expofed him; he feldom haraffes his reason with long trains of confequences, dims his eyes with the perufal of antiquated volumes, or burthens his memory with great accumulations of preparatory knowledge. A careless glance upon a favourite author, or tranfient fur vey of the varieties of life, is fufficient to fupply the firft hint or feminal idea, which, enlarged by the gradual accretion of matter ftored in the mind, is by the warmth of fancy eafily expanded into flowers, and fometimes ripened into fruit.

The most frequent difficulty by which the authors of thefe petty compofitions are diftreffed, arifes from the perpetual demand of novelty and change. The compiler of a fyftem of fcience lays his invention at reft, and employs only his judgment, the faculty exerted with leaft fatigue. Even the relator of feigned adventures, when once the principal characters are established, and the great events regularly connected, finds incidents and epifodes crowding upon his mind; every change opens new views, and the latter part of the story grows without labour out of the former. But he that attempts to entertain his reader with unconnected pieces, finds the irkfomeness of his talk rather increafed than leffened by every production. The day calls afresh upon him for a new topick, and he is again obliged to choose, without any principle to regulate his

choice.

ftate of ease and leifure the never had begun.

It is not commonly obferved, how much, even of actions confidered as particularly fubject to choice, is to be attributed to accident, or fome caufe out of our own power, by whatever name it be diftinguifhed. To clofe tedious deliberations with hafty refolves, and after long confultations with reason to refer the question to caprice, is by no means peculiar to the effayift. Let him that perufes this paper review the feries of his life, and inquire how he was placed in his prefent condition. He will find, that of the good or ill which he has experienced, a great part came unexpected, without any visible gradations of approach; that every event has been influenced by caufes acting without his intervention; and that whenever he pretended to the prerogative of forefight, he was mortified with new conviction of the fhortness of his views,

The bufy, the ambitious, the inconftant, and the adventurous, may be faid to throw them felves by defign into the.. arms of fortune, and voluntarily to quit the power of governing themselves; they engage in a courfe of life in which little can be afcertained by previous mea fures; nor is it any wonder that their time is paft between elation and defpondency, hope and disappointment.

Some there are who appear to walk the road of life with more circumfpection, and make no ftep till they think themfelves fecure from the hazard of a precipice; when neither pleasure nor profit can tempt them from the beaten path; who refufe to climb left they fhould fall, or to run left they should ftumble, and move flowly forward without any compliance with thofe paffions by which the heady and vehement are feduced and betrayed.

Yet even the timorous_prudence of this judicious clafs is far from exempting them from the dominion of chance, a fubtle and infidious power, who will intrude upon privacy and embarrass caution. No courfe of life is so preferibed and limited, but that many actions must refult from arbitrary election. Every one must form the general plan of his conduct by his own reflections; he muft refolve whether he will endeavour at riches or at content; whether he will exercife private or public virtues; whether he will labour for the general benefir

of

of mankind, or contract his beneficence to his family and dependants.

This question has long exercised the fchools of philofophy, but remains yet undecided; and what hope is there that a young man unacquainted with the arguments on either fide, fhould determine his own destiny otherwise than by

chance?

When chance has given him a partner of his bed, whom he prefers to all other women, without any proof of fuperior defert, chance muft again direct him in the education of his children; for who was ever able to convince himself by arguments, that he had chofen for his fon that mode of inftruction to which his understanding was beft adapted, or by which he would most easily be made wife or virtuous?

Whoever shall inquire by what motives he has determined on thefe important occafions, will find them fuch as his pride will scarcely fuffer him to confefs; fome fudden ardour of defire, fome uncertain glimple of advantage, some petty competition, fome inaccurate conclufion, or fome example implicitly reverenced. Such are often the firft caufes of our refolves; for it is neceffary to act, but impoffible to know the confequences of action, or to difcufs all the reafons which offer themselves on every part to inquifitivenels and folicitude.

Since life itfelf is uncertain, nothing which has life for it's bafis can boat much stability. Yet this is but a small part of our perplexity. We let out on a

tempeftuous fea, in queft of fome port, where we expect to find reft, but where we are not fure of admiffion; we are not only in danger of finking in the way, but of being mifled by meteors mistaken for ftars, of being driven from our courfe by the changes of the wind, and of lofing it by unskilful freerage; yet it fometimes happens, that crofs winds blow us to a fafer coaft, that meteors draw us afide from whirlpools, and that negligence or error contributes to our escape from mifchiefs to which a direct courfe" would have expofed us. Of those that by precipitate conclufions involve themfelves in calamities without guilt, very few, however they may reproach themfelves, can be certain that other meafures would have been more fuccessful.

