Page images
PDF
EPUB

vide for all cafes, it is better private men fhould have fome injuftice done them, than that a public grievance fhould not be redreffed. This is ufually pleaded in defence of all those hardships which fall on particular perfons in particular occafions, which could not be forefeen when a law was made. То remedy this, however, as much as poffible, the Court of Chancery was erected, which frequently mitigates, and breaks the teeth of the common law, in cafes of men's properties, while in criminal cafes there is a power of pardoning ftill lodged in the Crown.

Notwithstanding this, it is perhaps impoffible, in a large government, to diftribute rewards and punishments ftrictly proportioned to the merits of every action. The Spartan commonwealth was indeed wonderfully exact in this particular; and I do not remember in all my reading to have met with fo nice an example of juftice as that recorded by Plutarch, with which I fhall clofe my paper for this day.

The city of Sparta being unexpectedly attacked by a powerful army of Thebans, was in very great danger of falling into the hands of their enemies. The citizens, fuddenly gathering themselves into a body, fought with a refolution equal to the neceffity of their affairs; yet no one fo remarkably diftinguished himself on this occafion, to the amazement of both armies, as Ifadas the fon of Phobidas, who was at that time in the bloom of his youth, and very remarkable for the comelinefs of his perfon. He was coming out of the bath when the alarm was given, fo that he had not time to put on his clothes, much less his armour; however, transported with a defire to serve his country in fo great an exigency, fnatching up a fpear in one hand and a fword in the other, he flung himself into the thickest ranks of his enemies. Nothing could withstand his fury: in what part foever he fought, he put the enemies to flight without receiving a fingle wound. Whether, fays Plutarch,

Plutarch, he was the particular care of fome god, who rewarded his valour that day with an extraordinary protection, or that his enemies ftruck with the unufualnefs of his drefs, and beauty of his thape, fuppofed him something more than man, I shall not determine.

The gallantry of this action was judged fo great by the Spartans, that the Ephori, or chief magiftrates, decreed he thould be presented with a garland; but, as foon as they had done fo, they fined him in a thousand drachmas for going out to the battle unarmed.

[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors]

-Deum namque ire per omnes

Terrafque, tractufque maris, cælumque profundum.

VIRG. Georg. iv. ver. 221.

For God the whole created mafs infpires;

Thro' heav'n, and earth, and ocean's depths he

throws

His influence round, and kindles as he goes.

DRYDEN.

I Was yesterday about fun-fet walking in the open

I

fields, until the night infenfibly fell upon me. at first 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, several stars and planets appeared one after another, until the whole firmament was in a glow. The bluenefs of the ather was exceedingly heightened and enlivened by the feafon of the year, and by 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

rofe at length in that clouded majesty 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, brightness, and taking her progreis among the con ftellations, a thought rofe in me, which I believe very often perplexes and disturbs men of serious and contemplative natures. David himself fell into it in that reflection: When I confider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hafi ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou regardest him? In the fame manner, when I confidered that infinite hoft of ftars, or, to speak more philofophically, of funs, which were then shining upon me, with those innumerable fets of planets or worlds, which were moving round their respective funs; when I ftill enlarge the idea, and fuppofed another heaven of funs ar worlds rifing ftill above this which we difcoverec and thefe ftill enlightened by a fuperior firmament o luminaries, which are planted at fo great a diftance, that they may appear to the inhabitants of the former as the ftars do to us; in fhort, while I pursued this thought, I could not but reflect on that little infi,nificant figure which I myself bore amidst the inmenlity of God's works.

Were the fun, which enlightens this part of t creation, with all the hoft of planetary worlds, th move about him, utterly extinguished and annihilated, they would not be miffed more than a grain of fand upon the fea-fhore. The space they poffefs is fo exceedingly little in comparison of the whole, that it would scarce make a blank in the creation. The chasm would be imperceptible to an eye that could take in the whole compafs of nature, and pass from one end of the creation to the other; as it is poffibie there may be fuch a fenfe in ourfelves hereafter,

or

or in creatures which are at prefent more exalted than ourselves. We fee many ftars by the help of glaffes, which we do not discover with our naked eyes; and the finer our telescopes are, the more ftill are our difcoveries. Huygenius carries this thought fo far, 'hat he does not think it impoffible there may be stars vhofe light is not yet travelled down to us fince their irft creation. There is no queftion but the universe as certain bounds fet to it; but when we confider hat it is the work of infinite power prompted by ininite goodness, with an infinite space to exert itself n, how can our imagination fet any bounds to it?

To return therefore to my first thought, I could not but look upon myself with fecret horror, as a beng that was not worth the smallest regard of one who had fo great a work under his care and superintendency. I was afraid of being overlooked amidst the imenfity of nature, and loft among that infinite varieof creatures, which in all probability fwarm through these immeasurable regions of matter.

In order to recover myself from this mortifying ought, 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

any different objects at the fame time. If we are careful to infpect fome things, we muft of course nelect others. This imperfection, which we obferve ourselves, is an imperfection that cleaves in fome gree to creatures of the higheft capacities, as they

creatures, that is, beings of finite and limited natures. The presence of every created being is confined to a certain measure of fpace, 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 scale of exiftence. But the wideft of these our spheres has its circumference. When therefore we reflect on the Divine Nature, we are so used

and

and accustomed to this imperfection in ourfelves, that we cannot forbear in fome measure afcribing it to him in whom there is no fhadow of imperfection. Our reason indeed affures us, that his attributes are infinite, but the poornefs of our conceptions is such, that it cannot forbear fetting bounds to every thing it contemplates, until our reafon comes again to our fuccour, and throws down all thofe little prejudices which rife in us unawares, and are natural to the mind of man.

We shall 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 inceflantly employed, if we confider, in the first place, that he is omniprefent; and, in the second, that he is omnifcient.

If we confider him in his omniprefence: his being paffes through, actuates, and supports 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 itself. It would be an imperfection in him, were he able to remove out of one place into another, or to withdraw himself from any thing he has created, or from any part of that space which is diffused and spread abroad to infinity. In fhort, to fpeak of him in the language of the old philofopher, 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 omnifcience indeed neceffarily and naturally flows from his omniprefence; he cannot but be conscious of every motion that arifes in the whole material world, which he thus effentially pervades, and of every thought that is flirting in.

the

« PreviousContinue »