the cause of his unhappiness was within, that his own paffions were not fufficiently regulated, and that he was harraffed by his own impatience, which could never be without fomething to awaken it, would accompany him over the fea, and find its way to his American elyfium. He would, upon the tryal, have been foon convinced, that the fountain of content muft fpring up in the mind; and that he, who has fo little knowlege of human nature, as to feek happiness by changing any thing, but his own difpofitions, will wafte his life in fruitless efforts, and multiply the griefs which he purposes to remove. NUMB. 7. TUESDAY, April 10, 1750. O qui perpetuâ mundum ratione gubernas, Disjice terrena nebulas & pondera molis, BOETHIUS Thou whose pow'r o'er moving worlds prefides, With filent confidence and holy reft; From thee, great God, we fpring, to thee we tend, T HE love of RETIREMENT has, in all ages, adhered clofely to thofe minds, which have been moft enlarged by knowledge, or elevated by genius. Those who enjoyed every thing generally fuppofed to confer happinefs, have been forced to feek it in the fades of privacy. Though they poffefféd C 5 poffeffed both power and riches, and were, therefore, furrounded by men, who confidered it as their chief intereft to remove from them every thing that might offend their eafe, or interrupt their pleasure, they have foon felt the languors of fatiety, and found themselves unable to purfue the race of life without frequent refpirations of intermediate folitude. To produce this difpofition nothing appears requifite but quick fenfibility, and active imagination; for, though not devoted to virtue or science, the man, whofe faculties enable him to make ready comparisons of the prefent with the paft, will find fuch a conftant recurrence of the fame pleasures, and troubles, the fame expectations, and difappointments, that he will gladly fnatch an hour of retreat, to let his thoughts expatiate at large, and feek for that variety in. his own ideas, which the objects of fenfe cannot afford him. Nor will greatnefs, or abundance, exempt him from the importunities of this defire, fince, if he is born to think, he cannot reftrain himself from a thoufand enquiries and fpeculations, which he must purfue by his own reafon, and which the fplendour of his condition can only hinder; for those who are moft exalted above dependance or controul, are yet condemned to pay fo large a tribute of their time to custom, ceremony, and popularity, that, according to the Greek proverb, no man in the house is more a flave than the master. When a king afked Euclid the mathematician, whether he could not explain his art to him in a more compendious manner, he was answered, that there was no royal way to geometry. Other things may be feized by might, or purchafed with money, but knowledge is to be gained only by ftudy, and tudy to be profecuted only ip retirement. Thefe Thefe are fome of the motives which have had power to fequefter kings and heroes from the crouds that foothed them with flatteries, or infpirited them with acclamations; but their efficacy feems confined to the higher mind, and to operate little upon the common claffes of mankind, to whofe conceptions the prefent affemblage of things is adequate, and who seldom range beyond thofe entertainments and vexations, which folicit their attention by preffing on their senses. But there is an univerfal reafon for fome ftated intervals of folitude, which the inftitutions of the church call upon me, now especially, to mention'; a reafon, which extends as wide as moral duty, or the hopes of divine favour in a future ftate; and which ought to influence all ranks of life, and all degrees of intellect; fince none can imagine themfelves not comprehended in its obligation, but fuch as determine to set their Maker at defiance by obftinate wickedness, or whofe enthufiaftick fecurity of his approbation places them above external ordinances, and all human means of improvement. The great tafk of him, who conducts his life by the precepts of religion, is to make the future predominate over the prefent, to imprefs upon his mind fo ftrong a fenfe of the importance of obedience to the divine will, of the value of the reward promised to virtue, and the terrors of the punishment denounced againft crimes, as may overbear all the temptations which temporal hope or fear can bring in his way, and enable him to bid equal defiance to joy and forrow, to turn away at one time from the allurements of ambition, and push forward at another against the threats of calamity. It is not without reafon that the apoftle reprefents our paffage through this ftage of our exiftence by images drawn from the alarms and folicitude of a military life; for we are placed in fuch a state, that C 6 almoft almost every thing about us confpires against our chief intereft. We are in danger from whatever can get poffeffion of our thoughts; all that can excite in us either pain or pleasure has a tendency to obftruct the way that leads to happiness, and either to turn us afide, or retard our progrefs. Our fenfes, our appetites, and our paffions, are our lawful and faithful guides, in moft things that relate folely to this life; and, therefore, by the hourly neceffity of confulting them, we gradually fink into an implicit fubmiffion, and habitual confidence. Every act of compliance with their motions facilitates a fecond compliance, every new ftep towards depravity is made with less reluctance than the former, and thus the descent to life merely fenfual is perpetually accelerated. The fenfes have not only that advantage over confcience, which things neceffary must always have over things chofen, but they have likewise a kind of prefcription in their favour. We feared pain much earlier than we apprehended guilt, and were delighted with the fenfations of pleasure, before we had capacities to be charmed with the beauty of rectitude. To this power, thus early established, and inceffantly encreafing, it must be remembered, that almost every man has, in fome part of his life, added new strength by a voluntary or negligent fubjection of himself; for who is there that has not inftigated his appetites by indulgence, or fuffered them by an unrefifting neutrality to enlarge their dominion, and multiply their demands ? · From the neceffity of difpoffeffing the fenfitive faculties of the influence which they muft naturally gain by this preoccupation of the foul, arifes that conflict between oppofite defires, in the firft endeavours after a religious life; which, however enthufiically it may have been defcribed, or however mptuoufly ridiculed, will naturally be felt in fome fome degree, though varied without end, by different tempers of mind, and innumerable circumstances of health or condition, greater or lefs fervour, more or fewer temptations to relapfe. From the perpetual neceffity of confulting the animal faculties, in our provifion for the present life, arifes the difficulty of withstanding their impulfes, even in cases where they ought to be of no weight; for the motions of fenfe are inftantaneous, its objects ftrike unfought, we are accuftomed to follow its directions, and therefore often fubmit to the sentence without examining the authority of the judge. Thus it appears, upon a philofophical estimate, that, fuppofing the mind, at any certain time, in an equipoife between the pleasures of this life, and the hopes of futurity, prefent objects falling more frequently into the fcale would in time preponderate, and that our regard for an invifible state would grow every moment weaker, till at laft it would lofe all its activity, and become absolutely without effect. To prevent this dreadful event, the balance is put into our own hands, and we have power to transfer the weight to either fide. The motives to a life of holinefs are infinite, not less than the favour or anger of omnipotence, not lefs than eternity of happiness or mifery. But these can only influence our conduct as they gain our attention, which the business, or diverfions of the world are always calling off by contrary attractions. The great art therefore of piety, and the end for which all the rites of religion feem to be inftituted, is the perpetual renovation of the motives to virtue, by a voluntary employment of our mind in the contemplation of its excellence, its importance, and its neceffity, which, in proportion as they are more frequently and more willingly revolved, gain a more forcible |