Honours to procure it. Ambition how usually deftru&tive to our felves and others. The deceit and danger of the outer form of Godliness, without the inward and substantial reality, and Solomon expatiates largely on all their littlenefs and infufficiency to happiness; and then lays down many wife and excellent Rules enfuring Tranquility, Peace, and Enjoyment to the careful and attentive obfervers of them. SOLOMON'S WISE MAXI M S. Maintain a grateful thankful Heart, in the free ufe of all your Bleffings. A humble Acquiefcence and Refignation to God, under all the Events which may befal us, Devout and reverential Addreffes, put up to God in fincerity of Heart, and a religious Performance of our Vows. Patience and Submillion under Sufferings and Oppreffion, unruffled by Sorrows, unrepining in Affliction. Maintain Candour, Prudence and Moderation towards all Men. Meeknefs, Mceknes, Charity, and Forbearance to all who have offended us. Loyalty and Obedience to Superiors, Kindness and Humanity to all. The wifeft, fafeft, beft Preparation for Death, Judgment, and Eternity, is the habitual Fear of God, and the keeping his Commandments. The Book elegantly concludes with the awful reafon affigned, moft powerfully perfuafive. "There is a day of future reckoning already "announced, for every work, and every fecret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be " evil." Solomon well aware of the proneness of Youth (ever lively warm and hopeful) to prefer the agreeable and prefent, to the ufeful and future, obferving how peculiarly amiable and lovely Wifdom is, at fuch a feafon, commences his laft Chapter, with a Perfuafive to early Piety, and the most highly finifhed Portrait of Old Agc follows it, pencilled in a scientific and moft matterly ftile, beautifully expreffive. Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy Youth (the choiceft period of thy life) before the Ff2 evil evil days come (ferve Him now, He will keep you then) and the years draw nigh, in which thou fhalt say, I have no pleasure in them. Of the fecond verfe Man is himself the fub-ject. While the Sun (the emblem of the foul), or the Light (reafon), or the Moon (inftinct and its powers), or the Stars (luminaries of fancy, judgment, and experience ftored up in the memory) be not darkened, nor the Clouds return after the Rain, one mifery after another. In the third and fourth verfes the figure is varied, and your ideas are carried to the fimilitude of a Houfe or Castle. In the day when the keepers of the houfe (the hands and arms) fhall tremble, and the ftrong men (the feet and back) fhall bow themfelves, and the grinders (the teeth) fhall ceafe because they are few, and and those that look out of the windows be darkned, fo literally reprefenting the eyes and the Spectacles. And the doors fhall be fhut to the freet, (the mouth, paffages for the voice, and to the ftomach) when the found of the grinding is low, (fcarcely heard) and he fhall rise up at the voice of the bird, (eafily waked, full of aches and pains) and all the Daughters of mufic fball be be brought low, the organs fuch as the ears, lips, lungs, tong and teeth, all deadened and impaired. Alfo when they fhall be afraid of that which is high, (foon giddy, weary, out of breath) and fear fhall be in the way (leaft they should be thruft, ftumble or hurt), and the almond tree the forerunner of Spring (the emblem of the bloffoms of age, the white and hoary locks) fhall flourish, and the grafshopper fhall be a burthen (the lightest hop and its little fong fhall worry him) defire (of meat and drink and enjoyment) fhall fail, becaufe man goeth to his long home (the grave), and the mourners (a folemn proceffion) go about the ftreets, attendants on his funeral. Or ever the filver cord be loofed (the fpinal marrow beautifully white and fhining), or the golden bowl be broken (containing the brain), or the pitcher be broken at the fountain (the vaft capacious vein pouring into the heart, all the blood returning from the body), or the wheel (the high round arch of the great artery) broken at the ciftern the heart, the left ventricle of which, in each fyftole, replenishes the wheel, which whirls the new made blood to all the parts . of the body. The Then fhall the Duft return to the earth as it was; and the Spirit fhall return 'unto God wha made it. ON THE CANTICLE S, O R SONGS OF SOLOMO N. THE youthful Monarchs written in the warmth and luxuriance of fancy, amidst the gaieft fcenes of all his life. They are wrote in the allegorical, myftical and fublime language of the East, a kind of Drama uttered in the names of feveral perfons; they defcribe the love and happy marriage of two eminent perfons in high and exalted ftations, generally fuppofed to be Solomon himfelf, and Queen Shulamite, the Daughter of Pharoah, King of Egypt. The |