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munication with the fupreme Being, and, what is above all distressful and alarming, the final fentence, and unalterable allotment.

Yet we to whom the shortness of life has given frequent occafions of contemplating mortality, can, without emotion, fee generations of men pafs away, and are at leisure to establish modes of forrow, and adjust the ceremonial of death. We can look upon funeral pomp as a common fpectacle in which we have no concern, and turn away from it to trifles and amusements, without dejection of look, or inquietude of heart.

It is, indeed, apparent from the conftitution of the world, that there must be a time for other thoughts; and a perpetual meditation upon the laft hour, however it may become the folitude of a monaftery, is inconfiftent with many duties of common life. But furely the remembrance of death ought to predomi nate in our minds, as an habitual and fettled principle, always operating, though not always perceived; and our attention fhould feldom wander fo far from our own condition, as not to be recalled and fixed by fight of an event, which muft foon, we know not how foon, happen likewife to ourselves, and of which, though we cannot appoint the time, we may fecure the confequence.

Every inftance of death may justly awaken our fears and quicken our vigilance, but its frequency fo much weakens its effect, that we are feldom alarmed unless fome clofe connection is broken, fome fcheme fruftrated, or fome hope defeated. Many therefore seem to pass on from youth to decrepitude without any reflection on the end of life, because they

are wholly involved within themselves, and look on others only as inhabitants of the common earth, without any expectation of receiving good, or intention of bestowing it.

Events, of which we confefs the importance, excite little fenfibility, unless they affect us more nearly than as sharers in the common intereft of mankind; that defire which every man feels of being remembered and lamented, is often mortified when we remark how little concern is caufed by the eternal departure even of those who have paffed their lives with public honours, and been diftinguished by extraordinary performances. It is not poffible to be regarded with tenderness except by a few. That merit which gives greatnefs and renown, diffufes its influence to a wide compafs, but acts weakly on every single breaft; it is placed at a distance from common fpectators, and fhines like one of the remote stars, of which the light reaches us, but not the heat. The wit, the hero, the philofopher, whom their tempers or their fortunes have hindered from intimate relations; die, without any other effect than that of adding a new topic to the converfation of the day. They imprefs none with any fresh conviction of the fragility of our nature, because none had any particular intereft in their lives, or was united to them by a reciprocation of benefits and endear

ments.

Thus it often happens, that thofe who in their lives were applauded and admired, are laid at last in the ground without the common honour of a ftone; because by thofe excellencies with which many were delighted, none had been obliged, and

though

though they had many to celebrate, they had none to love them.

Custom so far regulates the fentiments, at least of common minds, that I believe men may be generally obferved to grow lefs tender as they advance in age. He, who, when life was new, melted at the loss of every companion, can look in time, without concern, upon the grave into which his last friend was thrown, and into which himself is ready to fall; not that he is more willing to die than formerly, but that he is more familiar to the death of others, and therefore is not alarmed fo far as to confider how much nearer he approaches to his end. But this is to fubmit tamely to the tyranny of accident, and to fuffer our reason to lie ufelefs. Every funeral may justly be confidered as a fummons to prepare for that state, into which it fhews us that we muft fome time enter; and the fummons is more loud and piercing, as the event of which it warns us is at lefs diftance. neglect at any time preparation for death, is to fleep on our poft at a fiege, but to omit it in old age, is to fleep at an attack.

To

It has always appeared to me one of the most striking paffages in the vifions of Quevedo, which ftigmatifes thofe as fools who complain that they failed of happiness by fudden death. "How," fays he, "can death be fudden to a being who always knew "that he must die, and that the time of his death was "" uncertain ?"

Since business and gaiety are always drawing our attention away from a future ftate, fome admonition is frequently neceffary to recal it to our minds, and what can more properly renew the impreffion than

the

the examples of mortality which every day supplies? The great incentive to virtue is the reflection that we muft die; it will therefore be useful to accuftom ourfelves, whenever we fee a funeral, to confider how foon we may be added to the number of those whofe probation is past, and whofe happiness or mifery fhall endure for ever.

NUMB. 79. TUESDAY, December 18, 1750.

Tam fæpe noftrum decipi Fabullum, quid
Miraris, Aule? Semper bonus homo tiro eft.

You wonder I've fo little wit,
Friend John, so often to be bit.→→→ -
None better guard against a cheat
Than he who is a knave complete.

SUSPICION, however neceffary it

MART.

F. LEWIS.

may be to our fafe paffage through ways beset on all fides by fraud and malice, has been always confidered, when it exceeds the common measures, as a token of depravity and corruption, and a Greek writer of fentences has laid down as a standing maxim, that he who believes not another on his oath knows him. felf to be perjured.

We can form our opinions of that which we know not, only by placing it in comparison with fomething that we know; whoever therefore is over-run with fufpicion, and detects artifice and ftratagem in every proposal, must either have learned by experi ence or obfervation the wickednefs of mankind, and

been

been taught to avoid fraud by having often fuffered, or feen treachery, or he muft derive his judgment from the consciousness of his own difpofition, and impute to others the fame inclinations, which he feels predominant in himself.

To learn caution by turning our eyes upon life, and obferving the arts by which negligence is furprized, timidity overborne, and credulity amused, requires either great latitude of converfe and long acquaintance with bufinefs, or uncommon activity of vigilance, and acuteness of penetration. When therefore a young man, not distinguished by vigour of intellect, comes into the world full of scruples and diffidence; makes a bargain with many provifional limitations; hefitates in his anfwer to a common queftion, left more fhould be intended than he can immediately discover; has a long reach in detecting the projects of his acquaintance; confiders every carefs as an act of hypocrify, and feels neither gratitude nor affection from the tenderness of his friends, because he believes no one to have any real tenderness but for himself; whatever expectations this early fagacity may raise of his future eminence or riches, I can feldom forbear to confider him as a wretch incapable of generofity or benevolence, as a villain early completed beyond the need of common opportunities and gradual temptations.

Upon men of this clafs inftruction and admonition are generally thrown away, because they confider artifice and deceit as proofs of understanding; they are misled at the fame time by the two great feducers of the world, vanity and intereft, and not only look upon those who act with opennefs and conVOL. V. fidence,

E

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