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by his wife that came into the room in a paffion, and threw down the table that stood before them: Every one,' fays he, has his calamity, and he is a happy man that has no greater than this.' We find an inftance to the fame purpose in the life of Dr Hammond, written by Bifhop Fell. As this good man was troubled with a complication of diftempers, when he had the gout upon him, he used to thank God that it was not the stone; and when he had the stone, that he had not both thefe diftempers on him at the fame time.

I CANNOT conclude this effay without obferving, that there was never any system befides that of Chriftianity, which could effectually produce in the mind of man the virtue I have been hitherto fpeaking of. In order to make us content with our prefent condition, many of the ancient philofophers tell us, that our discontent only hurts ourselves, without being able to make any alteration in our circumstances; others, that whatever evil befals us is derived to us by a fatal neceffity, to which the gods themselves are fubject; while others very gravely tell the man who is miferable, that it is neceffary he fhould be fo to keep up the harmony of the universe, and that the scheme of providence would be troubled and perverted were he otherwife. These, and the like confiderations, rather filence than fatisfy a man. They may fhew him that his difcontent is unreasonable, but are by no means fufficient to relieve it. They rather give defpair than confolation. In a word, a man might reply to one of these comforters, as Auguftus did to his friend, who advised him not to grieve for the death of a perfon whom he loved, because his grief could not fetch him again: It is for that very reason, said the emperor, that I grieve.

gain:

ON the contrary, religion bears a more tender regard to human nature. It prefcribes to every miferable man the means of bettering his condition; nay, it fhews him, that the bearing of his afflictions as he ought to do will naturally end in the removal of them; it makes him eafy here, because it can make him happy hereafter.

UPON the whole, a contented mind is the greatest bleffing a man can enjoy in this world; and if in the present

life his happiness arifes from the subduing of his defires, it will arife in the next from the gratification of them.

Monday, Auguft 2..

N° 575.

---Nec morti effe locum-

Virg. Georg. 4. V. 226.

No room is left for death.

A

6

LEWD young fellow feeing an aged hermit go by him barefoot, Father,' fays he, you are in a very miferable condition if there is not another world.' True, fon,' faid the hermit; "but what is thy condition if there is?' Man is a creature defigned for two different ftates of being, or rather for two different lives. His first life is short and tranfient; his fecond permanent and lafting. The question we are all concerned in is this, in which of thefe two lives it is our chief intereft to make ourselves happy? or, in other words, whether we should endeavour to fecure to ourselves the pleasures and gratifications of a life which is uncertain and precarious, and at its utmost length of a very inconfiderable duration; or to fecure to ourselves the pleafures of a life which is fixed and fettled, and will never end? Every man, upon the first hearing of this question, knows very well which fide of it he ought to clofe with. But however right we are in theory, it is plain that in practice we adhere to the wrong fide of the queftion. We make provifions for this life as though it were never to have an end, and for the other life as though it were never to have a beginning.

SHOULD a fpirit of fuperior rank, who is a ftranger to human nature, accidentally alight upon the earth, and take a furvey of its inhabitants, what would his notions of us be? Would not he think that we are a fpecies of beings made for quite different ends and purposes than what we really are? Muft not he imagine that we were placed in this world to get riches and honours? Would not he think that it was our duty to toil after wealth, and station, and title? Nay, would not he believe we were forbidden

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forbidden poverty by threats of eternal punishment, and enjoined to purfue our pleafures under pain of damnation ? He would certainly imagine that we were influenced by a fcheme of duties quite oppofite to those which are indeed prefcribed to us. And truly, according to fuch an imagination, he must conclude that we are a fpecies of the moft obedient creatures in the univerfe; that we are conftant to our duty; and that we keep a steady eye on the end for which we were fent hither.

