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happy for the fpace of only threefcore and ten years, nay, perhaps, of only twenty or ten years, I might fay, of only a day or an hour, and miferable to all eternity; or, on the contrary, miferable for this fhort term of years, and happy for a whole eternity; what words are fufficient to exprefs that folly and want of confideration which in fuch a cafe makes a wrong choice!

I here put the cafe, even at the worft, by fuppofing (what feldom happens) that a courfe of virtue makes us miferable in this life; but if we fuppofe (as it generally happens) that virtue will make us more happy, even in this life, than a contrary courfe of vice; how can we fufficiently admire the ftupidity or madness of thofe perfons who are capable of making fo ab. furd a choice!

Every wife man, therefore, will confider this life only as it may conduce to the happinefs of the other, and chearfully facrifice the pleasures of a few years to thofe of an eternity. Spectator.

§ 5. The Advantages of a good Education. I confider an human foul without education like marble in the quarry, which fhews none of its inherent beauties, until the skill of the polisher fetches out the colours, makes the furface fhine, and difcovers every ornamental cloud, spot, and vein, that runs through the body of it. Education, after the fame manner, when it works upon a noble mind, draws out to view every latent virtue and perfection, which, without fuch helps, are never able to make their appearance.

If my reader will give me leave to change the allufion fo foon upon him, I fhall make ufe of the fame inftance to illuftrate the force of education, which Ariftotle has brought to explain his doctrine of fubftantial forms, when he tells us that a ftatue lies hid in a block of marble; and that the art of the ftatuary only clears away the fuperfluous matter, and removes the rubbish. The figure is in the ftone, and the sculptor only finds it. What fculpture is to a block of marble, education is to an human foul. The philofopher, the faint, or the hero, the wife, the good, or the great man, very often lie hid and concealed in a plebeian, which a proper education might have dif-interred, and have brought to light. I am therefore much delighted with reading the accounts of favage nations, and with contemplating thofe

virtues which are wild and uncultivated; to fee courage exerting itself in fiercenefs, refolution in obftinacy, wifdom in cunning, patience in fullennefs and despair.

Men's paffions operate varioufly, and appear in different kinds of actions, according as they are more or less rectified and fwayed by reafon. When one hears of negroes, who upon the death of their mafters, or upon changing their fervice, hang themfelves upon the next tree, as it frequently happens in our American plantations, who can forbear admiring their fidelity, though it expreffes itself in fo dreadful a manner? What might not that favage greatnefs of foul, which appears in these poor wretches on many occafions, be raised to, were it rightly cultivated? And what colour of excufe can there be for the contempt with which we treat this part of our fpecies; that we fhould not put them upon the common foot of humanity; that we fhould only fet an infignificant fine upon the man who murders them; nay, that we should, as much as in us lies, cut them off from the profpects of happiness in another world, as well as in this, and deny them that which we look upon as the proper means for attaining it!

It is therefore an unspeakable bleffing to be born in those parts of the world where wifdom and knowledge flourish; though it must be confeffed, there are, even in these parts, feveral poor uninftructed perfons, who are but little above the inhabitants of thofe nations of which I have been here fpeaking; as thofe who have had the advantages of a more liberal education, rife above one another by several different degrees of perfection. For, to return to our statue in the block of marble, we fee it fometimes only begun to be chipped, fometimes rough-hewn, and but juft sketched into an human figure; fometimes we fee the man appearing distinctly in all his limbs and features; fometimes we find the figure wrought up to great elegancy; but feldom meet with any to which the hand of a Phidias or a Praxiteles could not give feveral nice touches and finishings. Spectator.

§ 6. The Disadvantages of a bad Educa

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lows the mind to indulge parental affection with greater intenfenefs. My birth was celebrated by the tenants with feafts, and dances, and bagpipes; congratulations were fent from every family within ten miles round; and my parents difcovered, in my first cries, fuch tokens of future virtue and understanding, that they declared themselves determined to devote the remaining part of life to my happiness and the encrease of their estate.

The abilities of my father and mother were not perceptibly unequal, and education had given neither much advantage over the other. They had both kept good company, rattled in chariots, glittered in playhouses, and danced at court, and were both expert in the games that were in their times called in as auxiliaries against the intrufion of thought.

When there is fuch a parity between two perfons affociated for life, the dejection which the husband, if he be not completely ftupid, must always fuffer for want of fuperiority, finks him to fubmiffivenefs. My mamma therefore governed the family without controul; and except that my father ftill retained fome authority in the fables, and now and then, after a fupernumerary bottle, broke a looking-glafs or china-dish to prove his fovereignty, the whole courfe of the year was regulated by her direction, the fervants received from her all their orders, and the tenants were continued or difmiffed at her difcretion.