In this state of universal uncertainty, where a thousand dangers hover about us, and none can tell whether the good that he purfues is not evil in difguife, or whether the next step will lead him to fafety or deftruction, nothing can afford any rational tranquillity, but the conviction that, however we amufe ourselves with unideal founds, nothing in reality is governed by chance, but that the univerfe is under the perpetual fuperintend, ence of him who created it; that our being is in the hands of omnipotent good. nels, by whom what appears cafual to us is directed for ends ultimately kind and merciful; and that nothing can finally hurt him who debars not himself from the Divine favour.

No CLXXXV.

NEMPE HOC INDOCTI

Juv.

DRYDEN.

Ο

more obftinately refift both the counfels of philofophy and the injunctions of religion, than thofe which are complicated with an opinion of dignity; and which we cannot difmifs without leaving in the hands of oppofition fome advantage iniquitoufly obtained, or fuffering from our own prejudices fome imputation of pufillanimity.

For this reafon fcarcely any law of our Redeemer is more openly tranfgreffed, or more industriously evaded, than that by which he commands his followers to forgive injuries, and prohibits, under the fanction of eternal mifery, the gratification of the defire which every man feels to return pain upon him that inficts it. Many who could have conquered their anger, are unable to combat pride, and purfue offences to extremity of vengeance, left they fhould be infulted by the triumph of an ene

ditation. Every one wishes for the diftinctions for which thousands are withing at the fame time, in their own opinion, with better claims. He that, when his reafon operates in it's full force, can thus, by the mere prevalence of selflove, prefer himself to his fellow-beings, is very unlikely to judge equitably when his paffions are agitated by a fenfe of wrong, and his attention wholly engroffed by pain, intereft, or danger. Whoever arrogates to himself the right of vengeance, fhews how little he is qualified to decide his own claims, fince he certainly demands what he would think unfit to be granted to another.

Nothing is more apparent than that, however injured, or however provoked, fome muft at latt be contented to forgive. For it can never be hoped, that he who firft commits an injury, will contentedly acquiefce in the penalty required: the fame haughtiness of contempt, or vehemence of defire, that prompts the act of injuftice, will more ftrongly incite it's juftification; and refentment can never fo exactly balance the punishment with the fault, but there will remain an overplus of vengeance which even he who condemns his first action will think himfelf entitled to retaliate. What then can enfue but a continual exacerbation of hatred, an unextinguishable feud, an inceffant reciprocation of mischief, a

mutual

mutual vigilance to entrap, and eagernefs to destroy?

Since then the imaginary right of vengeance must be at last remitted, becaule it is impoffible to live in perpetual hoftility, and equally impoffible that, of two enemies, either should first think himself obliged by justice to fubmiflion, it is furely eligible to forgive early, Every paffion is more eafily fubdued before it has been long accustomed to poffeffion of the heart; every idea is obliterated with lefs difficulty, as it has been more flightly impreffed, and lefs frequently renewed. He who has often brooded over his wrongs, pleased him felf with schemes of malignity, and glutted his pride with the fancied fupplications of humbled enmity, will not eafily open his bofom to amity and reconciliation, or indulge the gentle fentiments of benevolence and peace.

It is easiest to forgive, while there is yet little to be forgiven. A fingle in jury may be foon difmiffed from the memory; but a long fucceffion of ill offices by degrees affociates itself with every idea, a long conteft involves fo many circumftances, that every place and action will recal it to the mind, and fresh remembrance of vexation must still enkindle rage, and irritate revenge.

A wife man will make hafte to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not fuffer it to pafs away in unneceffary pain. He that will ingly fuffers the corrofions of inveterate hatred, and gives up his days and nights to the gloom of malice, and perturbations of ftratagem, cannot furely be faid to confult his eafe. Refentment is an union of forrow with malignity, a combination of a paffion which all endeavour to avoid, with a paffion which all concur to deteft. The man who retires to meditate mifchief, and to exafperate his own rage; whofe thoughts are employed only on means of diftrefs and contrivances of ruin; whofe mind never paufes from the remembrance of his own fufferings, but to indulge fome hope of enjoying the calamities of another, may justly be numbered among the most miferable of human beings, among those who are guilty without reward, who have neither the gladnefs of profperity, nor the calm of inno

cence.

