our existence which lie beyond the grave, and that our whole cternity is to take its colour from those hours which we here employ in virtue or in vice, the argument redoubles upon us, for putting in practice this method of paffing away our time. When a man has but a little stock to improve, and has opportunities of turning it all to good account, what shall we think of him if he fuffers nineteen parts of it to lie dead, and perhaps employs even the twentieth to his ruin or disadvantage? But because the mind cannot be always in its fervours, nor strained up to a pitch of virtue, it is neceffary to find out proper employments for it in its relaxations. The next method therefore that I would propose to fill up our time, should be useful and innocent diverfions. I must confess I think it is below reafonable creatures to be altogether converfant in fuch diversions 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 say for itself, I shall not determine; but I think it is very wonderful to fee perfons of the best sense paffing away a dozen hours together in shuffling and dividing a pack of cards, with no other conversation but what is made up of a few game phrafes, and no other ideas but those of black or red spots ranged together in different figures. Would not a man laugh to hear any one of this fpecies complaining that life is short? The Stage might be made a perpetual fource of the most noble and useful entertainments, were it under proper regulations. But the mind never unbends itself so agreeably as in the converfation of a well-chofen friend. There is indeed no bleffing 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 understanding, engenders thoughts and and knowledge, animates virtue and good resolution, 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 conversation with fuch as are able to entertain and improve those with whom they converse, which are qualifications that feldom go afunder. There are many other useful amusements of life, which one would endeavour to multiply, that one might on all occafions have recourse to something rather than fuffer the mind to lie idle, or run adrift with any paffion that chances to rife in it.ne A man that has a taste in musick, painting, or architecture, is like one that has another sense when compared with fuch as have no relish of those arts. The florist, the planter, the gardiner, 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 those who are poffeffed of them. But of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors. But this I shall only touch upon, because it in some measure interferes with the third method, which I shall propose in another paper, for the employment of our dead unactive hours, and which I shall only mention in general to be the pursuit of knowledge. L MONDAY, ** NO 94. MONDAY, JUNE 18. Hoc eft Vivere bis, vita poffe priore frui. MART. Epig. xxiii. 1. 10. The present joys of life we doubly taste, T HE last method which I propofed in my Sa turday's paper, for filling up those empty spaces of life which are so tedious and burdenfome to idle people, is the employing ourselves in the pursuit of knowledge. I remember Mr. Boyle, speaking of a certain mineral, tells us, that a man may confume his whole life in the study of it, without arriving at the knowledge of all its qualities. The truth of it is, there is not a fingle science, or any branch of it, that might not furnish a man with business for life, though it were much longer than it is. I shall not here engage on those 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 topicks of many other writers; but shall indulge myself in a fpeculation that is more uncommon, and may therefore perhaps be more entertaining. > I have before shewn how the unemployed parts of life appear long and tedious, and shall here endeavour to show how those parts of life which are exercised in study, 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. Lacke observes, "That we get the idea of " time, J " time, or duration, by reflecting on that train of "ideas which fucceed one another in our minds : "That for this reason, when we fleep foundly with 66 out dreaming, we have no perception of time, or the length of it, whilft we fleep; and that the moment wherein we leave off to think, till "the moment we begin to think again, seems "to have no distance." To which the author adds, And so I doubt not but it would be to a waking man, if it were poflible for him to keep only one "idea in his mind, without variation, and the fuc"ceffion of others; and we fee, that one who fixes "his thoughts very intently on one thing, fo as to "take but little notice of the fucceffion of ideas "that pass in his mind whilst he is taken up with " that earneft contemplation, lets flip out of his "account a good part of that duration, and thinks "that time fhorter than it is." We might carry this thought further, and confider a man as, on one fide, shortening 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 entertainining a quick and conftant fucceffion 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 some creatures may think half an hour as long as we do a thousand years; or look upon that space 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 succession 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 - pose are equally diftinct in each of them, follow one another in a greater or less degree of rapidity. There is a famous passage in the Alcoran, which looks as if Mahomet had been poffefsed 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 Seven Heavens, in Paradife, and in Hell, which the Prophet took a distinct view of; and after having held ninetythousand conferences with God, was brought back again to his bed. All this, fays the Alcoran, was transacted in so 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 instant that the angel Gabriel carried him away) before the water was all spilt. A There is a very pretty story in the Turkish Tales, which relates to this paffage of that famous Impoftor, and bears fome affinity to the fubject we are now upon. A fultan of Egypt, who was an infidel, ufed to laugh at this circumstance in Mahomet's life, as what was altogether impossible 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 history of Mahomet, if he would confent 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 stood 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 thrust his head into the water, and at the fame time found himself at the foot of a mountain on a feashore. The king immediately began to rage againft his doctor for this piece of treachery and witchcraft; but at length, knowing it was in vain to be angry, he fet himself to think on proper methods for |