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their mirth lofes it's fprightlinefs, and their motion it's cafe. From that time, all which gave them joy vanishes from about them; they hear the praifes beltowed on others which used to fwell their bofoms with exultation. They visit the feats of felicity, and endeavour to continue the habit of being delighted. But pleafure is only received when we believe that we give it in return. Neglect and petulance inform them, that their power and their value are paft; and what then remains but a tedious and comfortlefs uniformity of time, without any motion of the heart, or exercife of the reason?

Yet, however age may difcourage us by it's appearance from confidering it in profpect, we fhall all by degrees certainly be old; and therefore we ought to enquire what provifion can be made against that time of diftrefs? what happiness can be ftored up against the winter of life? and how we may pafs our lat ter years with ferenity and cheerfulness ? If it has been found by the experience of mankind, that not even the best

feafons of life are able to fupply fufficient gratifications, without anticipating uncertain felicities; it cannot furely be fuppofed, that old age, worn with labours, haraffed with anxieties, and tortured with difeafes, fhould have any gladness of it's own, or feel any fatisfaction from the contemplation of the prefent. All the comfort that can now be expected must be recalled from the past, or borrowed from the future; the paft is very foon exhausted, all the events or actions of which the memory can afford pleasure are quickly recollected; and the future lies beyond the grave, where it can be reached only by virtue and devotion.

Piety is the only proper and adequate relief of decaying man. He that grows old without religious hopes, as he declines into imbecility, and feels pains and forrows inceffantly crowding upon him, falls into a gulph of bottomlefs mifery, in which every reflection muft plunge him deeper, and where he finds only new gradations of anguifh, and precipices of horrour.

N° LXX. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1750.

ARGENTEA PROLES,

AURO DETERIOR, FULVO PRETIOSIOR ERE.

OVID.

SUCCEEDING TIMES A SILVER AGE BEHOLD,
EXCELLING BRASS, BUT MORE EXCELL'D BY GOLD.

HE 【ESIOD, in his celebrated distri

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bution of mankind, divides them into three orders of intellect. The first 'place,' fays he, belongs to him that can by his own powers difcern what is right and fit, and penetrate to the remoter motives of action. The fe'cond is claimed by him that is willing to hear inftruction, and can perceive right and wrong when they are fhewn him by another; but he that has nei⚫ther acuteness nor docility, who can 'neither find the way by himself, nor will be led by others, is a wretch without use or value.'

If we furvey the moral world, it will be found, that the fame divifion may be made of men with regard to their virtue. There are fome whofe principles are fo firmly fixed, whofe conviction is fo conftantly prefent to their minds, and who have raised in themfelves fuch ardent wishes for the approbation of God,

DRYDEN.

and the happiness with which he has promifed to reward obedience and perfeverance, that they rife above all other cares and confiderations, and uniformly examine every action and defire, by comparing it with the divine commands. There are others in a kind of equipoife, between good and ill; who are moved on the one part by riches or pleasure, by the gratifications of paffion and the delights of fenfe; and, on the other, by laws of which they own the obligation, and rewards of which they believe the reality, and whom a very small addition of weight turns either way. The third clafs confifts of beings immerfed in pleafure, or abandoned to paffion, without any defire of higher good, or any effort to extend their thoughts beyond immediate and grofs fatisfactions.

The fecond clafs is fo much the most numerous, that it may be confidered as comprifing the whole body of mankind.

Thofe

Those of the last are not very many, and thofe of the firft are very few; and neither the one nor the other fall much under the confideration of the moralist, whofe precepts are intended chiefly for thofe who are endeavouring to go for ward up the fteeps of virtue; not for those who have already reached the fummit, or thofe who are refolved to stay for ever in their prefent fituation.

Toa man not verfed in the living world, but accustomed to judge only by fpeculative reafon, it is fcarcely credible that any one should be in this ftate of indifference, or stand undetermined and unengaged, ready to follow the first call to either fide. It feems certain, that either a man must believe that virtue will make him happy, and refolve therefore to be virtuous, or think that he may be happy without virtue, and therefore caft off all care but for his prefent intereft. It seems impoffible that conviction fhould be on one fide and practice on the other; and that he who has feen the right way, fhould voluntarily fhut his eyes, that he may quit it with more tranquillity. Yet all thefe abfurdities are every hour to be found; the wifeft and beft men deviate from known and acknowledged duties, by inadvertency or furprife; and moft are good no longer than while temptation is away, than while their paffions are without excitements, and their opinions are free from the counteraction of any other motive.

