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Rh pleasures, commonly so called, pall upon the taste; they soon become tiresome and even loathsome, for they want that which is their life. We all know what cheerfulness and hilarity any work faithfully done supplies to the mind; its influence remains long after the work itself is over; its effect is like the fragrance of a flower, still blooming when the hand that planted it is gone: so, each duty well performed plants a new flower in the garden of the mind, to bloom throughout eternity.

After considering thus the two great blessings, which are the foundations and substrata (so to speak) of all human happiness—domestic affection and regular occupations—including always religious principle and feeling, which is their life and soul, and without which all things are joyless,—we come now to take a view of some of those pleasures and delights, which a good Providence has provided for man, and which may properly be called the recreations and adornments of life. In addition to the higher or more interior endowments of the mind,—rational thought and deep affection,—the Creator has furnished us with senses or sensory faculties, which find their exercise and delight in things of the outward world; and the chief use of which is to give rest and refreshment to the higher faculties, by allowing them intervals of repose, and by drawing off for a time the attention of the ever active soul to lower and more external concerns. And for the entertainment of those senses, how bountifully and admirably has the great Artist provided! What pictures has He outspread before the eye, on every side! What charming sounds has He ordained for the ear! What pleasant fragrances has He poured forth to greet 7*