example of this in the story of Pulsio and Varenus, two of Cæsar's centurions in Gaul, who had always been quarrelling, and yet never dreamed of drawing their swords upon one another. They leaped from the ramparts, to shew which was the best man in a dispute with a croud of enemies; and so it happened, that they both retreated with equal honour; each having had the opportunity of saving the other's life. The practice of aiming at the life of a fellowsoldier for an insignificant affront, arose from the savage custom of trial by battle, which the law anciently allowed, though wise and good men always detested and remonstrated against it as a disgrace to a Christian country. Till the authority of government shall effectually interpose, it is as vain to think of writing against duels, as it would be to throw an inkbottle at a water-spout, which can be dispersed only by the shock of a cannon. To you in particular I shall observe, that though your father might be ready to resign you in the way of your duty, and for the good of your country; it would probably break his heart if you were to fall in a private dispute: and if you should ever be the unhappy instrument of sending some thoughtless companion out of life, it might break your own heart.

Upon the whole, there is certainly nothing like a proper mixture of religion in a military character, to keep a man within the lines of prudence and safety.

And soldiers may have religion as well as other men ; why else did the Providence of God select Cornelius the centurion as the first gentile convert to the Gospel? Devotion never appears with more dignity than in a person whose profession places him above the imputation of a superstitious fear. I was never more pleased with any spectacle that occurred to me abroad, than when I saw many venerable greyheaded soldiers, the relics of battles and sieges, in the great hospital of the invalids at Paris, dispersed about different quarters of their chapel, and all engaged in their own private devotions at a common hour of the day. If it were required to add the greatest possible dignity to a soldier already qualified in other respects, I would put this motto upon him, "Je crains Dieu, et je n'ai point d'autre crainte," I fear God, and I have no other fear.

LETTER XXI.

ON THE PRACTICE OF DEVOTION.

THOUGH I take this serious subject, I shall write neither a sermon nor a lecture to you. Your own experience will bear witness to the truth of a fact which has often surprised and confounded me. Nothing demonstrates an inborn depravity in human nature so much, as that dread which most young people are under lest they should be thought to say their prayers, or, what would be worst of all, discovered in the act; though prayer to God is a duty as ho

nourable in itself as it is necessary to man. Gratitude demands that we should daily return something to the Power from whom we receive all things, as life, health, strength, reason, and the capacity of enjoyment: and gratitude is a virtue which all men honour. Prudence requires that we should keep up an interest with Him from whom we expect every thing in the time that is to come; and prudence is commendable in all. It is an honour to man that he is permitted, much more that he is invited, to address himself to his Maker. We are all desirous of being seen in the company of our betters, and speaking to them; and as God is the source of all perfection, infinite in goodness as well as greatness, where can be the harm of having it known that we are sometimes alone in his company? Every passion of the heart, and every power of the understanding, hope, fear, love, gratitude, admiration, reason, memory, judgment, all call upon us to keep up this intercourse; and yet we are ashamed of it!

I would dissect this shame if I could, and discover the causes of the distemper; but it is easier to say what it is not, than what it is. It cannot proceed from ignorance; for there is scarcely one boy in a hundred, of fifteen years of age, who does not already know nearly as much as I have here been telling him. It cannot proceed from modesty or bashfulness; because the same boy who is ashamed to say his prayers before one companion, will. have the boldness to swear and talk nonsense before twenty. If it should be pleaded, that the appearance of hypocrisy is avoided, then it is to be feared the duty would be practised in hypocrisy: and what an opinion must he have of his own character, who has reason to think that the fact of prayer in him must be taken for an act of dissimulation? If he thinks he is not good Cc

VOL. V.