lefs; when we fhall all fink into helpleff nefs and fadnefs, without any power of receiving folace from the pleafures that have formerly delighted us, or any profpect of emerging into a fecond poffeflion of the bleffings that we have loft.

The induitry of man has, indeed, not been wanting in endeavours to procure comforts for these hours of dejection and melancholy, and to gild the dreadful gloom with artificial light. The most ufual fupport of old age is wealth. He whole poffeffions are large, and whose chefts are full, imagines himself always fortified against invations on his authority. If he has loft all other means of government, if his strength and his reaon fail him, he can at last alter his will; and therefore all that have hopes muft likewife have fears, and he may ftill continue to give laws to fuch as have not ceased to regard their own interest.

This is, indeed, too frequently the citadel of the dotard, the last fortrefs to which age retires, and in which he makes the ftand against the upstart race that feizes his domains, difputes his commands, and cancels his prefcriptions. But here, though there may be fafety, there is no pleafure; and what remains is but a proof that more was once poffeffed. Nothing feems to have been more univerfally dreaded by the ancients than orbity, or want of children; and, indeed, to a man who has furvived all the companions of his youth, all who have participated his pleafures and his cares, have been engaged in the fame events, and filled their minds with the fame con ́ceptions, this full peopled world is a difmal folitude. He ftands forlorn and filent, neglected or infulted, in the midft of multitudes, animated with hopes which he cannot share, and employed in bufinefs which he is no longer able to forward or retard; nor can he find any to whom his life or his death are of importance, unlefs he has fecured fome domeftick gratifications, fome tender employments, and endeared himself to fome whofe intereft and gratitude may unite them to him. So different are the colours of life, as we look forward to the future, or backward to the paft; and fo different the opinions and fentiments which this contrariety of appearance naturally produces, that the converfation of the old and young ends generally with contempt or pity on either fide. To a young man

entering the world with fulness of hope, and ardour of purfuit, nothing is fo unpleafing as the cold caution, the faint expectations, the fcrupulous diffidence, which experience and difappointments certainly infufe; and the old man wonders, in his turn, that the world never can grow wifer, that neither precepts, nor teftimonies, can cure boys of their credulity and fufficiency; and that not one can be convinced that fnares are laid for him, till he finds himself entangled.

Thus one generation is always the fcorn and wonder of the other, and the notions of the old and young are like liquors of different gravity and texture, which never can unite. The fpirits of youth fublimed by health, and volatilised by paffion, foon leave behind them the phlegmatick fediment of weariness and deliberation, and burit out in temerity and enterprife. The tenderness, therefore, which nature infufes, and which long habits of beneficence confirm, is neceffary to reconcile fuch oppofition; and an old man must be a father to bear with patience thofe follies and abfurdities which he will perpetually imagine himself to find in the fchemes and expectations, the pleafures and the forrows, of those who have not yet been hardened by time, and chilled by fruftration.

Yet it may be doubted, whether the pleafure of feeing children ripening into ftrength, be not over-balanced by the pain of feeing fome fall in the bloffom, and others blasted in their growth; fome fhaken down by ftorms, fome tainted with cankers, and fome fhrivelled in the fhade; and whether he that extends his care beyond himself does not multiply his anxieties more than his pleasures, and weary himself to no purpose, by fuperintending what he cannot regulate.

But though age be to every order of human beings fufficiently terrible, it is particularly to be dreaded by fine ladies, who have had no other end or ambition than to fill up the day and the night with drefs, diverfions, and flattery; and who having made no acquaintance with knowledge, or with bufinefs, have constantly caught all their ideas from the current prattle of the hour, and been indebted for all their happiness to compliments and treats. With thefe ladies, age begins early, and very often lasts long; it begins, when their beauty fades, when

their mirth lofes it's fprightlines, and their motion it's eafe. From that time, ali which gave them joy vanishes from about them; they hear the praifes beftowed on others which ufed 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

reafon?

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 provilion can be made against that time of diftrefs? what happiness can be stored up against the winter of life? and how we may pafs our latter years with ferenity and chearfulness? If it has been found by the experience of mankind, that not even the beft

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 paft, or borrowed from the future; the paft is very foon exhausted, all the events or actions of which the memory can af ford pleafure 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 crouding 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 anguifa, and precipices of horrour.

OVID.

