way, loitering below, as either asraid of the labour, or doubtsul of the reward.

It has been long the custom of the oriental monarchs to hide themselves in gardens and palaces, to avoid the conversation of mankind, and to be known to their subjects only by their edicts. The same policy is no less necessary to him that writes, than to him that governs; for men would not more patiently submit to be taught, than commanded, by one known to have the same follies and weaknesses with themselves. A sudden intruder into the clofet of an author would perhaps seel equal indignation with the officer, who having long solicited admission into the presence of Sardanapalus, saw him not consulting upon laws, enquiring into grievances, or modelling armies, but employed in seminine amusements, and directing the ladies in their work.

It is not difficult to conceive, however, that for many reasons a man writes much better than he lives. For without entering into refined speculations, it may be shewn much easier to design than to perform. A man propofes his schemes of lise in a state of abstraction and disengagement, exempt from the enticements of hope, the solicitations of affection, the importunities of appetite, or the depressions of sear, and is in the same state with him that teaches upon land the art of navigation, to whom the sea is always smooth, and the wind always profperous.

The mathematicians are well acquainted with the difference between pure science, which has to do only with ideas, and the application of its laws

to ?o the use of lise, in which they are constrained to submit to the impersection of matter and the influence of accidents. Thus, in moral discussions, it is, to be remembered that many impediments obstruct, our practice, which very easily give way to theory. The speculatist is only in danger of erroneous reasoning, but the man involved in lise has his own passions, and thofe of others, to encounter, and is embarrassed with a thousand inconveniencies, which consound him with variety of impulse, and either perplex or obstruct his way. He is forced to act without deliberation, and obliged to chuse before he can examine; he is surprised by sudden alterations of the state of things, and changes his measures according to superficial appearances; he is led by others, either because he is indolent, or because he is timorous; he is sometimes asraid to know what is right, and sometimes finds friends or enemies diligent to deceive him.

We are, therefore, not to wonder that most sail, amidst tumult, and snares, and danger, in the observance of thofe precepts, which they lay down in solitude, sasety, and tranquillity, with a mind unbiassed, and with liberty unobstructed. It is the condition of our present state to see more than we can attain; the exactest vigilance and caution can never maintain a single day of unmingled innocence, much less can the utmost efforts of incorporated mind reach the summits of speculative virtue.

It is, however, necessary for the idea of persection to be propofed, that we may have fume object to which our endeavours are to be directed; and he that is most deficient in the duties of lise, makes

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some atonement for his faults, is he warns others against his own failings, and hinders, by the falubrity of his admonitions, the contagion of his example.

Nothing is more unjust, however common^ than to charge with hypocrisy him that expresses zeal for thofe virtues which he neglects to practise i since he may be sincerely convinced of the advantages of conquering his passions, without having yet obtained the victory, as a man may be confident of the advantages of a voyage, or a journey, without having courage or industry to undertake it, and may honestly recommend to others, those attempts which he neglects himself.

The interest which the corrupt part of mankind have in hardening themselves against every motive to amendment, has disposed them to give to these contradictions, when they can be produced against the cause of virtue, that weight which they will not allow them in any other case. They see men act in opposition to their interest, without supposing, that they do not know it; thofe who give way to the sudden violence of passion, and forfake the most important pursuits for petty pleasures, are not supposed to have changed their opinions, or to apT prove their own conduct. In moral or religious, questions alone they determine the sentiments by the actions, k and charge every man with endea.» vouring to impose-upon the world, whose writings are not confirmed by his lise. They never consider that themselves neglect or practise something every day, inconsistently with their own settled judgment, nor discover that the conduct of the

advocates advocates for virtue can little increase, or lessen, the obligations of their dictates; argument is to be invalidated only by argument, and is in itself of the fame force, whether or not it convinces him by -whom it is propofed.

Yet since this prejudice, however unreasonable, is always likely to have some prevalence, it is the duty of every man to take care lest he should hinder the esficacy of his own instructions. When he desires to gain the belies of others, he should shew that he believes himself; and when he teaches the sitness of virtue by his reasonings, he should, by his example, prove its possibility: Thus much at least may be required of him, that he shall not act worse than others because he writes better, nor imagine that, by the merit of his genius, he may claim indulgence beyond mortals of the lower daises, and be excused for want of prudence, or neglect of virtue.

Bacon, in his history of the winds, aster having osfered something to the imagination as desirable, often propofes lower advantages in its place to the reason as attainable. The fame method may be sometimes pursued in moral endeavours, which this philosopher has observed in natural enquiries; having first set pofitive and absolute excellence before us, we may be pardoned though we sink down to humbler virtue, trying, however, to keep our point always in view, and struggling noj to lofe ground, though we cannot gain it.

It is recorded of Sir Matthew Hale, that he, for a long time, concealed the consecration of himself to the stricter duties of religion, lest, by some flagitious and ihamcsul action, he should bring piety

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into disgrace. For the fame reason it may be prudent for a writer, who apprehends that he shall not insorce his own maxims by his domestick character, to conceal his name, that he may not injure them.

There are, indeed, a great number whofe curiosity to gain a more familiar knowledge of successful writers, is not so much prompted by an opinion of their power to improve as to delight, and who expect from them not arguments against vice, or dissertations on temperance or justice, but flights of wit, and fallies of pleafantry, or, at least, acute remarks, nice distinctions, justness of sentiment, and elegance of diction.

This expectation is, indeed, specious and probable, and yet, such is the fate of all human hopes, that it is very often frustrated, and thofe who raise admiration by -their books, disgust by their company. A man of letters for the most part spends, in the privacies of study, that season of lise in which the manners are to be softened into ease, and polished into elegance; and, when he has gained knowledge enough to be respected, has neglected the minuter acts by which he might have pleased. When he enters lise, is his temper be soft and timorous, he is disfident and bashsul, from the knowledge of his desects} or is he was born with spirit and resolution, he is ferocious and arrogant, from the consciousness of his merit: he is either dissipated by the awe of company, and unable to recollect his reading, and arrange his arguments; or he is hot and dogmatical, quick in oppofition, and tenacious in desence, difabled by his own violence, and consused by his haste to triumph.

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