itself too strongly in the mind to be driven out, and which, perhaps, had not loft its power, even over thofe who declaimed againft it, but would have broken out in the poet or the fage, if it had been excited by opportunity, and invigorated by the approximation of its proper object.

Their arguments have been, indeed, fo unfuccessful, that I know not whether it can be shown, that by all the wit and reason which this favourite caufe has called forth, a fingle convert was ever made; that even one man has refused to be rich, when to be rich was in his power, from the conviction of the greater happiness of a narrow fortune; or difburthened himself of wealth, when he had tried its inquietudes, merely to enjoy the peace and leisure and fecurity of a mean and unenvied ftate.

It is true, indeed, that many have neglected opportunities of raifing themselves to honours and to wealth, and rejected the kindeft offers of fortune: But, however their moderation may be boafted by themselves, or admired by fuch as only view them at a distance, it will be, perhaps, seldom found that they value riches lefs, but that they dread labour or danger more than others; they are unable to roufe themselves to action, to strain in the race of competition, or to ftand the shock of conteft; but though they, therefore, decline the toil of climbing, they nevertheless with themselves aloft, and would willingly enjoy what they dare not seize.

Others have retired from high stations, and voluntarily condemned themselves to privacy and obfcurity. But even these will not afford many occafions of triumph to the philofopher; for they

have commonly either quitted that only which they thought themselves unable to hold, and prevented difgrace by refignation; or they have been induced to try new measures by general inconftancy, which always dreams of happiness in novelty, or by a gloomy difpofition, which is disgusted in the fame degree with every state, and wishes every scene of life to change as foon as it is beheld. Such men found high and low ftations equally unable to fatisfy the wifhes of a diftempered mind, and were unable to shelter themselves in the closest retreat from difappointment, folicitude, and misery.

Yet though thefe admonitions have been thus neglected by thofe, who either enjoyed riches, or were able to procure them, it is not rafhly to be determined that they are altogether without use; for fince far the greatest part of mankind must be confined to conditions comparatively mean, and placed in fituations, from which they naturally look up with envy to the eminences before them, thofe writers cannot be thought ill employed that have administered remedies to difcontent almost univerfal, by showing, that what we cannot reach may very well be forborne, that the inequalityof diftribution, at which we murmur, is for the most part less than it seems, and that the greatness, which we admire at a distance, has much fewer advantages, and much less fplendour, when we are suffered to approach it.

It is the business of moralifts to detect the frauds of fortune, and to fhow that the impofes upon. the carelefs eye, by a quick fucceffion of fhadows, which will fhrink to nothing in the gripe; that the difguifes life in extrinfick ornaments, which ferve

only for fhow, and are laid afide in the hours of folitude and of pleasure; and that when greatness afpires either to felicity or to wifdom, it shakes off thofe diftinctions which dazzle the gazer and awe

the fupplicant.

It may be remarked, that they whofe condition has not afforded them the light of moral or religious inftruction, and who collect all their ideas by their own eyes, and digeft them by their own underftandings, feem to confider thofe who are placed in ranks of remote fuperiority, as almoft another and higher fpecies of beings. As themselves have known little other mifery than the confequences of want, they are with difficulty perfuaded that where there is wealth there can be forrow, or that those who glitter in dignity, and glide along in affluence, can be acquainted with pains and cares like thofe which lie heavy upon the rest of mankind.

This prejudice is, indeed, confined to the lowest meannefs and the darkeft ignorance; but it is fo confined only because others have been fhewn its folly and its falfehood, because it has been oppofed in its progrefs by history and philofophy, and hindered from fpreading its infection by powerful prefervatives.

The doctrine of the contempt of wealth, though it has not been able to extinguifh avarice or ambition, or fupprefs that reluctance with which a man paffes his days in a state of inferiority, muft, at least, have made the lower conditions lefs grating and wearifome, and has confequently contributed to the general fecurity of life, by hindering that fraud and violence, rapine and circumvention, which must have been produced by an unbounded eagerness

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eagerness of wealth, arifing from an unshaken conviction, that to be rich is to be happy.

Whoever finds himself incited, by fome violent impulse of paffion, to purfue riches as the chief end of being, muft furely be fo much alarmed by the fucceffive admonitions of thofe, whofe experience and fagacity have recommended them as the guidesof mankind, as to ftop and confider whether he is about to engage in an undertaking that will reward his toil, and to examine, before he rushes to wealth, through right and wrong, what it will confer when he has acquired it; and this examination will feldom fail to repress his ardour and retard his violence.

Wealth is nothing in itfelf, it is not ufeful but when it departs from us; its value is found only in that which it can purchafe, which, if we fuppofe it put to its beft ufe by thofe that poffefs it, feems not much to deferve the defire or envy of a wise man. It is certain that, with regard to corporal enjoyment, money can neither open new avenues to pleasure, nor block up the paffages of anguish. Disease and infirmity ftill continue to torture and enfeeble, perhaps exasperated by luxury, or promoted by foftness. With refpect to the mind, it has rarely been obferved, that wealth contributes much to quicken the difcernment, enlarge the capacity, or elevate the imagination; but may, by. hiring flattery, or laying diligence afleep, confirm error and harden ftupidity.

2

Wealth cannot confer greatnefs, for nothing can make that great, which the decree of nature has ordained to be little. The bramble may be placed in a hot-bed, but can never become an oak. Even Loyalty itself is not able to give that dignity which

it happens not to find, but oppreffes feeble minds, though it may elevate the ftrong. The world has been governed in the name of kings, whofe exiftence has fcarcely been perceived by any real effects beyond their own palaces.

When therefore the defire of wealth is taking hold of the heart, let us look round and fee how it operates upon those whofe induftry or fortune has obtained it. When we find them oppreffed with their own abundance, luxurious without pleasure, idle without eafe, impatient and querulous in themfelves, and defpifed or hated by the reft of mankind, we fhall foon be convinced that if the real wants of our condition are fatisfied, there remains little to be fought with folicitude, or defired with eagerness.

NUMB. 59. TUESDAY, October 9, 1750.

Eft aliquid fatale malum per verba levare,

Hoc querulum Halcyonenque Prognen facit :
Hoc erat in folo quare Peantias antro

Vox fatigaret Lemnia faxa fua.
Strangulat inclufus dolor atque exæftuat intus,
Cogitur et vires multiplicare fuas.

Complaining oft, gives refpite to our grief;
From hence the wretched Progne fought relief,
Hence the Paartian chief his fate deplores,
And vents his forrow to the Lemnian fhores :

In vain by fecrecy we wou'd affuage

Our cares; conceal'd they gather tenfold rage.

OVID

F. Lewis.

IT is common to diftinguifh men by the names of animals which they are supposed to refemble. Thus a hero is frequently termed a lion,

and