She therefore thought herself entitled to the fuperintendance of her fon's education; and when my father, at the inftigation of the parfon, faintly propofed that I fhould be fent to school, very pofitively told him, that the would not fuffer a fine child to be ruined; that she never knew any boys at a grammar school, that could come into a room without blushing, or fit at the table without fome aukward uneafinefs; that they were always putting themfelves into danger by boisterous plays, or vitiating their behaviour with mean company; and that, for her part, fhe would rather follow me to the grave, than fee me tear my cloaths, and hang down my head, and freak about with dirty fhoes and blotted fingers, my hair unpowdered, and my hat uncocked.

My father, who had no other end in his propofal than to appear wife and manly, foon acquiefced, fince I was not to live by my learning; for indeed, he had known very few ftudents that had not fome stiff

nefs in their manner. They therefore agreed, that a domeftic tutor fhould be procured; and hired an honeft gentleman of mean converfation and narrow fentiments, but whom having pafled the common forms of literary education, they implicitly concluded qualified to teach all that was to be learned from a fcholar. He thought himself fufficiently exalted by being placed at the fame table with his pupil, and had no other view than to perpetuate his felicity by the utmost flexibility of fubmiffion to all my mother's opinions and caprices. He frequently took away my book, left I should mope with too much application, charged me never to write without turning up my ruffles, and generally brushed my coat before he dismissed me into the parlour.

He had no occafion to complain of too burthenfome an employment; for my mother very judiciously confidered, that I was not likely to grow politer in his company, and fuffered me not to pafs any more time in his apartment than my leffon required. When I was fummoned to my tafk, fhe enjoined me not to get any of my tutor's ways, who was feldom mentioned before me but for practices to be avoided. I was every moment admonished not to lean on my chair, crofs my legs, or fwing. my hands like my tutor; and once my mother very seriously deliberated upon his total difmiffion, because I began, the faid, to learn his manner of fticking on my hat, and had his bend in my shoulders, and his totter in my gait.

Such, however, was her care, that I efcaped all thefe depravities; and when I was only twelve years old, had rid myself of every appearance of childish diffidence. I was celebrated round the country for the petulance of my remarks, and the quicknefs of my replies; and many a fcholar five years older than myfelf, have I dashed into confufion by the steadiness of my countenance, filenced by my readiness of repartee, and tortured with envy by the addrefs with which I picked up a fan, prefented a fauff-box, or received an empty tea-cup.

At fourteen I was compleatly skilled in all the niceties of drefs, and I could not only enumerate all the variety of filks, and diftinguish the product of a French loom, but dart my eye through a

numerous company, and obferve every deviation from the reigning mode. I was univerfally skilful in all the changes of

expensive

expenfive finery; but as every one, they fay, has fomething to which he is particularly born, was eminently knowing in Bruffels lace.

The next year faw me advanced to the trust and power of adjusting the ceremonial of an affembly. All received their partners from my hand, and to me every ftranger applied for introduction. My heart now difdained the inftructions of a tutor; who was rewarded with a fmall annuity for life, and left me qualified, in my own opinion, to govern myself.

In a fhort time I came to London, and as my father was well known among the higher claffes of life, foon obtained admillion to the most fplendid affemblies, and moft crowded card-tables. Here I found myfelf univerfally carefed and applauded; the ladies praifed the fancy of my clothes, the beauty of my form, and the foftnefs of my voice; endeavoured in every place to force themselves to my notice; and invited, by a thousand oblique folicitations, my attendance to the playhoufe, and my falutations in the Park. I was now happy to the utmost extent of my conception; I paffed every morning in drefs, every afternoon in vifits, and every night in fome felect affemblies, where neither care nor knowledge were fuffered to moleft us,

of men.

After a few years, however, thefe delights became familiar, and I had leisure to look round me with more attention. I then found that my flatterers had very little power to relieve the languor of fatiety, or recreate wearinefs, by varied amufement; and therefore endeavoured to enlarge the fphere of my pleafures, and to try what fatisfaction might be found in the fociety I will not deny the mortification with which I perceived that every man whofe name I had heard mentioned with refpect, received me with a kind of tendernefs nearly bordering on compaflion; and that those whofe reputation was not well established, thought it neceffary to juftify their understandings, by treating me with contempt. One of thefe witlings elevated his creft, by afking me in a full coffeehouse the price of patches; and another whispered, that he wondered Mifs Frifk did not keep me that afternoon to watch her fquirrel.

