The cure for the greateft part of human miferies is not radical, but palliative. Infelicity is involved in corporeal nature, and interwoven with our being; all attempts therefore to decline it wholly are useless and vain: the armies of pain fend their arrows against us on every fide, the choice is only between those which are more or lefs fharp, or tinged with poifon of greater or lefs malignity; and the strongest armour which reafon can fupply, will only blunt their points, but cannot repel them.

The great remedy which heaven has put in our hands is patience, by which, though we cannot leffen the torments of the body, we can in a great measure preferve the peace of the mind, and fhall fuffer only the natural and genuine force of an evil, without heightening its acrimony, or prolonging its effects.

There is indeed nothing more unfuitable to the nature of man in any calamity than rage and turbulence, which, without examining whether they are not fometimes impious, are at leaft always offenfive, and incline others rather to hate and defpife than to pity and affist us. If what we fuffer has been brought upon us by ourselves, it is obferved by an ancient poet, that patience is eminently our duty, fince no one should be angry at feeling that which he has deferved.

Leniter ex merito quicquid patiare ferendum eft.

Let pain deferv'd without complaint be borne.

And furely, if we are confcious that we have not contributed to our own fufferings, if punishment falls upon innocence, or difappointment happens to : VOL, IV. industry

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industry and prudence, patience, whether more neceffary or not, is much eafier, fince our pain is then without aggravation, and we have not the bitterness of remorse to add to the afperity of misfortune.

In those evils which are allotted to us by providence, fuch as deformity, privation of any of the fenfes, or old age, it is always to be remembered, that impatience can have no present effect, but to deprive us of the confolations which our condition admits, by driving away from us those by whofe converfation or advice we might be amufed or helped; and that with regard to futurity it is yet lefs to be juftified, fince, without leffening the pain, it cuts off the hope of that reward, which he by whom it is inflicted will confer upon them that bear it well.

In all evils which admit a remedy, impatience is to be avoided, because it wastes that time and attention in complaints, that, if properly applied, might remove the cause. Turenne, among the acknowledgments which he used to pay in converfation to the memory of thofe by whom he had been inftructed in the art of war, mentioned one with honour, who taught him not to spend his time in regretting any mistake which he had made, but to fet himself immediately and vigorously to repair it.

Patience and fubmiffion are very carefully to be distinguished from cowardice and indolence. We are not to repine, but we may lawfully struggle; for the calamities of life, like the neceffities of nature, are calls to labour and exercises of diligence. When we feel any preffure of diftrefs, we are not to conclude that we can only obey the will of heaven by languishing under it, any more than when we perceive

perceive the pain of thirst, we are to imagine that water is prohibited. Of misfortune it never can be certainly known whether, as proceeding from the hand of God, it is an act of favour or of punishment: but fince all the ordinary difpenfations of providence are to be interpreted according to the general analogy of things, we may conclude that we have a right to remove one inconvenience as well as another; that we are only to take care left we purchase ease with guilt; and that our Maker's purpofe, whether of reward or severity, will be answered by the labours which he lays us under the neceffity of performing.

This duty is not more difficult in any state than in diseases intenfely painful, which may indeed fuffer fuch exacerbations as feem to ftrain the powers of life to their utmost stretch, and leave very little of the attention vacant to precept or reproof. In this state the nature of man requires fome indulgence, and every extravagance but impiety may be easily forgiven him. Yet, left we fhould think ourselves too soon entitled to the mournful privileges of irrefiftible mifery, it is proper to reflect, that the utmost anguish which human wit can contrive or human malice can inflict, has been borne with conftancy; and that if the pains of disease be, as I believe they are, fometimes greater than those of artificial torture, they are therefore in their own nature fhorter, the vital frame is quickly broken, or the union between foul and body is for a time fufpended by infenfibility, and we foon ceafe to feel our maladies when they once become too violent to be borne. I think

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think there is some reason for queftioning whether the body and mind are not fo proportioned, that the one can bear all that can be inflicted on the other, whether virtue cannot ftand its ground as long as life, and whether a foul well principled will not be feparated fooner than fubdued.

In calamities which operate chiefly on our paffions, fuch as diminution of fortune, lofs of friends, or declenfion of character, the chief danger of impatience is upon the firft attack, and many expedients have been contrived, by which the blow may be broken. Of these the most general precept is, not to take pleasure in any thing, of which it is not in our power to fecure the poffeffion to ourselves. This counfel, when we confider the enjoyment of any terreftrial advantage, as oppofite to a constant and habitual folicitude for future felicity, is undoubtedly juft, and delivered by that authority which cannot be disputed; but in any other sense, is it not like advice, not to walk left we should stumble, or not to fee left our eyes should light upon deformity? It seems to me reasonable to enjoy bleffings with confidence as well as to refign them with fubmiffion, and to hope for the continuance of good which we poffefs without infolence or voluptuoufness, as for the reftitution of that which we lose without defpondency or murmurs.

The chief fecurity against the fruitless anguifh of impatience, muft arife from frequent reflection on the wisdom and goodness of the GOD of nature, in whofe hands are riches and poverty, honour and difgrace, pleasure and pain, and life and death. A

fettled

fettled conviction of the tendency of every thing to our good, and of the poffibility of turning miferies into happiness, by receiving them rightly, will incline us to bless the name of the LORD, whether he gives or takes away..

NUMB. 33. TUESDAY, July 10, 1750.

Quod caret alterná requie durabile non eft.

Alternate reft and labour long endure.

OVID.

N the early ages of the world, as is well known

to those who are versed in ancient traditions, when innocence was yet untainted, and fimplicity unadulterated, mankind was happy in the enjoyment of continual pleasure, and conftant plenty, under the protection of REST; a gentle divinity, who required of her worshippers neither altars nor facrifices, and whofe rites were only performed by proftrations upon turfs of flowers in fhades of jasmine and myrtle, or by dances on the banks of rivers flowing with milk and nectar.

Under this eafy government the first generations breathed the fragrance of perpetual fpring, eat the fruits, which, without culture, fell ripe into their hands, and flept under bowers arched by nature, with the birds finging over their heads, and the beafts fporting about them. But by degrees they began to lose their original integrity; each, though there was more than enough for all, was defirous of appro

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