a madman, who has broken from his cell, and is running directly towards the river. The screams which I hear are from the crowd, who are alarmed for his safety.

Now they seize him, and are bearing him back to his gloomy abode. Poor man! his case is very deplorable. How thankful ought all to be for nature's best gift, Reason, and the use thereof!

But what was I meditating on at the time of this alarm ?---It was drunkenness: And what else is a drunken man but a madman? made so, not by a sinless infirmity, but by his own inclination.

Unaccountable depravity this indeed! that man, who was created after the image of God, and endowed with reason in all its purity, should take pleasure in depriving himself of that little remains of it which the fall hath left, and making himself mad with his own hand!

Did I pity the poor man that is just now

swallowed and destroyed Corah, Dathan, Abiram, and all their company; made Ahithophel strangle himself; reared the lofty gallows for Haman; and drove Nebuchadnezzar from the society of men, to graze with the beasts of the field: nay, pride is the foundation and cause of all the hatred, strifes, and wars, whether personal or domestic, civil or foreign, that ever have been, are, or shall be, in the world.

Yet, how surprising is it, that mankind should caress that in their bosoms which is so hateful to God, and destructive to themselves! Some will say, and I have often been not a little shocked to hear it, that people are the better of a little pride. Awful depravity! horrid ignorance! and gross stupidity this certainly is! but it often ariseth from a mistake of confounding pride with prudence: prudence is certainly a cardinal virtue, approved of God, and highly commendable in all; but pride, cursed pride! for I can call it no less, being that primary sin which entailed the curse upon men and devils, is a moral evil, truly hateful to God, and utterly detes

table in all; the very least degree of it partaketh of the nature of the whole.

And shall I harbour that in my bosom which turned angels out of heaven, man out of paradise, and hath thrown the whole world into confusion? Forbid it, O God, and clothe me with its opposite, humility.

But what is pride? It is an insolent selfconceit; an unquenchable thirst for pre-eminence, which always hath for its concomitant, envy, that continually gnaws, not the bones, but the soul of its possessor.

The devil fisheth with this hook in the little stream of childhood, as well as in the stronger current of yonth, and settled pool of old age. Pride discovereth itself in children, by their passions, and resentments against their little companions, for injuries and affronts which they either really have, or imagine to have received; and by their dissatisfaction at seeing any of their peers caressed above, or even equal with themselves; a conceit of being thought beautiful, a taste for fine clothes, and