The-cure for the greatest part of human miseries is not radical, but palliative. Inselicity is involved in corporeal nature, and interwoven with our being; all attempts therefore to decline it wholly are useless and vain: the armies of pain send their arrows against us on every side, the choice is only between thofe which are more or less sharp, or tinged with poison of greater or less malignity; and the strongest armour which reason can supply, will only blunt their points, but cannot repel them.

The great remedy which heaven has put in our hands is patience, by which, though we cannot lessen the torments of the body, we can in a great measure preserve the peace of the mind, and shall suffer only the natural and genuine force of art evil, without heightening its acrimony, or prolonging its effects.

There is indeed nothing more unsuitable to the nature of man in any calamity than rage and turbulence, which, without examining whether they are not sometimes impious, are at least always of- • sensive, and incline others rather to hate and despise than to pity and assist us. If what we suffer has bren brought upon us by ourselves, it is observed by an ancient poet, that patience is eminently our duty, since no one should be angry at seeling that which he has deserved.

Leniter ex meriti qu'uquld patlart ftrendum eft.
Let pain deserv'd without complaint be borne.

And surely, if we are conscious that we have not contributed to our own sufferings, if punishment salls upon innocence, or disappointment happens to Vol. V. P industry industry and prudence, patience, whether more necessary or not, is much easier, since our pain is then without aggravation, and we have not the bitterness of remorse to add to the asperity of misfortune.

In thofe evils which are allotted to us by providence, such as deformity, privation of any of the senses, or old age, it is always to be remembered, that impatience can have no present effect, but to deprive us of the consolations which our condition admits, by driving away from us thofe by whofe conversation or advice we might be amused or helped -T and that with regard to suturity it is yet less to be justified, since, without lessening the pain, it cutsoff the hope of that reward, which he by whom it is inflicted will conser upon them that bear it well.

In all evils which admit a remedy, impatience is to be avoided, because it wastes that time and attention in complaints, that, if properly applied, might remove the cause. Turenne, among the acknowledgments which he used to pay in conversation to the memory of thole by whom he had been instructed in the art of war, mentioned one with honour, who taught him not to spend his time in regretting any mistake which he had made, but to set himself immediately and vigorously to repair it.

Patience and submission are very caresully to be distinguished from cowardice and indolence. We are not to repine, but we may lawsully struggle; for the calamities of lise, like the necessities of nature, are calls to labour and exercises of diligence. When we seel any pressure of distress, we are not to conclude that we can only obey the will of heaven by languilhing under it, any more than when we

perceive , perceive the pain of third, we are to imagine that water is prohibited. Of misfortune it never can be certainly k,nown whether, as proceeding from the hand of God, it is an act of savour, or of punishment: but since all the ordinary dispensations of providence are to be interpreted according to the general analogy of things, we may conclude that we have a right to remove one inconvenience as well as another; that we are only to take care lest we purchase ease with guilt; and that our Maker's purpofe, whether of reward or severity, will be answered by the labours which he lays us under the necessity of performing.

This duty is not more difficult in any state than in diseases intensely painsul, which may indeed sufser such exacerbations as seem to strain the powers of lise to their utmost stretch, and leave very little of the attention vacant to precept or reproof. In this state the nature of man requires some indulgence, and every extravagance but impiety may be easily forgiven him. Yet, lest we should think ourselves too soon entitled to the mournsul privileges of irresistible misery, it is proper to reflect, that the utmost anguish which human wit can contrive or human malice can inflict, has been borne with constancy ; and that if the pains of disease be, as I believe they are, sometimes greater than thoseof artificial torture, they are therefore in their own nature shorter, the vital frame is quickly broken, or the union between soul and body is for a time suspended by insensibility, and we soon cease to seel our maladies when they once become too violent to be borne. I

P 2 think think there is some reason for questioning whether the body and mind are not so proportioned, that the one can bear all that can be inflicted on the other, whether virtue cannot stand its ground as long as lise, and whether a soul well principled will not be separated, sooner than subdued.

In calamities which operate chiefly on Out passions, such as diminution of fortune, lofs of friends, or declension of character, the chief danger of impatience is upon the first attack, and many expedients have been contrived, by which the blow may be broken. Of these the most general precept is, not to take pleasure in any thing, of which it is not in our power to secure the possession to ourselves. This counsel, when we consider the enjoyment of any terrestrial advantage, as opposite to a constant and habitual solicitude for suture selicity, is undoubtedly just, and delivered by that authority which cannot be disputed; but in any other sense, is it not like advice, not to walk lest we should stumble, or not to see lest our eyes should light upon deformity? It seems to me reasonable to enjoy blessings with confidence as well as to resign them with submission, and to hope for the continuance of good which we posseis without insolence or voluptuousness, as for the restitution of that which we lose withoBt despondency or murmurs.

The chief security against the fruitless anguish of impatience, must arise from frequent reflection on the wisdom and goodness of the God of nature, in whose hands are riches and poverty, honour and disgrace, pleasure and pain, and lise and death. A

settled

settled conviction of the tendency of every thing to our gqod, and of the possibility of turning miseries into happiness, by receiving them rightly, will incline us to bless the name os the Lord, whether he gives or takes aivay.

Numb. 3$. Tuesday, July 10, 1750.

£>uod caret alterna requic durabile non tft. OviD.

Alternate rest and labour long endure..

IN the early ages of the world, as is well known to thofe who ar<f versed in ancient traditions, when innocence was yet untainted, and simplicity, unadulterated, mankind was happy in the enjoymenc of continual pjeasiire, and constant plenty, under, the protection of Rest; a gentle divinity, who required of her worshippers neither altars nor facrifices, and whofe rites were only persormed by prostrations upon turss of flowers in Ihades of jasmine and myrtle, or by dances on the banks of rivers flowing with milk and nectar.

Under this easy government the first generations breathed the fragrance of perpetual spring, eat the fruits, which, without culture, sell ripe into their hands, and flept under bowers arched by nature, with the birds singing over their heads, and the beasts sporting about them. But by degrees they began to lofe their original integrity; each, though {here was more than enough for all, was desirous of

P 3 appro