BUT how great would be his aftonishment, when he learned that we were beings not defigned to exift in this world above threefcore and ten years; and that the greateft part of this bufy fpecies fall fhort even of that age ? How would he be loft in horror and admiration, when he fhould know that this fet of creatures, who lay out all their endeavours for this life, which fcarce deserves the name of existence, when, Hay, he should know that this fet of creatures are to exift to all eternity in another life, for which they make no preparations? Nothing can be a greater difgrace to reafon, than that men, who are peruaded of these two different ftates of being, fhould be perpetually employed in providing for a life of threefcore and ten years, and neglecting to make provifion for that, which after many myriads of years will be still new, and ftill beginning; efpecially when we confider that our endeavours for making ourselves great, or rich, or honourable, or whatever elfe we place our happiness in, may after all prove unfuccefsful; whereas if we conftantly and fincerely endeavour to make ourselves happy in the other life, we are fure that our endeavours will fucceed, and that we fhall not be difappointed of our hope.

THE following question is started by one of the schoolmen. Suppofing the whole body of the earth were a great ball or mass of the finest fand, and that a fingle grain or particle of this fand fhould be annihilated every thousand years. Suppofing then that you had it in your choice to be happy all the while this prodigious mafs of fand was confuming by this flow method, till there was not a grain of it left, on condition you were to be miserable for ever after; or fuppofing that you might be happy for ever after, on condition you would be miferable till the whole mafs of fand were thus annihilated at the rate

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of one fand in a thousand years: which of these two cafes would you make your choice?

IT must be confeffed in this cafe, fo many thousands of. years are to the imagination as a kind of eternity, though in reality they do not bear fo great a proportion to that duration which is to follow them, as an unit does to the greatest number which you can put together in figures, or as one of those fands to the fuppofed heap. Reason therefore tells us, without any manner of hesitation, which would be the better part in this choice. However, as I have before intimated, our reason.might in fuch a cafe be fo overfet by the imagination, as to dispose some perfons to fink under the confideration of the great length of the.. first part of this duration, and of the great distance of that fecond duration, which is to fucceed it. The mind, I fay, might give itfelf up to that happinefs which is at hand, confidering that it is fo very near, and that it would laft fo very long. But when the choice we actually have before us is this, whether we will choose to be happy for the fpace of only threefcore and ten, nay, perhaps of only twenty or ten years, I might fay of only a day or an hour, and miferable to all eternity: or, on the contrary, miferable for this fhort term of years, and happy for a whole eternity: what words are fufficient to exprefs that folly and want of confideration which in fuch a cafe makes s a wrong choice?

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I HERE put the cafe even at the worst, by fuppofing (what feldom happens) that a courfe of virtue makes us miferable in this life: but if we fuppofe (as it generally. happens) that virtue would make us more happy even in this life than a contrary course of vice; how can we fufficiently admire the ftupidity, or madnefs of thofe perfons who. are capable of making fo abfurd a choice?

EVERY wife man therefore will confider this life only as it may conduce to the happiness of the other, and chearfully facrifice the pleafures of a few years to thofe off an eternity.

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N° 576.

I'

Wednesday, August 4.

Nitor in adverfum; nec me, qui cætera, vincit
Impetus; et rapido contrarius evehor orbi.

Ovid. Met. 1. 2. v. 72.

I fteer against their motions, nor am I
Borne back by all the current of the fky.

Addifon.

REMEMBER a young man of very lively parts, and of a fprightly turn in converfation, who had only one fault, which was an inordinate defire of appearing fashionable. This ran him into many amours, and confequently into many diftempers. He never went to bed till two o'clock in the morning, because he would not be a queer fellow, and was every now and then knocked down by a conftable, to fignalize his vivacity. He was initiated into half a dozen clubs before he was one and twenty, and fo improved in them his natural gaiety of temper, that you might frequently trace him to his lodgings by a range of broken windows, and other the like monuments of wit and gallantry. To be fhort, after having fully established his reputation of being a very agreeable rake, he died of old age at five and twenty.

THERE is indeed nothing which betrays a man into fo many errors and inconveniencies as the defire of not appearing fingular; for which reafon it is very neceffary to form a right idea of fingularity, that we may know when it is laudable, and when it is vicious. In the firft place, every man of fenfe will agree with me, that fingularity is Taudable, when, in contradiction to a multitude, it adheres to the dictates of confcience, morality, and honour. In thofe cafes we ought to confider, that it is not custom, but duty, which is the rule of action; and that we should be only fo far fociable, as we are reafonable creatures. Truth is never the lefs fo, for not being attended to: and it is the nature of actions, not the number of actors, by which we ought to regulate our behaviour. Singularity

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