Among the fentiments which almost every man changes as he advances into years, is the expectation of uniformity of character. He that without acquaintance with the power of defire, the cogency of diftrefs, the complications of affairs, or the force of partial influence, has filled his mind with the excellence of virtue, and having never tried his refolution in any encounters with hope or fear, believes it able to ftand firm whatever fhall oppofe it, will be always clamorous against the finalleft failure, ready to exact the utmost punctualities of right, and to confider every man that fails in any part of his duty, as without confcience and without merit unworthy of truft or love, of pity or regard; as an enemy whom all fhould join to drive out of fociety, as a pet which all fhould avoid, or as a weed which all fhould trample.

It is not but by experience that we are taught the poffibility of retaining

fome virtues, and rejecting others, or of being good or bad to a particular degree. For it is very easy to the folitary reasoner to prove that the fame arguments by which the mind is fortified against one crime are of equal force againit all; and the confequence very naturally follows, that he whom they fail to move on any occafion has either never confidered them, or has by fome fallacy taught himself to evade their validity; and that, therefore, when a man is known to be guilty of one crime, no farther evidence is needful of his depravity and corruption.

Yet fuch is the ftate of all mortal virtue, that it is always uncertain and variable, fometimes extending to the whole compafs of duty, and fometimes fhrinking into a narrow space, and fortifying only a few avenues of the heart, while all the rest is left open to the incurfions of appetite, or given up to the dominion of wickedness. Nothing therefore is more unjust than to judge of man by too fhort an acquaintance, and too flight infpection; for it often happens, that in the loofe, and thoughtless, and diffipated, there is a fecret radical worth, which may fhoot out by proper cultivation; that the fpark of heaven, though dimmed and obftructed, is yet not extinguished, but may by the breath of counted and exhortation be kindled into flame.

To imagine that every one who is not completely good is irrecoverably abandoned, is to fuppofe that all are capable of the fame degrees of excellence; it is indeed to exact, from all, that perfection which none ever can attain. And fince the pureft virtue is confiftent with fome vice, and the virtue of the greatest number with almost an equal proportion of contrary qualities, let none too hastily conclude, that all goodness is loft, though it may for a time be clouded and overwhelmed; for most minds are the flaves of external circumftances, and conform to any hand that undertakes to mould them, roll down any torrent of custom in which they happen to be caught, or bend to any importunity that bears hard against them.

It may be particularly obferved of women, that they are for the most part good or bad, as they fall among thofe who practife vice or virtue; and that neither education nor reafon gives them much fecurity against the influence of example, Whether it be that they have lefs courage to ftand against oppofition,

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or that their defire of admiration makes them facrifice their principles to the poor pleasure of worthlefs praife, it is certain, whatever be the caufe, that female goodness seldom keeps it's ground againit laughter, flattery, or fashion.

For this reafon, every one fhould confider himself as entrusted not only with his own conduct, but with that of others; and as accountable, not only for the duties which he neglects, or the crimes that he commits, but for that negligence and irregularity which he may encourage or inculcate. Every man, in whatever ftation, has, or endeavours to have, his fol

lowers, admirers, and imitators, and has therefore the influence of his example to watch with care; he ought to avoid not only crimes, but the appearance of crimes; and not only to practise virtue, but to applaud, countenance, and fupport it. For it is poffible that for want of attention we may teach others faults from which ourfelves are free, or by a cowardly defertion of a cause which we ourselves approve, may pervert thofe who fix their eyes upon us, and having no rule of their own to guide their courfe, are easily mifled by the aberrations of that example which they chufe for their directions.

No LXXI. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1750.

VIVERE QUOD PROPERO PAUPER, NEC INUTILIS ANNIS
DA VENIAM, PROPERAT VIVERE NEMO SATIS.

TRUE, SIR, TO LIVE I HASTE; YOUR PARDON GIVE,
FOR TELL ME, WHO MAKES HASTE ENOUGH TO LIVE?

ANY words and fentences are fo

of men, that a fuperficial obferver is inclined to believe, that they must contain fome primary principle, fome great rule of action, which it is proper always to have prefent to the attention, and by which the ufe of every hour is to be adjufted. Yet, if we confider the conduct of thofe fententious philofophers, it will often be found, that they repeat thefe aphorifms, merely because they have fomewhere heard them, because they have nothing elfe to fay, or becaufe they think veneration gained by fuch appearances of wisdom, but that no ideas are annexed to the words, and that according to the old blunder of the followers of Ariftotle, their fouls are mere pipes or organs, which tranfmit founds, but do not understand them.

