l character, when the first fermentation of
the youthful passions is over, and the redundant spirits shall come
to subside.

IF it be true, as a consummate judge of human nature has observed,

That not a vanity is given in vain,

it is also true, that there is scarcely a single passion, which may
not be turned to some good account, if prudently rectified, and
skilfully turned into the road of some neighbouring virtue. It cannot be
violently bent, or unnaturally forced towards an object of a totally
opposite nature, but may be gradually inclined towards a correspondent
but superior affection. Anger, hatred, resentment, and ambition, the
most restless and turbulent passions which shake and distract the
human soul, may be led to become the most active opposers of sin, after
having been its most successful instruments. Our anger, for instance,
which can never be totally subdued, may be made to turn against
ourselves, for our weak and imperfect obedience--our hatred, against
every species of vice--our ambition, which will not be discarded, may be
ennobled: it will not change its name, but its object: it will despise
what it lately valued, nor be contented to grasp at less than
immortality.

THUS the joys, fears, hopes, desires, all the passions and affections,
which separate in various currents from the soul, will, if directed into
their proper channels, after having fertilised wherever they have
flowed, return again to swell and enrich the parent source.

THAT the very passions which appear the most uncontroulable and
unpromising, may be intended, in the great scheme of Providence, to
answer some important purpose, is remarkably evidenced in the character
and history of Saint Paul. A remark on this subject by an ingenious old
Spanish writer, which I will here take the liberty to translate, will
better illustrate my meaning.

"TO convert the bitterest enemy into the most zealous advocate, is the
work of God for the instruction of man. Plutarch has observed, that the
medical science would be brought to the utmost perfection, when poison
should be converted into physic. Thus, in the mortal disease of Judaism
and idolatry, our blessed Lord converted the adder's venom of Saul
the persecutor, into that cement which made Paul the chosen vessel.
That manly activity, that restless ardor, that burning zeal for the law
of his fathers, that ardent thirst for the blood of Christians, did the
Son of God find necessary in the m