HESIOD, in his celebrated diftri

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 fecond is claimed by him that is willing to hear inftruction, and can perceive ⚫ right and wrong when they are thewn him by another; but he that has nei6 ther acuteness nor docility, who can neither find the way by himself, nor will be led by others, is a wretch with out 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 vir

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 finall addition of weight turns either way. The third clafs confifts of beings immerfed inpleafure, or abandoned to passion, without any defire of higher good, or any effort to extend their thoughts beyond immediate and grofs fatisfactions.

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

Thore

Thofe 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 moralit, whofe precepts are intended chiefly for thofe who are endeavouring to go forward up the fteeps of virtue; not for thofe who have already reached the fummit, or those who are refolved to ftay for ever in their prefent fituation.

To a man not verfed in the living world, but accustomed to judge only by fpeculative reason, it is fcarcely credible that any one should be in this ftate of indifference, or ftand undetermined and unengaged, ready to follow the first call, to either fide. It seems 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, should 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 diftreis, 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 fall 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 peft 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 eafy to the folitary reafoner to prove that the fame arguments by which the mind is fortified against one crime are of equal force againft all; and the confequence very urally follows, that he whom they fail to move on any occa fion has either never confidered them, or has by fome fallaey taught himself to evade their validity; and that, therefore, when a man is known to be guilty of one cfime, 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 sometimes fhrinking into a narrow space, and fortifying only a few avenues of the heart, while all the reft is left open to the incurfions of appetite, or given up to the dominion of wickednefs. 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 counfel 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 some vice, and the virtue of the greatest number with almoft an equal proportion of contrary qualities, let none too haftily conclude, that all goodness is loft, though it may for a time be clouded and overwhelmed; for most minds are the flaves of external circumstances, 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 those who practite vice or virtue; and that neither education nor reafon gives them much fecurity against the influence of example. Whether it be that they have lets courage to stand against oppofition,

of 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 feldom keeps it's ground againft 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 practile 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 desertion of a caufe 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 eafily milled by the aberrations of that example which they chufe for their directions.

ANY words and fentences are fo frequently heard in the mouths 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 use of every hour is to be adjufted. Yet, if we confider the conduct of those 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 attested pofition, that life is short, which may be heard among mankind by an at-. tentive auditor, many times a day, but which never yet within my reach of ohfervation 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 ap peared 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 diversified by the various influence of

MART.

F. LEWIS. time, remarks, that the old man is dilafor, pe longus-given to procrastination, and inclined to extend his hopes to a great diftance. So far are we generally from thinking what we often fay 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 thofe paffions to gain upon us, which are only excufeable in the prime of life.

Thefe 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 eftate, 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 fhall difpofe his walks and his groves, and has at laft determined to fend for the bet 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 fuggest are gathered together. Where our defign terminates only in our own fatisfaction, the mistake is of no great importance; for the pleaftre of expecting enjoyment is often greater than that of obtaining it, and the completion of almost every with

X

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 benevolence, 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 pleafures within our reach, and remember that futurity is not at our command.

Τὸ ῥόδον ἀκμάζει βαιὸν χρόνον. ἦν δὲ παρέλθης,

Ζητῶν ευρήσεις & ῥόδον ἀλλὰ βάτον. Soon fades the rofe; once past 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 postponed 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 thoufand pounds, which he had laid up for the erection of a school, he ufed frequently to mention the misfortune as an incitement to be charitable while God gives the power of bestowing, and confidered himfelf 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 quicknefs 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 ftudents of mo numents and records: as their employment confifts first 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 bufinefs of a good antiquary, as of a good man, to have mortality al⚫ ways before him,'

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

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 ufe in traffick, they feem very little to have advanced morality. They have hitherto been rather applied to the acquifition of money, than of wisdom; the computer refers none of his calculations to his own tenure, but perfifts, in contempt of probability, to foretel old age to himfelf, and believes that he is marked out to reach the utmoft verge of human existence, 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 ftrength and ardour, fhewn the absurdity of delaying reformation and repentance; a degree of folly, indeed, which fets eternity to hazard. It is the fame weaknefs, in proportion to the inportance of the neglect, to transfer any care, which now claims our attention, to a future time; we fubject ourselves to needlet's dangers from accidents which early diligence would have 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 wafte. The duties of life are commenfurate to it's duration, and every day brings it's task, which if neglected is doubled on the morrow, But he that has already tri