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XII. On Pride.

there be any thing which makes human nature ap pear ridiculous to beings of fuperiour faculties, it must be pride. They know fo well the vanity of those imaginary perfections that fwell the heart of man, and of thofe little fupernumerary advantages, whether in birth, fortune, or title, which one man enjoys above another, that it must certainly very much astonish, if it does not very much divert them, when they fee a mortal puffed up, and valuing himself above his neighbours on any of thefe accounts, at the fame time that he is obnoxious to all the common calamities of the fpecies.

To fet this thought in its true light; we will fancy, if you pleafe, that yonder mole-hill is inhabited by rea fonable creatures, and that every pifmire (his fhape and way of life only excepted) is endowed with human paffions. How fhould we fmile to hear one-give us an account of the, pedigrees, diftinctions, and titles that reign among them? Observe how the whole fwarm di vide and make way for the pifmire that paffes through them! you must understand he is an emmet of qua lity, and has better blood in his veins than any pif mire in the male-hill. Don't you fee how fenfible he is of it, how flow he marches forward, how the whole rabble of ants keep their diftance? here you may ob ferve one placed upon a little eminence, and looking down on a long row of labourers. He is the richest infect on this fide the hillock, he has a walk of half a yard in length and a quarter of an inch in breadth, he keeps an hundred menial fervants, and has at least fifteen barley-corns in his granary. He is now chiding and be flaving the emmet that ftands before him, and who, for all that we can difcover, is as good an emmet as himself. But here comes an infect of figure! Don't you take notice of a little white ftraw that he carries in his mouth? That ftraw, you must understand, he would not part with for the longest tract about the mole-hill: did you but know what he has undergone to purchase it! See how the ants of all qualities and conditions fwarm about him. Should this straw drop out of his mouth, you would fee all this numerous circle of attendants follow the next

that

that took it up, and leave the discarded infect, or run over his back to come at his fucceffor.

If now you have a mind to fee all the ladies of the mole-hill, obferve first the pifmire that liftens to the emmet on her left hand, at the same time that she seems to turn away her head from him. He tells this poor infect that fhe is a goddess, that her eyes are brighter than the fun, that life and death are at her difpofal. She believes him, and gives herself a thoufand little airs upon it. Mark the vanity of the pifmire on your left hand. She can scarce crawl with age; but you must know the values herself upon her birth; and if you mind, fpurns at every one that comes within her reach. The little nimble coquette that is running along by the fide of her, is a wit. She has broke many a pifmire's heart. Do but obferve what a drove of lovers are running after her.

We will here finish this imaginary feene; but first of all, to draw the parallel clefer, will fuppofe, if you please, that death comes down upon the mole-hill, in the shape of a cock-fparrow, who picks up, without diftinction, the pifinire of quality and his flatterers, the pifmire of fubftance and his day-labourers, the white-ftraw officer and his fycophants, with all the goddesses, wits, and beauties of the mole-hill..

May we not imagine that beings of fuperiour natures and perfections regard all the inftances of pride and vanity, among our own fpecies, in the fame kind of view, when they take a furvey of those who inhabit the earth; or, in the language of an ingenious French poet, of thofe pifmires that people this heap of dirt, which human va nity has divided into climates and regions?

XIII. Journal of the Life of Alexander Severus. ALEXANDER rofe early. The first moments of the day

were confecrated to private devotion: but, as he deemed the fervice of mankind the most acceptable worfhip of the gods, the greatest part of his morning hours was employed in council; where he difcuffed public af fairs, and determined private caufes, with a patience and difcretion above his years. The drynefs of business was enlivened by the charms of literature; and a portion of time was always fet apart for his favourite ftu

dies of poetry, hiftory, and philofophy. The works of Virgil and Horace, the republics of Plato and Cicero, formed his tafte, enlarged his understanding, and gave him the noblest ideas of man and of government. The exercifes of the body fucceeded to thofe of the mind; and Alexander, who was tall, active, and robust, surpaffed most of his equals in the gymnastic arts. Refreshed by the ufe of the bath, and a flight dinner, he refumed, with new vigour, the business of the day; and, till the hour of fupper, the principal meal of the Romans, he was attended by his fecretaries, with whom he read and anfwered the multitude of letters, memorials, and petitions, that must have been addreffed to the master of the greatest part of the world. His table was ferved with the most frugal fimplicity; and whenever he was at liberty to confult his own inclination, the company confifted of a few felect friends, men of learning and virtue. His drefs was plain and modest; his demeanour courteous and affable. At the proper hours, kis palace was open to all his fubjects: but the voice of a crier was heard, as in the Eleufinian mysteries, pronouncing the fame falutary admonition," Let none enter these holy walls, unless he is confcious of a pure and innocent mind."

