For my own part, I should be very much troubled were I endowed with
this divining quality, though it should inform me truly of
everything that can befall me. I would not anticipate the relish of
any happiness, nor feel the weight of any misery, before it actually
arrives.

I know but one way of fortifying my soul against these gloomy
presages and terrors of mind; and that is, by securing to myself the
friendship and protection of that Being who disposes of events and
governs futurity. He sees, at one view, the whole thread of my
existence, not only that part of it which I have already passed
through, but that which runs forward into all the depths of
eternity. When I lay me down to sleep, I recommend myself to His
care; when I awake, I give myself up to His direction. Amidst all
the evils that threaten me, I will look up to Him for help, and
question not but He will either avert them, or turn them to my
advantage. Though I know neither the time nor the manner of the
death I am to die, I am not at all solicitous about it; because I am
sure that he knows them both, and that He will not fail to comfort
and support me under them.



OPERA LIONS.



Dic mihi, si fias tu leo, qualis eris?
MART., xii. 93.