tisfaction of thinking himself in company with his deareft and beft of friends. The time never lies heavy upon him; it is impoffible for him to be alone. His thoughts and paffions are the moft bufied at fuch hours when those of other men are the most unactive; he no fooner steps cut of the world but his heart burns with devotion, fwells with hope, and triumphs in the consciousness of that prefence which every where furrounds him; or, on the contrary, pours out its fears, its forrows, its apprehenfions, to the great fupporter of its existence. I have here only confidered the neceffity of a man's being virtuous, that he may have fomething to do; but if we confider further, that the exercise of virtue is not only an amufement for the time it lafts, but that its influence extends to thofe parts of our exiftence which lie beyond the grave, and that our whole Eternity is to take its colour from thofe hours which we here employ in virtue or in vice, the argument redoubles upon us, for putting in practice this method of paffing away cur time. When a man has but a little stock to improve, and has opportunities of turning it all to good account, what fhall we think of him if he fuffers nineteen parts of it to lie dead, and perhaps employs even the twentieth to his ruin cr disadvantage? But because the mind cannot be always in its fervors, nor ftrained up to a pitch of virtue, it is neceflary to find out proper employments for it in its relaxations. The next method therefore that I would propose to fill up our time, fhould be useful and innocent diverfions. I muft confefs I think it is below reasonable creatures to be altogether converfant in fuch diverfions as are merely innocent, and have nothing else to recommend them, but that there is no hurt in them. Whether any kind of gaming has even thus much to fay for itfelf, I fhall not determine; but I think it is very wonderful to fee persons of the beft fenfe paffing away a dozen hours together in fhuffling and dividing a pack of cards, with no other converfation but what is made up of a few game phrafes, and no other ideas but thofe of black or red ipots ranged together in different figures. Would not a man laugh to hear any one of this fpecies complaining that life is thort. The Theftage might be made a perpetual source of the most noble and useful entertaininents, were it under proper regulations. But the mind never unbends itfelf fo agreeably as in the converfation of a well-chofen friend. There is indeed no blessing of life that is any way comparable to the enjoyment of a difcreet and virtuous friend. It eases and unloads the mind, clears and improves the underftanding, engenders thought and knowledge, animates virtue and good refolution, fooths and allays the paffions, and finds employment for most of the vacant hours of life. Next to fuch an intimacy with a particular perfon, one would endeavour after a more general converfation with fuch as are able to entertain and improve those with whom they converse, which are qualifications that seldom go afunder. There are many other useful amusements of life, which one would endeavour to multiply, that one might on all occafions have recourfe to fomething, rather than fuffer the mind to lie idle, or run adrift with any paffion that chances to rife in it. A man that has a tafte in mufic, painting, or architecture, is like one that has another fenfe when compared with fuch as have no relifh of thofe arts. The florift, the planter, the gardener, the husbandman, when they are only as accomplishments to the man of fortune, are great reliefs to a country life, and many ways useful to thofe who are poffeffed of them. But of all the diverfions of life, there is none fo proper to fill up its empty spaces, as the reading of useful and entertaining authors. But this I fhall only touch upon, because it in fome measure interferes with the third method, which I fhall propofe in another paper, for the employment of our dead unactive bodies, and which I fhall only mention in general to be the purfuit of knowledge. L No. XCIV. MONDAY, JUNE 18. Vivere bis, vitâ poffe priore frui. Hoc eft MART. The prefent joys of life we doubly tafte, HE laft method which I propofed in my Satur Tday's paper, for filling up thofe empty (paces of life which are fo tedious and burdenfome to idle people, is the employing ourselves in the purfuit of knowledge. I remember Mr. Boyle, speaking of a certain mineral, tells us, that a man may confume his whole life in the ftudy of it, without arriving at the knowledge of all its qualities. The truth of it is, there is not a fingle fcience, or any branch of it, that might not furnish a man with bufinefs for life, though it were much longer than it is. I fhall not here engage on thofe beaten fubjects of the usefulness of knowledge, nor of the pleasure and perfection it gives the mind, nor on the methods of attaining it, nor recommend any particular branch of it, all which have been the topics of many other