et companion
for its immortal associate. Prosperity, among many other evils,
engenders religious apathy, and luxurious selfishness. She presents a
gorgeous stage, on which the puppets of vanity and petty ambition act
their insignificant parts; adversity educates and exercises men.

Nor is the moral harvest a mere gleaning of good deeds. Where misery and
wickedness seem most to abound; where desperadoes and plunderers go
forth to destroy and pillage; the passive virtues pray, and endure.
Self-devoting generosity then interposes her shield, and magnanimous
heroism her sword; benevolence seeks out and consoles distress; the
confessor intercedes with heaven; the patriot sacrifices his fortune and
his comforts; the martyr dies on the scaffold, and the hero in the
field. England hath often witnessed such piteous scenes, and many fear
she is now on the verge of similar calamities, which threaten to cloud
her glory from the envy and admiration of foreign nations, making her a
taunting proverb of reproach to her enemies, while she points a moral,
and adorns a tale, for posterity. May those who govern her wide extended
empire, so study the records of our former woes, and shape their
political course with such single-hearted observance of the unerring
laws of God, as to become, under his Providence, our preservers from
danger; and may the governed, remembering the tyranny which originated
from insubordination; the daring ambition of popular demagogues; the
hypocrisy of noisy reformers, and all the certain misery which arises
from the pursuit of speculative unattainable perfection, adhere to those
institutions, which have been consecrated with the best blood in
England, and proved by the experience of ages to be consistent with as
large a portion of national prosperity, as any people have ever enjoyed.
Yet as our offences may prevail over our prayers, let us prepare our
minds for times of trial. The public duties they require, are adapted to
the discussion of that sex, whose physical and mental powers fit it for
active life, and deliberate policy. But the exercise of the milder
virtues is imperiously called for in seasons of national alarm. Whether
we are to endure the loss of our accustomed wealth and luxury, or to
encounter the far heavier trial of domestic confusion, there are habits
of thinking and acting, which will conduce to individual comfort and
improvement. There are sorrows which neither "King nor laws can cause or
cure;