hes; and was the
other day almost frightened out of her wits by the great house-dog, that
howled in the stable at a time when she lay ill of the tooth-ach. Such
an extravagant cast of mind engages multitudes of people not only in
impertinent terrors, but in supernumerary duties of life; and arises
from that fear and ignorance which are natural to the soul of man. The
horror with which we entertain the thoughts of death or indeed of any
future evil, and the uncertainty of its approach, fill a melancholy mind
with innumerable apprehensions and suspicions, and consequently dispose
it to the observation of such groundless prodigies and predictions. For,
as it is the chief concern of wise men to retrench the evils of life by
the reasonings of philosophy, it is the employment of fools to multiply
them by the sentiments of superstition.

"For my own part, I should be very much troubled, were I endowed with
this divining quality, though it should inform me truly of every thing
that can befal me. I would not anticipate the relish of any happiness,
nor feel the weight of any misery, before it actually arrives.

"I know but one way of fortifying my soul against these gloomy presages
and terrors of mind; and that is, by securing to myself the friendship
and protection of that Being who disposes of events, and governs
futurity. He sees at one view the whole thread of my existence; not only
that part of it which I have already passed through, but that which runs
forward into all the depths of eternity. When I lay me down to sleep, I
recommend myself to his care; when I awake, I give myself up to his
direction. Amidst all the evils that threaten me, I will look up to him
for help and question not but he will either avert them, or turn them
to my advantage. Though I know neither the time nor the manner of the
death I am to die, I am not at all solicitous about it; because I am
sure that he knows them both, and that he will not fail to comfort and
support me under them."

In another paper, the same gentleman thus expresses himself on the same
subject:--

"I remember, last winter, there were several young girls of the
neighbourhood sitting about the fire with my landlady's daughters, and
telling stories of spirits and apparitions. Upon my opening the door,
the young women broke off their discourse; but my landlady's daughters
telling them it was nobody but the gentleman (for that is the name which
I go by in the neighbourhood as well