Of this kind is the well known and well attefted pofition, that life is fhort, which may be heard among mankind by an attentive auditor, many times a day, but which never yet within my reach of obfervation left any impreffion upon the mind; and perhaps, if my readers will turn their thoughts back upon their old friends, they will find it difficult to call a fingle man to remembrance, who appeared to know that life was fhort till he was about to lofe it.

It is obfervable that Horace, in his account of the characters of men, as they are diverfified by the various influence of

MART.

F. LEWIS. time, remarks, that the old man is dila

pe longus-given to procraftination,

and inclined to extend his hopes to a great diftance. So far are we generally from thinking what we often say of the fhortness of life, that at the time when it is neceffarily fhorteft, we form projects which we delay to execute, indulge fuch expectations as nothing but a long train of events can gratify, and fuffer those paffions to gain upon us, which are only excufable in the prime of life.

These reflections were lately excited in my mind by an evening's converfation with my friend Profpero, who, at the age of fifty-five, has bought an estate, and is now contriving to difpofe and cultivate it with uncommon elegance. His great pleafure is to walk among ftately trees, and lie mufing in the heat of noon under their fhade; he is therefore maturely confidering how he shall difpofe his walks and his groves, and has at last determined to fend for the best plans from Italy, and forbear planting till the next feafon.

Thus is life trifled away in preparations to do what never can be done, if it be left unattempted till all the requifites which imagination can fuggeft are gathered together. Where our defign terminates only in our own fatisfaction, the mistake is of no great importance; for the pleasure of expecting enjoyment is often greater than that of obtaining it, and the completion of almoft every with

is found a difappointment; but when many others are interested in an undertaking, when any defign is formed, in which the improvement or fecurity of mankind is involved, nothing is more unworthy either of wisdom or benevo lence, than to delay it from time to time, or to forget how much every day that paffes over us takes away from our power, and how foon an idle purpofe to do an action finks into a mournful with that it had once been done.

We are frequently importuned, by the bacchanalian writers, to lay hold on the prefent hour, to catch the pleasures within our reach, and remember that futurity is not at our command.

Τὸ ῥόδον ἀκμάζει βαιὸν χρόνον. ἦν δὲ παρέλθης,
Ζητῶν ευρήσεις & ρόδον, ἀλλὰ βάτον.
Soon fades the rofe; once paft the fragrant
hour,

The loiterer finds a bramble for a flow'r.

But furely thefe exhortations may, with equal propriety, be applied to better purposes; it may be at least inculcated, that pleasures are more fafely poftponed than virtues, and that greater lofs is fuffered by miffing an opportunity of doing good, than an hour of giddy frolick and noify merriment.

When Baxter had loft a thousand pounds, which he had laid up for the erection of a fchool, he ufed frequently to mention the misfortune as an incitement to be charitable while God gives the power of beftowing, and confidered himself as culpable in fome degree for having left a good action in the hands of chance, and fuffered his benevolence to be defeated for want of quickness and diligence.

It is lamented by Hearne, the learned antiquary of Oxford, that this general forgetfulness of the fragility of life, has remarkably infected the students of monuments and records; as their employment confifts firft in collecting, and afterwards in arranging or abftracting, what libraries afford them, they ought to amafs no more than they can digeft; but when they have undertaken a work, they go on fearching and tranfcribing, call for new fupplies when they are already overburthened, and at laft leave their work unfinished. It is,' fays he, the butines of a good antiquary, as of a good man, to have mortakty alwtys before him.”

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Thus, not only in the flumber of floth, but in the diffipation of ill-directed induftry, is the fhortness of life generally forgotten. As fome men lose their hours in laziness, because they suppose that there is time enough for the reparation of neglect, others busy themselves in providing that no length of life may, want employment; and it often happens that fluggifhnefs and activity are equally furprised by the last fummons, and perifh not more differently from each other than the fowl that received the fhot in her flight, from her that is killed upon the bufh.