When I found myfelf thus hunted from all mafculine converfation by thofe who were themselves barely admitted, I returned to the ladies, and refolved to dedicate

my life to their fervice and their pleasure. But I find that I have now loft my charms. Of thofe with whom I entered the gay world, fome are married, fome have retired, and fome have fo much changed their opinion, that they fcarcely pay any regard to my civilities, if there is any other man in the place. The new flight of beau ties, to whom I have made my addreffes, fuffer me to pay the treat, and then titter with boys. So that I now find myself welcome only to a few grave ladies, who, unacquainted with all that gives either ufe or dignity to life, are content to pafs their hours between their bed and their cards, without efteem from the old, or reverence from the young.

I cannot but think, Mr. Rambler, that I have reafon to complain; for furely the females ought to pay fome regard to the age of him whofe youth was pafied in endeavours to please them, They that encourage folly in the boy, have no right to punif it in the man. Yet I find, that though they lavish their first fondness upon pertnefs and gaiety, they foon transfer their regard to other qualities, and ungratefully abandon their adrers to dream out their last years in vity and contempt.

Im, &c. Florentulus.
Rambler.

§ 7. Omnijcience and V niprefence of the Deity, together the immenfity of his Works.

I was yesterday, about fun-fet, walking in the open fields, till the night infenfibly fell upon me. I at firft amufed myself with all the richness and variety of colours which appeared in the western parts of heaven: in proportion as they faded away and went out, feveral ftars and planets appeared one after another, till the whole firmament was in a glow, The bluenefs of the æther was exceedingly heightened and enlivened by the feafon of the year, and the rays of all thofe luminaries that paffed through it. The galaxy appeared in its most beautiful white. To complete the fcene, the full moon rofe at length in that clouded majefly which Milton takes notice of, and opened to the eye a new picture of nature, which was more finely fhaded, and difpofed among fofter lights, than that which the fun had before difcovered to us.

As I was furveying the moon walking in her brightnefs, and taking her progrefs among the constellations, a thought arose

in me which I believe very often perplexes and disturbs men of ferious and contemplative natures. David himself fell into it in that reflexion, When I confider the heavens the work of thy fingers, the moon and the flars which thou haft ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the fon of man that thou regardeft him!' In the fame manner, when I confidered that infinite hoft of itars, or, to speak more philofophically, of funs, which were then fhining upon me with thofe innumerable fets of planets or worlds, which were moving round their refpective funs; when I fill enlarged the idea, and ppofed another heaven of funs and worlds ring till above this which we discovered, and thefe ftill enlightened by a fuperior frmament of luminaries, which are planted at so great a diflance, that they may appear to the inhabitants of the former as the flars do to us; in fhort, while I purLed this thought, I could not but reflect on that little infignificant figure which I mylef bore amidit the immenfity of God's

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Were the fun, which enlightens this part of the creation, with all the hoft of planetary worlds that move about him, uttely extinguifhed and annihilated, they world not be miffed, more than a grain of fand upon the fea-thore. The pace they porels is fo exceedingly little in comparilon of the whole, it would fcarce make a blank in the creation. The chafin would be imperceptible to an eye, that could take in the whole compafs of nature, and pafs from one end of the creation to the cher: as it is poffible there may be fuch a fenfe in ourfelves hereafter, or in creatures which are at prefent more exalted than carfelves. We fee many ftars by the help of glaffes, which we do not discover with car naked eyes; and the finer our telescopes are, the more ftill are our difcoveries. Haygenius carries this thought fo far, that he does not think it impoflible there may be fars whofe light is not yet travelled down to us fince their first creation. There is no queflion but the universe has certain bounds fet to it; but when we confider that it is the work of infinite power, prompted by infinite goodnefs, with an infinite fpace to exert itself in, how can our imagination fet any bounds to it?

To return, therefore, to my first thought, I could not but look upon inyfelf with fecret herrer, as a being that was not worth the fmallest regard of one who had fo great a work under his care and fuperinten

dency. I was afraid of being overlooked amidit the immensity of nature, and lost among that infinite variety of creatures, which in all probability fwarm through all thefe immeafurable regions of matter.

In order to recover myself from this mortifying thought, I confidered that it took its rife from thofe narrow conceptions, which we are apt to entertain of the divine nature. We ourselves cannot attend to many different objects at the fame time, If we are careful to infpect fome things, we muft of courfe neglect others. This imperfection which we obferve in ourfelves, is an imperfection that cleaves in fome degree to Creatures of the highest capacities, as they are creatures, that is, beings of finite and limited natures. The prefence of every created being is confined to a certain measure of space, and confequently his obfervation is ftinted to a certain number of objects. The sphere in which we move, and act, and understand, is of a wider circumference to one creature than another, according as we rife one above another in the icale of existence. But the wideft of these our fspheres has its circumference. When therefore we reflect on the divine nature, we are fo used and accustomed to this imperfection in ourfelves, that we cannot forbear in fome meafure afcribing it to him in whom there is no fhadow of imperfection. Our reafon indeed affures us, that his attributes are infinite: but the poornefs of our conceptions is fuch, that it cannot forbear fetting bounds to every thing it contemplates, till our reafon comes again to our fuccour, and throws down all thole little prejudices which rife in us unawares, and are natural to the mind of man.

