wither, and the sheep hang their heads, without an or learning, genius or study. It is part of Claudian's character of his rustick, that he computes his time not by the succession of consuls, but of harvests. Thofe who pass their day* in retreats distant from the theatres of business, are always least likely to hurry their imagination with publick asfairs. The facility of treating actions or events in the pastoral style, has incited many writers, from whom more judgment might have been expected, to put the sorrow or the joy which the occasion required into the mouth of Daphne or of Thyrfis, and as one absurdity must naturally be expected to make way for another, they have written with an utter disregard both of lise and nature, and filled their productions with mythological allusions, with incredible fictions, and with sentiments which neither passion nor reason could have dictated, since the change which religion has made in the whole system of the world. Numb. 38. Saturday, July 28, 175c. Aurtam quifquis mcdiocritatem The man within the golden mean, A MONG many parallels which men of imagiii nation have drawn between the natural and moral state of the world, it has been observed that happiness, as well as virtue, consists in mediocrity; that to avoid every extreme is necessary, even to him who has no other care than to pass through the present state with ease and sasety; and that the middle path is the road of security, on either side of which are not only the pitsals of vice, but the precipices ot" ruin. Thus the maxim of Cleobulus the Lindian, ^Tfo, Mediocrity is best, has been long considered as an universal principle, extended through the whole compass of lise and nature. The experience of every age seems to have given it new confirmation, and to shew that nothing, however specious or alluring, is pursued with propriety, or enjoyed with sasety, beyond certain limits. R 3 Even Hor. FRANCIS, Even the gists of nature, which may truly be considered as the most solid and durable of all terrestrial advantages, are found, when they exceed the middle point, to draw the possessor into many calamities, easily avoided by others that have been less bountisully enriched or adorned. We see every day women perish with insamy, by having been too willing to set their beauty to shew, and others, though not with equal guilt or misery, yet with very iharp remorse, languishing in decay, neglect, and obscurity, for having rated their youthsul charms at too high a price. And, indeed, if the opinion of Bacon be thought to deserve much regard, very sew sighs would be vented for eminent and superlative elegance of form; "for beautisul women," says he, "are seldom of any great accomplishments, because "they, for the most part, study behaviour rather "than virtue." Health and vigour, and a happy constitution of the corporeal frame, are of absolute necessity to the enjoyment of the comforts, and to the performance of the duties of lise, and requisite in yet a greater measure to the accomplishment of any thing illustrious or distinguimed; yet even these, if we can judge by their apparent consequences, are sometimes not very benesicial to thofe on whom they are most liberally bestowed. They that frequent the chambers of the sick, will generally find the sharpest pains, and most stubborn maladies, among them whom considence of the force of nature formerly betrayed to negligence and irregularity; and that superfluity of strength, which was at once their boast and their snare, has often, in the latter part of lise, no no other esfect than that it continues them long in impotence and anguish. These gists of nature are, however, always blessings in themselves, and to be acknowledged with gratitude to him that gives them; since they are, in their regular and legitimate esfects, productive of happiness, and prove pernicious only by voluntary corruption, or idle negligence. And as there is little danger of pursuing them with too much ardour or anxiety, because no skill or diligence can hope to procure them, the uncertainty of their influence upon our lives is mentioned, not to depreciate their real value, but to repress the discontent and envy to which the want of them often gives occasion in thofe who do not enough suspect their own frailty, nor consider how much less is the calamity of not possessing great powers, than of not using them aright. Of all thofe things that make us superior to others, there is none so much within the reach of our endeavours as riches, nor any thing more eagerly or constantly desired. Poverty is an evil always in our view, an evil complicated with so many circumstances of uneasiness and vexation, that every man is studious to avoid it. Some degree of riches is . theresore required, that we may be exempt from the gripe of necessity; when this purpofe is once attained, we naturally wish for more, that the evil which is regarded with so much horror, may be yet at a greater distance from us; as he that has once selt or dreaded the paw of a favage, will not be at rest till they are parted by some barrier, which may take away all possibility of a second attack. R 4 To To this point, if sear be not unreasonably indulged, Cleobulus would, perhaps, not refuse to extend his mediocrity. But it almost always happens, that the man who grows rich, changes his notions of poverty, states his wants by some new measure, and from flying the enemy that pursued him, bends his endea^ vours to overtake thofe whom he sees before him, The power of gratifying his appetites encreases their demands; a thousand wishes crowd in upon him, importunate to be satisfied, and vanity and ambition open profpects to desire, which still grow wider, as they are more contemplated. Thus in time want is enlarged without bounds; an eagerness for increase of possessions deluges the foul, and we fink into the gulphs of insatiability, only because we do not sufficiently consider, that all real need is very soon supplied, and all real danger of its invasion easily precluded; that the claims of vanity, being without limits, must be denied at last; and that the pain of repressing them is less pungent before they have been long accustomed to compliance. Whofoever shall look needsully upon thofe who are eminent for their riches, will not think their condition such as that he should hazard his quiet, and much less his virtue, to obtain it. For all that great wealth generally gives above a moderate fortune, is more room for the freaks of caprice, and more privilege for ignorance and vice, a quicker succession of slatteries, and a larger circle of voluptuousness. There is one reason seldom remarked which makes riches less desirable. Too much wealth is very frequently the occasion of poverty. He whom the wantonness of abundance has once softened, , easily |