Page:Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse.pdf/80

 of their possessors, and furnish no solid basis for the judgment to rest upon.

We, who are young, are also too much inclined to form a sudden and favourable opinion from a prepossessing appearance; but beauty of form, and regularity of feature, those external gifts of nature, imply so little merit in the wearer, that by nourishing vanity they frequently prevent the acquirement of knowledge and real excellence; and a pleasing and graceful deportment, though deservedly an object of admiration, is often assumed to conceal depraved motives, and a malicious heart. If we, who have seen little of the world, have never been convinced of this by our own observation, the pages of history will enlighten us, and even the part that we have lately read together, furnishes repeated testimony. Richard the II. of England, under a graceful and dignified demeanour, concealed a frivolous mind, and a capricious, tyrannical temper; and Edward the IV. whose manners were so prepossessing, that he was acknowledged to be the handsomest and most accomplished man of his time, habituated himself to every vice which can flow from pride, licentiousness, or cruelty. You will doubtless recollect from scripture history, that Absalom, whose hands were defiled with a brother's blood, and whose base arts drove an affectionate father from his throne, and from his dwelling, by his