XIV. Character of Julius Cæfar.

CASAR was endowed with every great and noble quality that could exalt human nature, and give a man the afcendant in fociety: formed to excel in peace as well as war, provident in counsel, fearless in action, and executing what he had refolved with an amazing celerity; generous beyond measure to his friends, placable to his enemies; and for parts, learning, eloquence, fcarce inferiour to any man. His orations were admired for two qualities, which are feldom found together, strength and elegance. Cicero ranks him among the greatest orators that Rome ever bred: and Quintilian fays, that he spoke with the fame force with which he fought; and if he had devoted himself to the bar, would have been the only man capable of rivalling Cicero. Nor was he a mafter only of the politer arts, but converfant allo with the most abstruse and critical parts of learning; and a

mong

mong other works which he published, addreffed two books to Cicero on the analogy of language, or the art of fpeaking and writing correctly. He was a most liberal patron of wit and learning, wherefoever they were found; and out of his love of thofe talents, would readily pardon those who had employed them against himfelf; rightly judging, that by making fuch men his friends, he fhould draw praises from the fame fountain from which he had been afperfed. His capital paffions. were ambition and love of pleafure; which he indulged in their turns to the greatest excefs: yet the first was always predominant; to which he could eafily facrifice all the charms of the fecond, and draw pleasure even from toils and dangers, when they miniftered to his glory. For he thought Tyranny, as Cicero fays, the greatest of goddeffes; and had frequently in his mouth a verfe of Euripides, which expreffed the image of his foul, That if right and juftice were ever to be violated, they were to be violated for the fake of reigning. This was the chief end and purpose of his life; the fcheme that he had formed from his early youth: fo that, as Cato truly declared of him, he came with fobriety and meditation to the fubverfion of the republic. He used to fay, that there were two things neceffary to acquire and to fupport power-foldiers and money; which yet depended mutually on each other: with money, therefore, he provided foldiers, and with foldiers extorted, money; and was, of all men, the most rapacious in plundering both friends and foes; sparing reither prince nor ftate, nor temple, nor even private perfons, who were known to poffefs any fhare of treasure. His great abilities would neceffarily have made him one of the first citizens of Rome; but, difdaining the condition of a fubject, he could never reft till he had made himself a monarch. In acting this laft part, his ufual prudence seemed to fail him; as if the height to which he was mounted had turned his head, and made him giddy: for, by a vain oftentation of his power, he destroyed the ftability of it; and, as men fhorten life by living too faft, fo, by an intemperance of reigning, he brought his reign to a violent end.

XV. On Mifpent Time.

WAS yefterday comparing the industry of man with that of other creatures; in which I could not but obferve, that, not withstanding we are obliged by duty to keep ourselves in conftant employ, after the fame manner as inferiour animals are prompted to it by instinct, we fall very fhort of them in this particular. We are here the more inexcufable, because there is a greater variety of bufinefs to which we may apply ourselves Reason opens to us a large field of affairs, which other creatures are not capable of. Beafts of prey, and, I believe, of all other kinds in their natural ftate of being, divide their time between action and reft. They are always at work or afleep. In fhort, their waking hours are wholly taken up in feeking after their food, or in confuming it. The human fpecies only, to the great reproach of our natures, are filled with complaints, that "the day hangs heavy on them," that "they do not know what to do with themselves," that "they are at a lofs how to pass away their time;" with many of the like fhameful murmurs, which we often find in the mouths of those who are styled reasonable beings. How monftrous are fuch expreffions among creatures who have the labours of the mind, as well as those of the body, to furnish them with proper employments; who, befides the bufinefs of their proper callings and profeffions, can apply themselves to the duties of religion, to meditation, to the reading of ufeful books, to difcourfe; in a word, who may exercise themfelves in the unbounded purfuits of knowledge and virtue, and every hour of their lives make themfelves wifer or better than they were before!

After having been taken up for fome time in this courfe of thought, I diverted my felf with a book, according to my ufual custom, in order to unbend my mind before I went to fleep. The book I made ufe of on this occafion was Lucian, where I amufed my thoughts for about an hour among the dialogues of the dead; which in all probability produced the following dream.

I was conveyed, methought, into the entrance of the infernal regions, where I faw Rhadamanthus, one of F

the

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