100k At the fame time that I think difcretion the most useful talent a man can be master of, I look upon cunning to be the accomplishment of little, mean, ungenerous minds. Difcretion points out the nobleft ends to us; and pursues the most proper and laudable methods of attaining them; cunning has only private, selfish aims; and sticks at nothing which may make them fucceed. Difcretion has large and extended views; and, like a well-formed eye, commands a whole horizon cunning is a kind of fhort-fightedness, that difcovers the minutest objects which are near at hand, but is not able to difcern things at a distance. Difcretion, the more it is difcovered, gives a greater authority to the perfon who poffeffes it: cunning, when it is once detected,. lofes its force, and makes a man incapable of bringing about even thofe events which he might have done, had he paffed only for a plain man. Difcretion is the perfection of reafon; and a guide to us in all the duties of life: cun ning is a kind of inttinet, that only looks out after our immediate interest and welfare. p Difcretion is only found in men of ftrong fenfe and good understandings: cunning is often to be met with in brutes themfelves; and in perfons who are but the fewest removes from them. In short, cunning is only the mimic of difcretion; and it may pafs upon weak men, in the fame manner as vivacity is often mistaken for wit, and gravity, for wisdom.

The calt of mind which is natural to a difcreet man, makes him look forward into futurity, and confider what will be his condition millions of ages hence, as well as what it is at prefent.. He knows that the mifery or happi nefs which is referved for him in another world, lofes nothing of its reality by being placed at fo great a distance from him. The objects do not appear little to him because they are remote. He confiders, that thofe pleasures and pains which lie hid in eternity, approach nearer to him. every moment; and will be prefent with him in their full weight and measure, as much as thofe pains and pleasures: which he feels at this very inftant. For this reafon, he is careful to fecure to himself that which is the proper happinefs of his nature, and the ultimate defign of his being. He carries his thoughts to the end of every action; and confiders the most diftant, as well as the most immediate effects of it. He fuperfedes every little profpect of gain

and advantage which offers itself here, if he does not find it confiftent with his views of an hereafter. In a word, his hopes are full of immortality; his fchemes are large and glorious; and his conduct fuitable to one who knows his true interest, and how to pursue it by proper methods.

SECTION V.

Dr

ON THE GOVERNMENT OF OUR THOUGHT'S.

ADDISON.

Да

A MULTITUDE of cafes occur, in which we are no less accountable for what we think, than for what we do.

As, first, when the introduction of any train of thought depends upon ourselves, and is our voluntary act; by turning our attention towards fuch objects, awakening fuch pallions, or engaging in fuch employments, as we know must give a peculiar determination to our thoughts. Next when thoughts, by whatever accident they may have been originally fuggefted, are indulged with deliberation and complacency. Though the mind has been paffive in their reception, and, therefore, free from blame; yet if they be active in their continuance, the guilt becomes its own. They may have intruded at first, like unbidden guests; but if when entered, they are made welcome, and kindly entertained, the cafe is the fame as if they had been invited from the beginning. If we be thus accountable to God for thoughts either voluntarily introduced, or deliberately indulged, we are no less fo, in the laft place, for those which find admittance into our hearts from fupine negligence, from total relaxation of attention, from allowing our imagination to rove with entire licence, "like the eyes of the fool, towards the ends of the earth." Our minds are, in this cafe, thrown open to folly and vanity. They are proftituted to every evil thing which pleafes to take pof feffion. The confequences must all be charged to our account; and in vain we plead excufe from human infirmity. Hence it appears, that the great object at which we are to aim in governing our thoughts, is, to take the most effectual measures for preventing the introduction of fuch as are finful, and for haftening their expulfion, if they fhallhave introduced themfelves without confent of the will.

But when we defcend into our breasts, and examine how far we have studied to keep this object in view, who can tell,

"how oft he hath offended?" In no article of religion or morals are men more culpably remifs, than in the unrellrained indulgence they give to fancy; and that too, for the molt part, without remorfe. Since the time that reafon began to exert her powers, thought, during our waking hours, has been active in every breast, without a moment's fufpenfion or paufe. The current of ideas has been always flowing. The wheels of the fpiritual engine have circulated with perpetual motion. Let me afk, what has been the fruit of this inceflant activity with the greater part of mankind? Of the innumerable hours that have been em、 ployed in thought, how few are marked with any permanent or useful effect? How many have either paffed away in idle dreams; or have been abandoned to anxious difcontented mufings, to unfocial and malignant paffions, or to irregular and criminal defires? Had I power to lay open that ftore houfe of iniquity which the hearts of too many conceal; could I draw out and read to them a lift of all the imaginations they have devifed, and all the paflions they have indulged in fecret; what a picture of men fhould I prefent to themselves! What crimes would they appear to bave perpetrated in fecrecy, which to their most intimate companions they durft not reveal!

