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Wisdom, Wit, and Allegory, Selected From 'the Spectator' [consisting Chiefly of Papers by J. Addison].
Wisdom Wit and Allegory Selected From 'the Spectator' - consisting Chiefly of Papers by J. Addison Author:Joseph Addison General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1864 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: ON GRATITUDE TO GOD. ' No weak, no common wing shall bear My rising body through the air." Creech's Horace. IERE is not a more pleasing exercise of the mind than gratitude. It is accompanied with such an inward satisfaction that the duty is sufficiently rewarded by the performance. It is not like the practice of many other virtues, difficult and painful, but attended with so much pleasure, that were there no positive command which enjoined it, nor any recompence laid up for it hereafter, a generous mind would indulge in it, for the natural gratification that'accompanies it. If gratitude is due from man to man, how much more from man to his Maker 1 The Supreme Being does not only confer upon us those bounties, which proceed more immediately from His hand, but even those benefits which are conveyed to us by others. Every blessing we enjoy, by what means soever it may be derived upon us, is the gift of Him who is the great Author of good, and Father of mercies. If gratitude, when exerted towards one another, naturally produces a very pleasing sensation in the mind of a grateful man, it exalts the soul into rapture when it is employed on this great object of gratitude -- on this beneficent Being whohas given us everything we already possess, and from whom we expect everything we yet hope for. Most of the works of the pagan poets were either direct hymns to their deities, or tended indirectly to the celebration of their respective attributes and perfections. Those who are acquainted with the works of the Greek and Latin poets which are still extant will, upon reflection, find this observation so...« less