We fhall therefore utterly extinguish this melancholy thought, of our being overlooked by our Maker in the multiplicity of his works, and the infinity of thofe objects among which he feems to be inceffantly employed, if we confider, in the first place, that he is omniprefent; and in the fecond, that he is omnifcient.

If we confider him in his omniprefence: his being paffes through, actuates, and fupports the whole frame of nature. His creation, and every part of it, is full of him. There is nothing he has made, that is either fo diftant, fo little, or fo inconfiderable, which he does not effentially inhabit. His fubftance is within the fubftance of every being, whether material or immaterial, and as intimately prefent to it, as that being is to itfelf. It would be an imper

fuction

fection in him, were he able to move out of one place into another, or to draw himfelf from any thing he has created, or from any part of that space which he diffused and spread abroad to infinity. In fhort, to fpeak of him in the language of the old philofophers, he is a being whofe centre is every where, and his circumference no where.

In the fecond place, he is omnifcient as well as omniprefent. His omniscience indeed neceffarily and naturally flows from his omniprefence. He cannot but be confcious of every motion that arifes in the whole material world, which he thus effentially pervades; and of every thought that is ftirring in the intellectual world, to every part of which he is thus intimately united. Several moralifts have confidered the creation as the temple of God, which he has built with his own hands, and which is filled with his prefence. Others have confidered infinite fpace as the receptacle, or rather the habitation of the Almighty: but the nobleft and most exalted way of confidering this infinite space, is that of Sir Ifaac Newton, who calls it the fenforium of the Godhead. Brutes and men have their fenforiola, or little fenforiums, by which they apprehend the prefence and perceive the actions of a few objects, that lie contiguous to them. Their knowledge and obfervation turn within a very narrow circle. But as God Almighty cannot but perceive and know every thing in which he refides, infinite space gives room to infinite knowledge, and is, as it were, an organ to omnifci

ence.

Were the foul feparate from the body, and with one glance of thought fhould ftart beyond the bounds of the creation, fhould it for millions of years continue its progress through infinite space with the fame activity, it would ftill find itself within the embrace of its Creator, and encompaffed round with the immenfity of the Godhead. While we are in the body he is not lefs prefent with us, because he is concealed from us. Oh that I knew where I might find him! (fays Job.) Behold I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: on the left hand, where he does work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himfelf on the right hand that I cannot fee him.' In fhort, reafon as well as revelation, affures us, that he cannot be abfent from us, notwithstanding he is undiscovered by us.

In this confideration of God Almighty's omniprefence and omniscience, every uncomfortable thought vanishes. He cannot but regard every thing that has being, efpecially fuch of his creatures who fear they are not regarded by him. He is privy to all their thoughts, and to that anxiety of heart in particular, which is apt to trouble them on this occafion; for, as it is impoffi ble he should overlook any of his creatures; fo we may be confident that he re◄ gards, with an eye of mercy, those who endeavour to recommend themselves to his notice, and in unfeigned humility of heart think themselves unworthy that he fhould be mindful of them. Spectator.

$8. Motives to Piety and Virtue, drawn from the Omnifcience and Omnipresence of the Deity.

In one of your late papers, you had occafion to confider the ubiquity of the Godhead, and at the fame time to fhew, that as he is prefent to every thing, he cannot but be attentive to every thing, and privy to all the modes and parts of its existence: or, in other words, that his omniscience and omniprefence are co-exiftent, and run together through the whole infinitude of pace. This confideration might furnish us with many incentives to devotion, and motives to morality; but as this fubject has been handled by feveral excellent writers, I fhall confider it in a light in which I have not feen it placed by others.

First, How difconfolate is the condition of an intellectual being who is thus prefent with his Maker, but at the fame time receives no extraordinary benefit or advantage from this his prefence!

Secondly, How deplorable is the condition of an intellectual being, who feels no other effects from this his prefence, but fuch as proceed from divine wrath and indignation!

Thirdly, How happy is the condition of that intellectual being, who is fenfible of his Maker's prefence from the fecret effects of his mercy and loving -kindnefs!

First, How difconfolate is the condition of an intellectual being, who is thus prefent with his Maker, but at the fame time receives no extraordinary benefit or advantage from this his prefence! Every par ticle of matter is actuated by this Almighty Being which paffes through it. The hea vens and the earth, the itars and planets, move and gravitate by virtue of this great

principle

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