fures, and an ardour for useful knowledge; and to remember, that a blighted fpring makes a barren year, and that the

vernal flowers, however beautiful and gay, are only intended by nature as preparatives to autumnal fruits.

HOR.

THA

HAT man fhould never fuffer his happiness to depend upon external circumftances, is one of the chief precepts of the Stoical philofophy; a precept, indeed, which that lofty feet has extended beyond the condition of human life, and in which some of them feem to have comprised an utter exclufion of all corporal pain and pleasure from the regard or attention of a wife man.

Such fapientia infaniens, as Horace calls the doctrine of another feet, fuch extravagance of philofophy, can want neither authority nor argument for it's confutation: it is overthrown by the experience of every hour, and the powers of nature rife up against it. But we may very properly enquire, how near to this exalted ftate it is in our power to approach, how far we can exempt ourselves from outward influences, and fecure to our minds a state of tranquillity for though the boat of abfolute independence is ridiculous and vain, yet a mean flexibility to every impulfe, and a patient fubmiffion to the tyranny of cafual troubles, is below the dignity of that mind which, however depraved or weakened, boafts it's derivation from a celeftial original, and hopes for an union with infinite goodness and unvariable felicity.

Ni vitiis pejora fovens
Proprium deferat ortum.
Unless the foul, to vice a thrall,
Defert her own original.

The neceffity of erecting ourselves to fome degree of intellectual dignity, and of preferving refources of pleafure which may not be wholly at the mercy of accident, is never more apparent than when we turn our eyes upon those whom for

ELPHINSTON.

tune has let loofe to their own condu& who, not being chained down by their condition to a regular and itated allotment of their hours, are obliged to find themfelves bufinets or divertion; and, having nothing within that can entertain or employ them, are compelled to try all the arts of destroying time.

The numberlets expedients practifed by this clafs of mortals to alleviate the burden of life, is not lefs fhameful, nor perhaps much lefs pitiable, than those to which a trader on the edge of bankruptcy is reduced. I have feen melancholy overfpread a whole family at the difappointment of a party for cards; and when, after the propofal of a thoufand fchemes, and the difpatch of the footman upon a hundred meffages, they have fubmitted, with gloomy refignation, to the misfortune of paffing one evening in converfation with each other, on a fudden, fuch are the revolutions of the world, an unexpected vifitor has brought them re-, lief, acceptable as provifion to a starving city, and enabled them to hold out till the next day.

The general remedy of those who are uneafy without knowing the caufe, is change of place; they are willing to imagine that their pain is the confequence of fome local inconvenience, and endeavour to fly from it, as children from their shadows; always hoping for fome more fatisfactory delight from every new scene, and always returning home with difappointment and complaints.

Who can look upon this kind of infatuation, without reflecting on those that fuffer under the dreadful fymptom of canine madnefs, termed by phyficians the dread of water? Thefe miferable wretches, unable to drink, though burn

ing with thirft, are fometimes known to try various contortions, or inclinations of the body, flattering themselves that they can fwallow in one pofture that liquor which they find in another to repel their lips.

Yet fuch folly is not peculiar to the thoughtlefs or ignorant, but fometimes feizes thofe minds which feem moit exempted from it, by the variety of attainments, quickness of penetration, or feverity of judgment; and, indeed, the pride of wit and knowledge is often mortified by finding that they confer no fecurity against the common errors which miflead the weakest and meaneft of mankind.

These reflections arofe in my mind upon the remembrance of a paffage in Cowley's preface to his poems; where, however exalted by genius, and enlarged by ftudy, he informs us of a scheme of happinets to which the imagination of a girl upon the lofs of her firit lover could have fcarcely given way, but which he feems to have indulged, till he had totally forgotten it's abfurdity, and would probably have put in execution, had he been hindered only by his reafon.

My defire,' lays he, has been for fome years paft, though the execution has been accidentally diverted, and 'does ftill vehemently continue, to retire myself to fome of our American Plantations; not to feek for gold, or ⚫ enrich myself with the traffick of thofe parts, which is the end of most men that travel thither, but to forfake this ' world for ever, with all the vanities ⚫ and vexations of it, and to bury myself ⚫ there in fome obfcure retreat, but not ' without the confolation of letters and 'philofophy.'

Such was the chimerical provifion which Cowley had made, in his own mind, for the quiet of his remaining life; and which he seems to recommend to pofterity, fince there is no other reafon for difclofing it. Surely no ftronger inftance can be given of a perfuafion, that content was the inhabitant of particular regions, and that a man might set fail with a fair wind, and leave behind him all his cares, incumbrances, and calamities.

