or have the superintendence, of the poor. The black slave is compelled to labor; but he is destitute of care. He is not at liberty to change one service for another; but he may, by long and faithful adherence to his duty, secure the affections of his master, and, by assiduous attentions, conciliate his superiors. When he grows old or infirm, he is sure of being maintained, without having recourse to the tender mercies of a justice of the peace, overseer of the poor, or superintendent of a workhouse.

Is it not a little strange that the opulent man when he contributes his quota to the necessities of a wretch who has been, in every sense of the word, a slave to the community of the rich, considers himself as bestowing a charity; whereas the slaveholder supposes himself bound in justice to support the blacks who are worn out in his service? Is it not a little strange that we should hear men in the middle and northern states pour forth reproaches against their brethren to the southward for holding slaves, when they themselves are supported by the labor of slaves? "Thou hypocrite! first cast the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast the mote out of thy brother's eye."

VITIOUS HABITS.

[To be continued.

BAD habits are with the utmost difficulty eradicated; perhaps, indeed, when they have taken deep root they become altogether unconquerable: because the continual indulgence of any leading propensity has a direct tendency to weaken the powers of volition, or to enervate the governing powers of the mind. Doctor Johnson says, that those who have contracted bad habits must get rid of them as well as they can: but he seems, at the same time, to consider it as a thing extremely improbable, that the conquest should ever be completely effected.

Johnson, no doubt, spoke from experience: and if he, whose reasoning powers were so strong and who was so remarkable for forming decided opinions on every subject, found it almost impossible to relinquish practices which had become habitual, what must be the fate of

inferior minds? must they resign themselves to despair, and give full way to pernicious indulgences? It is by no means our intention to inculcate the opinion, that reformation is impracticable: few cases of moral disease are so desperate as not to admit of a remedy: we would only caution those, who have never experienced the temptation, not to be too hasty in pronouncing the sentence of condemnation upon one who has fallen into a course of habitual error. Minds of the first order are perhaps the most prone to run into extremes: and it is most true, that the unrestrained indulgence even of virtuous inclinations, in this civilized world, has a direct tendency to lead the amiable delinquent into the paths of error and of vice. Cold phlegmatic beings-who never felt the inspirations of genius, the turbulence of passion, or the enthusiasm of virtue-who are unassailable by every motive that might lead them astray-who have pursued the path of prudent expediency because they were destitute of every species of vivid emotions—such beings are apt to condemn, with envious malignity, the aberrations of superior minds; but they ought to reflect that they are incapacitated by nature for being competent judges in these affairs. A man of genius, says some writer, should have the privilege of being tried by his peers. So a man, whose benevolence of character, whose warm and social feelings, and whose amiable eccentricities, have been the causes of his falling into vitious courses, when judgment is to be passed on his conduct, is intitled to a jury equally as benevolent, humane and virtuous as himself.

When, by a long course of self indulgence, we have lost that strength of mind which is necessary to enable us to persevere in any particular line of self denial, the only remedy that remains is to dislodge one evil by the introduction of another; and as we are generally under the influence of some leading propensity every change that is effected in our habits must be productive of advantage. The mind becomes unsettled; it is diverted from its vitious career; and there opens a possibility of giving it a different direction. When this is the case, nothing is so advisable as ACTIVE EMPLOYMENT: this is the shield which will defend us from the arrows of

temptation; it presents some object which appears worthy of our exertions; and insensibly restores a portion of that energy of soul, which appeared to be irretrieva bly lost. A man who has no employment may find it utterly impossible to divest himself of vitious habits; but surely he may resolutely determine to engage in active pursuits; and then he will find it more easy to curb those morbid inclinations, which have been nurtured by inaction of body and vacancy of mind. The great excellence of active employment consists in this: it diverts our attention from the allurements of evil; and turns us aside from a conflict in which we are sure to be vanquished.

Let us give an example: An immoderate indulgence in the use of inebriating liquors is productive of consequences the most deplorable and distressing: men of the most shining abilities and virtuous dispositions fall, every day, sorrowful victims to the seductive power of this deleterious vice: yet it is observable that indolence always precedes and accompanies this pernicious indulgence. A man may resolve a thousand times to refrain from the intoxicating draught; but all in vain as long as he continues in a state of inaction. But should he begin to exercise the faculties of his mind or labor with his hands, this bodily or mental exertion will give energy to his resolution; and he will stand a chance to succeed in his projects of reformation.

To conclude: there are a multitude of destructive habits; but the habit of idleness is the most pernicious of any. It relaxes the body and the mind; it ingenders and fosters every species of vice, and makes existence a burthen too heavy to be borne. Happy is the man, who never experienced that lassitude, that listlessness, that torpidity, that incapability of every species of mental exertion which we now feel! We must lay aside our pen, and take our tobacco tube to "puff away care." Five minutes ago, we resolved never to smoke any more. So much for habits.

COMPLAINT.

WHEN we find any thing that appears to stand alone in nature, without bearing any relation to any other thing in existence, we are much more surprised than we are by tracing those wonderful aptitudes and relations that exist among the multitude of objects which we denominate the universe. Judicious philosophers have drawn their most powerful arguments for the existence of a great intelligent first cause from this consideration. The sun sends not in vain his rays through the immensity of space: they encounter other substances, and are reflected from them, and convey, through the medium of the eye, to the sentient principle of the human mind, the images of the objects they have visited. Thus, however remote may be the situation of things, they are bound together by certain relations, which show the care and power of some mighty intelligence.

The eye bears a relation to visible objects; our ears have formed a connexion with things which are not perceptible by the eye; our feeling enables us to understand those properties of bodies which are neither discoverable by the eye nor the ear; and by the smell, we are assured of the existence, and made acquainted with the nature of those minute parts of bodies that fly off in every direction. Indeed the senses of man are so exactly calculated to give information concerning the objects by which he is surrounded, that it is fully evident that nature had produced and furnished the place of his residence, before she gave existence to man and the other animated inhabitants of the universe. Also the faculties which she has given to every different species of animals are exactly such as are rendered necessary by the mode, or place, of their existence: some inhabit the waters; some dwell on the earth; while others wing their way through the regions of the air: the construction of their bodies and their powers of perception being universally suited to the necessities of their several situations. And we have been so long accustomed to the observation of these existing relations not only between animals and substances inanimate, but also between one animal and another, and between one lifeless substance