writers ; but shall indulge myself in a speculation that is more uncommon, and may therefore perhaps be more entertaining. I have before fhewn how the unemployed parts of life appear long and tedious, and fhall here endeavour to fhew how thofe parts of life which are exercised in ftudy, reading, and the pursuits of knowledge, are long but not tedious, and by that means difcover a method of lengthening our lives, and at the fame time of turning all the parts of them to our advantage. Mr. Locke obferves, "That we get the idea of time, "or duration, by reflecting on that train of ideas "which fucceed one another in our minds: That for "this reafon when we fleep foundly without dreaming, "we have no perception of time, or the length of it, 66 "whilft we fleep; and that the moment wherein we leave "off to think, until the moment we begin to think "again, feems to have no diftance." To which the author adds, "and fo I doubt not but it would be «to a waking man, if it were poffible for him to keep only one idea in his mind, without variation, and the "fucceffion of others; and we fee, that one who fixes " his thoughts very intently on one thing, so as to take "but little notice of the fucceffion of ideas that pafs in "his mind whilft he is taken up with that earnest con"templation, lets flip out of his account a good part "of that duration, and thinks that time shorter than it " is." We might carry this thought further, and confider a man, as on one fide, fhortening his time by thinking on nothing, or but a few things; fo, on the other, as lengthening it, by employing his thoughts on many fubjects, or by entertaining a quick and conftant fucceflion of ideas. Accordingly Monfieur Mallebranche, in his Inquiry after Truth, which was published several years before Mr. Locke's Effay on Human Understanding, tells us, that it is poffible fome creatures may think half an hour as long as we do a thousand years; or look upon that ipace of duration which we call a minute, as an hour, a week, a month, or a whole age. This notion of Monfieur Mallebranche, is capable of fome little explanation from what I have quoted out of Mr. Locke; for if our notion of time is produced by our reflecting on the fucceffion of ideas in our mind, and this fucceffion may be infinitely accelerated or retarded, it will follow, that different beings may have different notions of the fame parts of duration, according as their ideas, which we fuppofe are equally distinct in each of them, follow one another in a greater or lefs degree of rapidity. There is a famous paffage in the Alcoran, which looks as if Mahomet had been poffeffed of the notion we are now fpeaking of. It is there faid, that the angel Gabriel took Mahomet out of his bed one morning to give him a fight of all things in the feven heavens, in para E 4 dife, dife, and in hell, which the prophet took a distinct view of; and after having held ninety thousand conferences with God, was brought back again to his bed. All this, lays the Alcoran, was tranfacted in fo small a space of time, that Mahomet at his return found his bed still warm, and took up an earthen pitcher, which was thrown down at the very inftant that the angel Gabriel carried him away, before the water was all spilt. There is a very pretty story in the Turkish Tales which relates to this paffage of that famous impostor, and hears fome affinity to the fubject we are now upon. A fultan of Egypt, who was an infidel, used to laugh at this circumftance in Mahomet's life, as what was altogether impoffible and abfurd: but converfing one day with a great doctor in the law, who had the gift of working miracles, the doctor told him he would quickly convince him of the truth of this paffage in the hiftory of Mahomet, if he would consent to do what he should defire of him. Upon this the fultan was directed to place himself by an huge tub of water, which he did accordingly; and as he ftood by the tub amidst a circle of his great men, the holy man bid him plunge his head into the water, and draw it up again: the king accordingly thruft his head into the water, and at the fame time found himself at the foot of a mountain on a feafhore. The king immediately began to rage against his doctor for this piece of treachery and witchcraft; but at length, knowing it was in vain to be angry, he fet himfelf to think on proper methods for getting a livelihood in this ftrange country: accordingly he applied himself to fome people whom he faw at work in a neighbouring wood: these people conducted him to a town that stood at a little distance from the wood, where, after fome adventures, he married a woman of great beauty and fortune. He lived with this woman fo long until he had by her feven fons and feven daughters; he was afterwards reduced to great want, and forced to think of plying in the streets as a porter for his livelihood. One day as he was walking alone by the fea-fide, being feized with many melancholy reflections upon his former and |