the time of such a man is always spent in formin°schemes, which a change of wind hinders him from executing, his powers sume away in projects and in hope, and the day of action never arrives. He lies down delighted with the thoughts of to-morrow, pleases his ambition with the fame he snaH acquire, or his benevolence with the good he shall conser. But in the night the skies are overcast, the temper of the air is changed, he wakes in languor, impatience, and distraction, and has no longer any wish but for ease, nor any ar.ention but to misery. It may be faid that disease generally begins that equality which death completes; the distinctions which set one man so much above another ape very little perceived in the gloom of a sick chamber, where it will be vain to expect entertainment from the gay, or instruction from the wise; where all human glory is obliterated, the wit is clouded, the reasoner perplexed, and the hero subdued .y where the highest and brightest of mortal beings finds nothing left him but the consciousness of innocence.

There is among the fragments of the Greek poets a short hymn to Health, in which her power of exalting the happiness of lise, of heightening the gists, of fortune, and adding enjoyment to possession, is inculcated with so much force and beauty, that no one, who has ever languished under the discomforts and infirmities of a lingering disease, can read it without seeling the images daAce in his heart, and adding from his own experience new vigour to the wish, and from his own imagination new colours to the picture. The particular occasion of this little compofition is not known, but it is probable that

X 3 the

the author had been sick, and in the first raptures of returning vigour addressed Health in the following manner:

'fyiaoc TTffirbiVa Mctxa'ti)!',

MfTCt <T$ lix'lCl;j.t

To XinrolAf.oi' (Sioraf

Si jUOl TS^O^p-SV ^UHOIX©* {">"£

'Et yds rn r, Uasts P Tex/k*,

Taf £.,<fa;|u.0K!f T avfl-idsrsi;

"ii £i' TiS «AAa 3"fo'6ii/ a;6;U.'7rctf T=£v}/j{,

Health, 7ni/l venerable of the powers of heaven! with thet may the remaining part of my life be passed, nor do thou refuse to lies', nu with thy residence. For zvhatever there is of beauty er of pleasure in Health, in descendants, or in fovereign command, the highc;i summit cs human enjoyment, or h. thofe obieels of desire which we endeavour to. chafe into the toils of love; whatever delight, :r v.'hatcver folace is granted by the celeJliaLst ta soften our fatigues, hi thy presence, thou parent of happiness all those jrys spread cut and sourish; in thy prefence blooms ti>* spring of pkdjure, aud withzut thee no man is happy.

Such is the power of health, that without its co-r operation every other comfort is torpid and liseless, as the powers of vegetation without the sun. And vet this bhss is commonly thrown away in thoughtless negligence, or in foolish experiments on our own strength; we let it perish without remembering its

value, value, or waste it to show how much we have to spare; it is sometimes given up to the management of levity and chance, and sometimes fold sor the applause of jollity and debauchery. 1 Projscere avirr.am! quam velhnt ttthere in alto

Health is equally neglected, and with equal impropriety, by the votaries of business and the followers of pleasure. Some men ruin the sabrick of their bodies by incessant revels, and others by in* temperate studies; some batter it by excess, and others sap it by inactivity. To the noisy route of bacchanalian rioters, it will be to little purpofe that advice !s offered, though it requires no great abilities to prove, that he lofes pleasure who lofes health; their clamours are too loud for the whispers of caution, and they run the course of lise with too much precipitance to stop at the call of wisdom. Nor perhaps will they that are busied in adding thousands to thousands, pay much regard to him that shall direct them to hasten more slowly to their wishes. Yet since lovers of money are generally cool, deliberate, and thoughtsul, they might surely consider, that the greater good ought not to be sacrificed to the less. Health is certainly more valuable than money, because it is by health that money is'procuredi but thousands and millions are of small avail to alleviate the protracted tortures os the gout, to repair the broken organs of sense, or resuscitate the powers of digestion. Poverty is, indeed, an evil from which we naturally fly; but let us not run from one enemy to another, nor take shelter in the arms of sickness.

Nunc Lf pauperitm, U duros tolp-qre labarcs!

For healthsul indigenes in vain they pray,

In quell of wealth who throw their lives away.

Thofe who lofe their health in an irregular ancj impetuous pursuit of literary accomplishments are yet Jess to be excused; for they ought to know that the body is not forced beyond }ts strength, but with, {he lofs of more vigour than is proportionate to the efsect produced. Whoever takes up lise beforehard, by depriving himself of reft and resreshment, must not only pay back the hours, but pay them back with usury; and sor the gain of a sew months, but half enjoyed, must give up years {0 the listlefsiiefs of languor, and the implacability of pain. They whofe endeavour is mental excellence, will learn perhaps too late, how much it is endangered by diseases of the body, and had that knowledge may easily be lost in the starts of melancholy, the, flights of impatience, and the peevishness of decre-j pitude.

Numb. 49. Tuesday, September4, 1750,

f!on cmnis moriar, mullaque pars mti

Vitabit Libitinam, usque ego fojiera

Cre/lam laude recent. Ho*.

'Whole Horace shall not die; his songs shall save

The greatest portion from th.e greedy grave. Creech,

THE sirst motives of human actions are those appetites which providence has given to man, in common with the rest of the inhabitants of the earth. Immediately aster our birth, thirst and hunger incline us to the breast, which we draw by instinct, like other young creatures, and when we are fatisfied, we express our uneasiness by importunate and incesfant cries, till we have obtained a place or posture proper for repqse.

The next call that rouses us from a state of in-. activity, is that of our passions; we quickly begin to be sensible of hope and sear, love and hatred, desire and aversion; these arising from the power of comparison and reflection, extend their range wider, as our reason strengthens, and our knowledge enlarges. At first we have no thought of pain, but when we actually seel it; we asterwards begin to sear it, yet not besore it approaches us. very nearly; but by degrees we discover it at a greater distance, and find it lurking in remote consequences. Qur terror in time improves into caution, and we learn to look, round with, vigilance and!

solicitude^