Whoever confiders the weakness both of himself and others, will not long

want persuasives to forgiveness. We know not to what degree of malignity any injury is to be imputed; or how much it's guilt, if we were to inspect the mind of him that committed it, would be extenuated by mistake, precipitance, or negligence; we cannot be certain how much more we feel than was intended to be inflicted, or how much we increase the mischief to ourselves by voluntary aggravations. We may charge to defign the effects of accident; we may think the blow violent only because we have made ourselves delicate and tender; we are on every fide in danger of error and of guilt, which we are certain to avoid only by speedy forgiveness.

From this pacifick and harmless tem per, thus propitious to others and ourfelves, to domeftick tranquillity and to focial happiness, no man is withheld but by pride, by the fear of being infulted by his adversary, or despised by the world.

It may be laid down as an unfailing and univerfal axiom, that all pride is

abject and mean.` It is always an ignorant, lazy, or cowardly acquiefcence in a falfe appearance of excellence, and proceeds not from confciousness of our attainments, but insensibility of our

wants.

Nothing can be great which is not right. Nothing which reafon condemns can be fuitable to the dignity of the human mind. To be driven by external motives from the path which our own heart approves, to give way to any thing but conviction, to suffer the opinion of others to rule our choice, or overpower our refolves is to fubmit tamely to the lowest and most ignominious flavery, and to refign the right of directing our own lives.

The utmost excellence at which humanity can arrive, is a conftant and determinate purfuit of virtue, without regard to prefent dangers or advantage; a continual reference of every action to the divine will; an habitual appeal to everlasting juftice; and an unvaried ele-vation of the intellectual eye to the reward which perfeverance only can obtain. But that pride which many, who prefume to boaft of generous fentiments, allow to regulate their measures, has nothing nobler in view than the appro. bation of men, of beings whofe fuperiority we are under no obligation to acknowledge, and who, when we have

courted

fate himself upon the greatness of his mind; whenever he awakes to feriouf ness and reflection, he must become defpicable in his own eyes, and shrink with fhame from the remembrance of his cowardice and folly.

Of him that hopes to be forgiven, it is indifpenfibly required that he forgive. It is therefore fuperfluous to urge any other motive. On this great duty eter nity is fufpended, and to him that refufes to practise it, the throne of mercy is inacceffible, and the Saviour of the world has been born in vain.

HOR.

F the happiness and mifery of our prefent fate, part arifes from our fenfations, and part from our opinions; part is diftributed by nature, and part is in a great measure apportioned by our felves. Pofitive pleasure we cannot always obtain, and positive pain we often cannot remove. No man can give to his own plantations the fragrance of the Indian groves; nor will any precepts of philofophy enable him to withdraw his attention from wounds or diseases. But the negative infelicity which proceeds, not from the preffure of fofferings, but the abfence of enjoyments, will always yield to the remedies of reason.

One of the great arts of efcaping fuperfluous uneafinefs, is to free our minds from the habit of comparing our condition with that of others on whom the bleffings of life are more bountifully beftowed, or with imaginary ftates of de light and fecurity, perhaps unattainable by mortals. Few are placed in a fitu ation fo gloomy and diftressful, as not to fee every day beings yet more forlorn and miferable, from whom they may learn to rejoice in their own lot.

No inconvenience is lefs fuperable by

FRANCIS.

art or diligence than the inclemency of climates, and therefore none affords more proper exercife for this philofophical abstraction. A native of England, pinched with the frofts of December, may leffen his affection for his own country, by fuffering his imagination to wander in the vales of Asia, and sport among woods that are always green, and streams that always murmur; but if he turns his thoughts towards the polar regious, and confiders the nations to whom a great portion of the year is darkness, and who are condemned to pala weeks and months amidst mountains of fnow, he will foon recover his tranquillity, and while he stirs his fire, or throws his cloak about him, reflect how much he owes to Providence, that he is not placed in Greenland or Siberia.

The barrenness of the earth and the feverity of the fkies in thefe dreary countries, are fuch as might be expected to confine the mind wholly to the cons templation of neceffity and diftrefs, fe that the care of efcaping death from cold and hunger fhould leave no room for thofe paffions which, in lands of plenty, influence conduct, or diverfifs

characters;