Even when men imagine their thoughts to be innocently employed, they too commonly fuffer them to run out into extravagant imaginations, and chimerical plans of what they would wish to attain, or choose to be, if they could frame the courfe of things according to their defire. Though fach employmentsof fancy come not under the fame defcription with those which are plainly criminal, yet wholly unblameable they feldom are. Befides the waste of time which they occafion, and the mifapplication which they indicate of thofe intellectual powers that were given to us for much nobler purposes, fuch romantic fpeculations lead us always into the neighbourhood of forbidden regions. They place us on dangerous ground. They are for the most part connected with fome one bad paffion; and they always nourish a giddy and frivolous turn of thought. They unfit the mind for applying with vigour to rational purfuits, or for acquiefcing in fober plans of conduct. From that ideai world in which it allows itfelf to dwell, it returns to the commerce of men, unbent and relaxed, fickly and tainted,

averfe to discharging the duties, and fometimes difqualified even for relishing the pleasures, of ordinary life.

SECTION VI.

ON THE EVILS WHICH FLOW, FROM UNRESTRAINED PASSIONS.

BLAIR,

WHEN man revolted from his Maker, his paffions rebelled against himself; and, from being originally the minifters of reafon, have become the tyrants of the foul. Hence, in treating of this fubject, two things may be affumed as principles; firft, that through the prefent weakness of the understanding, our paffions are often directed towards improper objects; and next, that even when their direction is juft, and their objects are innocent, they perpetually tend to run into excefs; they always hurry us towards their grati fication, with a blind and dangerous impetuofity. On these two points then turns the whole government of our paffions: firit, to ascertain the proper objects of their purfuit; and next, to restrain them in that purfuit, when they would carry us beyond the bounds of reafon. If there be any paffion which intrudes itself unfeasonably into our mind, which darkens and troubles our judgment, or habitually difcompofes our temper; which unfits us for properly dif charging the duties, or difqualifies us for cheerfully enjoying the comforts of life, we may certainly conclude it to have gained a dangerous afcendant. The great object which we ought to propofe to our felves is, to acquire a firm and steadfast mind, which the infatuation of paffion shall not feduce, nor its violence fhake; which refting on fixed principles, fhall, in the midst of contending emotions, remain free, and master of itself; able to liften calmly to the voice of confcience, and prepared to obey its dictates without hesitation.

To obtain, if poffible, fuch command of paffion, is one of the highest attainments of the rational nature. Arguments to how its importance crowd upon us from every quarter. If there be any fertile fource of mischief to human life, it is, beyond doubt, the mifrule of paffion. It is this which poisons the enjoyment of individuals, overturns the order of fociety, and rews the path of life with fo many miferies, as to render it indeed the vale of tears. All thofe great fcenes of public calamity, which we behold with aftonishment and horror, have originated from the fource

of violent paffions. These have overfpread the earth with bloodfhed. These have pointed the affaffin's dagger, and filled the poisoned bowl. These, in every age, have furnifhed too copious materials for the orator's pathetic declamation, and for the poet's tragical fong.

When from public life we defcend to private conduct, though paffion operates not there in fuch a wide and deftructive fphere, we fhall find its influence to be no lefs baneful. I need not mention the black and fierce paffions, fuch as envy, jealoufy, and revenge, whofe effects are obvioufly noxious, and whofe agitations are immediate mifery. But take any of the licentious and fenfual kind. Suppose it to have unlimited scope; trace it throughout its courfe ; and we shall find that gradually, as it rifes, it taints the foundness, and troubles the peace of his mind over whom it reigns; that, in its progrefs, it engages him in pursuits which are marked either with danger or with fhame; that, in the end, it waftes his fortune, deftroys his health, or debafes his character; and aggravates all the miferies in which it has involved him, with the concluding pangs of bitter remorfe. Through all the ftages of this fatal courfe, how many have heretofore run? What multitudes do we daily behold pursuing it with blind and headlong steps?

BLAIR.

SECTION VII.

ON THE PROPER STATE OF OUR TEMPER, WITH RESPECT TO ONE ANOI HER. It is evident, in the general, that if we confult either public welfare or private happinefs, Chriftian charity ought to regulate our difpofition in mutual intercourfe. But as this great principle admits of feveral diverfified appearances, let us confider fome of the chief forms under which it ought to fhow itself in the usual tenor of life.

What, firft, prefents itself to be recommended, is at peaceable temper; a difpofition averfe to give offence, and defirous of cultivating harmony, and amicable intercourfe in fociety. This fuppofes yielding and condefcending manners, unwillingness to contend with others about trifles, and, in contests that are unavoidable, proper moderation of fpirit. Such a temper is the firft principle of felfenjoyment. It is the bafis of all order and happiness among mankind. The pofitive and contentious, the rude and