No. XI.
Man is a being, holding large discourse,
Looking before and after.
In my last number I availed myself of the occasion, to dwell with
some emphasis, on the necessity and advantage of retrospection.
The past is rife with lessons of experience, fitted to serve as
waymarks and beacons, for the government of human conduct in the
subsequent course. Obvious as this may appear, it is nevertheless
lamentably true, as the venerable JOHN ADAMS has somewhere observed,
that our attention is too frequently monopolized in the pursuit
of present enjoyment, and that each succeeding generation is not
satisfied, until it "_has made experience for itself_." It is,
however, gratifying to believe, that many are not so unmindful of
their real interests, and so destitute of true wisdom; but are on
proper occasions employed, in "looking before and after." To these
no apology will be necessary, for recommending a preparation for
those duties, which appertain to the severe and dreary season, upon
which we are now entering. A season, above all others calculated,
to illustrate the generous and benevolent principles of our
nature; and which calls most loudly and authoritatively for their
exercise. When indigence is gifted with peculiar eloquence, which
the powers of a BURKE or an AMES, could scarcely _heighten_. We are
fortunately so constituted, that the sight of distress is amply
sufficient to awaken our sympathy, without requiring by a conclusive
moral deduction, the establishment of the fact, that it is our duty
to sympathize with the objects of it. Ere long a wide field will
present itself for mitigating the sufferings and relieving the wants
of