Page:Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse.pdf/90

 to keep its law perfectly. A deep feeling of these wants and weaknesses, will teach her the necessity of divine assistance, and her dependence upon a Superior Being; and will increase the fervency of her petitions, that "what is dark he would illumine, what is low raise and support."

Do not suppose, my young friends, that a knowledge of your own hearts, will be only a source of self reproach and mortification. If the sight of latent errors gives pain to your spirit, that pain is salutary, and bears with it a sure remedy, the desire of reformation. But it will not always act the part of an accuser, it will some times point out to you disinterested motives, and virtuous actions, and present you the exquisite reward of conscious rectitude. Strive then to gain a knowledge of your own hearts, and to scrutinize carefully the actions of your lives.

"'Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours,   "And ask them what report they bore to Heaven."

Erect a tribunal within, before which the deeds of every day shall pass in nightly review. Give it power to censure folly, to encourage goodness, and to search those hidden motives which elude the eye of man. You will find yourselves both animated to virtue, and deterred from