Among the many improvements made by the last centuries in human knowledge, may be numbered the exact calculations of the value of life; but, whatever may be their use in traffick, they feem very little to have advanced morality. They have hitherto been rather applied to the acquifition of money, than of wifdom; the computer refers none of his calculations to his own tenure, but per fifts, in contempt of probability, to foretel old age to himself, and believes that he is marked out to reach the utmot verge of human exiftence, and fee thoufands and ten thousands fall into the grave.

So deeply is this fallacy rooted in the heart, and fo ftrongly guarded by hope and fear against the approach of reason, that neither fcience nor experience can fhake it; and we act as if life were without end, though we fee and confefs it's uncertainty and shortnefs.

Divines have, with great frength and ardour, fhewn the abfurdity of delaying reformation and repentance; a degice of folly, indeed, which fets eternity to hazard. It is the fame weaknefs, in proportion to the importance of the neglect, to transfer any care, which now claims our attention, to a future time; we fubject ourselves to needlefs dangers from accidents which early diligence would havé obviated, or perplex our minds by vain precautions, and make provifion for the execution of defigns, of which the opportunity once miffed never will return.

As he that lives longeft lives but a little while, every man may be certain that he has no time to waite. The duties of life are commenfurate to it's duration, and every day brings it's taik, which if neglected is doubled on the

morrow.

But he that has already trifled

fed away thofe months and years, in which he should have laboured, muit remember that he has now only a part of that of which the whole is little; and

that fince the few moments remaining are to be confidered as the last trust of Heaven, not one is to be loft.

N° LXXII. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1750.

STR,

OMNIS ARISTIPPUM DECUIT STATUS, ET COLOR, ET RES,
SECTANTEM MAJORA FERE; PRESENTIBUS QUUM.

YET ARISTIPPUS EV'RY DRESS BECAME;

IN EV'RY VARIOUS CHANGE OF LIFE THE SAME;
AND THOUGH HE AIM'D AT THINGS OF HIGHER KIND,
YET TO THE PRESENT HELD AN EQUAL MIND.

TO THE RAMBLER.

themselves into

HOR.

FRANCIS.

at a distance, and will scarcely gain a friend or attract an imitator.

Good-humour may be defined a habit

THOSE who exalt tation, without of being pleased; a conftant and peren

enquiring whether any will fubmit to their authority, have not fufficiently confidered how much of human life paffes in little incidents, curfory converfation, flight bufinefs, and cafual amusements; and therefore they have endeavoured only to inculcate the more awful virtues, without condescending to regard thofe petty qualities, which grow important only by their frequency, and which, though they produce no fingle acts of heroifm, nor aftonifh us by great events, yet are every moment exerting their influence upon us, and make the draught of life fweet or bitter by imperceptible inftillations. They operate unfeen and unregarded, as change of air makes us fick or healthy, though we breathe it without attention, and only know the particles that impregnate it by their falutary or malignant effects.

You have fhewn yourfelf not ignorant of the value of thofe fubaltern endowments, yet have hitherto neglected to recommend Good-Humour to the world, though a little reflection will fhew you that it is the balm of being, the quality to which all that adorns or elevates mankind muft owe it's power of pleafing. Without good-humour, learning and bravery can only confer that fuperiority which iwells the heart of the lion in the defert, where he roars without reply, and ravages without refiftance. Without good-humour virtue may awe by it's dignity, and amaze by it's brightness; but must always be viewed

nial foftnets of manner, eafinefs of approach, and fuavity of difpofition; like that which every man perceives in himfelf, when the first transports of new felicity have fubfided, and his thoughts are only kept in motion by a flow fuc-. ceffion of foft impulfes. Good-humour is a state between gaiety and unconcern; the act or emanation of a mind at leifure to regard the gratification of another.

It is imagined by many, that whenever they aspire to please, they are required to be merry, and to fhew the gladnefs of their fouls by fights of pleafantry, and burfts of laughter. But though thefe men may be for a time heard with applaufe and admiration, they feldom delight us long. We enjoy thein a little, and then retire to eatinels and good-humour, as the eye gazes awhile on eminences glittering with the fun, but foon turns aching away to verdure and to flowers.

Gaiety is to good-humour as animal perfumes to vegetable fragrance; the one overpowers weak fpirits, and the other recreates and revives them. Gaiety feldom fails to give fome pain; the hearers either ftrain their faculties to accompany it's towerings, or are left behind in envy and defpair. Good-humour boasts no faculties which every one does not believe in his own power, and pleafes principally by not offending.

It is well known that the most certain way to give any man pleature is to perfuade

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