If he travelled fo far with no other purpofe than to bury himself in fome obfcure retreat, he might have found, in his own country, innumerable coverts fufficient ly dark to have concealed the genius of

Cowley; for whatever might be his opinion of the importunity with which he might be fummoned back into publick. life, a fhort experience would have convinced him, that privation is eafier than acquifition, and that it would require little continuance to free himfelf from the intrufion of the world. There is pride enough in the human heart to prevent much delire of acquaintance with a man by whom we are fure to be neglected, however his reputation for fcience or virtue may excite our curiofity or ettcem ; fo that the lover of retirement needs not be afraid left the respect of strangers fhould overwhelm him with vifits. Even thofe to whom he has formerly been known will very patiently fupport his abience when they have tried a little to live without him, and found new diverfions for those moments which his company contributed to exhilarate.

It was perhaps ordained by Providence, to hinder us from tyrannizing over one another, that no individual should be of fuch importance as to caufe, by his retirement or death, any chaim in the world. And Cowley had converted to little purpofe with mankind, if he had never remarked, how foon the ufeful friend, the gay companion, and the favoured lover, when once they are removed from before the fight, give way to the fucceffion of new objects.

The privacy, therefore, of his hermitage might have been fate enough from violation, though he had chofen it within the limits of his native island; he might have found here prefervatives against the vanities and vexations of the world, not lefs efficacious than thofe which the woods or fields of America could afford him but having once his mind embittered with difguft, he conceived it impoffible to be far enough from the caufe of his uneafinefs; and was pofting away with the expedition of a coward, who, for want of venturing to look behind him, thinks the enemy perpetually at his heels.

:

When he was interrupted by company, or fatigued with business, he so strongly imaged to himself the happiness of leifure and retreat, that he determined to enjoy them for the future without interruption, and to exclude for ever all that could deprive him of his darling fatisfaction. He forgot, in the vehemence of defire, that folitude and quiet owe their pleafures to thofe miferies which he was

fo ftudious to obviate: for fuch are the viciffitudes of the world, through all it's parts, that day and night, labour and reft, hurry and retirement, endear each other; fuch are the changes that keep the mind in action; we defire, we purfue, we obtain, we are fatiated; we defire fomething elfe, and begin a new purfuit.

If he had proceeded in his project, and fixed his habitation in the most delightful part of the new world, it may be doubted, whether his diftance from the vanities of life would have enabled him to keep away the vexations. It is common for a man who feels pain to fancy that he could bear it better in any other part. Cowley having known the troubles and perplexities of a particular condition, readily perfuaded himself that no

thing worfe was to be found, and that every alteration would bring fome improvement: he never fufpected that the caufe of his unhappiness was within; that his own paffions were not fufficiently regulated; and that he was haralled by his own impatience, which could never be without fomething to awaken it, would accompany him over the fea, and find it's way to his American elyfium. He would, upon the trial, have been foon convinced, that the fountain of content muft fpring up in the mind; and that he who has fo little knowledge 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,

BOETHIUS.

which have been moft enlarged by knowledge, or elevated by genius. Thofe who enjoyed every thing generally fuppofed to confer happinefs, have been forced to feek it in the fhades of privacy. Though they poffelled 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 them. felves unable to pursue 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 fcience, the man

will find fuch a conftant recurrence of the fame pleasures and troubles, the fame expectations and difappointments, that he vill gladly fnatch an hour of retreat, to let his thoughts expatiate at large, and feek for that variety in his own ideas which the fubjects of fenfe cannot afford him.

Nor will greatness, or abundance, exempt him from the portunities of this defire; fince, if he is born to think, he cannot reftrain himself from a thousand enquiries and fpeculations, which he muit puriue by his own reaion, a which the iplendour of his condition can only hinder; for thofe who are most exalted above dependence or controul, are yet condemned to pay fo large a tribute of their time to custom, ceremony,

and

These are some of the motives which have had power to fequefter kings and heroes from the crowds 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 feldom range beyond thofe entertainments and vexations which folicit their attention by preffing on their fenfes.

But there is an univerfal reason for fome stated 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 it's obligation, but fuch as determine to fet 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 tark 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 trong a fenfe of the importance of obedience to the Divine Will, of the value of the reward promifed to virtue, and the terrors of the punishment denounced against 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 existence by images drawn

from the alarms and folicitude of a military life; for we are placed in fuch a ftate, that 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 progress.

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 fubmillion and habitual confidence. Every act of compliance with their motions facilitates a fecond compliance; every new fep towards depravity is made with lefs reluctance than the former; and thus the defcent to life merely fenfual is perpetually accelerated.

The fenfes have not only that advantage over confcience, which things neceffary must always have over things chosen, 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 pleafure before we had capacities to be charmed with the beauty of rectitude. To this power, thus early established, and inceffantly increafing, it must be remembered, that almost every man has, in fome part of his life, added new ftrength by a voluntary or negligent fubjection of humfelf; 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 neceflity 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 first endeavours after a religious life; which, however enthufiaftically it may have been defcribed, or however contemptuously ridiculed, will naturally be felt in fome degree, though varied without end, by different tempers of mind, and innu merable circumstances of health or condition, greater or lefs fervour, more or fewer temptations to relapfe.

From the perpetual neceflity of confulting the animal faculties, in our povifion for the prefent life, arifes the difficulty of withstanding their impulfes,