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 the country. Some of his former gay companions came to ſee him, and told him, he was melancholy. No, ſaid he, I am not melancholy I am ſerious; and it is fit I ſhould do ſo. Ah! my friends, while we laugh, all things are ſerious; God is ſerious who exerciſeth patience towards us; the Holy Ghoſt is ſerious in ſtriving againſt the obſtinacy of our hearts; the holy scriptures bring to our ears the moſt ſerious things in the world; the holy Sacrament repreſents the moſt ſerious and awful matters; the whole creation is ſerious in ſerving God; and as all that are in heaven and hell are ſerious, how then can we be gay.

He gives the following plain, but ſuitable advice to his Son, on this head. It may not be amiſs for you to have two heaps, a heap of unintelligibles, and a heap of incurables; every now and then you will meet with ſomething or other that may pretty much diſtreſs your thoughts: but the ſhorteſt way with the vexations will be to throw them onto the heap they belong to, and be no more diſtreſſed about them.

I endervour to walk through the world as a phyſician goes through Bedlam; the patients make much noiſe, peſter him with impertinence, and hinders him in his buſi-