ion.

Ah, little think the gay, licentious proud,
Whom pleasure, power and affluence surround,
How many pine in want! How many shrink
Into the sordid hut, how many drink
The cup of grief, and eat the bitter bread
Of misery!

And, which aggravates the evil, almost all the worst vices, the most
unprincipled acts, and the darkest passions of the human mind, are bred
out of poverty and distress. Satan, in the Book of Job, says to the
Almighty, "Thou hast blessed the work of thy servant, and his substance
is increased in the land. But put forth thy hand now, and take away all
that he hath; and he will curse thee to thy face." The prayer of Agar
runs, "Feed me with food convenient for me; lest I be poor, and steal,
and take the name of my God in vain."

It is with a deep knowledge of the scenes of life, that the prophet
pronounces, "My thoughts are not your thoughts; neither are your ways my
ways, saith the Lord."

All reflecting persons, who have surveyed the state of the world in
which we live, have been struck with the contrarieties of sublunary
things; and many hypotheses have been invented to solve the enigma. Some
have maintained the doctrine of two principles, Oromasdes and Arimanius,
the genius of good and of evil, who are perpetually contending with each
other which shall have the greatest sway in the fortunes of the world,
and each alternately acquiring the upper hand. Others have inculcated
the theory of the fall of man, that God at first made all things
beautiful and good, but that man has incurred his displeasure, and been
turned out of the paradise for which he was destined. Hence, they say,
has arisen the corruption of our nature. "There is none that cloth good,
no, not one. That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become
guilty before God." But the solution that has been most generally
adopted, particularly in later days, is that of a future state of
retribution, in which all the inequalities of our present condition
shall be removed, the tears of the unfortunate and the sufferer shall be
wiped from their eyes, and their agonies and miseries compensated. This,
in other words, independently of the light of revelation, is to infer
infinite wisdom and benevolence from what we see, and then, finding
the actual phenomena not to correspond with our theories, to invent
something of which we have no knowledge, to supply the deficiency.

The astronomer however proceeds from what we see of